Aladdin (1992 Disney film)/Fridge

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Disney's Aladdin

Fridge Brilliance

  • Aladdin was this troper's personal favorite of the Disney animated movies. It wasn't until later that I realized that the movie itself was a partial adaptation of The Count Of Monte Cristo. Both Edmunde and Aladdin are in, or about to start, a romantic relationship. Both are also imprisoned, and in prison both meet an old man who tells them of a grand treasure they know of. The two character's reach their respective treasures. Aladdin and Edmunde both reemerge as a wealthy newcomer.- Mister Noc
    • Since Aladdin the movie was based on Aladdin the story in One Thousand and One Nights, published in the 18th century, it may be a coincidence or the other way around
      • The romantic relationship, imprisonment, and old prisoner are unique to the Disney version. However, Edmunde does use the alias Sinbad the Sailor so you might not be far off.
    • On the subject of Aladdin: all that with surviving being shot miles in moments, then finding the carpet, the one thing that can help him out, then pulling off that impressive bit with the getting under the window slot? Well. Genies can't kill people. (And the big blue guy likes Al.) --User:Red Wren
      • Unfortunately for that theory, as I recall it was Jafar who fired Aladdin into the Himalayas, rather than Genie.
        • Ah, but who gave Jafar enough power to fire Aladdin into the Himalayas, hmmmm?
    • Okay, so the setting of Aladdin seems to be a cross between India and the Middle East. And what's it called? Agrabah -- literally a Portmanteau of Agra and Baghdad. - Hello999
  • Sultan (at the beginning of the movie):

"Dearest, you've got to stop rejecting every suitor who comes to call! The law says you must be married to a prince, by your next birthday! You've only got three more days!"

    • So, let's see... that night, she sneaks out, the next day she meets Aladdin, who is caught and "sentenced" that night, he comes back the next day as Prince Ali, and that night they have a ride to a whole new world. Not a bad start to your birthday, indeed, until you realize that the rest of the story concludes that same day. So a genie takes over Agribah ON HER BIRTHDAY!! And no one even stops to wish her a happy birthday! Though, I guess getting engaged and saving the universe on your birthday is a halfway decent present. :P --Tustin2121
  • If the Moroccan magician really did know Aladdin's father, the father may also have been North African or Middle Eastern - which would explain why Aladdin has an Arabic name despite living in China with a Chinese mother.
  • Iago, being a New World scarlet macaw, seems like Misplaced Wildlife until this conversation:

Jafar: Where exactly did you say you were from?
Aladdin: Oh... uh... much... farther than you've traveled, I'm sure.
Jafar: Try me.

  • When Jafar wishes to become the world's most powerful sorcerer, he reveals "Ali" is Aladdin by changing his robes back into his beggar's rags - but remember that Aladdin had wished to be a prince, not just look like one. Now, who do we later learn Aladdin's father is?

Fridge Horror

  • Aladdin has in this fragment Jafar imprisoned by turning him into a genie. Then you realize what it entails - that some beings are supposed to live in servitude.
    • Imagine if Jafar had succeeded in forcing Princess Jasmine to fall in love with him.
      • Heck, imagine if Aladdin hadn't bailed Jasmine out in the marketplace, and her hand really had been chopped off!
  • Aladdin has a few involving Genies:
    • In the first sequel we learn that the only way Genies can die is if their lamp is destroyed if they are not freed, whether they are in it or not. In the first movie when Abu touches the gem and causes the whole cave to destroy itself the podium the lamp is on blows up as well, if Aladdin hadn't grabbed the lamp first then Genie would have died before he had a chance to notice what is happening!
    • The fact that he was stuck in the lamp for 10,000 years at the end of a secret cave that only one specific person is allowed to enter surrounded by endless treasure that causes the cave and everything in it to melt and collapse. Not only does this mean he should be scared that he could die at any moment if someone sneaks in and tried to take treasure, but in the series we find out that Genies can't use any of their powers when they are in a sealed container like this, so he couldn't use his magic to materialize things to entertain himself or take his mind off the situation. All he can do is lay there in a tight space hoping one day he might finally be at least let out again, even with the next one in mind it's still scary.
      • Genie may have been the cave of wonders itself. Notice that both the cave's head and Genie both have their right ears pierced. Also notice how all that treasure disappears, and how Genie is able to make a lot of treasure appear in "Friend Like Me," only to make it disappear at the end of the song. Just because we only see him when he's let out of the lamp doesn't mean he isn't there at other times. That could be how he knew to show up when Aladdin and the lamp were under water. We really have no idea what the true limits of his power are. He's already the most powerful character in the history of Disney, and just because he says something doesn't mean it's true. He's able to become multiple people at once and generate fake people...how do we know who's real and who's a magical illusion, or Genie himself? Jafar needed Iago to free him from the lamp, but that could have been Genie's work, Genie could have been writing new rules for him. Also, sort of unrelated, but does anyone else think it's odd that Iago, one of the greediest characters in the series, passes up the opportunity to get three wishes out of Jafar at the beginning of The Return of Jafar?
    • He is at a minimum 10,000 years old almost surely much, much older. Genies don't die unless their lamp is destroyed(and this only kills them if they aren't free,) so no problem here right? WRONG! Try this Cracked article on for size, now a Genie wouldn't have to worry about most of these things, humans know Genies are different, and if humans evolved to where Genies as we see them here looked nothing like them in the slightest they could always make themselves look more like current humans, and because Genies aren't humans they wouldn't have to worry about 4, and the magic of Genies probably helps them avoid 3, and they can always escape 1 with their magic(unless they are locked in a container after the end of the world). But 2 could be a if not scary then at least very sad problem for a Genie, in one episode of the series we learn that a Genie cold lasts a century or two, or possibly a "twenty-four YEAR bug", and to a Genie the age of this one, a century or two is like a week or two. So even if Genie stays with Aladdin and Jasmine until they die it will still feel like no more than a few days with them, or after a vey long time the many years he spent with them, or any other friends he might live with for the same amount of time could feel like a few hours, and eventually anyone he knew for even 100 years if they lived that long would feel like someone he knew for just minutes, and unless he makes friends with other Genies or immortals it will feel like he never actually had any friends at all!
      • The horror here is partially lessened by the fact that genies are probably asleep most of the time they're in their lamps. They're probably awake and tiny, maybe even microscopic, once in a while, but most of the time they probably sleep through centuries or millenia at a time.
  • In Aladdin and the King of Thieves, Cassim and Iago are sentenced to life in prison but then set free. At a separate point in time, Razoul and the rest of the guards arrest a bunch of the thieves, and they are sentenced to life in prison. They're NEVER FREED, at least not on screen. This is sort of acknowledged in the end credits when Genie says "We're not getting out of here! This is it guys, end of the line!" Life in prison is depressing enough, but life in the dungeon of Agrabah's palace looks horrific.
  • In an episode of the series version of the same name, Aladdin's head is (by magic) separated from his body. If they hadn't reversed the process his body, unable to eat or drink, would have died of thirst.


Fridge Logic

  • Example from the series that caught me off guard. In the episode Vocal Hero, the plot mainly revolves around Amin Damoola bungling the use of several magical items that look...less than spectacular, including a pair of flying shoes that don't take him anywhere near where he wants to go (and kick him if he takes them off) and a cotton swab that fires like a ballistic weapon. Pretty standard for Amin...until the Reveal comes halfway through the episode that he's working for Mozenrath, who supplied him with those magical gadgets. This means that the defective shoes and the cotton swab actually BELONGED to the villain who's considered the greatest threat in the series, and probably long before Amin came along. To top this off, the cotton swab was used--Amin kisses it and remarks that it tastes like earwax--and Amin didn't know about it. That's right: Mozenrath was hoarding a cotton swab with all his other precious magical items, USED it, and then passed it off to someone else.
  • Watching the Disney song (Never had a friend like me) "Have some from column A, try all of column B." It's hard to distinguish what is on the marble column A, maybe a roasted bird... column B is made of watermelons, a bunch of bananas, and some sort of tropical fruit for the filler... is this a second of brainwashing?
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