Tuesday, January 26, 2010

princess post- jasmine

Today's princess is that of the fiery Aladdin heroine, Jasmine. Beautiful and sassy, she's definitely one of my top Disney princesses.



My assistance in Jasmine love comes from my friend Andie, who writes of her favorite, "Growing up as a Filipino-American girl, I have to say, is certainly interesting. I never felt need to "be white" or anything like that, but it was certainly disheartening that there weren't many non-white characters to look up to in the early 1990's. I dutifully combed Barbie's platinum blonde hair and put on my Ariel mermaid costume, wondering why everything seemed to clash with my tanned skin. Then, Jasmine came along. Okay, sure she was an Arabian princess, but she was beautiful with her thick, long black hair, tanned skin, and big brown eyes. My parents bought a Jasmine costume for me immediately and I basically spend half my playtime sitting on a rug, hoping it would fly. And her singing voice was provided by popular Filipino actress-singer, Lea Salonga. I mean, I would wait patiently for an Asian Disney princess, but I would take what I got happily.

Not only was Jasmine an exotic beauty, but she was strong and courageous. She refused to live behind the palace walls and wanted to explore the world around her. So she might have been the damsel in distress for a moment, but she helped save herself and didn't leave it all up to Aladdin. And, she goes ahead and marries the man that she chose and loved. I mean, that's pretty darn fantastic if you ask me."
Modern Day Jasmine
Modern Day Jasmine by burningsobrightly featuring Alberta Ferretti dresses




And here is my take of the modern Jasmine:
jasmine
jasmine by laurelcrowned featuring RM by Roland Mouret dresses



When I began researching for classic Jasmine images, I didn't find many. This is because, of course, Jasmine is essentially a Disney creation. The princess and wife of Aladdin in the original tale is a very different girl.

Wikipedia explains, "Badroulbadour is a Chinese princess whom Aladdin married in the story of The Story of Aladdin; or, the Wonderful Lamp.

When Aladdin finds the magic lamp he discovers that it contains a djinni that is bound to do the bidding of the person holding the lamp. With the aid of the djinni, Aladdin - an impoverished young man, who in other circumstances could not have aspired to marry a princess - becomes rich and powerful and marries princess Badroulbadour."

Here's a picture of what the original princess and Aladdin may have looked like:

However, this post is about Jasmine, and we will focus on the Disney creation. She has more of a personality than the original cultural icon of Badroulbadour, and I want to focus on the creative, fascinating princesses our society has accepted, even if she is a Disney construct.

Here are some images of a modern take on Disney's Jasmine:

Retro Jasmine


All uncredited images from weheartit.com.

As for who would play her dream princess, Andie notes, "Okay, it has always been my dream for Aladdin to come to Broadway so I could play Jasmine onstage. However, if they ever wanted to do a modern adaptation of Aladdin, I would want them to pick a strong-willed actress who is also racially appropriate."

For me, I did some research and found Leila Behkti. She is a French Algerian actress, and she was in Paris je'taime. I think she is so beautiful! Ideally, I'd want a live action Jasmine to be of Middle Eastern descent, with a certain type of spark miss Jasmine possesses.

Next up is Snow White!

6 comments:

  1. Aw! the sets are beautiful :)
    I love the modern kick ass jasmine, thats so cool. I never new that it was a chinese story originally :)

    I would love to see Frieda Pinto play jasmine, I think she would be amazing :D

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  2. @LanguageTimothy- I also lovelovelove Freida! She's so so beautiful.

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  3. I love your princess posts, so fun :)
    I always loved Jasmine, she was so exotic and drop dead gorgeous!! I think I still have a childhood costume including poofy shiny purple pants and a crop top with a black bodice and sleeves to match the pants! Oh gosh..I'm going to have to dig that up again

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  4. @Trains and Sewing Machines- I would LOVE to dress up as any of these princesses today! Wouldn't that be great?!

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  5. love your Jasmine post, can't wait to see snow white :) xx

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  6. I think your set did a great job in capturing Jasmine's sassy personality =)

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