Disney’s ‘Aladdin:’ How Is Live-Action Jasmine Different From the Original Jasmine?
It’s a whole new world for Jasmine in the live-action Aladdin movie. In this remake, Princess Jasmine has a different storyline and even her own song. Here are the differences between the live-action Jasmine, portrayed by Naomi Scott and the original animated Jasmine, from Disney’s Aladdin.
This article contains spoilers from the live-action Aladdin movie!
The original Princess Jasmine was voiced by Linda Larkin
In the 1992 animated movie, Linda Larkin voices Princess Jasmine. The actress reprised her role in the 2018 Disney movie, Ralph Breaks the Internet, where other Disney princesses joined Jasmine in their own corner of the internet. Linda Larkin also voiced Princess Jasmine in the 1994-1995 television series, Aladdin.
In an interview with MouseSteps, Linda Larkin stated she didn’t know how big Aladdin would become. About 25 years later and she’s still making appearances as the sassy and empowering princess.
“You don’t think about anything 25 years later when you are a young person, you just don’t think like that,” Larkin said. “But I also didn’t know that it was going to be a classic movie, I didn’t know there were going to be sequels and a cartoon series. These are the kind of things that we were kind of breaking new ground for Disney at that time.”
The live-action Jasmine is voiced by Naomi Scott, a Disney veteran, who portrayed “Mo” in the Disney Channel original movie, Lemonade Mouth. Additionally, she portrayed Kimberly, the pink power ranger, in the Power Rangers movie. In an interview with People, Naomi Scott explained that the live-action version of Jasmine is even more empowering than the original character.
“For me that was the main difference was she’s fighting for the injustice of her people,” Naomi Scott said. “My girl’s a politician, do you know what I mean? She’s not just there to look pretty.”
They’re both strong and sassy
In the original Aladdin movie, Jasmine’s main conflict is that she doesn’t want to marry because of a law. Instead, she would rather marry for love. The princess feels trapped in this new law and thanks to Aladdin and her bravery, the Sultan allows Jasmine to marry Aladdin.
The live-action story is a bit different. Instead of wanting to get married for love, Jasmine doesn’t like the law because it prevents her from being Sultan. She argues that no one knows the people better than she does and it’s unfair to have a prince who knows nothing of Agrabah rule.
It seems this is the main ambition of Jasmine in this movie, as she sneaks out to see how the people live, both during the beginning of the film and as she’s flying on Aladdin’s magic carpet. Eventually, Jasmine’s father sees that Jasmine is ready to be a leader and changes the law so she can become the Sultan.
Jasmine has a new song in the live-action — ‘Speechless’
One of the biggest musical additions to Aladdin was Jasmine’s solo song, Speechless. This song refers to her being told by Jafar to be silent, harkening back to a conversation the two had in the animated movie.
Fans have mixed opinions about this new song, some saying that the song is too modern and doesn’t fit within the rest of the soundtrack. Others said this song is empowering and impactful.
“Speechless by Naomi Scott (from Aladdin) deserves as much recognition as Let It Go because that song is A BOP,” said another Twitter user.
“What planet do all these commenters live on?! This song is absolute garbage! Just like the originals for the Live-Action Beauty and the Beast. This song doesn’t fit at all with the rest of the music in the film. Way too modern. Give Jasmine a song, but make it better than this trash!” said one Instagram commenter.
“Okay but Naomi Scott snapped when she sang ‘She’s So Gone’ in Lemonade Mouth and ‘Speechless’ in Aladdin,” said one Twitter user.
Disney’s live-action Aladdin is now playing in theaters.
