Challenge Post Check-in #3

     For my challenge, I chose Aladdin from the Dark Disney category. It was very interesting to see the differences between the original written story vs. the film that Walt Disney made and to see the different gothic ideas that were presented.

     One major difference I noticed was that in the film, the “evilness” is toned down when compared to the original writing. However, this could be because the original writing of Aladdin was aimed at adults, rather than children (like Disney’s film was aimed at). With this being said, there were many Gothic details in Aladdin that Walt decided to leave out in order for the film to be child-appropriate. For example, in the original writing, Aladdin’s dad dies because Aladdin is so disobedient…this detail about the father’s cause of death is nowhere to be found in the movie. In fact, in the movie, Aladdin is just known as being an orphan and a “street rat, ” but never a disobedient son.

     By reading Aladdin, I was able to see many Gothic ideas. For example, Aladdin consists of a princess, a magician, a wicked “uncle,” castles, and genies. All of the previous ideas listed can be thought of to be gothic.  Some of the characters also carried out revenge, which is also to be thought of to be a gothic idea. The gothic ideas that were presented made the reading that much more interesting! 

     I did not really have many problems with writing the Challenge because the story and the movie were well made. Both pieces were clearly written/acted out and well-organized. Also, I am very familiar with the film, Aladdin, so I was able to quickly distinguish the differences between the two.

     Not only was this writing interesting and valuable for the purpose of seeing the gothic, but completing this challenge gave me a new perspective to think about when watching the move Aladdin. The perspective was to think about what the original author meant for Aladdin to be, which was not a warm, child-approved piece of entertainment, but a scarier adult-aimed piece of entertainment.