today i wna talk abt the soundtrack for 2019’s Aladdin live action remake :0 so i watched this in theatres last yr and had a lot of thoughts i typed down while listening to the spotify soundtrack on the way home, but i didn’t really do anything till now so this is me translating the thoughts of 2019’s joellene.
more specifically, i’ll be breaking down the leitmotifs in Aladdin’s soundtrack. what is a leitmotif? well, pls note that everything i know about this is from Sideway’s videos’ on YouTube (he’s a GOD pls check him out, dm for more info) pls also note that i am no authority on this and the only music training i have is recorder music lessons in primary school
anyway this is a leitmotif. best way to explain it is with an example: so here we have jasmine’s theme (??) song — Speechless. and we hear this two major times right? first in the beginning to set up her being told to keep silent by her father and jafar, and later on when she stands up to jafar. easy to remember cos these are big solo numbers w her singing. ok so we get this idea that speechless is associated with jasmine, but not just that, given the lyrics, it’s a song about her desire for independence and belief in her capabilities as a ruler. and when we get the resolution of that desire — her father telling her that she’ll be the new sultan — we hear Speechless in the background here, if u listen closely
other than for resolution, we also see this used for subversion sometimes. e.g. we have this jaunty mighty tune in Friend Like Me, yes? and it’s associated with genie using/working his powers. when his powers are turned against our protagonists, however, like here, we hear a much darker, more sinister version of Friend Like Me, reflecting that betrayal.
ok understood? yes. now moving on to why i made this vid in the first place. watch this
ok so two parts to this. 1. i can show you the world and 2. unfamiliar heartwarming theme
- i can show you the world
this is easy, right? romance theme? right? (cartoon version) + they even get married with it playing so..?? and to some extent that’s true. it’s used to flag moments of connection between aladdin and jasmine — eg u hear strains of it when they first meet in the marketplace ya. and you hear it when he brings her to his home, but this is weird because it’s not her reaction to him — it’s her reaction to Agrabah, or the view he has from his home. and the fact that we hear this when genie and aladdin hug shows that this isn’t the central romantic leitmotif. so let’s reframe. go back to the lyrics. “i can show you the world”, right? and the main feeling here, when you watch them soar and glide on that magic carpet isn’t the romance. it’s awe and discovery. a sense of exploration. it’s LITERALLY “a new fantastic point of view”, whether that’s aladdin showing jasmine a new view of her city, or him showing her what it’s like to soar through the sky. and coming back to this genie set free scene — this is aladdin giving that freedom to genie. he’s giving him that feeling of awe and discovery because he can travel the world and do whatever he wants now. and that’s why we hear it again when we cut to genie and Dalia on that boat right after. it’s not really their romance. it’s them setting out to discover the world
so that’s the discovery theme, which is changed from its original romantic significance in the animation. COOL SHIT.
- unfamiliar heartwarming theme
what is this?? there’s no song w lyrics associated w it, so this is a bit harder. but it’s important enough to be inserted here, so i’m really really curious.
right so when do we hear this?? sometimes we hear it in association with Abu. so that’s the first time we ever hear it here: him giving dates to Abu, yes? sometimes we hear in in association with Jasmine, so that’s when they connect over feeling trapped … and when he apologises to her for lying about his identity… most of all tho, we hear it in association with genie — not just the Genie Set Free scene, but also when he betrays genie here… granted it’s a much darker version, more like a subversion than a resolution. finally we hear it when he’s walking out of the palace to return to his old life…
okay so after that crash course, what is this leitmotif supposed to be? it’s definitely connected to Aladdin’s relationships to everyone around him — him giving Abu a date without eating any himself, him saving Abu, empathising with Jasmine, setting genie free. it’s something about Aladdin? BUT it’s separate from Aladdin’s identity, or roots. we find that in this scene here: he’s doing those familiar acrobatics, and we hear the theme from the Agrabah marketplace, and then we go into this unfamiliar heartwarming thing. so it’s separate? OR IS IT?
BUT THEN. BUT THEN I REALISED. this unfamiliar heartwarming theme is familiar!!! listen to this
and THAT is why we hear it when he’s giving genie his freedom.
in summary: Genie Set Free = i can show you the world + one jump ahead slowed down = awe and discovery + Aladdin being a good person
yes. thanks for listening to me nerd out about disney movies because as much as the tentpole-ness of the live action films irritate me, Aladdin rly was my childhood :)
**include track names on spotify