The Tempest and Aladdin

In reading and viewing The Tempest, I found striking similarities between characters in the Tempest, The Shakespeare play, and Aladdin, the Disney movie. Both contain a plot narrative centered around a young girl of royal blood who has been sheltered from an outside world her entire life. In the case of Aladdin, this is Princess Jasmine, who has been confined to her palace walls for her childhood. In the Tempest, this is Miranda who has been stranded on the a remote island with her only parent, Prospero, knowing nothing of life back in Europe. Then there is the magic element to both. In Aladdin, this comes in the form of Genie, a centuries old blue spirit who is forced to grant the every wish of his master, the finder of his bottle. Aladdin becomes his master and chooses to harness the power of Genie to force Jasmine to fall in love with him. Aladdin creates the illusion that he is a prince by wishing for material objects to convey wealth. In the Tempest, Ariel was trapped in a tree, similar to Genie and his lamp, and is now enslaved to Prospero, the man who freed him from the tree. Prsopero uses Ariel's magic to bring Ferdinand to the island to fall in love with Miranda. It is Ferdinand who introduces Miranda to the idea that the world is filled with beauty and life beyond the island, reminiscent of the magic carpet ride scene in Aladdin. There is struggle for power in Aladdin, where Jafar, the evil brother of Jasmine's father, attempts to seize the power from Aladdin's father and take Jasmine as his prize. In The Tempest, the reason Miranda and Prospero are stranded on the island is due to Prospero's brother banishing him in order to gain the throne. Then once the various characters are wrecked on the island, Stefano uses Caliban's guidance to create a plot to take hold of the island from Prospero, and marry Miranda as his prize. It is interesting to note the obvious parallel's present between a children's movie and a play that created a sort of set storyline that is frequently modified to create new, but similar, plot lines.