Aladdin I saw live on stage in the theatre

You can tell me the story of it. I just want to know who made this. This stage version. Its not of Walt Disney is it?

In the program it says it was directed by Thomas Schumacher for Disney Theatrical Productions. It is the story of a young man who gets three wishes after he frees a genie that has been trapped in a lamp.

But I want to know about the female role in that. Can you tell me about the story of her though? Can we find it on the internet? I want know about the relationships of these two characters on the magic carpet.

Well on the Internet it says that Princess Jasmine was based on the character of the bored Princess Ann played by Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday.

Audrey Hepburn was also in My Fair Lady, I have the movie and I'm going to see the play of that with my brother and my Sister in Law Monique. I want to get a program and a sound track, that's my birthday present to be, if I'm lucky.

Jasmine was my dog's name. She was a tulip, what a German Shepard Ridgeback cross is called. Its also a rose or flower.

It says online Jasmine was also one of the most popular names in the year Aladin was released. It says Jasmine is a spoilt materialistic girl. She is a princess which means she was born into money and power and thinks she deserves whatever she wants. She's got lot of gold on her. He father is a Sultan. But she also wants to marry for love and see the world, so she wants to run away from her Princess Prison.

The Sultan thinks he is a little bit important and tries to make decisions about who his daughter should marry, like Prince Achmed. I don't know what the problem is, she wants to make up her own mind. He likes Aladdin that much when he looks like a prince Ali, Ali-o-barba. Jaffar is trying to trick the Sultan into letting him marry Jasmine, but at the end Aladdin defeats Jaffar and the Sultan changes the laws so that Jasmine can marry who she wants.

I just love the film of the song by my heart, a whole new world with you. Can you tell me much more about the sky with the magic carpet. Does it make your heart fill up when you see them ride on the magic carpet. Yes, its very romantic up there. Can you tell me why you've got that carpet? I've been to Disney world in Hong Kong, they have lots of different rides there and princesses too.

It was built to boost Tourism in Hong Kong in 2003 after the SARS epidemic, they've got wonderful floats there and parades just like in Aladdin. The Walt Disney Company CEO and chairperson came to the opening. The company was founded in 1920 by Walt Disney who introduced technicolor and sound to his cartoons, which are animations, including Micky Mouse (who Walt Disney did the voice for) and Buggs Bunny. I like Jessica from Roger Rabbit. And the female characters, its about their personalities, their hopes and their dreams with all the "beauties". The cartoons are only made up, like fairy tales but also tell us about about real life.

A Carpet of Moonlight

By Emma Brodie

With Anna Maria Dell'oso

I went to a live show at the State Theatre.

I go to a lot of live shows.

A live show is different to a movie because you can see real people.

There are special effects of gold glitter, the lights, the costumes.

It's really amazing.

I can hear the voices of the singers, of their songs.

Anna: Also a film is exactly the same every time you see it, whereas a stage show can be different every night because slightly different things happen every night.

Emma: Really? Can you explain that?

Anna: It's kind of freshly served up to you every night. The actors, singers and dancers make the whole show from the beginning - it's a kind of group effort that is in real time, so it's new and a little bit surprising every night.

Emma: I went to Aladdin the musical this week. I want to know about Princess Jasmine. I don't know what's her problem is. What is the problem with her?

Anna: So what do you think it is?

Emma: I just don't know. I did record the movie on my iPad last night though.

Anna: Ok, let's look at it.

Emma: Okey Dokey ...

We look at clips from the Disney movie of Aladdin.

Anna: So, in this scene, Jasmine's father, the King, is trying to talk to Jasmine about marriage, about having to grow up. You know when he says to her: "The law says you have to be married to a prince by your next birthday." ? He's trying to get her to pay attention to that. But she is trying to avoid thinking about it, about marriage, growing up, responsibility. You can see how she's still young, playing around in her special garden with her magical animals and the King interrupts her when she is playing with her pet tiger.

Emma: They don't have a lion in the theatre, they don't. Or a monkey.

Anna: No. I think having lions and tigers and monkeys on stage would be too scary for the actors and the audience. I don't think the lions or tigers would enjoy it much either. The monkeys might, though.

Emma: So what's Jasmine's problem? She doesn't want to get married?

Anna: Well in the old days, they expected young women to be married by about 18 or 19 or even younger. So the Sultan, Jasmine's father (who looks very funny) says that she has to stop being a child and just playing with her animals. He wants her to be serious and get married. Which isn't really fair.

Emma: I know. But I'm not sure about that question, about whether it's fair or not.

I'm not a rich princess like her.

Anna: "I don't want to be forced into it" what do you think she means by that?

Emma: It's so hard to describe it but Princess Jasmine is saying that - that -

Anna: She's not ready yet?

Emma: Yes, just like that, it's like, I'm not ready to get married, it's a fantasy. It's like when you're not ready to tell things of your heart. Though I don't know what that is - what is it ?

Anna: I think - wait on, Emma I think you do actually know a lot about that because you just said it. You said "like when you're not ready to tell things of your heart." That sounds to me like something you have experienced yourself.

Emma: It's not about me it's about the film, Aladdin ...

Anna: Yes I know but maybe it relates back to you as well -

Emma: Well I don't have those things. Those things about rich princesses about to be married.

Anna: Okay so rich princesses are different in that they have a lot of power and a lot of money and beauty -

Emma: How do you make yourself more beautiful? I'm just asking why. Because all the snobbies do from England don't they?

Anna: Umm ... Oh I see what you mean - you mean why are princesses always making out that they are better than us?

Emma: Yes.

Anna: Well guess what Emma -

Emma: - ok, great, I love to gossip -

Anna: - hahaha, ok, well, this is the gossip. Princesses are NOT better than us. A real life princess is just a person who has had a lot of luck in her past because she is born into a family with money and lands and social standing. It's pure luck.

Emma: What's pure luck?

Anna: It's when you get something wonderful that you haven't worked for.

Emma: That's rare.

Anna: It is rare. It's incredibly unusual.

Emma: I just like the fairytale fantasy ones. Sometimes I like real ones.

Anna: Ok, let's look at some real ones. Do you know Princess Mary of Denmark? She was an Aussie girl, a young woman who was working in the city and just happened to meet a Prince in a bar down the road from here.

We look at photos of Princess Mary of Denmark

Anna: They make princesses so special in fairytales because the storytellers want to really tell that we are all special. We are taking the side of the princesses because they are the heroines -

Emma: Especially with romance in Disney films

Anna: Yes, I guess they're moral tales. That means they're happy fantasies, happy because they give messages about how to live and to give us hope that we can do better.

Emma: What about the magic?

Anna: Well magic is all around us, not magic like the Disney spells and witches but the ordinary magic of being alive.

Emma: With genies that come out of bottles ...

Anna: Hahaha, yes - maybe there's too much crazy stuff that comes out of bottles in real life! But anyway, there is a lot that we can't explain and magic is that feeling that life is really exciting, that we don't know what's going to happen next.

Emma: What about the spells and potions?

Anna: What do they stand for, you mean?

Emma: Yes.

Anna: They're the shortcuts. They're things that might make us happy - or they might not, because the danger is we can pay attention to the wrong ingredients in our lives. Like a bad potion or a bad spell, it's like trying to manipulate a situation, to make something happen for us but that ends up harming another person.

Emma: I don't know why her father is so protective - ok don't worry about that one ...

What does Jasmine want that she doesn't have?

Anna: She wants freedom.

Emma: No, she wishes she could go on a magic carpet ride.

Anna: Isn't the feeling of that called freedom?

Emma: She wants love, though. Isn't that what princesses want ?

Anna: Sometimes princesses want love AND they want freedom. Jasmine has been inside the walls of the palace for a long time, she has no freedom to make her own choices or experience the world.

Emma: My Dad doesn't do that, he isn't like Jasmine's father.

Anna: Yes, Jasmine's father is very different, he's too scared to let her go, he doesn't trust the world not to hurt his daughter -

Emma: He is not a judge of character?

Anna: Exactly. He is too strict but Jasmine has grown up without the wisdom to know who is a good character and who isn't, which you get when you know a lot about other people ...

Emma: Let's talk about Jasmine's sky when she is going for the magic carpet ride.

Anna: Good plan. What cards have you got? What words do you like?

Emma: We can call it these kinds of words ...

Enchanted sky above

"The whole new world with you,'

Jasmine and Aladdin, singing together their hearts out,

Mystery, magic and excitement,

Jasmine a goddess In Aladdin's dream.

We don't know the whys about it but:

"Someone or something sweeps into your world,

Bringing a magical mystery tour of life and lips,"

The golden lips of the lamps, where she is more treasurely

To the truth of it, to be a goddess princess.

I don't know why I love them, the lovers on the carpet ride, but

She is the flower of achievement,

Keeping focused on her dream of Aladdin -

A magenta blue dream, like the nice romantic ones -

The beauty of classic flowers of glory,

The carpet of delicate moonlight crystal,

The light of travel, romance and freedom,

The carpet -

Flying in the cold wind, blowing

to touch the clouds, rising -

Above the ocean of eternal love -

To the sky and with the stars of the galaxy.