Showing posts with label Wicked Witches. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wicked Witches. Show all posts

Monday, May 2, 2011

The Magic of Aladdin

The Disney animated feature film Aladdin is one that is filled with magic, most notably as worked by the characters of the Genie and Jafar.



The Genie uses his magic to aid Aladdin, the film's protagonist, and serves in the wizard's traditional role as guide. Jafar, on the other hand, is in the tradition of Disney wicked witches; he is the ill-intentioned counselor to the Sultan of Agrabah and uses his magic to usurp the throne and, later, the phenomenal powers of the Genie. Besides sharing a tutelary role, both the Genie and Jafar are adept at transformative magic. The Genie is an especially protean creature:



Jafar also displays skill in shape-shifting and borrows tricks from both the Evil Queen of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs:



and Maleficent of Sleeping Beauty:

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Narissa from Enchanted

Narissa, the magic-wielding antagonist from Enchanted, is a combination of preceding Disney villains, including the Evil Queen from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the Evil Stepmother from Cinderella, and Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty. Narissa is a wicked queen and stepmother plotting the downfall of her stepson and his bride to be, and she uses magic--borrowing tricks from both the Evil Queen and Maleficent--in an attempt to do away with the lovers.

Saturday, April 30, 2011

Ursula in The Little Mermaid

The sea-witch Ursula wields her magic in both The Little Mermaid feature film and its stage version. As with the majority (if not all) of Disney mages, Ursula specializes in transformative magic, which she uses to plot against both King Triton, the ruler of sub-aquatic Atlantica, and his daughter Ariel. Ursula is clearly presented as wicked (like fellow Disney witches Maleficent, Mim, Narissa, and the Wicked Queen), but her evil is compounded by the fact, as revealed in paratexts to the original film, that Ursula is in fact Triton's sister--both are the children of Poseidon--and thus, Ariel's aunt. Ursula presents her raison d'ĂȘtre in the song "I Want the Good Times Back" (below) from the stage show, and works her magics in "Poor Unfortunate Souls", presented in its two incarnations.