Jasmine is completely unaware of this until she escapes the palace and sees it for herself. Jasmine’s father was a horrible (though not actually evil) ruler, and as he’s collected his toys and wealth, the people of Agrabah have suffered tremendously. While Aladdin has some fun chase scenes with a catchy song about not getting caught as a thief so you can keep your hand and get something to eat, A Whole New World uses that huge disparity between the wealth of the palace and the poverty of the Street Rats to drive the plot forward. SPOILER ALERT: Things you might want to know before suggesting this to your kid Classism and Poverty Similar to but different from A Frozen Heart, this is a story for older fans of a childhood movie, bringing depth to the characters and themes that’s barely alluded to in the movies. The silliness, humor, and song & dance of the movie are alluded to occasionally, with hints of the story that could have been, but this is a more realistic story of rebellion against an evil usurper.

It’s possible that it stands alone as a good story, but it’s pretty clear that it’s assumed that the reader is familiar with the movie-which I am, so that’s the lens I viewed it through. This is a much more adult story, dark and violent, not shying away from the classism, sexism, and incompetent leadership inherent to but unexplored in the movie’s setting. It doesn’t make things worse for Aladdin, really, but he doesn’t get to do the whole “pretending to be a foreign prince” thing at all. This, as you can probably imagine, does NOT go well for the Sultan, Jasmine, the genie, or Agrabah. A Whole New World: A Twisted Tale reimagines the Disney movie Aladdin by working from the premise that Jafar maintained ownership of the lamp at the Cave of Wonders.

A Whole New World by Liz Braswell