Aladdin Versus The Nightmare Before Christmas: Comparative Essay

In my essay I will be talking about composition in the films ​‘Aladdin’​ (2019) directed by Guy Ritchie and ​‘The nightmare Before Christmas’ ​(1993) directed by Henry Selick. I will be talking about how they both communicate the meaning of change in scene 1, for example in ​Aladdin​ they explore the meaning of change negatively through a woman wanting to become Sultan and not have a man control her but how it caused destruction in her country, however in ​The Nightmare Before Christmas it explored the meaning of change through excitement of discovering a new place. However they communicate the meaning of confusion in scene 2 in both films, through discovering something new.

In ​Aladdin​ (2019) the use of composition communicates the meaning of change in scene 1.For example Princess Jasmine’s costume is red which connotes power , strength and desire. This is in the scene where Jafar becomes powerful and sultan and then Jasmine steals the lamp off him. ​This helps communicate the idea of change as the colour red makes her look more powerful. This helps the story as she needs to marry a man as a woman can’t become sultan however she wants to change that, so by wearing red shows power and shows she’s gonna make change and become sultan. The audience at the time may think she’s being ridiculous, as it links to the rules of the country where women can’t be sultan only men as they’re seen as more powerful than women and more of the leaders whereas, women more follow their husbands. However she wants to change the rules and show a woman can be sultan and can control a country. So a modern day audience may think what she is doing is ok because now men and women are more equal now, and she’s sticking up for herself but also women as a whole. This also links to The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) where composition also communicates the idea of change.

Similarly in ​The Nightmare Before Christmas ​(1993) it also uses composition to communicate the meaning of change in scene 1. For example the different colours in the scene like blue, red, and green, which connotes calm, trust, love and proud. This is in the scene when Jack Skeleton enters Christmas land and realises how different it is from Halloween town and also, how calm and happy Christmas town is. This helps communicate the idea of change as the colours contrast from the colours of Halloween town where it’s dark and dull and the scenes shot in Halloween town is shot in black and white. This also helps communicate the idea of change as when he enters Halloween towns and experiences something new he seems excited and curious about what’s going on. Then he goes back to Halloween town and wants to take over Christmas. It is a big change for the people in Halloween town, so Jack Skeleton teaches everyone and tells everyone about Christmas. This helps move the story forward as it teaches them that maybe change isn’t a good thing as when Jack takes over Christmas and takes on the role of Santa Claus things go wrong and he ruins Christmas, however the real Santa Claus at the end saves Christmas. This relates to Aladdin as when Princess Jasmine wants to become Sultan and change the idea that women can be sultan to, it causes a lot of destruction in her country and a lot of violence. However at the end when she overpowers and banishes Jafar everything goes back to normal and she becomes sultan. So the idea of both movies communicating the idea of change through composition, teaches the audience that change can bring a lot of negativity, however a positive always comes out of a negative. In The Nightmare Before Christmas when Jack discovers something new (Christmas Town) he likes it and takes it for his own. The audience of that time may not see anything wrong with it even though he took Christmas for himself without permission and he didn’t get in trouble for it, because he is white privileged. However, a modern day audience may think this is unfair as in those times different ethnicities weren’t really expected and weren’t equal to white people.