One of the most successful animated feature films in recent years is the Walt Disney company's Aladdin, featuring the voice of the popular Robin Williams as the Genie. The film in its short life has existed in two versions, and the difference between those versions says something about the fantasy element as promulgated in the film, however unintentionally. The theatrical release of the film contained some lyrics in the opening song that Arab groups saw as prejudiced, and the company acquiesced and changed the lyrics for the video release and all subsequent releases. Yet, the film depends greatly on certain ideas about Arabia, stereotypes from earlier films more than from any examination of the real Arabia, historical or otherwise.
Rhetorical Claim: Aladdin plays to the desire on the part of the audience to see good triumph over evil and to see the hero and heroine united in a happy ending.
The film will be analyzed using Fantasy-theme Criticism, as created by Ernest G. Bormann. The purpose of this critical framework is to provide insights into the shared world view of groups of rhetors. The method was developed from the work of Robert Bales and his associates who studied communication in small groups, and they discovered the process of group fantasizing or dramatizing as a type of communication that occurs in small groups. Extending this into a theory, Bormann created symbolic convergence theory and the method of fantasy-theme criticism that can be applied to studies of rhetoric. According to symbolic convergence theory, communication creates reality through symbols, and this occurs because of the capacity of symbols to introduce form and law into a disordered sensory experience (Foss 290).
The basic unit of symbolic convergence theory and fantasy-theme criticism is fantasy or fantasy theme. Fantasy here means the creative and imaginative interpretation of events, and a fantasy theme is the means through which ...