The Reverse Double Take

Disney, my employer, is one of the 5 or 6 conglomerates that control the media in our country. Ever since good old Walt came up with Mickey Mouse, the Disney corporation has been the leader when it comes to animation. As time passed the company became more and more influencial. So influencial in fact, that even when another company, Pixar, set a new standard in animation, Disney just flexed their muscles and swallowed them up for a mere $7.4 billion. Now when it comes to their movies, the Disney corporation is no saint. I'm sure you've heard about all sorts of "adult" bloopers that are interspersed in the children's films.

In case you've been living under a rock here are just two of many examples

1.) The Lion King (1994)



2.) The Little Mermaid (1989)



Now I bring up Disney and their animated films because a friend and I recently somehow ended up talking about the 1992 classic Aladdin. My friend proceeded to tell me about who Disney decided to model the main characters (Aladdin and Jasmine) after, how the portrayal of the rest of their Arabic characters was racist, etc.

When I heard about who Disney modeled Aladdin after, I wasn't the least surprised.



Tom Cruise was a budding, if not an already bonified, Hollywood star back in 1992. He was young, he was good looking, and he had already received critical acclaim for his work in Risky Business (1983), Top Gun (1986), Cocktail (1988), Born on the Fourth of July (1989), Rainman (1988), and Days of Thunder (1990). It makes perfect sense for Disney to have modeled their main character after him.

Now when my friend told me who they modeled Jasmine after, I was shocked.



In case you aren't sure, that's Jennifer Connelly. She's a second, maybe third tier Hollywood actress, who as far as I can tell was hardly on the scene back in 1992 when Aladdin came out.

This move seemed to completely buck the trend of Disney's past precedent. Back in the '50's they modeled their animated characters after some of Hollywood's most vibrant stars.

For example:

Princess Aurora from Sleeping Beauty (1959) was modeled after Audrey Hepburn



And Tinkerbell from Peter Pan (1953) was modeled after Marilyn Monroe



But back to Connelly's lack of media exposure in the late '80's and early '90s. Maybe I'm missing something big, but to that point in time she was only in one movie that I remember (Rocketeer(1991)). Since then she's had a pretty decent string of succeess. She won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in 2002 for her role in A Beautiful Mind. She was also quite good in Blood Diamond (2006). It was one of those cases where the female lead somehow got hotter and hotter as the movie went along. A little bit like Vera Farmiga in The Departed (2006) except Connelly is more naturally attractive. Now let's say I'm way off base and Connelly was in 1992 what Megan Fox is today, am I crazy or is there no resemblance between her and Jasmine?