Name: Jasmine
Also Known As: Jas, the Princess, Princess Woman, the Royal Pain
Location: Agrabah
Likes: Aladdin, adventure, nature
Dislikes: Feeling helpless, being taken for granted, stuck-up princes
Misc: Wouldn't sleep for a week when she was younger (? Hero With a Thousand Feathers)
Voice: Linda Larkin
Voice (singing): Lea Salonga (Aladdin), Liz Callaway (The Return of Jafar, Aladdin and the King of Thieves)
Supervising Animator: Mark Henn

Jasmine is the princess of Agrabah, though at times she'd rather not be. In the first movie, she feels trapped in the palace, claiming that she's "never even been outside the palace walls," and "never had any real friends" except for Rajah, her pet tiger.

There are some general Disney fans who seem to think that Jasmine is dumb. If you pay attention, this is far from the truth. Sure, there are a few episodes where she's out of character and acting like your usual damsel in distress, but for the rest of the series she's rarely like that at all.

In Secret of Dagger Rock, she defeats Mozenrath with only the help of Carpet - even Aladdin needed more help than that. In The Wind Jackal of Mozenrath and The Vapour Chase, it's she who comes up with the plan to save the city - even if she's not necessarily the one who carries it out. She comes this close to becoming a Galafem (the Galafems being a tribe of fierce warrior women not unlike the Amazons of Greek mythology), she can transform her jewelry into a grappling hook, and she's not afraid to use a whip, a sword, a harpoon, or her own self-defence moves when she needs to defend herself.

Nor is she lacking an education. She maps stars, gives tours of the city (including its large library) to beings ready to destroy, paints portraits, and is obviously not illiterate. She picks out cloth, refuses to pay too much for a broken toy, and doesn't worry too much about her personal appearance. (Okay, so maybe those aren't all signs of an education, per se . . . but still.)

What Jasmine does worry about is Agrabah. She's a true princess of the people, always trying to look out for them whether they're from her kingdom or not (Bad Mood Rising, anyone?). When the group helps a little boy bring water to his dying trees, Jasmine's right there beside them, carrying a jug of her own. She pays attention to people and their feelings, whoever they may be, and tries to help them in the best ways she knows how.

Jasmine is a princess who knows when to stand up for herself, who's not afraid to do what she thinks is right, who's always ready to jump in to help one in need. I don't know how good her math skills are, or whether she can recite dictionary definitions from memory - but hey, who can? You don't need that to be smart, and Jasmine is certainly brilliant in her own right.

More Jasmine . . .
Animated Heroines: Jasmine
Jasmine's Menagerie
Jasmine's Oasis
My Jasmine Page

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