All that hard work building a romantic relationship, and the screenwriter throws it all away at the end.
With all the tools the four writers had (in a fantasy film, no less) they could at least let the protagonists’ relationship resonate after the closing credits.
Alas, even Disney is caught up in the gay Hollywood paradigm that true romantic love is indeed a fantasy. It’s better to have true self-love and engage in a gay relationship with a mirror image of your own self.
Every young girl has the same problem, trying to form a meaningful relationship with a handsome young man who is less mature than she.
What’s a girl to do but commit some grievous offense (sex? pregnancy? drugs? drop out of school? murder?) so that the object of her affections is forced to run away with her.
Young adults have always had this problem, immature men vs. mature women. The young lady has to choose between dirty old men who have already taken many wives (the Islamic ideal, then as now) and a young man still playing boy’s games and not yet beyond the stage of enjoying them — too much, for a healthy lad.
Alas, all the young lady wants is the magic dagger in the bulge of his pants. And they’re off to the races…
Disney’s young male viewers are filled with narcissistic elation, to see the orphan prince sail across fortress walls, evade thousands of sharp arrows, open the virgin gates of the city, and save the invading troops from imminent slaughter. You don’t need to be a high school sports star any more to suffer the rest of your life from “hero’s complex.” Anymore, all you need to do is to watch a Disney film.
Islam will never lose that magical allure it holds for all men. You can trade in your old hag of a wife for a late model mistress with fire under the hood any old time. Alas, what could have been a truly memorable ending becomes more of the same.
Just another superficial union forced upon the princess by an invading army of barbarians. Granted, all men dream of such a marriage — beautiful lady, no way out for her…
The moral of the story could have been that love comes from hardship, adventure, and ultimately from trust that is earned not given away like a million-dollar dowry to an already wealthy princess. Love is a treasure worth working for, not a trinket with a price tag.
In the end, the male consort has a deep and abiding love for a bubble-headed princess. How backwards can you possibly get? Sure, every narcissistic lad truly believes what he feels is true love (every girl knows full well it’s just penny ante poker for her million-dollar pot), but why feed into his already overblown narcissism???
The Arab trader caresses the much-loved ostrich (wearing a red hat no less, like a circumscribed penis foreskin, red in the heat of arousal)… the Arab trader caresses the ostrich’s neck, kisses it, adores it, fondles it lovingly. The one true love in his barren, self-centered life.
Isn’t a bald bad guy cliche’ yet, or does Rogaine still fund all Disney films, sowing the seed for a new generation addicted to the stuff for ever more, for sixty years of guaranteed revenues (and countless effeminate male movie roles that cater to the feminized Rogaine crowd).
In the end, the director could have at least provided an alternate ending on the DVD. Call it the “Stupid Old Fashioned Ending For Hopeless Romantics,” if you like.
Personally, I would have made the princess immune from the misfortunes of time (as guardian of the sands of time herself) and let her recall the whole epic adventure. Let her truly embrace the prince at the end, out of true and deep love.
That’s how I will always remember the ending anyway.
It’s how Walt Disney would have done it.
