Aladdin

I was 2 years old when the movie Aladdin came out on VHS. I never judged the movie based on the introductory theme song or the “Arabian” characters with really bad accents, or the fact that Aladdin and Jasmine were both predominately English characters. Now that I watch this movie more than 19 years later, I can understand why the Arabian population was greatly dissatisfied by the film. Although the producers of Disney say the film Aladdin was loosely based on the film Arabian Nights, it is still a very loose interpretation of the Arabian culture. The American- Arab- Anti Discrimination chapter fought to change the words of Aladdin’s introductory theme song due to unfair/ offensive wording.

The original theme song went like this:

\o7 Oh, I come from a land

From a faraway place

Where the caravan camels roam.

Where they cut off your ear

If they don't like your face

It's barbaric, but hey, it's home.

\f7

The new words are now like this:

\o7 Oh, I come from a land

From a faraway place

Where the caravan camels roam.

Where it's flat and immense

And the heat is intense,

It's barbaric, but hey, it's home.

\f7

The American- Arab- Anti- Discrimination chapter fought to take out the word barbaric because they felt it was an inaccurate representation of their culture. The chapter goes on to say that the supporting characters are depicted as mean, nasty people, while Aladdin and Jasmine are the characters that are praised and respected. The problem with this is that Aladdin and Jasmine are unaccented, standard Americanized English, and do not portray Arabian characters and therefore are very misleading. This is not the first time that Disney has had a problem with inaccurately portraying a culture. The three little pigs movie was predominately Jewish characters and Disney was accused or falsely portraying them. This affects me, as well as the children of my generation because Disney falsely portrayed an entire culture. We should be teaching the younger generation that culture diversity is good and encouraged rather than misrepresenting them in media as well as kids movies. Movies are a great tool to teach children how the world should work. Although we need to give these kids an accurate portrayal and make sure we are giving fair representation to a group of people. As a parent I would want my kids to learn the truth behind a culture and I believe that movies have a good chance at displaying that.

Original article: Click Here.