Disney Film 1992: Aladdin and Orientalism

“Orientalism is the Western attitude that views Eastern societies as exotic, primitive, and inferior.” Said E. (1978)

In this blog, I will be discussing about one of Disney’s classics and how it portrays a vast amount of orientalist stereotypes in their film.

The Disney animated film Aladdin that premiered in 1992 focuses on a young street urchin who wants to marry a beautiful princess by using the power of a genie. This film took place in city of Agrabah, a made up “Middle Eastern” city.

Throughout the animated film, there are several orientalist stereotypes that can be pointed out and could be seen as obscure to Middle Eastern citizens.

Theme Song

The film is obvious that it orientalises the Middle Eastern culture, even from the beginning of the animation. The original theme song of Aladdin contained a line singing, “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.” This suggests that people from the Arabic culture are viewed as brutal and vulgar. “It attempts to impose the idea that Eastern individuals carry a lack of morals and ethics” Essays, UK. (2013). Disney was obligated to change these so called “racist” lines from “Where they cut off your ear if they don’t like your face”, to “where its flat and immense and the heat is intense”.

Exhibit 1. The Aladdin Theme song with the original and new lyrics

Protagonist

The film’s protagonist Aladdin can be seen with traits of the Western ideology. This ideology focuses on “rising from the ashes”, believing that Aladdin can truly find himself and become of an importance to himself or someone, a common dream for Western civilizations. Although Aladdin is seen and distinguished as a Middle Eastern character, he holds more of a Western vibe that can be seen for the Western audience. Why you may ask?

‘Whiteness emerges as a way of identifying groups of people associated with superiority’ (Osuri, 2008)

This shows the Western audience that Aladdin has some sort of superiority as compared to the other characters in the film, who were more tailored with the Middle Eastern details, such as their darker skin, large beard and noses and thicker accent.

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Figure 1. Aladdin being captured by two Middle Eastern men

Middle Eastern Men

How the animated film portrays certain characters in the film have exaggerated the orientalist stereotypes in them. The antagonist Jafar, is seen as a Middle Eastern man wearing a long robe and the Middle Eastern physical features as stated earlier. This separates him from other characters such as Aladdin and Jasmine, making the Jafar viewed to the audience as “Fear from the Middle Eastern Culture”.

In the film, Jafar captures Jasmine and chains her up, thus she is in a state of restricted movement. This suggests that Jafar wants to keep her as a sexual slave. What does this say to the general audience? To the Western audience, this scene gives the perspective that all Islamic men like to indulge themselves in preserve sexuality.

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Figure 2. Jafar chaining up Jasmine

As stated earlier, Aladdin contains more of a Western ideology in the film, including sexuality. The first scene premieres Aladdin being chased down by the police, as young girls are head over heels for him by the side. Different age groups of women in the film are mesmerized by Aladdin’s Western charism portrayed in the film. However, with Aladdin’s Western charisma, this creates a East and West sexuality divide that Eastern men must capture women to gain their attention, giving a negative image towards this stereotypical gesture.

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Figure 3. Girls checking out Aladdin when being chased by the police

In conclusion, the animated Disney film Aladdin has a myriad of Arabian orientalist stereotypes, which can give the wrong impression of the Eastern culture in the eyes of a Western audience.

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