Aladdin is an insanely popular Disney movie, both the old cartoon and new live action version have been enjoyed by millions of people. This is a film that has found its way into the hearts of many people. The story of Aladdin originated from a collection of tales that originated from the middle east, called The Nights. While the stories within the nights have been told many different times, in many different ways, the story of Aladdin has stood out amongst them all, including the nineteen forties film The Thief of Baghdad. So what makes Aladdin different from the other tellings of the tales? Is it the charming characters? Or the magical plot?
One way that Aladdin is set apart from other versions is the way it has been westernized. The movie Aladdin was made with the intent of entertaining Western audiences. In the article “Disney’s Magic Carpet Ride: Aladdin and Women in Islam,” Staninger states “But if one wants to insist that Disney features ‘people of color’ then it is painfully obvious that the protagonist- Jasmine, Aladdin, and Genie- are not. Their features are decidedly white/European.” Many of the character’s features, personalities, and dialect has been westernized.
As previously mentioned, The Thief of Baghdad is a very similar story to that of Disney’s Aladdin. Both of these films have a similar plot. A young, poor man, Aladdin, falls in love with a princess, but the antagonist Jafar tries to steal the princess away from Aladdin. However with the help of a genie and his sidekick, Abu, Aladdin gets the girl in the end. While both of these films have the same core, they both possess very different details. The cast of The Thief of Baghdad was mostly white, but were supposed to be representing people of the middle east. I think that because Aladdin was much more subtle with it’s inappropriate and offensive stereotypes, while The Thief of Baghdad was blatantly racist it allowed people to enjoy the film more. Since the racism was hidden under the characters having brown skin, it allowed people to ignore it. This allowed people to pretend it was not there, and watch and enjoy the film guilt free.
Throughout most well known retellings of the stories within The Nights you can find offensive stereotypes and inappropriate comments. In most of them you do not even have to dig deeper than the surface. However, I think that you have to dig a bit deeper to notice how problematic Aladdin truly is.
Another reason that Aladdin has been so widely received as an amazing movie is due to Princess Jasmine. In Disney’s version of this story the princess is made an outspoken and independent person. She is honestly a feminist icon, that many young girls and teenager alike came to respect and admire. Later in Staningers article she states, “She [Jasmine] was created to embody the strong, independent, young women, the new ideals of girls.” A lot of women and young girls have taken a liking to this new feminist take on a typically oppressed character. You can see this oppression specifically in The Thief of Baghdad. The princess in that film was not even given the name, she was only ever referred to as “Princess” or “the princess.” She was treated more like an object than a person. Even if you do not agree that Jasmine is a strong feminist character, at least she is treated like a human being.
Disney’s interpretation of Jasmine being much more independent gained this film a lot more praise and popularity than many other interpretations of this story. It gave a role model to a lot of young girls and teenagers. Not to mention that this was a brilliant distraction from the racist undertones that can be found throughout the rest of the film. This big change allowed for this movie to stand out against many of the other interpretations.
Aladdin is a very well known, popular movie. It has been watched and loved by people for years. While there have been countless other versions of this tale with similar plots, Disney’s version allowed for a wider audience to enjoy the film.
