The social history of the original movie
portrays negative aspects towards Arabs and Muslims. Orientalism is also
apparent through the images in the movies as well as the music. Besides Jasmine
being the only female character in the original film, the belly dancers shown
at the beginning of the film were sexualized. The original movies also portray
Arabs and Muslims as barbaric.
The main differences between the
picture shown above are the details in the cave. In the original cave there is
gold lighting everywhere with different rooms that Aladdin can go into. In the
newer version of Aladdin, the lighting in the cave portrays darkness with a few
flashes from the jewels. When Aladdin gets into the cave, the lamp is instantly
shown for Aladdin to climb up to unlike the original movie.
I'm very interested in your analysis here, Brianna! I've seen quite a bit of discussion regarding how Jasmine's character changed to fit the ideals third wave feminism, but I haven't seen as much about the portrayal of Arabs and Muslims compared to the original. I think you should focus on that! It would be especially fun to talk about how that is reflected in the music.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Orientalism was very much at play in the 1992, especially in the character designs and the opening number "Arabian Nights". Since the 2019 Aladdin comes after several years of us marauding across the Middle East Post-911, a lot more care was taken to portray Arabian culture as realistic and sympathetic, and Disney assembled an almost entirely POC cast to avoid controversy. Your analysis of the Cave of Wonders here is interesting- the original was lined with gold, implying stereotypes about Arabian wealth, while the most recent one looks like a cave.
You're definitely headed in the right direction! I'm excited for your presentation.