Hmmm, well I am not coming from a place of cultural purity but rather from a place of context. Jack Shaheen analyzed 1000 films that had Arab and Muslim characters in them from 1896 to 2000. He said only 12 were positive depiction, 52 were “even handed” and 937 were negative. 1992 Aladdin was included in the negative batch. Edward Said talked about Orientalism as the West condescending representation of the East — as in the West portrays Middle East and Asian societies as irrational, interchangeable, exaggerated and exotic. He called the 1992 Aladdin as one of the best example of Orientalism.

They both critiqued Aladdin for portraying the two heroes for having Anglicized features speaking with an American accent compared to everyone else who has a foreign/Arabic accent.

Not much changed with the remake — the two heroes still have American accent and mostly White beauty standards while everyone else has a foreign sounding accent. Disney is using Middle Eastern accents (like Jafar’s) and Middle Eastern beauty standards (like curly hair and facial hair) to point towards evilness in the film, while the White qualities represent goodness. Forget the fact they rewrote Jafar’s character to have dubious parallels to ISIS-like motivations.

They both criticized Aladdin for erasing the distinctions between Middle Eastern and Asian cultures, assuming all Eastern cultures are the same and interchangeable.

Jasmine’s character is dressed in more traditionally Indian styles and has a Bollywood-influenced dance scene in the new Aladdin. There were moments where they just throw in Arab dances like Dabkah and Liwa into the mix. Gemma Jackson, the set designer said, “…I think I was freer just to pull things from where I wanted them, I didn’t just have to be Moroccan, I could go anywhere I liked in my imagination” Jackson reinforces the aesthetic of Agrabah is influenced by every land “orient” and specific to none, maintaining the illusion of a fantastical East existing within the White fantasy. A more thoughtful filmmaker would know to draw inspiration from many cultures and would be able to articulate a level of nuance and a respectfulness between them — and also wouldn’t put brown face on White extras in a crowd scene.

They both said this picture would impact an audience’s understanding of the Arab world and have a real-world impact with the negative portrayals of Agrabah. Disney was heavily criticized for the 1992 film because the opening musical number talks about how terrible it is to live there and called the place “Its barbaric but hey its home”. Now in the new one they changed that to “Its chaotic but hey its home”. This lyrics adjustment is a slight improvement but I am just not satisfied with slight improvement, especially when mystical images help enforce policy.

Disney is a massive corporation with the capacbility to influence the way we perceive the world around us by subconsciously communicating messages to us through entertainment. If there weren’t more than 1000 other films in Hollywood that dehumanized Arabs and Muslims I would not have as much of a problem with this film. Its not about the bad they’ve done but its about the good they could’ve done but choose not to. Especially with Disney’s audience mostly being children and they end up growing up with these ideas of Orientalism and later on pass it to the next generation.

Anyway, Jack Shaheen's Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People is a good watch on the matter.