Cineaste Publishers, Inc.

ALADDIN ANIMATED RACISM Author(s): Jack Shaheen Source: Cinéaste, Vol. 20, No. 1 (1993), p. 49 Published by: Cineaste Publishers, Inc. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41687300 Accessed: 16-10-2017 14:00 UTC

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This content downloaded from 141.217.20.120 on Mon, 16 Oct 2017 14:00:16 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Cineaste Contributors

ALADDIN Michael Bentley is a free-lance writer... Peter Bondanella is Distinguished Professor of Com- parative Literature at Indiana University and has animated racism just published The Films of Roberto Rossellini by Jack Shaheen (Cambridge University Press)... Gary Crowdus Arabland's other disturbing characteris- works in film distribution with The Cinema 4laddin, Disney Disney film film theever most and a everwinner and of financially two a winner successful of two tics raise any number of questions. Why Guildare ...Wheeler Winston Dixon is Chair of the Academy Awards, provides a painful Arabic names mispronounced? Why are Film Studies Program at the University of reminder that unconscious racism is still storefront signs written in nonsensical scrib- Nebraska-Lincoln and his most recent book is alive and well in Hollywood. Yes, this thirty- ble-scratch rather than a real language? Why The Farly Film Criticism of François Tru ff aut... first animated Disney feature is whimsical, do the palace guards and merchants have Thomas Doherty is an Assistant Professor of which means some allowance must be made large, bulbous noses, sinister eyes, and idiot- American Studies at Brandeis University. ..Pat for comedic license. Yes, any film that has a ic accents? Why do the hero and heroine, humorous theme is entitled to poke fun at a Aladdin and Princess Jasmine, look and Dowell has written about film for The Washing- culture's foibles. But Aladdin , a $35 million speak so .differently than other Arabs? In this ton Post, American Film and National Public film aimed at children, crosses the racist line 'family entertainment,' what impression Radio...of John Fried is a free-lance writer in New in no uncertain terms. Consider the film's Islam is conveyed when a street vendor York City... Roy Grundmann is a Ph.D. student opening song, "Arabian Nights." It is belted insists that the standard penalty for stealing in Cinema Studies at NYU... Patricia Leonardi is out by a shady-looking al-rawi (storyteller) is chopping off one's hand? How will chil- a Ph.D. student in Cinema Studies at sitting atop a camel crossing the desert. The dren judge a society in which hideous NYU. ..Jacob Levich is a graduate student in ditty goes like this: guards chase a homeless Aladdin because he Cinema Studies at the College of Staten Island Oh I come from a land stole bread, and still other hideous guards (CU NY)... Stuart Liebman is Coordinator of the threaten to cut off Jasmine's hand for taking From a faraway place Film Studies Certificate Program at the CUNY Where the caravan camels roam. an apple to give to a starving child? What concept of justice is conveyed when a cruel Graduate Center in NYC... Henry Lowengard is Where they cut off your ear an animator and computer programmer If they dont like your face. guard screams at Aladdin, "I'll have your head for a trophy, you sewer rat!" /artist... Cynthia Lucia is a Ph.D. student in Cine- It's barbaric, but hey, it's home. Just as Aladdin's genies serve as serfs- to-ma Studies at NYU... David Lugowski is a Ph.D. The viewer can't say, "Hey, that's just Holly- the-lamp, Hollywood's filmmakers seem student to and an instructor in Cinema Studies at serve as serfs-to-the-Arab demonizers. The wood," for this song effectively slanders the NYU... Paul Mattick, Jr. teaches philosophy at heritage of 300,000,000 Arabs. One would celluloid caricatures of Aladdin effectively Adelphi University and has written for The have to be very naive to believe that Holly- reinforce the media image of Arab terrorists Nation, Arts and Art in America... Patrick wood would dare to use such a song if it did and religious fanatics. And the Disney stu- McGilligan is the author of biographies of not see Arabs as belonging to an 'other' ordio knows better. Disney Chairman Jeffrey Robert Altman and George Cukor and is editor of 'alien1 culture. Successive themes drive Katzenberg has said, "Each of us in Holly- home the view that these creatures are sus- wood has the opportunity to assume indi- the Back Story series (University of California picious, lazy, unethical, and violent out- vidual responsibility for creating films that Press). -Louis Menashe teaches Russian history siders. 'They' most definitely are not likeelevate rather than denigrate, that shed light and Russian history through film at Polytech- 'us.' rather than dwell in darkness, that aim for nic University in NY...Frann Michel teaches This Disney rendering of Aladdin's the highest common denominator rather English and Women's Studies at Williamette Uni- than the lowest." adventures is set in the mythical desert king- versity in Salem, OR...Mariam Niroumand is a dom of "Agrabah," a stereotypical Arabland. I would remember those words if I were graduate student in journalism currently living in Complete with a foreboding desert castle ever fortunate enough to come across an Berlin. ..Gerald Peary is film critic for The featuring Arabesque cupolas and surround- enchanted lamp with a genie able to grant Improper Bostonian and teaches at Suffolk Uni- ed by poverty and intrigue, Arabland three is wishes. My first wish would be to have versity and Boston University... Richard Porton inhabited mainly by thieves, harem girls, the Disney studio make films that fulfill the and unscrupulous vendors. The merchant stated ideals of its executives. My second writes on film for numerous publica- image sets the general tone. No merchants wish would be that all other Hollywood pro- tions... Leonard Quart is Associate Professor of are shown to have any charitable instincts ducers did likewise. My third would be that Cinema Studies at the College of Staten Island and their appearance and behavior are mod- reviews of this kind would never again be (CUNY)... Franklin Rosemont is a Chicago surre- eled after the Sultan's cruel and dim-witted needed. ■ alist and editor of Arsenal... Catherine Russell is sentinels. Assistant Professor of Film Studies at Concordia University in Montreal... Susan Ryan is a gradu- ate student in Cinema Studies at NYU...Morty Schiff is a free-lance writer living in NYC. ..Andrew Selesnick is a free-lance writer... Jack Shaheen is the author of The TV Arab and the forthcoming The Hollywood Arab... Robert Sklar, author of Movie-Made America, teaches Cinema Studies at NYU... Alan Wald is the author of The New York Intellectuals ...Dennis West teaches Hispanic film and cul- ture at the University of Idaho... Joan M. West teaches French and Women's Studies at the Uni- The Genie, Aladdin and Princess Jasmine are ...while the evil Jaffer and his cohorts versity of Idaho. seen as the 'good Arabs'... reinforce the worst anti-Arab prejudices.

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