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• #Aladin film song movie#

"I have a daughter who says she's ashamed to call herself an Arab, and it's because of things like this."Ĭomplaints like these are coalescing into a public debate that seems to have taken Disney by surprise. "As an Arab, it made me feel, 'My goodness, this is not a film I want my children to see,' " said Salem. They've done everything but put him into a suit and tie. What makes him nice is they've given him this American character. Aladdin doesn't have a big nose he has a small nose. "All the bad guys have beards and large, bulbous noses, sinister eyes and heavy accents, and they're wielding swords constantly. Yousef Salem, owner of a Sunnyvale, Calif., engine-parts business and former spokesman for the South Bay Islamic Association, saw the film recently. If you were to replace the word 'Arab' with 'black,' 'Jew,' 'Italian' or 'Irishman,' it just wouldn't float because everyone would be up in arms." "It just drives another nail into the casket of what has been a bad image for decades. "It's gratuitous Arab-bashing," said Casey Kasem, a nationally syndicated disc jockey in Los Angeles, of Lebanese ancestry, who is particularly bothered by the film's opening song. The sting of "Aladdin" is particularly intense because it is a high-profile Disney release, playing to massive audiences, including impressionable children. Such caricatures exemplify the negative stereotyping with which Hollywood and the media have stamped Arabs and Muslims for nearly a century, these critics say. And they are violent, willing to chop off the hand of a woman who steals an apple for a hungry child. Many of its characters are portrayed as grotesque, with huge noses and sinister eyes. What's more, "Aladdin" has been hailed as politically correct: Its heroes are not white.īut for many Arab Americans and Muslims, the film is not innocent, funny or particularly triumphant. There is talk of Oscar nominations, and the film is topping 10-best lists.

#Aladin film song movie#

The movie is a charmer, the reviewers almost unanimously proclaim, a brilliantly animated fantasy-adventure in which Robin Williams, as the voice of the genie, gives a classic comedic performance. Millions of children and adults are streaming to theaters to watch Disney's retelling of the classic tale in which poor Aladdin finds a magic lamp and is granted three wishes by the genie who lives inside.

As the opening credits roll, they watch a Bedouin riding his camel through the desert and listen to these lyrics from a song called "Arabian Nights":īarbaric? Chopping off ears? In the first minute of a children's film? For many this is the second or third time they've seen the film.

The theater is packed with children munching popcorn, hungry for Walt Disney's "Aladdin" to begin.