Aladdin Movie Analysis

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Aladdin is a classic rags-to-riches tale much like a Cinderella story with a touch of Robin Hood. A common “street rat” boy trapped in poverty named Aladdin steels from the rich and gives to the poor, he discovers love at first glance with the royal princess Jasmine that has run away from her palace. With the help of The Genie, a magical fairy godmother type character, Aladdin changes his life to get a chance at love.
The first thing that pops out while watching and analyzing Aladdin is the song “Arabian Nights” that plays in the opening credits of the movie that describes the “barbaric” ways of the Arab people and their culture. Going on with introducing the theme of arabs being barbaric in the beginning of the movie is Poverty. Poverty is overly exaggerated in relation to Arabs. One major sign of poverty is not wearing shoes which is seen with Aladdin. Before the Genie turns Aladdin into a “prince” he walked around barefoot. Seen as too poor to afford shoes. Animals, such as camels, are used as a means of transportation. Animals are also the main characters closest friend. Jafar, Aladdin, and Jasmine’s closest friends are animals whom they turn to and confide in. Not only do these things illustrate poverty but also places emphasis on Arabs being primitive. Associating with animals and being able to understand them shows that they are not fully evolved as a people and are still closely related to animals. This being the reason why they can communicate with their animals. The fact that they use animals as transportation, such as camels and elephants, shows a lack of technology. The people of Agrabah have not advanced culturally because of their poverty stricken lives. Only the rich, specifically the Sultan, the Princess, and Ala...

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...e she is slightly darker than her father. Aladdin makes the perfect husband for Princess Jasmine because his complexion is identical to hers, which means that he fits into the color hierarchy of power
From the very first Arab person you see in the opening scene you see stereotypes of arab people being presented. The first stereotype one is introduced to is the phony salesman, the bootlegger riding on the camel with a large headdress on. He sells worthless objects, finding dozens of uses for the object, such as a combination huka coffee maker that also makes fries, convincing one to buy it so that he can make a profit. Everything he sells is fake or useless; he is out to rip people off for the good of himself. In the end the movie Aladdin portrays arabs as being thieving, selfish, dirty, poor, barbarick animals which makes Aladdin not seem like such a great movie now.

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