The original Aladdin story in One Thousand and One Nights is set in China (Aladdin is also Chinese), is based on a middle eastern folk tale, and was written and added to the book by a Frenchman. And then it’s most recognizable incarnation (at least to a western audience) migrates the setting and characters to a fictional Arabic kingdom and gives him an American white guy voice. The character, Aladdin’s, cultural identity as we know it is a little all over the place.
And part of the reason the setting is almost never China in adaptations is that the original 1001 Nights version of the story is very much set in China in name only, with the setting being modeled after the Middle East anyway. I mean, there are two jinns, a sultan, and the sorcerer is from Morocco. And when characters are actually named, they have decidedly non-Chinese names like Mustapha.
I feel like this kind of bullshit is a distraction from actual criticisms of the way the movie Aladdin depicts the Middle East.
A Palestinian friend once went on this mini rant about how Aladdin wasn’t even Middle-Eastern. Al Addin (according to the friend) means “The Easterner.” So Aladdin should have been Indian or Korean or something.
I mean, the origination of the story is a mess to begin with so of course it’s going to misrepresent things, this comment kinda goes into the details a bit - https://lemmy.world/comment/23310329
Ah yes, the two races: poor and white.
i think the us president said that a few years ago
Some of the comments here feel like the lefts version of complaining when a kids movie gets the wrong culture put into a lead role and the right complains… Like when the right complained about the Little Mermaid.
So by your logic, Ariel being played by a black actress is the same thing John Wayne playing an Asian person while squinting?
What? I think you may be confused as to what I wrote.
When you said ‘the left’ they assumed you were a right winger, stopped reading and started with the bad faith nasty arguments.
Triggered, I think is the term.
I am a socialist lol. People online are so defensive sometimes.
Some people just want to fight because social media conditions us to be outraged and angry.
There were few more, non-subtle stuff too tbf.
Anon is a cartoon expert
lol how did the comment or know the porn movie and shot from it so quickly?
