Aladdin (1992 Disney film)/YMMV: Difference between revisions

* [[Unfortunate Implications]]: This is Disney's first animated feature where there is not a single white person to be found (that is, if one doesn't count Genie's human form), so it is inevitable that some judgement calls about ''Aladdin'''s content will come from a place of cultural sensitivity. These include:

** [[Bowdlerise|Disney removing one of the verses of the opening song "Arabian Nights"]] - "''Where they cut off your ear if they don't like your face. It's barbaric, but hey, it's home''" - in July 1993 [http://articles.latimes.com/1993-07-10/entertainment/ca-11747_1_altered-lyric following complaints that this verse was offensive to those who lived in Middle Eastern countries], despite the fact that such capital punishments ''did'' exist in a lot of Middle Eastern countries and are still legal today. Disney changed it to "''Where it's flat and immense and the heat is intense''" [[Author's Saving Throw|so that the lyric "''It's barbaric, but hey, it's home''" referred to the land and the heat rather than the people]]. However, viewers still objected to the use of the "barbaric" descriptor, as well as a scene where a merchant almost amputates Jasmine's hand for giving an apple to a little boy without paying for it and tells her it is the standard punishment for stealing, [[Moral Guardians|suggesting that these viewers wouldn't consider ''Aladdin'' to be a racist film if ''none'' of the multiple Arab characters in the film were portrayed negatively at all]]. All the constant controversy caused this verse to be completely changed to "''Where you wander among every culture and tongue. It's chaotic, but hey, it's home''" for the 2019 live-action remake, [[Bowdlerise|and the scene where the peddler threatens to chop Jasmine's arm off]] [[Political Correctness Gone Mad|has him take Jasmine's jewelry demanding it as a recompense instead]].

* [[Values Dissonance]]: This stands out amongst later Disney films based on non-American cultures. Disney [[Shown Their Work|does a lot of research]] into presenting the cultures accurately and respectfully. ''Aladdin'' on the other hand isn't a particularly accurate film and some aspects have been considered offensive (such as how "Arabian Nights" needed to be censored to remove some violent references). This wasn't a well-known issue in the early 1990s, but in modern times, the film would be written much differently.

* [[Viewer Gender Confusion]]: What is Rajah supposed to be, again? The tiger is likely a male since the female equivalent to "Rajah" would be "Rani" but this is not in the movie.