Among the more overpraised cartoons in the Disney canon, Aladdin explores what happens when a street urchin simultaneously falls in love with a princess and incurs the wrath of the evil sorcerer trying to destroy her father’s kingdom. Jasmine is another “free-spirited” type in the studio’s Barbie-doll tradition, a sexualized faux feminist who wants everyone to know that she can do everything that boys can. Though the film’s milieu is ostensibly an Arab enchanted city, there’s nothing particularly Middle Eastern about the whole thing outside of the preponderance of sand. Having spent considerable quality time with Aladdin dodging officers and fruit sellers at the local market, it’s amazing Jasmine can’t recognize Aladdin beneath the turban. It’s not like the animators have made it difficult for her, as every Arab male in the film is shady and sniveling (even the evil Jafar’s pet parrot gets his name from Shakespeare’s “darkest” play, Othello), whereas Aladdin looks like Scott Wolf and sounds like Clay Aiken. Disney knows how to sell lies, but Aladdin is ultimately less offensive than ridiculous, mostly because its ethnic white noise is really just an excuse for Robin Williams—as a postmodern blabbermouthed genie who grants Aladdin three wishes—to put on an elaborately narcissistic circus act. The actor once said, “Cocaine is God’s way of saying you’re making too much money.” Aladdin is proof that he was right.
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1.5 stars? No waaayyyy. This is one of the best Disney movies from their Renaissance period and has so many obvious strengths that this review completely ignores (great voice acting, animation, songs, action sequences, final moral, etc.) Instead of acknowledging any of that, this critic instead goes on a rant about how this movie is “racist.” Uhhh… how? The villains are voiced by Americans and have the same skin colors as the protagonists do. This review is just a silly attempt to be contrarian. “Aladdin” is a great animated film and deserves 3.5/4 at least.