Arabian Nights

Aladdin , Disney's thirty-first full length animated film, is important for a number of reasons. Most noticeably, Jasmine is the studio's first "brown" princess. The film is set in the fictional, presumably Middle Eastern country of Agrabah, and Jasmine is the daughter of the sultan. The second first for this movie is the presence of "crossover" humor. While some argue that The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast had crossover appeal for both adults and children, I think Aladdin has a different, more current sort of entertainment value. I was surprised on re-watching this movie how many parallels there were between Robin Williams genie character and recent hit animated films, like Shrek. Throughout the film, Williams' Genie morphs into Ed Sullivan, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Groucho Marx, and many many other notable people of popular culture. Some of the references were even too old for me to catch onto. This quick humor is unoffensive to children who may understand it, but funny to adults who catch on.
Robin Williams presence in this film is an interesting note even beyond his comedic contribution. Prior to production of Aladdin, Williams had struggled with a drug addiction and was released from rehab. He was reportedly coaxed into doing the project after animators set some of his stand up routine to animation of the Genie character. Further, doing the movie was a positive PR move for Williams, allowing him to play a happy-go-lucky character and easing him back into the public eye. There were also stories about William's contract with the studio, evidently he only accepted a basic wage for doing the film in return for the boost to his reputation and a few other small concessions by Disney (not mentioning his name any more than other characters, not letting his character dominate promotional posters, etc)
Aladdin was viewed by some in the Middle Eastern community as a racist film. Groups such as the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee cited the film for controversial lyrics, such as a lyric from the opening number describing the Middle Eastern setting as a land where "they cut off your ear if they don't like your face". This lyric was dubbed over for the video release of the film. I have to roll my eyes at this group's feeling slighted by this tiny line in a song. There seems to be many more problematic issues at play here than five seconds in the first song. First of all, as far as I can tell from researching the cast on IMDB and other film websites, all of the actors involved were white, and none of the characters assume any sort of Middle Eastern accent. I personally am not offended by this, I see Disney's portrayal of Agrabah similarly to the studio's portrayal of other foreign locations, more of a stage on which to set a very American storyline than anything else (like the portrayal of France in Beauty and the Beast, whatever Germanic country Snow White is set in, etc). After all, the struggling-to-find-herself princess storyline doesn't really work in a country like America where there are no monarchs, so Disney has to use other countries for this type of work (with the notable exception of Pocahontas, my next entry). That being said, if this Arab-American diversity group feels that the songs of Aladdin are misrepresenting their culture, wouldn't they be offended by the absence of Middle Eastern talent in the film's cast? Another issue which would be interesting to see from this groups perspective is the few times the name of "Allah", the Islamic god, is mentioned. I don't know nearly enough about the Islamic faith to comment on what a Muslim person would've thought of that reference, but it seems a bit forced and unnecessary to the film.
The central love story to this movie is also a bit innovative for the Disney Princess films. Jasmine is the first of the princess characters to not leave her lifestyle for her man by the end of the film. Every other previous princess somehow alters her life for the man she meets in the film, leaving behind her family and home. In Aladdin, Jasmine begins her life in the palace, tries to blend in in the kingdom in disguise as a peasant woman, but in the end finds that she can experience liberation while still assuming her role as the next queen of Agrabah. Aladdin comes to her, in other words. This is pretty a pretty fresh notion for Disney films, however, Aladdin is much different in his "leaving home" than the princesses of prior films. For one thing, he has no home except for an abandoned building, and no family except for his monkey sidekick. Whereas Ariel, for example, is seen leaving her whole world behind to live as Eric's human wife, Aladdin simply gets to "marry up" and ascend from street peasant to the next Sultan of Agrabah.
The end of this movie, though less dramatic than watching Ariel leave her ocean home or Belle bring the Beast back to life, is nonetheless happy. Aladdin frees Genie from his bottle, and while he and Jasmine are pictured riding off into the night sky on the magic carpet, they do not wed in the film (that is saved for one of the awful straight-to-video sequels). The moral of the movie is to be your true self, a common Disney theme but a refreshing break from the eighties-esque glorification of greed this story could've portrayed.