Growing up I had Aladdin as well as the sequel Aladdin Jafar's Return on VHS. I could never get tired of this movie. When I read Addison's piece regarding the film, where she criticizes the representation of race in the film, I realized I had been tricked by Disney, or rather swayed. One of the things that Addison discusses is the representation of the main characters, Aladdin and Jasmine, in contrast with the representation of all the other characters in the film. While most characters in the film possess a foreign accent, the main characters coincidently have American accents (Addison 9). On top of that, Addison points out that Aladdin is the "only clean shaven male in the movie" (Addison 9).
When I watched this film, naturally Aladdin was my favorite character. But now I ask myself, did I pick him as my favorite character in the movie, or did Disney pick for me? The animators design Aladdin so that he is so different from the rest of the cast that he stands out. His clean look, american accent, and light skin are much more relatable to any young boy than the rugged, foreign accent, bearded law enforcement that appear in the film. Is this the first time that I have been lightly swayed in a direction by Disney and its creators?
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