Poll of the Day > Was there a whitewashing controversy when Aladdin came out?

(+) Yeah! (+)

It was a mostly white cast and crew portraying middle eastern culture.

Almost every Disney movie since then has had ethnically correct voice actors (with the exception of Daveigh Chase as Lilo).

People largely did not care about or acknowledge whitewashing in media in 1992.

They would be outraged by midriff or whiffs of homosexuality
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VA-work matters less than live-action and we didn't have social media at the time.
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But middle eastern people ARE white
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Zeus posted...

VA-work matters less than live-action and we didn't have social media at the time.

I don't see how people continue to forget this. A lot of the "outrage and butthurt" they would have gotten couldn't be expressed like it is today.
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Yeah. I generally have a rather low opinion on social media.

It would not surprise me if, in the event civilization undergoes a collapse into another dark age, that social media isn't one of the primary factors leading up to it.
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Doctor Foxx posted...

People largely did not care about or acknowledge whitewashing in media in 1992.

They would be outraged by midriff or whiffs of homosexuality

*think, think*
Hmm...
Aladdin and Abu?

WarGreymon77 posted...

*think, think*
Hmm...
Aladdin and Abu?

How about Jafar and how he's the villain. Disney loved making villains like him
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Nope, Cornell Wilde was obviously Arabian.
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Oh, I see. I liked Jafar. Other than being bald, I thought he was pretty cool.

Remember this golden rule. PC is not a problem until someone decides to make it out to be a problem. By this logic there was no whitewashing controversy because no one thought it was a problem.

WarGreymon77 posted...

Oh, I see. I liked Jafar. Other than being bald, I thought he was pretty cool.

I'm not saying that he was necessarily a bad villain. He's just one (of many) queer-coded villains Disney has used. That was the norm at the time.
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That was all I heard about that movie. No commercials or anything.

Cotton_Eye_Joe posted...

Almost every Disney movie since then has had ethnically correct voice actors (with the exception of Daveigh Chase as Lilo).

I wanted to address this. Disney films are usually in really white settings with super white casts, but some that are not:

Pocahontas casting was pretty white http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114148/ (though the woman cast as Pocahontas is an aboriginal woman--just not at all what Pocahontas was)

Mulan cast was white af http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120762/

Emperor's New Groove whiiiiiite http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120917

Moana actually cast things pretty well... but Aladdin was not close to the last of the whitewashed casting.
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As Pocahontas goes, there aren't that many Native American actors in Hollywood... at least that I know of. I mean sure I guess you could find somebody who "looks white" and has native blood, but...

I kinda feel like voice actors should get a pass on whitewashing.

WarGreymon77 posted...

As Pocahontas goes, there aren't that many Native American actors in Hollywood... at least that I know of. I mean sure I guess you could find somebody who "looks white" and has native blood, but...

But there are great numbers of of aboriginal peoples that want to act or could have filled the role. Hollywood just has often cast white people in other roles, and in more recent times it has changed. With Moana they actually scouted for a Pacific islander voice actress for the role.
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knivesX2004 posted...

I kinda feel like voice actors should get a pass on whitewashing.

/shrug

Regardless, Aladdin was far from the last Disney film to whitewash, so I'm not sure why the TC suggested that.
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A bit, yeah. People noted that Aladdin was pretty much drawn Caucasian compared to the more... erm... "ethnic" Jaffar. The big controversy with that movie, however, was a line from the opening song - "Where they cut off your ear if they don't like your face", which was subsequently changed in all home releases of the film to "Where it's flat and immense and the heat is intense".

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee filed a complaint over the movie as a result and the controversy was noted in a few publications.
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Doctor Foxx posted...

WarGreymon77 posted...

Oh, I see. I liked Jafar. Other than being bald, I thought he was pretty cool.

I'm not saying that he was necessarily a bad villain. He's just one (of many) queer-coded villains Disney has used. That was the norm at the time.

he was somewhat effeminate but definitely did not seem gay.
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Nade Duck posted...

Doctor Foxx posted...

WarGreymon77 posted...

Oh, I see. I liked Jafar. Other than being bald, I thought he was pretty cool.

I'm not saying that he was necessarily a bad villain. He's just one (of many) queer-coded villains Disney has used. That was the norm at the time.

he was somewhat effeminate but definitely did not seem gay.

There was a decent amount of time put aside to him lusting after Jasmine
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TheOrangeMisfit posted...

There was a decent amount of time put aside to him lusting after Jasmine

He chains her up and puts her in a skimpy red dress iirc.

For all the censorship that went on in the 90's, you've gotta admire their original theatrical lyrics of the opening song "Where they cut off your ear if they don't like your face." I still remember hearing that as a kid and thinking, that's hardcore....
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