Why do Aladdin and Jasmine talk like white people?
from sopularity_fax@sopuli.xyz to nostupidquestions@lemmy.ca on 26 Oct 20:11
https://sopuli.xyz/post/35793325

#nostupidquestions

threaded - newest

shawn1122@sh.itjust.works on 26 Oct 20:13 next collapse

They sound like Anglos because they’re speaking English?

It’s a fairy tale. Not sure if there are rules here.

sopularity_fax@sopuli.xyz on 26 Oct 20:14 collapse

No, everyone else literally has an arabic accent

shawn1122@sh.itjust.works on 26 Oct 20:19 next collapse

Never noticed that but you’re right.

The reasons are obvious. It would by jarring to a majority white audience, especially in the 90s. Can’t have your main characters being caricatured and everyone with an accent was a caricature back then.

sopularity_fax@sopuli.xyz on 26 Oct 20:26 collapse

But again, every other character does and they’re comprehensible

shawn1122@sh.itjust.works on 26 Oct 20:36 collapse

Its not really about comprehensibility. The characters, especially to a white American audience that is accustomed to being catered to, become less relatable if they have an accent. It almost certainly would have had an impact on commercial success, especially in the 90s or earlier. The relatability of secondary characters is less important.

I know white kids that legitimately thought Aladdin was white. As a PoC it was fascinating to hear to say the least. It was a deliberate choice to make him fairer than Jasmine and to ensure he had no facial hair (which was the aesthetic preference of white Americans at the time).

sopularity_fax@sopuli.xyz on 26 Oct 21:27 collapse

Like Jesus

shawn1122@sh.itjust.works on 26 Oct 21:48 collapse

Yes, actually exactly like Jesus.

themeatbridge@lemmy.world on 26 Oct 21:15 collapse

Except for the Sultan, Jafar, Iago, the Genie, the Cave of Wonders… which are almost all of the named characters. Gazeem and the peddler at the beginning are the only characters I can think of that had noticeable accent that wasn’t British or American.

tal@lemmy.today on 26 Oct 22:47 collapse

Yeah, looking at a character list, that’s actually basically every character of note. That’s for the original, though it does occur to me that whoever did the voice for some international dubbed release might be different.

dubdb.fandom.com/wiki/Aladdin_(1994)

There were apparently releases for Egyptian and Standard Arabic.

EDIT:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5q7cSx4tEo

Snailpope@lemmy.world on 26 Oct 20:14 next collapse

It would be really hard for an American audience to follow along if they spoke arabic

/s

sopularity_fax@sopuli.xyz on 26 Oct 20:25 collapse

Again monsieur sarcasme, everybody but the two mains does or doesnt

celeste@kbin.earth on 26 Oct 20:40 next collapse

Maybe it's to make the main couple seem more relatable to an assumed racist audience.

themeatbridge@lemmy.world on 26 Oct 23:29 collapse

Are you talking about the cartoon or the live action remake with Will Smith?

sopularity_fax@sopuli.xyz on 27 Oct 12:02 collapse

That would have been a sick burn if it was like that “cartoon movie” or the VHS one from 1992 haha.