Aladdin, a classic Disney film was not always just that; its origin is from the stories from the Thousand and One Nights, a collection of Middle Eastern folk tales.
Galland's tale isn't even set in the Middle East - it's actually set in a Chinese city, and Aladdin is not an orphan but a poor Chinese boy living with his mother, with the only other location mentioned in the story being Maghreb, North Africa, where the sorcerer is from.
In the both Galland's text and Richard Burton's popular 1885 English translation, Aladdin lives “in a city of the cities in China.” Illustrations of the tales from the Victorian era depict the story and its characters as Chinese.
The character of Aladdin originally taken from One Thousand and One Nights book, a famous collection of Middle Eastern folk tales between the 8th and 13th Century. The book was first translated into English over 400 years later and renamed the Arabian Nights. But, however, the story was actually set in China.
Ironically, the Agrabah Sultan's palace also resembles the Taj Mahal in Agra, India, despite being supposedly based in an Arabian country. The original Arabic folk tale of Aladdin was originally set in China, specifically an Islamic city in China (most likely an Uyghur kingdom in the Xinjiang region).
Princess Jasmine: Indian or Arabian? Disney's HUGE Cultural Inaccuracy! | Cartoon Analysis
What race are Aladdin and Jasmine?
He would be an Arabian in Disney. But he would be Chinese in the original story. How do you feel about Disney casting a half-Indian, half-white actress to play Jasmine in the live-action version of Aladdin?
While the movie is set in a city based on Baghdad, Iraq, Aladdin contains aspects of multiple Middle Eastern and Asian cultures. The sultan's palace in Aladdin, left, and the Taj Mahal in Agra, India.
Her country of origin, for example, has been frequently disputed. While some claim Jasmine is Arab because the movie opens with a song called Arabian Nights, others believe that the architecture in Agrabah is clearly based on the Taj Mahal, making Jasmine Indian.
She is an independent, rebellious young princess from Agrabah, a Middle Eastern kingdom ruled by her father, the Sultan. As the future sultana, Jasmine has a strong sense of obligation to her country.
Agrabah is the central location of the 1992 Disney animated feature film, Aladdin. It is a glimmering, bustling Arabian desert kingdom, currently under the rule of a kind-hearted Sultan and his daughter, Princess Jasmine.
Universally accepted, the character's status as Disney's first Arabic princess "won over hearts" upon the film's 1992 release, according to Andre Tartar of Vulture.com.
If you mean American Indian, then that would be Pocahontas. The only other Disney character I know of close to India's Indian would be the Jasmine character but I believe she considered to be more a Middle eastern character. There is also Jungle Book which takes place in India, but there isn't really a princess in it.
And despite the fact that some white extras had their skin darkened during filming, Disney did cast actors of Middle Eastern descent in most of the main roles.
Jasmine is a secular creation by a wealthy company. It is incidental that she is Arabic, and practically irrelevant that she is Muslim, as she has zero connection with Islam or actual Muslim women.
Jasminum sambac, commonly called Arabian jasmine, is probably native to India or Southeast Asia where it is a broadleaf evergreen shrub. On a support, it grows as a twining shrubby vine.
Meanwhile, the Sultan's Palace was based on the design of the Taj Mahal in Agra, India. So the animators simply took Agra and combined it with the first part of Baghdad—“ba”—and created a new composite name: Agrabah.
Aladin Chatterjee (Riteish Deshmukh) lives in the city of Khwaish, an orphan who has been bullied since childhood by Kasim and his gang. His life changes when Jasmine (Jacqueline Fernandez) gives him a magic lamp because it lets loose the genie Genius (Amitabh Bachchan).
She comes from the South Asian-inspired Kingdom of Sherabad, which Jafar wanted to conquer to expand Agrabah. She also is mentioned to have been the victim of murder, which caused her husband to keep their daughter inside the palace for protection.
Princess Jasmine is the deuteragonist of Disney's 1992 animated feature film Aladdin. She is the independent and rebellious princess of Agrabah, a Middle Eastern kingdom ruled by her father, the Sultan. As the future Sultana, Jasmine has a strong sense of obligation to her kingdom.
After receiving criticism last year, Disney is changing the way it addresses racism in its older animated films. On Oct. 15, Disney Plus introduced a new disclaimer that appears before older films like Dumbo (1941) and Aladdin (1992), warning viewers that the films include harmful stereotypes.
Surprisingly, Aladdin and Princess Jasmine speak in excellent American English while the rest of the characters in the film speak in heavy Arab accents.
