In 2013, Jasmine's design within Disney Princess marketing was updated, garnering mild controversy because some critics accused the character's skin color of being lightened. The character appears in the film Disney Princess Enchanted Tales: Follow Your Dreams, starring in the segment "More Than a Peacock Princess."
Not only was the film accused of whitewashing but of “colorism”. Critics and fans learned of that when the studio cast half-white Anglo Indian actress Naomi Scott ( Power Rangers, Terra Nova ) to play Princess Jasmine. This drew criticism since the actress has no Arabic or middle eastern background.
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.
Jasmine is later shown to be very much a ruler of Agrabah alongside her father, instead of merely sitting around on the sidelines. She takes part in most political disputes and garners an amount of respect equal to her father.
Critics of the film and the story itself argue that the tale of Aladdin is inherently racist and Orientalist, and, regardless of the setting, is simply a colonial European view of the “exotic” East.
The DARK TRUTH About Jasmine In Aladdin | Disney Theory
What is Princess Jasmine's ethnicity?
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. It's a debate that has fueled speculation that in Hollywood, Indians and Arabs are interchangeable.
Princess Jasmine, a fictional character from Disney's animated film "Aladdin," is not explicitly identified as Indian in the movie. Instead, she is depicted as a resident of the fictional city of Agrabah, which is often seen as a blend of Middle Eastern and South Asian cultures and influences.
Finally, as it been revealed that Aladdin is not a prince, he can't marry Jasmine because of the law. He could use the last wish, but he already promised to use the third to release the genie free.
She is a mature young woman oppressed by the men around her. Jasmine's abusive father does not let her leave the family home, and Jafar is about marry her against her will.
Jasmine exemplifies Christ's call to love one another, and viewers can see this in the way she treats her father, her handmaiden and even Aladdin. Jasmine is very respectful of her father, even if she doesn't always agree with him. She treats her handmaiden like a friend and not like someone that's of lower class.
Here are 5: Dumbo (1941): Contains a scene of a group of cigar-smoking crows, with their leader named Jim Crow, referring to the racist segregation laws of the South, and voiced by a white actor.
Violent references and undressing references have been edited for the Disney+ release. One of the lyrics in "Arabian Nights" that said "Where they cut off your ear if they don't like your face." were replaced by one that said "Where it's flat and immense and the heat is intense".
Such warnings appear when users go to watch films such as Dumbo, Fantasia, Lady and the Tramp and The Jungle Book, all of which have been criticised for including racist imagery. “This programme is presented as originally created,” the message reads. “It may contain outdated cultural depictions.”
“Aladdin is not an entertaining Arabian Nights fantasy as film critics would have us believe,” wrote Jack Shaheen in 1992, then a professor of mass communications at Southern Illinois University, “but rather a painful reminder to 3 million Americans of Arab heritage, as well as 300 million Arabs and others, that the ...
Then the production was criticized for casting ethnically Indian British actress Naomi Scott as Jasmine, instead of a Middle Eastern or Arab actress. And then news that the film had added a new white male character to the cast, played by Into the Woods' Billy Magnussen, raised more eyebrows.
Jasmine is one of the most overtly sexualized of the Disney heroines - which isn't great, since she's meant to be fifteen. It's also historically inaccurate. As a woman of high rank in Ancient Persia, she would be much more covered up.
From bottom left to right: The Sultan, Jasmine, Aladdin, Abu, Iago, and Jafar. The lead character of the franchise is Aladdin, who was originally a street urchin. During the course of the franchise, he starts living in the palace of Agrabah and becomes engaged to Princess Jasmine.
Jasmine was only 15 years old when royal suitors fought for her hand in Aladdin. Knowing Jasmine's age puts a decidedly unsavory spin on her storyline in the original animated movie. At least the Disney princesses that came before her were falling in love on their own, not being pushed into relationships by her father.
“Jasmine is called a “Muslim Princess” by some sources though the movie draws heavily from multiple cultures, including a lot of Indian influences (her father wears a turban which is usually a Sikh tradition, though some Muslim men do wear turbans so it doesn't necessarily indicate a specific belief or origin?).
After refusing to marry him, Jasmine kisses Jafar to distract him while Aladdin returns in time to trick Jafar into wishing himself into a genie and thus trapping himself within the lamp.
Disney's 1992 animated Aladdin movie features the grossest moment in the company's history - the kiss between Jasmine and Jafar. The 1992 animated movie Aladdin may be a Disney classic, but it also contains the studio's grossest moment.
Jafar reads aloud from the ancient scroll he so cleverly doctored, and proclaims that now he must become Jasmine's husband, and – most importantly – the next sultan! Jasmine and the Sultan try to stop Jafar, but to no avail, for Jafar now holds the power of the lamp.
In Disney's nearly 100-year history, there has been only one Black Disney princess — Princess Tiana in “The Princess and the Frog,” a 2009 animated feature starring Anika Noni Rose.
They were given an official number in the franchise line-up based on the chronological order in which their films were released, starting with Snow White as the first and original Disney Princess, with Cinderella being the second, followed by Aurora and so on.
For instance, the ruler is referred to as "Sultan" rather than "Emperor", as in some retellings, and the people in the story are Muslims and their conversation is filled with Muslim platitudes. A Jewish merchant buys Aladdin's wares, but there is no mention of Buddhists, Daoists or Confucians.
