The first song in the
Disney movie
Aladdin (
1992), setting the scene and creating the atmosphere. The problem was that a number of Arab groups objected to the portrayal, in particular the lines that created a menacing atmosphere:
Where they cut off your ear
If they don't like your face
So Disney eventually caved and those lines were replaced by the immensely dull lyrics:
Where it's flat and immense
And the heat is intense
The lines, in my opinion, were innocuous, and I was much more disturbed by the fact that the good guys are lighter skinned people with
American accents while the bad guys are darker skinned, more heavily accented, and have prominent noses. But two lines of lyrics are easier to change than 90 minutes of animation.
Before some of you go foaming at the mouth about
political correctness and all that, I think a much more interesting thing is going on here. It's getting more and more difficult to depict exotic locales in popular art because the mainstream audience is getting much more diverse. Not so long ago, it was easy to pick a random country to serve as a mysterious faraway land of strange customs - "the other". You could just slap some makeup and a baggy costume on some white guys and there you go. Watch the
1958 version of Aladdin with
Sal Mineo, or any black and white movie set in the East, and you'll see what I mean.
Now "the other" is us, as more and more people from those countries are part of the audience, they aren't satisfied with the thickly accented stereotypes, and are demanding less stereotypical, less offensive, and more accurate portrayals - as well they should.
But I still don't know what the big deal about those two lines were. Sigh.
Lyrics:
Howard Ashman
Music:
Alan Menken
Vocals:
Bruce Adler
Oh I come from a land, from a faraway place
Where the
caravan camels roam
Where they cut off your ear
If they don't like your face
It's barbaric, but hey--it's home!
When the wind's at your back
And the sun's from the west
And the sand in the glass is right
Come on down,
Stop on by
Hop a carpet and fly
To another
Arabian night!
Arabian nights
Like Arabian days
More often than not
Are hotter than hot
In a lot of good ways
Arabian nights
'Neath Arabian moons
A fool off his guard
Could fall and fall hard
Out there on the dunes.