The teaser trailer from Guy Ritchie’s Aladdin movie was just released last week. While we’re excited to dive into the New World, we can’t help but have this nagging voice in the back of our heads.
The live action storybook genre itself seems very popular as many reiterations have already preceded the magical movie, such as Cinderella and Maleficent. Aladdin however, is obviously a very high-profile project due to the POC background. Rightly so, as so many movies in Hollywood are whitewashed by replacing roles that were originally POC (people of colour).
Director Ritchie reassured that whitewashing or the infamous “white saviour” would definitely not happen. Nevertheless, the movie has already been subjected to several less than desirable decisions.
The crime comedy director did make the wise decision of casting Mena Massoud, who’s of Egyptian descent, in the lead role of Aladdin. Ritchie does have more actors in his cast of Middle Eastern origin such as Navid Negahban and Nasim Pedrad.
However, one point of criticism already derives from the female title role. Our favourite princess Jasmine will be portrayed by Naomi Scott. Although Disney previously committed to casting a brown-skinned actress, the actress in question is instead of mixed British and Gujarati Indian descent, and quite light-skinned.
This gave fans the idea that people of darker skin are interchangeable in the eyes of Disney– forcing India and Middle Eastern countries in one booth. They were quite upset to state it lightly that the lead was not darker skinned or with more classically Middle Eastern features.
This didn’t better with the news that 100 local performers were ‘browned up’ for roles in the movie. This is obviously deeply problematic, not only because of the history of blackface and white performers painting their skin to mock other races, but because it means that Disney has actively chosen to hire white performers for roles that should go to those with darker skin.
Disney quickly responded that they solely did it so the actors were able to blend in. They tried to lessen the blow by stating that 400 of the 500 performers were indeed coloured. The studio claims that the people who were artificially coloured have special skills, such as “special effects rigs, stunt performers and handling of animals.”
This gave the implication that Bollywood wouldn’t have them readily available, as countered by fans. However, this argument would in fact force the previous criticism towards Naomi Scott redundant.
Anger and criticism hit an all time high when people learned that a new white character would be added into the mix, a colour that was missing from the original entirely. The character in question is the Norwegian Prince Anders performed by Billy Magnussen.
In the movie the character will be a rival suitor to Jasmine, a role which was previously taken on by the role of Prince Achmed in the original. Obviously, Achmed was most definitely not a Norwegian Prince – meaning that Prince Anders is almost certainly a whitewashed version of the original character.
If you’re still planning to watch the “magical movie” which is able to transform white people into people of colour, Aladdin is scheduled for release in 3D and IMAX on May 24, 2019.
Stay tuned for more Aussie Gossip!
