Fantasy Guy Ritchie Directing Disney's Aladdin

[LoganPool]

If you guys want to complain about something being white, complain about how white Aladdins teeth are. No way a "street rat" in Agrabah has pearly whites like that.

 

[psylockolussus]

Can't wait for Mulan to have an "original" white character.

She should be Asian.

 

[RockSP]

I completely disagree. The way I see it, it's those of you complaining about it that are forcing diversity down our throats and being overly PC. It's unrealistic for a white person to be in the middle east? I happen to know a guy who lives in Egypt 6 months out the year. It's quite common. Also, this dude is playing a prince from a different nation trying to woo over Jasmine. Any white prince in the world would be stupid to not to go after a princess like Jasmine. I'm glad all your lives are so perfect that you have to resort to complaining about a minor minor, blink and you'll miss him, character. You guys are probably the same ones who complained about LaFou being gay in BatB.

Might be time to get that sarcasm meter checked.

 

[Marvolo]

Disney’s Live-Action Aladdin Full Cast & Character Details Revealed



You don't get it. The problem here is that Hollywood is once again trying to force diversity down our throats! It's PC gone mad! What is a white man even doing in ancient Middle East? How unrealistic.

Real parrots are too cute to be villains.

Idk if youre being sarcastic but you realize that the ancient middle east didnt exist inside of an impenetrable border, right? Humans have been ranging across Europe and Asia and the Middle East for over 100,000 years.

Also, the middle east natives have a wide range of skintones and even hair and eye color can vary. So even if this was a period piece drama, and not a fictional story set in an entirely fictional land, a white skinned person showing up in the middle east isnt impossible.

 

[Primal Slayer]

I really dont know why they felt the need to add a white guy to the cast, the movie would've been fine with 100% ethnic characters.

 

[Marvolo]

He's probably a suitor. Maybe a minor foil for Aladdin.

 

[Kane52630]

They already announced his role... he's playing a prince.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/he...asts-billy-magnussen-as-new-character-1035329

Billy Magnussen is joining Disney's live-action Aladdin as Prince Anders.

 

[Marvolo]

Well thats not so bad.

 

[Dark Raven]

I hope to see pics of Naomi Scott in the Princess Jasmine costume soon.

I don't remember what the story of Disney's Aladdin is even about. Does he have a wicked uncle in this version who isn't even really his uncle?

 

[sueb1863]

So, no Iago, but Jafar will have a henchman named Hakim who's the head of the palace guards. That character was in the movie, not sure if his name was Hakim.

Prince Anders is prince of "Skanland", whatever that is. I think his part's going to be pretty large, it won't be a minor two-minute part. They wouldn't bother to announce his casting if he only had a few lines and then disappeared.

 

[terry78]

It was Rasoul. A talking parrot that gets pissed easily was too out there for you, Ritchie?

 

[2kt09]

It was Rasoul. A talking parrot that gets pissed easily was too out there for you, Ritchie?

He'll do it like Maleficient.

 

[jmc]

Just when I thought the internet couldn't be any more pedantic in its choice of things to be outraged over.

 

[Jake Cassidy]

Aladdin, the character, was originally Chinese.

 

[TheAQU4M4N]

If they are starting to film now, are thy shooting for a late 2018/ early 2019 release?

 

[Loden Greatstorm]

Hoping for the best.

 

[Dark Raven]

Aladdin, the character, was originally Chinese.

That's what I thought. Isn't it Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves which is the more Middle Eastern one? But when I look it up now, it seems that Aladdin is actually a Middle Eastern folk tale but with characters and settings in China.

Apparently Aladdin, Ali Baba and Sinbad are all from the same source: the book of "A Thousand and One Nights" (aka "Arabian Nights" in English).

So I guess with the source material and origin, Aladdin could easily be transposed to a more Middle Eastern setting.

EDIT: For that matter, how come there aren't any modern live action adaptations of Ali Baba? You get many more of Aladdin and Sinbad.

 

[samsnee]

I can understand people being upset. Hollywood doesn't go out of its way to insert a Middle Eastern character into a story that maybe traditionally only had white characters, so why do it now? Like they didn't do this for Cinderella, or Beauty, or Malificent.

 

[Dark Raven]

I can understand people being upset. Hollywood doesn't go out of its way to insert a Middle Eastern character into a story that maybe traditionally only had white characters, so why do it now? Like they didn't do this for Cinderella, or Beauty, or Malificent.

Well, it's kind of pandering to Western audiences, or particularly American audiences, as if they won't be able to identify with the movie if there's no-one who looks white. This will probably be their POV character.

Even in this recent Bruce Lee biopic "Birth of the Dragon", they had to create a fictional white guy who is Bruce Lee's friend and student, as well as the main protagonist and the POV character to tell the story (as if a Bruce Lee biopic needs that and wouldn't be accepted otherwise).

 

[Abudefduf]

Idk if youre being sarcastic but you realize that the ancient middle east didnt exist inside of an impenetrable border, right? Humans have been ranging across Europe and Asia and the Middle East for over 100,000 years.

Also, the middle east natives have a wide range of skintones and even hair and eye color can vary. So even if this was a period piece drama, and not a fictional story set in an entirely fictional land, a white skinned person showing up in the middle east isnt impossible.

But there were no white people in Agrabah. Fact. Just like there were no people of color in Middle Earth.

Aladdin, the character, was originally Chinese.

Yeah, the original story was indeed set in China but it featured stuff like sultans and Jinns and characters named Mustapha... it was basically China in name only.

 

[Zant]

If they are starting to film now, are thy shooting for a late 2018/ early 2019 release?

I predict November 2019 release date.

 

[Loden Greatstorm]

I predict November 2019 release date.

Way too far.. summer 19 at the latest.

 

[Bruce Malone]

Aladdin, the character, was originally Chinese.

He was Chinese by way of people who had no idea what being Chinese even was.

The original authors didn't know anything about China other than it was far away thus all the Chinese aspects of Aladdin were pretty much just middle-eastern.

 

[Kane52630]

Also... this is meant as an adaptation of the animated movie not necessarily the source material.

 

[Dark Raven]

He was Chinese by way of people who had no idea what being Chinese even was.

The original authors didn't know anything about China other than it was far away thus all the Chinese aspects of Aladdin were pretty much just middle-eastern.

Isn't "The Thousand and One Nights" just a collection of Arabian folk tales? The "author" or narrator of the story, Scheherazade, is the wife of a king who is going to execute her for being unfaithful, so she tells him a number of tales, always ending the night on a cliffhanger. And so he keeps wanting to hear how the story ends and postpones her execution, and this goes on for a thousand and one nights. It's clear though that she's just making it up as she goes along, so she would be just drawing on her own limited knowledge or experience of things, and could have just plucked China out of thin air. it could've really been any country as far as she was concerned. It was just a device to keep herself alive.