Jake Gyllenhaal, scimitar in hand in Prince of Persia (2010). Other harmful depictions of Arab, Muslim, and Middle Eastern actors include stereotypes such as The Bedoin, The Harem Girl, and The Haggler, all of which can be found in the original Disney Aladdin (1992) and its reiterations.
#Voices of aladin full#
Reductive and white-washed depictions of Middle Eastern and Muslim cultures can be seen in everything from the popular 1953 operetta Kismet, in which full casts are often void of Middle Eastern performers, to “The Libyans” in Back to the Future (1985), to Jake Gyllenhaal playing the title character in Prince of Persia (2010). While Aladdin (2019) takes steps to right the lack of accurate cultural representation, it falls short of erasing Disney’s xenophobic legacy – one that stems from a combination of the tale’s Orientalist origins, as well as a history of misrepresentation of Middle Eastern people in theater and film. Photo: Tom SchweersĪS AN IRANIAN-AMERICAN THEATER-MAKER and cultural consultant, I often ask what keeps a production from accurately representing a certain region, ethnicity, or culture. Why, then, the gap between what is seen on stage and screen when it comes to Aladdin?Īndrés Felipe Orozco as the Calip in an onstage revival of Kismet in Neustrelitz, Germany, 2019. It’s certainly also worth noting that both of the aforementioned examples are animated, circumnavigating certain elements of the casting process, such as embodiment. Recent Disney endeavors such as The Princess and the Frog and Moana seem to seek cultural specificity and an acute awareness of race in a push for equity, diversity, and inclusion.
#Voices of aladin movie#
While the new live-action movie version of Aladdin in theaters attracts praise for its inclusion of Middle Eastern actors in its cast, it’s unsettling that the simultaneous Broadway tour is seemingly void of any such effort. While Jasmine’s vocals are done by Filipina singer and actress Lea Salonga, her speaking voice belongs to white American actress Linda Larkin, a difficult truth to swallow as someone who grew up identifying with Jasmine in part because she looked like me. When I was twelve I primarily identified with Belle from Disney’s Beauty and the Beast (an introverted reader with an engineer for a father), so I was disappointed to be assigned Jasmine as my character at a Disney-themed birthday party because of my “Arabianness.” Princess Jasmine has since followed me around as the only “Middle Eastern” Disney Princess (Jasmin also happens to be my middle name, which doesn’t help), and although there’s no such place as “Agrabah,” an inevitable connection formed between the two of us, making it particularly shocking when I realized that the voice I had been listening to had never been Middle Eastern at all. To this day, I remember the moment I learned Princess Jasmine was voiced by a white woman. This comes as no surprise: There were no Middle Eastern actors in the original, either. While millions of viewers across America are flocking to see both adaptations of the 1992 classic, only one version features any actors of Middle Eastern descent. In 2008, Kane released his first album, This Day in History, which includes songs, like "This Close", "Go Mad", and "In Your Own Way".One month before Disney’s new live-action Aladdin opened in movie theaters nationwide, the Broadway tour of the hit musical came to Portland.
Kane's television credits include Law & Order, One Life to Live, Guiding Light, Search for Tomorrow, Plaza Sésamo, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and worked as a producer on Black Sails and Fringe. He also appeared in various stage productions, like Evita, Sunday in the Park with George, She Loves Me, Titus Andronicus, and The Winter's Tale.
#Voices of aladin series#
When he was eleven, Kane participated in the "Very Special Arts" festival, a series of benefit concerts for disabled children's charities, which gave him an opportunity to sing for then First Lady Nancy Reagan in the White House and at the Kennedy Center.
Additionally, he voiced Handsome Grinkon in Penn Zero: Part-Time Hero.īorn in 1973, Kane began to act with a small role in the movie Six Weeks. He also provided the singing voice of Tom Thumb in Miramax's 2002 direct-to-video animated movie, The Adventures of Tom Thumb and Thumbelina. He returned as the singing voice of Aladdin in the franchise's sequels, The Return of Jafar and Aladdin and the King of Thieves, as well in the video games Aladdin: Activity Center and Disney's Aladdin in Nasira's Revenge. 1 Source Bradley Caleb "Brad" Kane is an American actor, voice actor, singer, producer, and writer, who, for Disney, provided the singing voice of Aladdin in Disney's 1992 animated feature film, Aladdin, in which he recorded " One Jump Ahead" and " A Whole New World", alongside Lea Salonga.
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