"Aladdin"

The Disney remake of the classic cartoon called Aladdin was welcomed with mixed reviews about the plot. Some critics liked it, some do not. However, in my opinion, the movie was not good enough and some parts of the movie should be fixed. The parts that should be fixed are decorations, costumes, and dancing part of the movie. The Aladdin movie was set in a fictional city called Agrabah that is located somewhere in the Middle East. The city Agrabah that is in the movie was influenced by  Arabian culture. First of all the building’s structure should remind the audience about the Middle East in terms of its constructors and appearance. The buildings should have some Arabian style domes that would represent the Middle East and built in the way as historical Arab buildings were built. Secondly, the scene where Alladin sings a song in the street people around him were throwing colorful sands that gives an atmosphere of India. This scene does not fit the Arab culture. Since Alladin is one of the stories compiled in The Thousand and One Nights as the collection of the Middle Eastern folk tales, this scene should be deleted or changed into another such as an Arabic dance or something that would remind the Middle East and Arab culture.

The costumes that movie characters wear also do not match the Middle East. For example, the costumes of the Aladdin and Genie where they met with the princess in the feast don’t look like the Arabic style. Costumes represent South Asia accurately Indian style. The Genie costume is an explicit style of Indian men. Also, the people on the streets wear Indian-style clothing, which is more colorful than the Arabian style. These costumes should be changed for the Arabian style such as thawb traditional style for Arab men. The final part is dancing that is not suitable for this film at all. The dancing part of the movie definitely shows the Bollywood dancing style that is located in India. The music and dancing should be changed and have as original as Arab style dancing. The song that Genie sang seems like talking instead of singing. I think the song should be sung, not just straight-up rapping the words. The movie director should have chosen someone who could sing this song.

In addition, the movie is not so bad but still needs to do these corrections that would give the Arabian style and appearance that the audience should feel while watching this movie.

" Mulan"

“Mulan” is the film that tried to show Chinese culture and traditions in its own way. Although there are some things that in my opinion should be fixed such as symbolism, the moral of the story, and some inconsistencies within a plot. The character of the Phoenix bird that connected as a character of the force in the movie doesn’t belong to the Chinese culture and history. This part of the plot gives a misunderstanding of the history since the mythological Phoenix bird is ancient Egypt’s and Iran’s classical antiquity bird that is associated with the worship of the sun. This character should be changed into the dragon that is a Chinese cultural symbol. It would give more associations with China culture.

The original historical moral of the story also has been totally changed in the movie through the character of the magic-wielding Witch that gives fear to China.  Original morals should be that if there is a  threat to the father’s death children should protect him beside their gender. But the moral shown by the Witch character express feminism that is provoking to the Chinese traditions. This character should be changed to a positive character that would help Mulan. For example, when Witch found out that Mulan is a female, she reminded herself of twenty years ago. She would help her because twenty years ago she couldn’t protect her father from the War and lost him, that’s why she decided to help Mulan in order to fix her fault.

Some inconsistencies within a plot also exist in the movie. The scene when Mulan left the house, took her father’s armor, and left her comb isn’t clear enough. Mulan wasn’t at home for a long time and nobody asked her. None of her neighbors or friends said something about her. This scene hasn’t finished and should be fixed in the way that the residents of the city should know that she disappeared. Of course, they shouldn’t know that she went to the army but they should know of her absence since Mulan was absent for a long time.

Overall the movie Mulan was interesting to watch since it shows the history and some traditions that represent China’s culture.