List: 

1. Architecture of set
2. Sexualization of unnamed princess
3. White actors
4. Portrayal = of the sultan 
5. Magic
6. Quality of special effects
7. Evil Genie 
8. Glory of being a thief
9. Desire for freedom 
10. Connection to the ocean and sea

Portrayal of Sultan 

1. Stereotypically unintelligent 
2. Bumbles around 
3. Claims to “care more about inventions then subjects”
4. Is willing to trade daughter for flying horse 
5. Has many wives 
6. Allows self to be embraced by scary blue woman with 6 arms
7. Overly trusting of Jafar
8. Doesn’t understand the consequences of his actions
9. Wears elaborate over the top outfits
10. Wears very bright colors

The portrayal of the sultan reminds me in a lot of ways of the sultan in Aladdin, with many of the character traits even more exaggerated. The Sultan is clearly being used in the movie as a sense of comedic relief. He is easy to laugh at, as opposed to laughing with. I think this says a lot about the way that Middle Eastern government is portrayed in Western Media. It is very clear that the Sultan does not care about his subjects. This makes an audience believe that the Middle Eastern Government as a whole doesn’t care about its people. This makes me want to do more research into the actual politics of the time in which this movie is set. I wonder if the wealth gap is actually as great as the movie portrays it to be. I looked up when the movie was set and it was very hard to find that information. This makes it hard to do research on the accuracy of the portrayal of the Middle Eastern Government. This poses a lot of questions for me about how the government actually functioned in the Middle East. 

I wonder if Sultans actually did have this much power and if there is a history of sultans making unsavory decisions for their whole kingdoms. This also makes me wonder if there is any basis for any of these characters. The sultan to me feels like such an exaggerated stereotype that there is no way that people like that could actually exist, much less run entire kingdoms.

I also wonder what the origin of the idea of magic being held by those in power comes from. Most of the inventions which the Sultan has, specifically the ones gifted to him by Jafar are full of magic. This adds an interesting dimension to this character. He seems to view the magic as perfectly natural. This makes me wonder just how much magic plays a role in the world of the movie.