What nationality are Disney's Aladdin and Jasmine?

morocan

<3 that movie ;(

Judging by the accent, Alladin is the only Upper-midwestern boy in Agrabah.

The story is Middle Eastern in origin but apparently they’re Chinese.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aladdin

@downtide
I think the question asker had a distinction in mind between authentic Aladdin and Jasmine versus the Disney misrepresentations by the same names.

Arabian.

Wikipedia sez Agrabah is the name of the entire (made-up) country, so their nationality would be Agrabahn, I suppose. Or Agrabahan. Agrabahese?
Something like that.

I always thought Agrabah was just the name of the city, but what do I know.

@Fyrius I think it was more of a city-state sort of deal.

Realy? They were pretty wealthy, though. They had the sort of palace you see if the royal family has a long history of exploiting great numbers of loyal hard-working subjects to only just above starvation level.

@Fyrius It’s a Disney movie. I get the feeling that the animators weren’t really thinking about how much they were exploiting the fictional, non-existant masses by creating this.

Persian, I think.

@downtide I thought the story was originally Chinese, and adopted by Persians.
But, strictly to the movie, I am guessing they are Agrabhese. To me it sounds like Baghdad, and the character Aladdin from the movie reminds me a lot from Prince of Persia, the original game, even Jazmine looks like the princess in the game.

uch disregard

I’m gonna go with, Genie mingling carpet riders….. of a whole new world!

I always assumed they were from somewhere in Arabia. Jeannie, from I dream of Jeannie, was from Baghad, I think that is where I figure all magical genie like people are from.

@Axemusica A Whole New World was my first dance at my wedding.

It’s an agrabahting issue.

The opening song in Aladdin talks about “Arabian nights,” so it makes sense for this movie to take place somewhere in the Arabian Penninsula, I think.

I’m thinking Arabian.

Oh I come from a land, from a faraway place
Where the caravan camels roam
Where they cut off your ear
If they don’t like your face
It’s barbaric, but hey, it’s home

When the wind’s from the east
And the sun’s from the west
And the sand in the glass is right
Come on down
Stop on by
Hop a carpet and fly
To another Arabian night

Ethnicity tends to refer to cultural and/or racial factors, whereas nationality is about where you’re born and/or where you live. Disney’s Aladdin and Jasmine are Semitic, and the country that they live in, according to TvTropes, is the Arabian Nights subtype of Qurac.

@uberbatman
Oh curse you, now I have that song in my head.

An unnamed sultanate in the Near East, I imagine. It’s populated by Arabs, that’s all that matters. I had always imagined it being somewhere on the Arabian Peninsula, like Medina or something.

On the subject of Agrabah being the name of just that city: I watched this film again today. For, um, research purposes.
In the opening scene, the merchant narrator fellow says:
“Welcome to Agrabah, city of mystery. Of enchantment. And the finest merchandise this side of the River Jordan, on sale today, come on down!”
And then he goes on to show off his water pipe that can also make fries, and his Tupperware box.

I suppose it could be a city-state, though. If city-states can be that wealthy.
For that matter, it could also be like Mexico, the capital of Mexico.

At any rate it can’t be a fictional city inside an existing country. It has the freakin’ sultan’s palace in it. It could only sensibly fit into a country with no capital and no royal palace of its own.

Middle Eastern.