ISLAM - > Disney Style
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Islam, Disney style
The first Islamic cartoon? But what's it all about
- Amina Elbendary
It caused quite an uproar when it was in the early stages of
production, which makes the non- existent reaction, on its Egyptian
release, to Muhammad (Pbuh) The Last Prophet -- the first full-length
Islamic animated feature film -- rather conspicuous. But given that it
is the Holy Month after all, brave souls venturing to deserted movie
theatres in the middle of a Ramadan week could well have thought the
religious cartoon an appropriate choice. And it was not an altogether
bad choice to judge from the enthusiastic post- film reactions of
nine-year-old Zeina and 11- year-old Mohamed and their aunt, my
equally enthusiastic friend.
The film begins several years after the Prophet's death when a Muslim
family in Mecca find a poor, sick man on the streets begging for help.
The parents, Malek and Arwa, decide to help him but their little girl
Siham is anxious to get to the market to sell her sheep's wool. Malek
starts explaining to his daughter the story of Islam and how the
Prophet cared for the poor.
Pre-Islamic Mecca, where Malek lived as a young man, was full of
cruelty and injustice. The weak, the poor and slaves were treated
harshly by the rich and powerful magnates, the chiefs of the tribe of
Quraysh, who made huge profits by controlling prices and taking
advantage of pilgrims who came to pray to the idols at Mecca's shrine,
the Ka'ba. Quraysh's leader, though, Abu Taleb, who was also
Muhammad's uncle, is seen to be kindly and wise and tries to dissuade
the other chiefs from their harsh behaviour, though his advice falls
on deaf ears.
Each year Muhammad would go to meditate at a cave above Mecca and on
one such occasion the angel Jibril (Gabriel) appeared to him teaching
him the first revelations of the Qur'an. The filmmakers circumvented
this potentially tricky scene by drawing circles of blinding light
representing the whole spiritual experience. Soon after, the Prophet
began secretly preaching his message of belief in the one and only
God, Allah, and Islam developed into an underground movement that
attracted the poor and the disempowered, including Malek and his
elderly parents.
As Muhammad started preaching his message publicly Quraysh resented
his verbal attacks on their idols and retaliated by persecuting weaker
Muslims. Bilal, an Ethiopian slave, is tortured by his master, Umayya,
until a Muslim, the Prophet's close friend and companion and later
first Caliph Abu Bakr Al-Siddiq, intervened and bought the slave for
an exaggerated sum. Persecution leads some Muslims to migrate to
Abyssinia where a just Christian king ruled. And when Quraysh sent one
of its men, Amr Ibn Al- Ass, to the king to bribe and induce him to
withhold protection from the Muslims, he refused. In an attempt at
preaching religious tolerance the king is depicted accepting the
Qur'an's declarations on Eissa, son of Maryam, as consistent with the
teachings of Christianity despite Amr's attempt to cause tension. He
compares the two religions to two windows in his palace bringing in
light from the same source.
Persecution reaches new levels with the introduction of a total
boycott on the Muslim community -- Quraysh considered them all pariahs
and refused to deal with them socially or economically, which meant no
buying, no selling and no jobs. The terms of the boycott were written
in a document and hung in the Ka'ba for three years and the Muslims
were forced to live out on the hills on the outskirts of Mecca. As
conditions worsened and Muslims were running out of savings, insects
ate up the boycott document save for the first lines: "In Your name, O
God" which was greeted as proof of the Prophet's prophecy. The boycott
was lifted. In the meantime two of Muhammad's main supporters, his
wife Khadija and his uncle Abu Taleb, die. Abu Taleb had ensured that
Muhammad received clan protection and that his life was safe. After
his death, Qurayshi leaders headed by Abu Sufyan and Abu Jahl plan
Muhammad's assassination by a man from each clan so that his blood
would be divided amongst the clans, making revenge difficult. God
saves Muhammad from the conspiracy and eventually Muslims are allowed
to migrate to the oasis of Yathrib. There Malek and his family
participate in the building of the first mosque and Muslim children,
boys and girls, are ordered to study and learn at the hands of an
elderly woman.
Yathrib becomes Medina and the Muslims fight several battles against
their Qurayshi opponents. After victory at the battle of the Ditch
Muhammad's arch enemies start converting, men like Amr Ibn Al-As and
Khaled Ibn Al-Walid join Islam. The Muslims enter Mecca unopposed and
even the Qurayshi leader Abu Sufyan repents and converts. The Muslims
return to their abandoned homes and clear the Ka'ba of idols.
The story then returns to the little girl Siham who, after having
heard about the Prophet's achievement, is inspired to help the poor
man; she offers him the wool of her sheep so that he can weave a
carpet and sell it.
The producers, obviously in an attempt to project a positive image of
a modernist Islam, appeared keen on presenting female figures
positively throughout the narrative. There are women all over the
film, taking part in many stages of the storyline save the battles,
although even that could have provided opportunities for the heroics
of such women as Umm Umara who defended Muhammad at the battle of
Uhud. Khadija is mentioned with admiration for her continuos support
of the Prophet till her death. One of the earliest martyrs, Sumayya,
is depicted as she suffers extreme torture at the hands of Quraysh and
refuses her son Ammar's pleas to give up.
The landscape of the Arabian peninsula does not provide for much
visual stimulus yet the filmmakers attempted to make optimum use of
mountains and desert. The migration to Abyssinia offers a chance to
draw water and ships and Yathrib, being an oasis, is furnished with
some greenery. Interestingly enough colour, in relation to dress, is
restricted to the unbelievers of Quraysh with the Muslims depicted
wearing shades of beige and grey. Indeed the scene in which Abu Sufyan
announces that he is joining Islam is followed by another in which he
puts on white robes to signify his conversion. That could be
historically accurate and obviously neutral colours are more subdued
and symbolise piety and asceticism. Yet dress colour remains the chief
marker of characters in this film and they are easily confused. I had
trouble remembering who was who, probably a function of how little
developed the characters in the film are. The script might have
benefited from more focus on the character of the narrator, Malek.
The musical soundtrack by William Kidd and the general atmosphere
provide for a Disney-like feature. Yet unlike its Hollywood parallels
the film does not have a title song. The score is international for
the most part though with two notable exceptions: the traditional
chant with which Muslims greeted the migrating Muhammad in Yathrib and
the takbirat (now part of the Eid prayers) which soldiers chant during
the battles. These are among the few elements of cultural specificity
in a feature that remains close to Western models. Despite the Arabic
dubbing this is an international feature. It is not an Arab film.
Muhammad is produced by a British company, Badr International, and
Muwaffaq Al- Harithi. Badr International aims to become "the major
provider of high quality Islamic animated stories, episodes, and
series for distribution to Islamic countries and people worldwide".
With this goal in mind the company aims to utilise "the successful
formats of the American film industry, and its expertise in producing
animated films. By combining cultural material from Islam with a
Hollywood-style production, the company will produce entertaining and
educating films unlike those available in the Islamic marketplace
today."
The director, Richard Rich, worked for 14 years at Disney studios and
is the director of such features as The Fox and the Hound. He is also
the founder of RichCrest Animation Studios where Muhammad was made.
Kidd is responsible for the soundtracks for such films as Star Trek VI
, Christopher Columbus and Karate Kid III. The script was written by
Brian Nissen and supervised by Firdosi Wharton-Ali and professor
Khaled Abou El-Fadl of UCLA. Professors John Esposito and John Voll of
Georgetown University were also consulted on the script. This makes
Muhammad largely an American-British project.
The makers of Muhammad had to negotiate a great many restraints in
making the film. Consistent rulings by Muslim 'ulama forbid the
representation of Prophet Muhammad and some major figures in early
Muslim history, particularly the Prophet's companions. This was at the
heart of the controversies surrounding the film. The filmmakers got
around that and in fact the first scenes in the credits announce the
approval of both Al-Azhar's Islamic Research Academy and the Supreme
Shi'ite Council of Lebanon. To circumvent the obstacles the Prophet
never appears on screen and his voice is never heard -- a weird
situation for a film that purports to be about the life of the
Prophet. Some boards use the camera's point of view to indicate the
Prophet's movements. Throughout, the Prophet's dialogue is related
through the narrator of the film, Malek. One of the Prophet's uncles,
Hamzah, who was an early convert and a martyr of the Battle of Uhud,
is allowed a voice but only his bow is shown on screen. These
constraints also meant that other major figures who could provide
dramatic input to the story are left out as are many humane anecdotes
from the Prophet's biography, incidents concerning his dealings with
his family and with the poor which might have added to the dramatic
content of this animated film and provided moral lessons for the
youngsters who are its primary targets. The Prophet's birth, for
example, a logical beginning for a biographical feature, is not
mentioned. Neither is there much mention of his family life.
As it stands the film is not really about the life of Muhammad, its
putative peg, but a history of the rise of Islam. As such the film --
there is also an English-speaking version -- comes at a sensitive time
in which misconceptions about Islam are gaining ground in many corners
of the globe. With its attempt at a politically correct reading of
early Muslim history and its stress on humanistic values of piety,
justice and charity -- essential parts of the story -- the film offers
young audiences the world over a more humane encounter with Islam.
That is, of course, provided that its producers can guarantee it the
type of propaganda and distribution reserved for big-studio
productions. Whether or not this turns out to be the case the film has
undoubtedly opened unchartered territories and more Arab-Muslim
inspired animated features are probably on their way. Badr is already
working on three future films Before the Light: From Zamzam to the
Year of the Elephant, Salman The Persian, and Great Women of Islam at
the Time of the Prophet Muhammad (Pbuh). And Zeina and Mohamed, my two
little friends, seem eager for more, though Mohamed confided after the
film that the classical Arabic had been a bit difficult. He wants to
see the English version too.
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"I wouldn't want to create the impression that I wouldn't like the
government of the United States to be Islamic sometime in the future."
- Ibrahim Hooper, director of communications, Council on
American-Islamic Relations.
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