Authorities in Riyadh plan to hold public screenings of children's cartoons this week as part of celebrations of the Eidul-Fitr holiday, marking the end of the holy month of Ramazan.
It will be the first time films have been showed in public since the 1970s when the rising power of religious authorities put an end to the practice. Saudi liberals have welcomed the move but conservative religious scholars are angry.
"This is not permitted. It is the devil's first step," said an Internet posting in the name of Sheikh Khaled al-Rashid.
Puritanical scholars believe any depiction of human form is forbidden in Islam, and see the US-dominated film industry as an immoral force dominated by sex and violence.
As well as films, the Riyadh celebrations will also include plays performed by women, a practice discouraged by religious authorities who believe women should only appear in public accompanied by male relatives. Even though their audience will also be exclusively female, they have been condemned by conservatives.
"It is not permitted to attend or support these events," wrote Sheikh Walid al-Mudaifir. "People who organise them should be censured."
Officials in the capital, one of Saudi Arabia's most conservative cities, say the cartoons will be educational and insist the women's theatre is not un-Islamic because there will be no mingling of sexes.