Aladdin: The Return of Jafar

Release Date: May 20, 1994

Watch Date: November 13, 2024

“Jafar’s wish to become the most powerful genie of all imprisons him in a lip, until his summoned by Abis Mal, the Chief of Thieves. Once released, Jafar seeks revenge against Aladdin, and it’s up to Aladdin and his friends to defend Agrabah from Jafar’s malice.”

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   Look, no one, least of all me, is trying to argue that this is a good film. It’s not. Most of the cast returned, except for arguably one of it’s most important members – Robin Williams refused to participate due to the Aladdin marketing campaign. But that’s neither here nor there. As a child I didn’t notice the different voice actor for the Genie and Dan Castellaneta.

   So how did this not so great movie, with some of my arguably favorite Disney songs, come to be? Well, Aladdin was popular. And with popularity comes money, and franchising and television shows. I mean, it happened to ‘The Little Mermaid’ so why not Aladdin? But you need to do something to make Aladdin in to a show. And a fun way to do that? Let’s tie up Jafar’s already tied up story line. Let’s give Iago a redemption arc so he can be the foil in the cast during the show. Let’s establish some adventure. Let’s bring the animation quality way, way, way down.

   As I said earlier, I love the songs. “Forget About Love” and “Nothing in the World (Quite Like A Friend)” have been stuck in my head since I first heard them. I actually listen to “Forget About Love” quite a bit when I’m annoyed with my husband, it helps to remind one of why you like the person in the first place. He wasn’t thrilled to find that out, and now if he hears me humming it he’s also a little triggered. That’s fine, don’t break what works Bob.

   I also love, as I mentioned earlier, Iago’s redemption arc. He likes living with power, and that’s not Jafar anymore. And he likes being treated nicely, and Jafar never did that so why not have him be on the side with the magical blue being and the future Sultan of Agrabah? That works quite nicely for him. I think his transition is natural, and it makes a lot of sense without completely changing who his character is.

   Jafar is also a great evil Genie. He knows how to figure out the loopholes in his contract, which is why he was such a powerful statesman in the first place, let’s be honest. You can hope that all the politicians in the world are following the extremely complicated rules of government, but really, the effective ones at least, they’re out there finding ways to circumvent those rules to get things done. So manipulating his ‘master’ to get what he wants that’s perfect.

   But the movie is rushed, it’s short, the animation quality is such a dramatic dip that if you didn’t need to watch it to understand the full trilogy of films I would probably recommend that you not. But if you are a big Aladdin fan, like I am, you can’t really skip it because Iago becoming a main character is actually quite relevant to the over arching story arc and you’re going to be incredibly confused when you get to the next one.