Le Retour de Jafar

Aladdin: The Return of Jafar Iago the bird wants to befriend our heroes from the first film, distrust makes it hard for them to forgive him. When the powerful genie Jafar returns to seek revenge they must band together to stop him.

Return of Jafar is a fun short movie that will definitely keep youngsters entertained for a while. There some good entertaining action scenes, and a couple of funny moments.

The bad parts are largely due to weaker animation, there are a couple very noticeable goofs that should have been caught and fixed before release. Also Robin Williams does not return to voice Genie, Dan Castlanetta (most known for voicing Homer Simpson) takes his place. Castlanetta's voice work isn't too bad, but the material lacks the great laughs we were hoping for.

You may remember there was also a Toon Disney Channel show called Aladdin which featured Castlanetta as Genie. I feel this movie was made to be a part of that series.

The plot is simple and the film as a whole just doesn't feel like it strives for much. Still, the young'uns will probably like it.

I was a huge fan of Disney's "Aladdin" during my childhood, so I obviously wanted to see this straight-to-video sequel when it came out in 1994. From what I remember, I was not disappointed at all. However, after discovering that I still liked the popular 1992 Disney flick a lot after many years, I rented "The Return of Jafar" to see what I thought of it after all these years, and while I'm still not one of the haters, I can now understand the criticism!

Jafar, who is now a genie trapped in his lamp, and his parrot, Iago escape from the Cave of Wonders and work their way up to the desert surface. Iago gets out of the lamp, and Jafar expects him to rub it so he can get out and return to Agrabah, where he plans to have his revenge on Aladdin! Instead, Iago turns against the former grand vizier, and drops the lamp in a well, with Jafar trapped inside! However, when a thief named Abis Mal finds the lamp in the well, Jafar is finally out, and is ready for his revenge! To make it worse for Aladdin, Abis Mal wants revenge on him as well, due to a recent encounter in Agrabah! Meanwhile, Iago has returned to the city, and obviously, most people do not trust him, but Aladdin begins to. Is this a good idea?!

There are several things that make "The Return of Jafar" far inferior to its predecessor. First of all, some of the characters are not quite the same. Aladdin and Princess Jasmine seem a bit sillier and less mature than they are in the first movie, and there are some ridiculous scenes involving the two, such as the one where the Sultan praises Aladdin, and Aladdin then looks over to Jasmine with a smug look on his face, and she looks back at him with look of romance (a rather silly one). Another character who is not the same is the Genie. He is responsible for a lot of the humour in 1992's "Aladdin", but isn't usually funny in this film. This time, he is voiced by Dan Castellaneta, instead of Robin Williams, and Castellaneta voices many funny characters on "The Simpsons", but as the Genie, I guess he's not so great. That reminds me, this film is generally a lot less funny than its predecessor. Two other downsides I can think of are the animation (not too bad, but certainly not as good), and the forgettable songs, none of which have ever fully stuck in my head, and some of which still aren't stuck in there at all!

Sequels aren't usually as good or better than their predecessors, but even with that in mind, this one is still disappointing. Since I at least found an occasional laugh in the film, as well as some excitement, I give it a 6/10. Nevertheless, I found the film a bit bland overall, lacking several things that made the classic original so great. For hardcore fans of Disney's "Aladdin", this straight-to-video sequel might be worth checking out, but if you decide to do so, don't be surprised if you find that a lot is missing from the original! Judging by the few episodes of the "Aladdin" TV series I've seen, it seems to have the same problems as "The Return of Jafar", or very similar ones. Fortunately, at least these problems did not persist in "Aladdin and the King of Thieves", the final installment in the franchise, which is definitely somewhat superior to what came in between.

Whenever disney makes a sequel that went straight to dvd, I always ask one question when watching one, DISNEY, WHY DO YOU MAKE THESE? This movie in ten words is, what if we made the same movie again, but worse. The runtime is only 69 minutes, the genie is not voiced by Robin Williams anymore, etc, while this isn't quite as terrible as some of the others in this heap of Disney sequels, it's still bad.

Disney has a reputation of doing bad sequels. And for the most part they are but this movie is an exception. It's actually pretty entertaining but the flaw of the movie is the absence of Robin Williams. "Homer Simpson" does a good job providing the voice but he isn't Robin Williams.

2(**)out of 4(****)stars

"The Return of Jafar" isn't as good as "Aladdin" but, to be fair, it isn't that bad for a Disney sequel either. There are much worst Disney sequels than this, made after this.

"The Return of Jafar" continues the story of the original "Aladdin": now Aladdin and Jasmine are married and live together in the palace, the genie returns from his vacations, Iago escapes from Jafar and becomes a «good guy» and Jafar returns with the help of a new villain (a thief called Abis Mal).

Naturally that this movie isn't as good as the first one, like I said. Why? There are many reasons why. The story is more lame. The artwork looks more poor comparing to the first one (which is more refined and more according to Disney's standards). The humor isn't as funny and classic. The colorful imagination, creativity and magic of the first one are gone. The characters seem somehow to have lost their personality.

Speaking of the characters, let me start by Iago. He has the same general sarcasm and I like the idea that he becomes a «good guy», but let's be frank: he's way funnier in the first one. Jafar is now more annoying and not as humorous as in the first one. Aladdin, Jasmine and the Sultan seem to have lost some of their maturity. The Genie is still funny, but without the colorful imagination and brilliant sense of humor he's got on the first one. The whole movie in general doesn't hold a candle to the original, although it is still entertaining enough. Besides, there is no Robin Williams here, which is a deep lost. It also becomes tiring to see Jafar so many times as a Red Genie. The soundtrack itself is nowhere near as impressing and memorable as on the first one - in fact, none of the songs here really capture our attention and hearts.

Overall, this is not a bad movie. For kids it is just as recommendable and entertaining as the first one, but for older people the first one is, without a doubt, the best choice.