The Return of Jafar

Rule number one in movie viewing friends: never, ever expect a sequel to be better that the original. because it usually isn't. The Return of Jafar is no where near as good as Aladdin, but it is still generally good. This really wasn't even supposed to be a sequel. It was supposed to be the first five episodes of the animated series, thus explaining the change in animation. The story is fairly good and the movie has some good songs. And in defense of Dan Castellaneta, he does a good job as the Genie and sounds sort of like Robin Williams. Don't judge him just because of Williams' performance. It was not as good as Aladdin, but why would you expect it to be?

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

I think if you enjoy hearing Gilbert Gottfried's incessant screeching as a performer, as I genuinely do (no, really, for a character like Iago it woks!) then Return to Jafar will be a good effort. Very good, great? Maybe not. I don't even know how necessary it might have been, but as a little kid coming off of Aladdin, which was a triumph for Disney at the time, this was a good way to bridge between the first movie and the animated series that was to come for many years on the Disney channel. It picks up right where the first one left off and follows Iago on his journey from being an awful "I'm looking out for me" kind of stooge and into being, well, semi-heroic.

Of course not having Robin Williams as the Genie, and as a kid as soon as I heard it, it was something of a shock (only once though, during the Genie's first song, does he sound a lot like Homer Simpson). But he does a good enough job and makes it entertaining. I don't know what could have been improved on aside from, you know, the animation (it's not the Hollywood group, it was done overseas), or Williams but... for what it is, I like it. It may not be a strong recommendation, but it's more-so compared to the dirge of ridiculous direct-to-video garbage that Disney pumped out over the next two decades (including things like Bambi 2 and Beauty and the Beast Christmas specials). At least Aladdin, through this sequel and one more and the series, got to be its own thing in continuity and follow arcs and characters in decent timing for children of the period.

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.

The original is one of my favourite Disney movies. This movie isn't terrible, but it is fair to say, it is the worst out of the Aladdin trilogy. If you want a really good DTV sequel, check out Aladdin and the King of Thieves (the best DTV sequel) or Beauty and the Beast:The Enchanted Christmas.

The characters were less appealing here.Most of the voice actors return, but all of them sound different. Aladdin and Jasmine were less mature here, as well as the Sultan. Jafar wasn't as frightening or as humorous as he was in the first movie, and Iago is sometimes annoying, unlike King of Thieves, when he is actually funny. Dan Castellanetta does a serviceable job as the genie(he is funny at times), but it just isn't the same without Robin Williams. The worst character was Abis Mal, I absolutely hate that character. He just grates on my nerves. The animation sometimes looks nice, but at other times, it has a rather nasty quality about it. Almost all the characters look poorly drawn, and I really didn't want to say this. Even the Genie wasn't up to top animation standard. It wasn't the backgrounds as such, some were very nice, it was the character animation that was the problem.

As for the songs, they aren't dreadful, but they are the weakest batch in any Disney movie. Iago's singing made my ears bleed, and "Second Rate" sounded as though Jonathan Freeman was struggling with the song. (No wonder, it is very hard)I don't know about you but the old woman in the chair bit I found creepy as a kid. The best song in my opinion is "there is nothing in the world quite like a Friend" which has a decent melody. Also Liz Callaway has a nice singing voice. I really liked the incidental music though, and the scene of the winged horses.

The story was the biggest problem, it went at such a slow pace. Also the villain back for revenge formula was over-familiar, and has been done so much better before. I also disliked the fact that Iago seemed to be the main character, when he was truly irritating here, and some of the dialogue is very lame, there was one part when Aladdin says something that is meant to be funny and he raises his eyebrows cheekily, but I found myself groaning than laughing. I'm sorry, that's my view. On a positive note, this film actually has one of the best climaxes in a DTV sequel, and the voice acting if different was decent especially Jonathan Freeman as Jafar.

This is a very disappointing sequel, especially when it was released two years after the original. but on the bright side, it isn't as bad as the Cinderella and Jungle Book sequels, which are both thinly plotted. 6/10. Bethany Cox