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The Return of Jafar
VHS Cover For The Return of Jafar
Directed by	Toby Shelton Tad Stones Alan Zaslove
Produced by	Jessica Koplos-Miller Maia Mattise Tad Stones Alan Zaslove
Written by	Kevin Campbell Duane Capizzi Mirith J. Colao Douglas Langdale Mark McCorkle Bill Motz Steve Roberts Dev Ross Bob Roth Robert Schooley Tad Stones Jan Strnad Brian Swenlin
Starring	Scott Weinger Jonathan Freeman Gilbert Gottfried Dan Castellaneta Jason Alexander Linda Larkin Frank Welker Val Bettin
Distributed by	Walt Disney Home Video
Release date(s)	May 20, 1994
Running time	66 min.
Language	English
Budget	N/A
Preceded by	Aladdin (1992)
Followed by	Aladdin (TV series) (1994-1996)
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

The Return of Jafar (later retitled Aladdin: The Return of Jafar) is a 1994 direct-to-video sequel to the 1992 film Aladdin, produced by The Walt Disney Company. The movie was released on May 20, 1994 and serves as the origin of the Aladdin animated series. Another direct-to-video sequel, Aladdin and the King of Thieves, followed in 1996.

The movie centers on Jafar, the villain from Aladdin, trying to gain his revenge against Aladdin, Princess Jasmine, and the Sultan, and become the ruler of Agrabah.

It was the first Disney direct-to-video animated feature release, and is currently available on Special Edition DVD (with "Aladdin:" added to the title), with digitally restored picture and remastered sound.

This was the first and only "Aladdin" full-length production without the original voice of the Genie, Robin Williams. He was replaced by Dan Castellaneta, who also voiced the Genie in the animated series as well as in Kingdom Hearts. Castellaneta is perhaps most-known as the voice of Homer Simpson from the widely popular show The Simpsons. Williams returned as the Genie in Aladdin and the King of Thieves.

Contents 1 Plot synopsis 2 Goofs 3 Reaction 4 Adaptation In Other Media 4.1 Comic 4.2 Video Game 5 Follow Up 6 External links

Jafar orders Iago to release him from his lamp, but Iago, tired of being treated badly by Jafar, throws the lamp into a nearby well. He returns to Agrabah, hoping to convince Aladdin that he had served Jafar only because of a spell cast on him (though this is untrue). He meets Aladdin and insists that he is innocent, but Aladdin is not fooled and tries to capture him. While chasing Iago, Aladdin has a run-in with some criminals who try to kill him, but he is saved by Iago. Now respecting Iago, Aladdin returns with him to the palace, where they are greeted by Genie, who has returned from seeing the world.

Meanwhile, Jafar is found by a browbeaten thief named Abis Mal, who also bears a grudge against Aladdin for stealing his loot earlier in the film. As Jafar is a genie, he is handicapped by the incompetence of his new "master". Jafar desires to be free so that he can rule Agrabah, but needs Mal's co-operation to do this. Though Abis Mal is technically his master, Jafar still asserts his power by sending Abis Mal to the ocean's bottom after he wishes for sunken treasure. Abis Mal is forced to use his second wish to return to land. After this, Jafar has Abis Mal take him to the palace, where he coerces Iago into serving him again. Aladdin and the Sultan depart to have a discussion at a place suggested by Iago. After they leave Jafar confronts the Genie and Abu in the Palace gardens and imprisons the Genie in a magical orb.

Meanwhile, the Sultan arranges for Aladdin to be the future grand vizier. As Aladdin thanks Iago for suggesting the talk, Abis Mal and a group of cloaked horsemen ambush them. The Sultan is kidnapped, and Aladdin is left in a river. He returns to Agrabah on foot, where Jasmine accuses him of murdering the Sultan and sentences him to death. Aladdin is shocked, but it turns out that Jasmine was also captured while Aladdin is a way, and Jafar disguised himself as her when he issued the death sentence. Before Aladdin is executed, however, Iago gives into his conscience and frees the Genie, who rescues all of them. Genie tells Aladdin that in order to destroy Jafar, his lamp must be destroyed before Abis Mal wishes him free.

Meanwhile, Jafar and Abis Mal are celebrating Aladdin's death, and Abis Mal wants his third wish. However, Jafar refuses unless the wish is used to set him free. As they are arguing, they spot Abu and Aladdin about to grab the lamp. A battle for the lamp begins. Genie (disguised as Aladdin) distracts Jafar as Aladdin goes after the lamp on the magic carpet, but Jafar is too quick and he uses his power to turn the Carpet to glass, causing it to collide with the ground and shatter. Aladdin is feet away from the lamp, but Jafar stops him again by making the ground under him come up like a rock-shaped pedestal. Jafar then makes the ground crumble away into a lake of molten magma and a showdown begins. Princess Jasmine, the Genie and Abu find themselves trapped on another pedestal surrounded by the magma.

The rock Aladdin is on falls into the magma and floats around the lamp's pedestal, but Aladdin is unable to reach it. Jafar laughs at Aladdin to give it up and fires his power at him, making the rock he is on sink further into the magma. Suddenly, Iago comes out of nowhere, narrowly misses Jafar and heads for the lamp. Jafar, realizing that Iago has turned against him for good, attempts to stop him by firing energy blasts at him, but Iago manages to get the lamp first. Jafar fires at Iago again, and this time he hits Iago, badly injuring him and causing him to hit the wall of the pit and fall with the lamp onto a rock just above the magma. Jafar sounds his triumph by laughing and says, "Good help is so hard to find these days, isn't it, Aladdin?" and laughs again. However Iago, with his last ounce of strength, knocks the lamp into the magma. Above, Jafar screams in agony as his lamp melts and sinks below the surface of the magma.

Genie rescues Jasmine and Abu, and Aladdin catches Iago before he can fall into the magma. They escape as Jafar implodes. Everything that Jafar did reverses itself: the magma disappears, the Palace gardens are restored, and the magic carpet is revived. After the showdown, Iago lies motionless in Aladdin's hands. Aladdin says that he thought a genie could not kill anyone. This proves true, as Iago coughs and says weakly, "You'd be surprised what you can live through."

Iago has become Aladdin's true friend. Aladdin tells the Sultan that he cannot be his vizier. Iago asks Aladdin what more he wants and Aladdin simply answers, "The world." He wants to see the world, and can't just stay in the Palace. Jasmine says that she is going to see the world too, but Iago objects with "Why do I keep getting hooked up with these 'warped people'?!" and "Shouldn't somebody ask what the brave parrot wants to do?"

After the credits, Abis Mal, still stuck on a tree branch, suddenly realizes that with Jafar and the lamp gone, he will never have his third wish.

• In one scene, Abu is trying to take the jeweled flower from the vase containing both it and a real flower. After he mistakingly grabs the real flower instead of the jewelled one, the jewelled flower is the one seen missing from the vase. A short time after, both are seen missing.
• During the scene when Aladdin and Jasmine are in the courtyard, Aladdin is initially wearing his palace garments, but about halfway through (after the interval with Jafar and Abis Mal), he is seen wearing his peasant clothes, and remains in these clothes for the remainder of the film.
• During the "You're Only Second Rate" song, when Genie is first shown on a spinning plate, Jafar's human hand can be seen spinning it for a split second. The next shot shows a full view of Jafar in his genie form spinning it, including with his red genie hand as opposed to his normal one.
• After Jafar's taunting song, he covers Abu's arms with many individual metal strings. Later, when the rest are also in the dungeon, Abu only has chains around his wrists.
• During a scene with Aladdin, Princess Jasmine, the Sultan and Genie having dinner, when the Genie "accidentally" cuts his hand off, the Sultan is watching, startled. In one shot, his eyebrows are on his head, when suddenly they disappear. Within a second, they re-appear and once again disappear. When the angle changes, they are back.
• Genie still wears his gold bands around his wrists, even though he was freed in the previous movie.

The movie garnered a 22% rating on RottenTomatoes.com. David Nusair of reelfilm.com summed up most of the negative feelings that contributed to this rating:

Notable as the first direct-to-video Disney sequel, The Return of Jafar follows Aladdin (Scott Weinger) as he attempts to once again foil Jafar's (Jonathan Freeman) villainous plot to take over Agrabah. And despite the fact that he was freed from his lamp at the end of the first film, the genie (now voiced by Dan Castellaneta) is back and wackier than ever. It's clear right from the outset that Disney put very little effort into the production of The Return of Jafar, particularly in the realm of animation. The film has all the style and fluidity of a Saturday morning cartoon, while various songs are bland and forgettable. The repetitive storyline doesn't do the movie any favors, and even at a running time of 69-minutes, doldrums set in almost immediately. Castellaneta does the best he can with the material, but generally comes up short (particularly when compared with Robin Williams's manic performance from the original). The Return of Jafar is a thoroughly needless sequel that may keep small children engaged, but is bound to come off as nothing less than a huge disappointment for fans of the original.

When Disney was publishing their own comics in the mid-90s, they produced a two issue Aladdin comic presenting an alternate version of The Return Of Jafar. It was titled The Return Of Aladdin. The comic is introduced by the Merchant from the first movie.

The story starts off showing that Aladdin has been particularly bored of palace life. Meanwhile, Jafar has escaped the Cave Of Wonders. Iago is given the task of finding the right master for Jafar to manipulate. Their search seems hopeless as some people are able to enjoy all three wishes or messing up.

They find someone to use the lamp, who is known as Isabella, a master magician. Isabella is similar in appearance to Jafar (except his clothing is green). His first wish is to return to Agrabah Palace (as he performed entertainment to the sultan in #1). His second wish is for an army of soldiers to pursue Aladdin and Jasmine when they catch on to Jafar's presence. He is persuaded to use his third wish to trap Jafar and Iago in the lamp again, sending them back to the cave.

Due to persuasion by the Genie, the Sultan hires Isabella to a permanent entertainment job at the palace. The end of the story shows the merchant having a black lamp similar to Jafar's, but he claims it to be worthless.

The plot of this movie is loosely used in Agrabah, one of the worlds in Kingdom Hearts II, only with Abis Mal being replaced by the Peddler from the first film.

• Abis Mal (which is phonetically the same as "abysmal", which means bad or terrible) made many reappearances in the Aladdin animated TV series afterwards.

• The Return of Jafar at the Internet Movie Database
• The Return of Jafar at Rotten Tomatoes

Disney's Aladdin
Films	Aladdin | The Return of Jafar | Aladdin and the King of Thieves
Adaptations	Aladdin (TV series) | Disney's Aladdin (video game) | Aladdin, Jr.
Soundtrack	Soundtrack | A Whole New World
Main Characters	Aladdin | Princess Jasmine | Genie | Iago
Villains	Jafar | Abis Mal | Mozenrath | Mirage | Mechanicles | Saleen | Sa'luk | Amin Damoola
Minor Characters	Arbutus | Chaos | Eden

v • d • e Disney direct-to-video animated features
Sequels/ prequels/ midquels	The Return of Jafar (1994) • Aladdin and the King of Thieves (1996) • Pooh's Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin (1997) • Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas (1997) • Belle's Magical World (1998) • Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World (1998) • The Lion King II: Simba's Pride (1998) • An Extremely Goofy Movie (2000) • The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea (2000) • Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure (2001) • Cinderella II: Dreams Come True (2002) • The Hunchback of Notre Dame II (2002) • 101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure (2003) • The Lion King 1½ (2004) • Mulan II (2005) • Tarzan II (2005) • Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch (2005) • Pooh's Heffalump Halloween Movie (2005) • Kronk's New Groove (2005) • Bambi II (2006) • Brother Bear 2 (2006) • The Fox and the Hound 2 (2006) • Cinderella III: A Twist in Time (2007)
Films based on TV series	Winnie the Pooh: Seasons of Giving (1999) • Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse (2001) • Recess Christmas: Miracle on Third Street (2001) • Mickey's House of Villains (2002) • Winnie the Pooh: A Very Merry Pooh Year (2002) • Tarzan & Jane (2002) • Recess: Taking the Fifth Grade (2003) • Recess: All Growed Down (2003) • Leroy & Stitch (2006)
TV pilots	Gargoyles the Movie: The Heroes Awaken (1995) • Mighty Ducks the Movie: The First Face-Off (1997) • Hercules: Zero to Hero (1998) • Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins (2000) • Stitch! The Movie (2003) • Atlantis: Milo's Return (2003)
Other	Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas (1999) • Winnie the Pooh: Springtime with Roo (2004) • Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers (2004) • Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas (2004) • Disney Princess Enchanted Tales: Follow Your Dreams (2007) • Tinker Bell (2008)