1994’s “Aladdin: The Return of Jafar” (or “Aladdin 2: The Return of Jafar,” or simply “The Return of Jafar” as it’s known in some circles), was originally intended to be the trio of episodes for the television spin off of the hit 1992 Disney film “Aladdin.” Not wanting to miss out on milking their hit further, Disney cobbled together a movie that acted both as a sequel and an entry point in to the “Aladdin” syndicated animated series. This meant that much of the resolution of the original movie was rendered pretty much null. Factor in that Robin Williams refused to reprise the role of Genie once again after a fall out with Disney, and you have what is—well, just an okay movie.
After their victory, Aladdin, Princess Jasmine, their returning pal Genie, and the rest of the gang are not as free of the menacing sorcerer Jafar as they think. Since their last encounter with him, Jafar has been imprisoned in a magic lamp, but an inept thief and new villain, Abis Mal (Jason Alexander), is about to change that. Luckily for Aladdin and friends, Jafar’s parrot, Iago (Gilbert Gottfried), has switched to their side attempting to redeem himself with his new allies; and they need all the help they can get.
So everything about the Genie bring freed and going on to live as a normal human essentially means nothing if you consider “The Return of Jafar” canonical. It also nullifies the emotional impact of Genie being given freedom only for him to return and proclaim “I miss being a slave! I’m back!” Also Dan Castellaneta as the Genie is just fine in the role, but the whole character was strictly Robin Williams’ persona manifested in to animation, so it just feels–wrong. I am a huge “The Simpsons” fanatic down to the bone but Castellaneta always felt like Diet Robin Williams, no matter how hard he tried to repeat Williams’ magic.
Beyond Castellaneta, the rest of the cast appear for a second go around, including Scott Weinger. Weinger is very notable for not only voicing Aladdin in the sequels, ut also in the syndicated animated series for a very long time. The cast all do good work in their original roles, it’s just too bad that the music doesn’t really live up to the caliber of the original film’s. The only musical number that lives up to the original line up is “Forget About Love,” a song that was really the only song heavily promoted in the original ads for “Return of Jafar.”
There is the return of the song “Arabian Nights,” but it doesn’t really set up the aesthetic as well as “Aladdin” did. It’s also only included since it would become the theme song for the animated series. Nonetheless, put up against the all of the other Straight to Video “Disney” sequels, “Return of Jafar” isn’t half bad, but that’s such a low bar, it’s not much of an accomplishment to brag about.