{"id":41571,"date":"2023-10-29T07:22:48","date_gmt":"2023-10-29T11:22:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=41571"},"modified":"2023-10-29T07:25:03","modified_gmt":"2023-10-29T11:25:03","slug":"aladdin-the-return-of-jafar-1994","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2023\/10\/29\/aladdin-the-return-of-jafar-1994\/","title":{"rendered":"Aladdin: The Return of Jafar (1994)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>1994\u2019s \u201cAladdin: The Return of Jafar\u201d (or \u201cAladdin 2: The Return of Jafar,\u201d or simply \u201cThe Return of Jafar\u201d as it\u2019s known in some circles), was originally intended to be the trio of episodes for the television spin off of the hit 1992 Disney film \u201cAladdin<\/a>.\u201d 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 \u201cAladdin\u201d 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\u2014well, just an okay movie.<\/p>\n

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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.<\/p>\n

So everything about the Genie bring freed and going on to live as a normal human essentially means nothing if you consider \u201cThe Return of Jafar\u201d canonical. It also nullifies the emotional impact of Genie being given freedom only for him to return and proclaim \u201cI miss being a slave! I\u2019m back!\u201d Also Dan\u00a0 Castellaneta as the Genie is just fine in the role, but the whole character was strictly Robin Williams\u2019 persona manifested in to animation, so it just feels–wrong. I am a huge \u201cThe Simpsons\u201d fanatic down to the bone but Castellaneta always felt like Diet Robin Williams, no matter how hard he tried to repeat Williams\u2019 magic.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s just too bad that the music doesn\u2019t really live up to the caliber of the original film\u2019s. The only musical number that lives up to the original line up is \u201cForget About Love,\u201d a song that was really the only song heavily promoted in the original ads for \u201cReturn of Jafar.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is the return of the song \u201cArabian Nights,\u201d but it doesn\u2019t really set up the aesthetic as well as \u201cAladdin\u201d did. It\u2019s 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 \u201cDisney\u201d sequels, \u201cReturn of Jafar\u201d isn\u2019t half bad, but that\u2019s such a low bar, it\u2019s not much of an accomplishment to brag about.<\/p>\n