The Return of Jafar

Somebody spare me!!! The first time I saw this movie, I actually kind ofliked it. Just goes to show how Disney can sucker people into liking thissort of sub-TV quality stuff. After the first few times, though, I realizedthat this was complete and utter JUNK!!

Normally, I don’t judge a movie by its animation quality since it’s usuallynot a big issue to me, but I’ll make an exception here. The animation wasobviously television quality, which isn’t that good to begin with, but theytook an excellently animated movie and made it look like a common TV show. Iespecially take issue with the coloring. The coloring looked about ten timesricher in the original movie. The coloring here was more like a total andcomplete eyesore.

Next, I’ll say that Dan Castellaneta was okay as the Genie, but (alltogether now) HE WAS NO ROBIN WILLIAMS! I don’t make this kind of argumentif the replacement does an excellent job on his own, but he didn’t. Themagic that Robin Williams created in the first movie was simply not meant toreproduce because it was so completely his own. Yet they did try to recreateit with less than satisfactory results. And Jason Alexander: Loved him in"Seinfeld" and in almost everything else I’ve seen him in. Why put him here?It was so unnecessary. The other voices were kind of just there. They werenice, but nothing stood out.

At least the music was kind of halfway decent. Nothing like "Whole NewWorld", but passable.

In short, the only reason this movie was ever released was because Disneythought they could make a quick buck from "Aladdin". That’s the onlypossible explanation I can think of.

This movie had me in stitches. Our story begins with Abu and Aladdinstealing from a group of thieves lead by Abis Mal They steal their treasureand give it to the homeless but save a flower for Jasmine meanwhile Iago istrying to dig him and Jafar out of the sand and Jafar wants Iago to releasehim from his lamp so he can get revenge on Aladdin but Iago dumps him coldand throws him in a well in the desert. Iago tries to convince Aladdin tolet him live in the palace to get the power. Later that night Abis Mal findshis lamp and unintenitonaly releases him from his lamp and Jafar gets AbisMal to take him to Agrabah Abis Mal agrees but says he wants his wishesfirst he wishes for the sunken treasure ship of a country. But Abis Mal iscaptured by an octopus he wishes to be returned to the desert. Genie is alsoback from his trip around the world. Overall a great movie.10/10.

Somebody save me from the Disney machine. This movie, to me, is nothing morethan a piece of merchandise designed to milk the "Aladdin" franchise as faras it can go. While Dan Castellaneta is adept at doing the voice of HomerSimpson, he sure is no Genie, and it shows. On the other side of thespectrum is the bad guy, Jafar, one of the more likable Disney villains. Heat least gets a song this time around, but it’s forgettable, as are hisantics and his inevitable demise. And his lackey, Abis Mal, is played byJason Alexander, who turns in an ordinary "frantic man George" performance.The other actors act pathetically and have pathetic dialogue. The copy ofthis movie in my house is broken now. Thank God.

This movie could have been so much better if they had put some thought intothe art and animation. The animators and designers basically don’t care whatit looks like, and it shows. I rented all three of the Aladdin movies at thesame time. After watching Aladdin, I popped in Return Of Jafar. AAAAAHH! whathappened! The animation was extremely poor for a Disney film, and whathappened to the shading effects?! What happened to the smooth animation?!The magic Carpet looked terrible! The Genie was more pail than blue! Also,the dialogue was poor and the film was too short (one hour, 5 min). RobinWilliams did do a better job as the Genie in the original. However, Itdoesn’t take away much from the character and can be easily over looked. Thestory itself was good, and really expends Iago’s character. I give it an 8out of 10.

It sad that disney tried to make a lower-budget direct-to-video sequel tothe very fine original,they try to make a perfectly-good villianous helperIago into a good guy too soon,& jaffars new helper Abis mal was more ofhis"george" character from seinfeld than a replacement for Iago,& for thebottom of the barrel they got someelse to do genie,(true Dan castanella ofthe simpsons wasn’t all that bad but he couldn’t possibly compare withRobinwilliams),true the basic storyline looks intrigueing & also the musicnumbers couldn’t also compare to the original but they turned out wellgood,& Jonathan Freeman did his usual good voice job on Jafar(although his"Genie form" & his demise was rather a bit frightening for the littleones),other than the large-to-moderately large disappointments the filmwassomewhat okay,but it couldn’t compare to the outstanding original &suprisingly-as-good-as-the-1st-one following film.

The Return of Jafar had a hard time, as the sequel to the great smash hitAladdin, but it still manages to hang in there quite well. One of thegreatest losses of this sequel, is the voice of Robin Williams as the Genie,which was so good in Aladdin that it was rewarded with a Golden Globe. Hissuccessor does a decent job though and manages to deliver some of the bestlines in the film. Despite the fact that he was not able to portray theflamboyant blue guy as hilarious as Williams, he managed to make the Genieone of the best characters in the film. This film does not miss RobinWilliams’ voice! It misses the good animation, the great story, the emotionsand the excitement that made up Aladdin. Making a sequel was worth a try,but I’m sorry to say it did not work, for The Return of Jafar turned out tobe one of the ‘worst’ animated features to be ever made by Disney. Thisdoesn’t mean The Return of Jafar wasn’t enjoyable at times, but that therealization of the concept was faulty.

6 out of 10

THE RETURN OF JAFAR, in my opinion, is pure Disney excellence. If youask me, Jafar (voice of Jonathan Freeman) was even more diabolical thanin the predecessor. To me, Aladdin (voice of Scott Weinger) andPrincess Jasmine (voice of Linda Larkin) did an excellent job singingtogether. However, if you ask me, the Genie (voice of Dan Castellaneta)gave the funniest performance of everyone who acted in this film,despite the fact that Robin Williams wasn’t in this. I really enjoyedthe music, especially "Forget About Love." Before I wrap this up, I’dlike to say everyone involved in this film did very well. Now, inconclusion, I highly recommend this film that’s Pure Disney excellenceto all of you who haven’t seen it. You’re in for a good time, so go tothe video store, rent it or buy it, kick back with a friend, and watchit.

I’ve always wanted to fire a 10 000 tonne cannon at this deplorable film andnow I get my chance. Heh heh.

Sequels suck (a word I don’t like using, but necessary here). Usually. TROJa perfect example. Maybe the kids will like it. But I was no older than 14,maybe 15, by the time I saw this and it almost made mesick.

What Disney have in effect done is to ruin all the good work done byAladdin. What was good about the first one? A lot of things, suchas:

1) THE GENIE2) Jafar3) The fact that Jafar (and Iago) was defeated without beingdestroyed4) Iago was a very suitable henchman for Jafar who was loyal to his masterand didn’t have an ounce of goodness in him.5) The other characters, while a bit sugary, were quitebelieveable.

Just a warning to readers who want to see this movie and want nothing givenaway: this next bit forcibly reveals a few non-critical plotelements.

So just what has Disney done? They have slammed good points 3-5, overallweakened no.1 and only no.2 enhanced in any way. Even that cou
ld have beenleft alone. I’ll keep to point-format and address them one byone.1) The good thing about the first one was that the genie wasn’t over-used.Every time he WAS brought in it was something special. In TROJ, andsubsequent ‘episodes’ spun off from it, he just goes too far and isover-used, removing the novelty of his approach. It ceases to be sospectacular. In other words, you CAN have too much of a good thing… well,most good things. I’m not too critical on this point; even without RobinWilliams, the Genie (now played by none other than Homer Simpson) does acreditable job. Just a couple of questions though: The genie’s arm-cuffsdisappeared when he was freed; why is he wearing them again now? and Whydoes the genie spend all his time around Aladdin now when he didn’t want tobe tied down at all?2) Jafar (same voice) does an excellent job and is the best part of themovie. His genie antics are quite believeable and he steals the show fromthe (good) Genie and everyone else. But there’s a downside - see the nextpoint.3) Because Jafar wasn’t killed off in the first one, they brought him back,and he wasn’t so fortunate the second time round, apparently - I didn’t seeany bones, but if he was still alive, they would have brought him back forsubsequent episodes. This was the most sickening part of all, to kill off aworthy villian who was just blossoming. And especially the way they did it,his ‘death’ seemed to take about 10 minutes.4) This was the second most sickening thing for me. How could a perfectlyable villain, like Iago, turn into a good guy? ‘Specially after the firstone where he despised ‘kissing up to that chump and his chump daughter’which is what he ends up doing. Even when Jafar completely forgives him, andappears to have won him back, Iago, without cause or reason, SETS FREE thegenie and is ultimately the one who kills Jafar. Iago in Aladdin 1 would nothave done that in an eternity.5) Disney opted to toy with the remainder of the characters. Aladdin, eventhough he lives in the palace, still cannot dress respectibly for most ofthe film and is still chased by Razoul. The other characters, relegated tominor roles, disappoint: Rajah (formerly kittenish) is now savage, Jasminecontrary, the Sultan no longer easy-going, and the carpet badlyfaded.

Young children who don’t understand such things may not mind and insteadactually enjoy this film.

When I first saw an ad for this movie, in fact, I thought it was really goodthat they’d brought Jafar back, but having watched the whole thing, I wishedthey’d left him in the Cave of Wonders to chill out as planned at the end ofthe 1st one by the Genie.I’d rather forget this one ever happened. Jafar alone prevents it fromgetting the worst possible mark.2/10

PS Disney to an extent redeems itself with a third movie in the series, butit can’t begin to account for the damage of this monstrosity.

Can I give it zero stars? This just doesn’t do it for me, and I don’t seewhy they made it. The plot here is very forced, and has been usedcountlesstimes–revenge on the good guy. Especially notable is Robin Williams’absence. (Instead, Genie is voiced by somebody from "The Simsons". Imean,come on!) The songs were an insult to Alan Maken and Howard Ashmen’swonderful soundtrack for the first film. And worst of all, the charactersseem alien, like I’ve never known them before! I regret wasting my moneyback in 1994 for this trash. I would like to dispose of it, but someday Imay watch it if I have absolutely nothing else to do. Besides, I regrettosay (but it’s true) that without this junk I wouldn’t own the complete"Aladdin" trilogy. "Aladdin" fans might want to watch it once just toknowwhat happens, but that’s pretty much it. Dust off your old copy of thefirst one and watch it instead. Or watch "Aladdin and the King ofThieves",which was very good and featured an especially impressive returnperformanceby Robin Williams as the Genie.

This was one of the first Disney sequals… It was one that turned outpretty good, but now Disney is going overboard. The Return Of Jafar wasbasicly the pilot for the TV show and it started it perfectly. Everyone isback, except for Robin Williams because of some disagreement. The story itpretty good and the songs are ok.

It’s great seeing Aladdin, Genie and the rest in action again, because in myopinion, Aladdin (1993), is one of the best Disney films ever to bereleased.

The only thing I’m mad about is all these other sequals. If Disney is goingto make sequals to their films, at least TRY to make them good. The onlygood Disney sequals I’ve seen Return Of Jafar, The Lion King 2: Simba’sPride, and Return To Neverland.