THE RETURN OF JAFAR.

US, 1994, 80 minutes, Colour.
Voices of: Scott Weininger, Linda Larkon, Dan Castellanata, Jim Cummings, Jason Alexander, Gilbert Gottfried, Jonathan Freeman.
Directed by Toby Shelton, Tad Stones, Alan Zaslove.

The return Return of Jafar follows on the success of Disney’s Aladdin, one of the top box office films of 1993, entertaining family audiences all over the world with its story of the street urchin, Aladdin, his love for the Princess Jasmine, his confrontation with the villain, Jafar, and his encounters with the zany genie, voiced by Robin Williams.

This time the film is designed for video and home audiences, taking up the story of Aladdin again and seeing his exploits confronting Jafar. Princess Jasmine and her father are part of the plot again. The film opening with young Iago, the bird who sided with Jafar, and then with Aladdin. He is voiced by Gilbert Gottfried in a rather screeching manner, humorous for the young audience, irritating for the old audience.

After 10 minutes, the genie reappears, with all the favourite images from the first film, a whole lot of shape-shifting, different voices, doing magic, saving the day. However, he is not voiced by Robin Williams but by Dan Castellanata. (Robin Williams was to return for the next sequel, Aladdin and the King of Thieves, 1996.)

Jafar is released from his lamp, looking like a monstrous red genie, but then changing into his sinister adviser form. The plot is mainly confrontations, Aladdin versus Jafar, the interference of Iago, the presence of the pet monkey. There are also a whole number of thieves with jewels and robberies, the monkey coveting one of the jewels given as a gift to Princess Jasmine.

When Jafar captures Jasmine and her father and imprisons them, also taking Aladdin, Iago has a crisis of conscience but opts for the side of good.

The plot is slight but capitalises on audience familiarity with the original characters and their pleasure in the first film which is revitalised with this sequel.