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The Return of Jafar Movie Review

The Return of Jafar is a 1994 direct-to-video animated musical fantasy film from Disneytoon Studios. It’s the first Aladdin sequel, and the first ever such Disney sequel. It’s a solid flick.

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“If it weren’t for me,

you’d still be in a cage

at the bazaar squawking

Polly want a cracker!“

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First and foremost, all of my Disneytoon reviews are to be done differently than my usual reviews. Firstly, the structure will be a bit different, focusing more on character work, and secondly, the rating incorporated will be different, and at least for half a star higher than usual given that these poorly made, cheap films were never meant to be great in any shape or form.

Being the very first Disneytoon Studios sequel, the film served as the premiere of the Aladdin television series which quickly followed suit. And simply both were meant to in a cheaper manner capitalize on the enormous success of ‘Aladdin’ as that was the highest-grossing film of 1992, and a renowned classic.

This movie is all about Iago interestingly enough. I presume that this choice sprang from Robin Williams not being present for the Genie character, and obviously they needed another sidekick character to carry the film humor-wise. It was a good choice ultimately, especially having in mind that the Genie here is quite poorly used, which really bothered me.

Dan Castellaneta (the voice of Homer Simpson) did a fine enough job, but his voice is the only one that felt too different from the original with other voices at least being somewhat similar to their original counterparts. And the character was simply shortchanged here, and given the worst, most pointless scenes in the entire film.

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But circling back to Iago, he is excellent, there is no doubt about it. Even the haters of this movie have to admit that. Yes, he lost his nasty, villainous henchman edge, but his switching to the good side was handled surprisingly smoothly, and I personally bought it. I found his switching allegiances and his inner dilemmas wonderful in the best Disney way possible. The film is as solid as it is mostly because of him.

Al himself is quite fine, though his major conflict with Jasmine was so artificially propagated that I rolled my eyes at those scenes. But overall, he is pretty good, and his scenes with Iago are particularly strong. But Jasmine… Oh jeez, did they screw her over in this sequel. Coming from a feisty, feminist spirit in the original, she was here reduced to an utter bore of a woman who spoils any fun or any excitement, and only in the last moment where she wants to travel the world with Aladdin do we see any of her old, powerful self.

All of the other characters are ridiculously underutilized, especially Abu. I did like Abis Mal as the new henchman to Jafar. Speaking of Jafar, for a film with his name in the title, we do not see nearly enough of him. He works from within the shadows and he manipulates the whole affair smoothly, that I loved about him as it rang true for his character. However, his doom felt very badly handled, and the action in this entire film is on the weaker side of things, though sometimes solid.

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The Return of Jafar features very bland musical numbers, all oddly including some beats from the original’s songs in an effort to appease to nostalgic fans. I did like Forget About Love, though, and it’s my guilty pleasure for sure. It’s fun and sweet. But it just showcases the sexist overtones, which is beyond bothersome. The animation is subpar as expected. The pacing is weak as the film felt long even at around seventy minutes. But some of the humor and character work are so good that it’s ultimately surprisingly solid for this type of movie.

The Return of Jafar features terribly utilized Genie, but Iago is the true star here in a very interesting, sweet and fun turn. Jafar is also pretty well used. The songs are mostly bland, but the humor and some of the character work are fine. Ultimately, it’s a solid enough direct-to-video Disney sequel, especially when seen with lowered expectations.