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Aladdin and the King of Thieves Movie Review

Aladdin and the King of Thieves is a 1996 direct-to-video animated musical adventure film. It’s another very good Disneytoon studios flick and a strong Aladdin sequel.

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This is the second Aladdin sequel after ‘The Return of Jafar’ and it’s a much better one. Aladdin is drawn into a dangerous quest to stop a group of thieves. He gets to finally meet his father who is also a thief. This is a much personal, better focused film than its predecessor. Let’s analyze the film character by character.

I liked Cassim quite a bit. Physically, he looks quite reminiscent to Aladdin. I personally instantly bought that they are related as his design is superb. But even more so, his thieving co-aligns very well with his son’s previous life as a thief, and the conflict that arises between the two here is great.

Aladdin is also excellent here, much better utilized than he was in the previous flick. The relationship between the two is wonderful and quite complex for this type of movie. Surprisingly enough, Robin Williams returned to voice Genie, so they got rid of Dan Castellaneta.

The result is a very Genie-heavy flick, much more in line to the original movie actually. It was odd that he returned at such a great capacity, but still most of his jokes really landed, especially the ones surrounding the Disney references, which are multitude and ranging from classics such as ‘Snow White’ to modern outings such as ‘The Lion King’. Some of his other lines were not funny at all, but these Disney references were all incredibly fun and memorable.

Princess Jasmine is once again ridiculously sidelined, which bothered me so much. And because of the emphasis on Genie, Iago is very scarcely used this time around. However, the overall story is so strong as it emphasizes on adventure elements and an interesting, different, though overly crowded plot about thieves that doesn’t try to cash in on nostalgia all that much.

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The movie is very new and refreshing for such a cheap sequel, which is why it might be the best of them all. As for the musical numbers, most are so similar to each other and bland, but the opening song There’s a Party Here in Agrabah is such a catchy, fun way that the film started with.

Aladdin and the King of Thieves is a better sequel than its predecessor. Jasmine and Iago are sidelined because of the huge emphasis on Genie, but some of his lines are great, especially the fun Disney movie references. The movie is also a wonderful father-son story that is quite well animated and pretty adventurous in spirit.