Aladdin (1992 Disney film)

You ain't never had a friend like me.

Aladdin is a Disney Animated Canon adaptation of the Arabian Nights tale of "Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp", released in 1992.

Taking place in the fictional Arabian city of Agrabah, the title character, a Street Urchin always accompanied by his monkey, Abu, meets and falls in love with a fugitive Rebellious Princess, Jasmine—until he's arrested, by orders of the evil Vizier Jafar. Jafar then disguises himself and meets Aladdin in prison, convincing him to do him a task: get a magic lamp in a cave filled with treasure in which Aladdin can enter, because he is "the diamond in the rough". Aladdin and Abu enter the cave, where they meet a sentient magic carpet and are ordered not to touch anything but the lamp - but as Aladdin gets it, Abu seizes a giant ruby, causing the cave to collapse above the trio. As they awaken, Aladdin rubs the lamp - and out of it comes a comedic Genie, who is effectively a big, blue Robin Williams who can grant three wishes. Maybe now Aladdin can win Jasmine's hand in marriage...

The film was very successful (beating films like Lethal Weapon 3 and Batman Returns at the US box office), leading to two sequels, The Return of Jafar (the first one of those Disney direct-to-video sequels) and Aladdin and the King of Thieves, and also an Animated Series. All but King of Thieves replace Robin Williams with Homer Simps... no, Dan Castellaneta, because Williams didn't like his contractual demands being discarded.

Regardless, the biggest contribution this film did was to permanently establish in Western Animation the value of star power in casting voice actors. Gilbert Gottfried and John Rhys-Davies also co-star in major roles (though Rhys-Davies only turns up in King of Thieves). A theatrical adaptation (not to be confused with Aladdin - A Musical Spectacular in Disney's California Adventure) had its first official run at the 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle, Washington from July 21, 2011 until July 31, 2011. It was directed and choreographed by Casey Nicholaw, who also won a Tony for his co-direction in The Book of Mormon, and elements from Howard Ashman's original idea of the film were used. One interesting casting choice was the return of Johnathan Freeman as Jafar.

Also produced at least two completely separate and distinct video games based on the first film; one by Virgin Games for the Sega Genesis, Amiga, PC and Game Boy, and one by Capcom for the Super Nintendo and Game Boy Advance. Both are really good. There was also one made by Sega for their Master System, which was more faithful to the story but it isn't quite as well-known.

Tropes used in Aladdin (1992 Disney film) include:

The original movie provides examples of

Tropes A-G

  • Abnormal Limb Rotation Range: Genie.
  • Adipose Rex: The Sultan, naturally.
  • Abhorrent Admirer: In "One Jump Ahead". "Still I think he's rather tasty!"
  • Affably Evil: Jafar in most of his appearances in the first half of the movie. It's half the reason people love him.
  • All Animals Are Dogs: Rajah behaves more like your typical house-trained doberman, and even has a dog-whine like sound.
  • All Cloth Unravels: "Things are unraveling fast now, boy. Ha, ha!" (Of course, it was unraveled by a spell, rather than just pulling on a random thread.)
  • All That Glitters: The treasure in the Cave of Wonders.
  • Almost Kiss: Between Aladdin and Jasmine in his hideaway before they are interrupted by the guards, just after Jafar is revealed as a traitor, and again at the conclusion before Genie grabs them in a group hug.
  • And Now You Must Marry Me: Jafar's plan for Jasmine.
  • Animal Eyes: Jafar, briefly during his shape shifting into a snake.
  • Animate Inanimate Object: Carpet.
  • Aside Glance: When the Sultan, frustrated with Jasmine's rebelliousness, glares at Rajah and declares, "Allah forbid you should have any daughters!", Rajah turns a baffled look towards the audience.
  • Attractive Bent Gender: When Iago is disguised as a flamingo and mimicking Princess Jasmine's voice, a nearby male flamingo gives him the bedroom eyes. Note that Iago's disguise sure is Paper-Thin Disguise: just a fake beak and some stilts.
  • Ax Crazy: Jafar when he's excited.
  • Amulet of Concentrated Awesome: The lamp/Genie.
    • Jafar's snake staff.
  • Anachronism Stew: Mostly in Genie's gags. Also, during the "A Whole New World" sequence, Aladdin and Jasmine fly by an Egyptian stonemason working on the Sphinx. They startle him, causing his chisel to slip and break off the nose of the Sphinx. However, in reality the Sphinx would have been thousands of years old by Aladdin's time, and the ancient Egyptians long gone. That and the Sphinx's nose was blasted off by Muslims during the 1300s.
    • The prince at the beginning, wearing his heart-spotted undies beneath his traditional garb.
    • Speaking of anachronistic underwear, when Aladdin tumbles through the clotheslines in his first appearance, a definitely modern bra is clearly visible among the falling clothes.
    • Iago says "Pack the guns, the weapons, the knives...oh, and how about this picture, I think I'm making a weird face in it." Miniature paintings were absolutely not in vogue in the Abbasid period, but more to the point, THE GUNS???
    • Princess Jasmine's freakin' regular outfit is an anachronism, overlapping with Politically-Correct History. The bedlah outfits worn by her (and various harem girls throughout the film) are a Hollywood invention, created during the early twentieth century. Hollywood popularized it enough to result in Defictionalization. And even if you get over that, it still makes no sense at all that the Princess goes around wearing a belly dancer costume.
  • Angel Face, Demon Face: The Genie begins the movie as a playful, googly, shape shifting whack job. But when his lamp came into the possession of Jafar, his coloration and body shape changed to the "evil Djinn" stylistic (Only temporarily, because this is a Disney movie, and the Genie had to be recognizable for marketing purposes.)
  • Animation Bump: During the musical numbers.
  • Arabian Nights Days
  • Attack! Attack! Retreat! Retreat!: Aladdin: "This is no time to panic! ... Start panicking!"
    • Also, this exchange:

Woman: Getting into trouble early, aren't we, Aladdin?
Aladdin: Trouble? You're only in trouble if you get caught.
(The guard captain grabs him)
Aladdin: I'm in trouble!

  • Audible Gleam: When Aladdin is first revealed as "Prince Ali" (in the musical number).
  • Award Bait Song: "A Whole New World." It's one of the best-known examples of the trope within the Disney canon, on par with "Beauty and the Beast" and "Can You Feel the Love Tonight."
  • Badass Boast: "Friend Like Me" is part this in that Genie shows how powerful he is and what he's capable of, also part showing Aladdin how lucky he is to have found Genie. "Prince Ali" is pretty much all this with regard to Ali's fortune/possessions/exploits/etc.
  • Bald of Evil: Jafar's male-pattern baldness the one time he's seen without his hat.
  • Bare Your Midriff: Jasmine, and a few other ladies.
  • Barefoot Poverty: Aladdin, until he becomes a prince.
  • Batman Gambit: Tricking Jafar at the end.
    • Aladdin actually pulled one off earlier in the movie when he tricked the Genie into freeing him from the Cave of Wonders without actually making a wish.
  • Bazaar of the Bizarre
  • Beard of Evil: Not everyone with a beard is evil (in fact, every male citizen of Agrabah we see, besides Aladdin and little boys, has a beard) but Jafar's beard is definitely a Beard Of Evil. It's so...twisted.
  • Be Careful What You Wish For: Aladdin's trick to defeat Jafar: making him ask to be a genie... because that would lock him in a lamp.
  • Be Yourself: The entire point of Aladdin's Character Development. He thinks that he's worth nothing without the Genie and that Jasmine wouldn't be interested in him if he wasn't a prince. Naturally, Jasmine falls in love with him when he's just a poor boy living on the streets (and she initially doesn't care for his princely alter-ego) and Aladdin puts up a good fight against Jafar on his own and manages to defeat Jafar by turning his own power-hungry nature on him, all by tricking him into wishing he was a genie, which comes with strings attached. In the end, he even frees Genie when he could've used his last wish to become a prince again.

Beenie: Want me to sting her?
Aladdin: Buzz off!
Beenie: Fine, but remember, bee yourself.
Aladdin: Yeah right!

  • Benevolent Genie: Genie towards all his masters.
    • Aladdin's first wish, "I wish for you to make me a prince", was pretty easy to "misinterpret", too, so Genie certainly was benevolent in making him into a rich, beloved prince "as strong as ten men" and complete with enormous retinue. Not to mention interpreting a forced nod as "I wish for you to save my life." He's very kind and helpful toward Aladdin long before getting promised his freedom, and in the end, when he thinks that Aladdin using his last wish to free him will mean Aladdin won't get to marry Jasmine, Genie encourages him to use the last wish to be a prince again, willingly facing "an eternity of servitude" to make them happy.
    • Genie is even benevolent towards an evil master like Jafar, when it would behoove him to be a bit more Literal Genie or jackassish. So, Jafar, you want to be Sultan? Okay. You're Sultan of this tiny Far Side Island. You want to be the most powerful sorcerer in the world? Great! You are now the only sorcerer in the world—nobody else shares your ability to magically vanish rabbits. Given that he behaves this way even to a master he openly hates, presumably his "contract" requires him to interpret his masters' wishes reasonably.
  • Berserk Button: Iago being fed crackers by the Sultan with the latter often asking "Polly want a cracker" before feeding him. This was also the primary motivation for Iago wanting to aid Jafar in usurping the Sultan.
    • Ironically, said berserk button was also what finalized Iago's decision to defect from Jafar in the beginning of Return of Jafar, and leave Jafar in a well.
  • Beyond the Impossible: More invoked by Genie for 'awe' factor than played straight. The repertoire of the great Prince Ali, with his forty fakirs, his cooks and bakers, and birds that warble on key. Not to mention llamas.
    • A straighter example is when Jafar asks Genie to make Jasmine fall in love with him and Genie Explains that Magic A Is Magic A, until Jasmine starts flirting with him. She's exploiting his ego rather than magic but by the look on Genie's face you know he's thinking "I can't do that...can I?"
  • Big Bad: Jafar.
  • Big Entrance: The entire "Prince Ali" number is an extended version. But getting your elephant to kick down a palace door makes for an especially good climax.
  • Big No:
    • Aladdin, when Abu goes for the giant gem in the Cave of Wonders.
    • Jafar, after he betrays Aladdin and realizes he doesn't have the lamp.
    • He does it again at the end when he gets sucked into his own lamp as a result of becoming a genie.
  • Big Yes: When Jafar thinks he has the lamp. He possibly has the record for the quickest transition from a Big Yes to a Big No.
    • Aladdin gets one as well after his first kiss with Jasmine, and promptly jumps backwards off the balcony (he knows Carpet is there to catch him).
  • Bilingual Bonus: Most of the signs are just Foreign Looking Font or random scribbles, but there is a sign over Jafar's door that's readable Arabic. It has his name and title on it. Which makes you wonder why it's on the inside of a secret door...
  • Blackmail Is Such an Ugly Word
  • Blessed with Suck: PHENOMENAL COSMIC POWER! ...itty-bitty living space.
  • Bond One-Liner: Jafar gives a whole Hurricane of Puns when he's trying out his new powers of sorcery:
    • After he turns from a sultan to a sorcerer, his "Down, boy!" turns Rajah into a kitten.
    • Later, during the battle, he puts Jasmine in an hourglass, saying, "Your time is up!"
    • "Don't toy with me!" turns Abu into a windup cymbal monkey.
    • "Things are unravelling fast" causes Carpet to unsew himself into a pile of threads.
    • "Get the point!?" when he momentarily traps Aladdin in a ring of swords. (Pretty close to "I think he got the point" in Thunderball, dontcha think?)
    • "I'm just getting warmed up!" breathes a circle of fire.
    • And after being called a "snake" by Aladdin, Jafar retorts, "Perhaps you'd like to see how sssssnakelike I can be!"
  • Bowdlerise: The line "where they cut off your ear if they don't like your face" was redubbed for the VHS/DVD release because of complaints by the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. Arguably subverted in the same musical number, because Disney kept "it's barbaric -- but, hey! it's home" despite similar complaints.
  • By Wall That Is Holey: When Aladdin is banished to the frozen wastelands by Jafar, and his transportation (a broken off tower of Agrabah palace) starts rolling towards him, realizing there's no way to outrun the threat, he notices a tiny window and decides to position himself just perfectly so that the tower will simply roll past.
  • Came Back Wrong: The supposed reason that Genie can't bring people back from the dead.
  • Camera Abuse: Genie.

Merchant: Please, please, come closer! [smacks into camera] Too close, a little too close!

  • Can't Get Away with Nuthin': In the movie, Jasmine while tries to run away she filches an apple to give to a hungry kid. She is immediately beset upon by the shopkeeper who attempts to give her the standard punishment for thievery: losing a hand!
  • Cave Mouth: The Cave Of Wonders' opening is a big tiger's mouth with sharp teeth. It also talks ("Who disturbs my slumber?").
  • Character Title
  • Chase Scene: In the song One Jump Ahead, Aladdin is being chased by Razoul for stealing a loaf of bread.
  • Chekhov's Skill: Early/midway through the movie, Aladdin belittles the Genie's power and abilities, prompting Genie to show off exactly what he's capable of by getting the gang out of the supposedly inescapable tomb in the Cave of Wonders, without actually using a wish on getting out. In the climax, when Jafar appears to have won and rendered Aladdin and the other good guys helpless, Aladdin belittles Jafar's power and abilities by pointing out the Genie gave him his powers and is stronger than him. This prompts Jafar to use his final wish to become a genie, and everything that goes with it.
    • Like some other kinds of birds, Iago is an impressive vocal mimic. In the movie, they introduce his ability to impersonate Jasmine while he's making fun of her, then uses it later to trick Aladdin into leaving the lamp unprotected.
    • When Aladdin and Jasmine first meet, we see that she's very good at catching on and playing along with Aladdin's cons. At the end of the movie, she quickly notices him trying to steal back the lamp and promptly starts flirting with Jafar, to keep Jafar's attention elsewhere.
    • The end of "One Jump Ahead" sees Aladdin grab a rug and take a flying leap, Foreshadowing his handling of the carpet.
    • Aladdin's trick of rolling an apple across his shoulders and flipping it off his elbow first shows up when he tricks a vendor into thinking he was giving back a stolen one. He does it again on the carpet ride, and judging by Jasmine's knowing expression it gives her another clue about his true identity.
  • Chewing the Scenery: Done in-universe when Aladdin poses as Prince Ali.
  • Child Marriage Veto: Jasmine adamantly sticks to her guns on this.
  • Circling Birdies: Played with—Iago sees numerous Sultans on Carpet circling his head after an injury.
    • For bonus points, they're chanting in chipmunk speed: "Haveacracker!Haveacracker!Haveacracker!"
  • Clipped-Wing Angel: Genie Jafar. He is immensely powerful in this form, but he can now be trapped in the lamp. He also faces many more restrictions as a genie than as a sorcerer (such as being unable to kill people—and thus being unable to suffocate Jasmine in sand and crush Aladdin as a snake).
  • Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Blue is good, red is evil. The filmmakers even admitted it.
  • Composite Character: The Robin Williams Genie was a combination of the Magic Ring and Magic Lamp Genies from the original story. Likewise Jafar was a combination of the the Sorcerer who wanted the Genie, the Vizier trying to discredit Aladdin after his rise to wealth, and the Prince Charmless son who the Vizier was trying to get the princess to marry.
  • Conspicuous CG: The Tiger Head leading into the cave of wonders, as well as the entire cave escape sequence.
    • The Carpet is slightly less conspicuous.
  • Convection, Schmonvection: Aladdin, Abu, and Carpet all come within inches of the lava while escaping the Cave of Wonders.
  • Crowd Song: Special mention goes out to "Prince Ali", which is not only a Badass Boast, in song, but is almost as crowded, if not more so than "Belle".
  • Cuffs Off, Rub Wrists: Aladdin, when Abu unlocks his chains in the dungeon. Also, When Genie gets his freedom.
  • Cultural Translation: A lot of the elements from the original story are westernized, and then topped off with an overdose of Anachronism Stew.
  • Curse Cut Short: "How in the He- I mean, uh, AWKKK!"
  • Cut Song: Tons. By both songwriters. Many were reinstated in the stage adaptation.
  • Cymbal-Banging Monkey: Jafar turns Abu into one during the climax.
  • Dark Reprise: Jafar's version of "Prince Ali".
    • Aladdin also delivers a short, melancholy reprise of "One Jump Ahead" while heading back to base after being chased around town by the royal guards.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Iago is an obvious case of this, especially in contrast to the considerably less sarcastic Jafar.

Jafar: Patience, Iago. Gazeem was obviously less than worthy.
Iago: Oh there's a big surprise! I think I'm going to have a heart attack and die from NOT surprise!

    • Not to say Jafar doesn't have his moments too:

The Sultan: (introducing 'Prince Ali') This is Jafar, he's delighted too...
Jafar: Ecstatic.

    • Genie as well, especially when he is under Jafar's control.

Genie (deadpan): Jafar, Jafar, he's our man, if he can't do it... (shouts, face right up to the camera) GREAT!

  • Death Glare: Jasmine has a pretty impressive one when questioning Aladdin after the carpet ride. (Hilariously turned Up to Eleven here.
  • Deranged Animation: Genie's rapid shapeshifting can be rather unnerving.
  • Did Not Do the Research: The script appears to have been written by persons who never read the original "Aladdin" story in the Arabian Nights, relying on several generations of film adaptations instead. For example, Aladdin in the original commands two genies, one in a lamp and one in a ring, although the ring-genie is so weak compared to the lamp-genie that Aladdin forgets he has him!
  • Distant Prologue: Possibly. Although it's never stated how far after the movie's plots the opening scene occurs, the Lemony Narrator hints that it is quite possibly right After the End.
    • Aladdin and The King Of Thieves returns to the original narrator at the end, meaning that the story begins on Aladdin and Jasmine's wedding night and ends as they leave for their honeymoon.
  • Disney Acid Sequence: "Friend Like Me".
    • Perfectly justified in that Genie uses his magic to make the effects happen - everything was real, if only temporary.
  • Disney Princess: Princess Jasmine, duh.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: Aladdin steals one loaf of bread and gets an entire squadron of imperial guards out for his blood.

Aladdin: All this for a loaf of bread?

Jasmine: Did you think I was stupid? That I wouldn't figure it out?!

Iago: [as Jafar is laughing maniacally] "Oh, great. He's cracked. He's gone nuts. Jafar! Jafar! Get a grip!!!"
[Jafar grabs him by the throat]
Iago: [in a choked rasp] "...good grip."

Tropes H-M

  • Hammerspace: Where Abu puts the lamp after he nabs it from Jafar.
    • Also, where Jasmine puts the short-sword Aladin hands her when they first meet.
    • Even earlier during the jailbreak scene, Abu manages to pull a set of lockpicks from his jacket. They are never used, brought up, or seen ever again.
  • Hammy Herald: The Genie's introduction of Prince Ali, complete with song!
  • Held Gaze: Aladdin and Jasmine share one early on in the movie with a sunset behind them, leading to an Almost Kiss.
  • The Hero: Well, Aladdin.
  • Hold Your Hippogriffs: Several examples, including "Genie, wake up and smell the hummus" and "How about that, Mr. Doubting Mustafa!"
  • Honest John's Dealership: The merchant at the beginning. Try the Dead Sea Tupperware!
  • Hope Spot: The thief at the beginning enters the forbidden cave... and for a second nothing happens. He relaxes. Then the cave "eats" him.
  • Humiliation Conga: Jafar does this to Aladdin in the Cut Song "Humiliate The Boy".
    • The Reprise of "Prince Ali" counts, although the conga is much shorter than it would have been.
  • Hurricane of Puns: Jafar during his final battle with the heroes.
  • Hypno Ray: Jafar's magical cobra head staff.
  • Hypnotize the Princess: Jafar wishes for the Genie to make Jasmine fall in love with him, which would give him a beautiful, willing consort and be a nasty revenge on Jasmine for having to serve her and her father all his life. Genie doesn't have that power, of course, but Jasmine pretends it worked to distract Jafar.
  • I'm Going to Disney World: Implied rather than spoken for obvious reasons.
  • Interspecies Friendship: Aladdin and Genie.
    • Aladdin and Abu, Aladdin and the Carpet, Jasmine and Rajah, Jafar and Iago (if you consider them friends...)
  • Idiot Ball: Jafar in the finale. He's spent years searching for the lamp, knows full well that the genie that resides in it will become the slave of whoever owns the lamp (he even refers to Genie as slave a couple times), and displays cunning and wisdom throughout the movie. And even though he's been chasing after the lamp all this time with the three wishes specifically in mind, apparently the most recognizable trait of any genie in just about any medium (granting wishes unquestioningly to whoever holds the imprisoning object) slips his mind and he wishes to become a Genie. Not 'I wish to possess the phenomenal cosmic powers of a genie' or 'I wish for my sorcerer powers to equals your own' or anything that would have made more sense. Specifically, he wishes to become a Genie. Stop and think about things for a few seconds dude.
  • I Gave My Word: Aladdin promised to free the Genie with his third wish. What makes him the hero is that he actually kept his promise. Especially considering he kept his promise despite being unsure whether or not he would be able to marry Jasmine.
  • I Have You Now, My Pretty: Jafar trying to make Jasmine marry him.
  • I Just Want to Be Free: The Genie.
    • And Jasmine, if you think about it.
  • I Miss Mom: The Cut Song "Proud of Your Boy", reinstated in the Screen to Stage Adaptation.
  • The Imp: Iago
  • Impossible Hourglass Figure: Jasmine. Not to be confused with the part where Jafar traps her in an hourglass.
  • Improvised Parachute. Aladdin and Abu use a rug as one during the song "One Jump Ahead".
  • Incoming Ham: "TEN THOUSAND YEEEEEARS will give you SUCH a CRICK in the NECK!!"
  • Ink Suit Actor: The Genie and Iago. Jafar has the expressions and gesturing of Jonathan Freeman.
  • Inconvenient Summons
  • Indy Ploy: Aladdin might just give Indiana Jones himself a run for his money with his amazing escape from a lake of boiling lava—it's even got a few wisecracks included.
  • Insult Backfire:

Aladdin: Are you afraid to fight me yourself, you cowardly snake?!
Jafar: A snake am I? Perhaps you'd like to see how ssssnake-like I can be!

  • Ironic Echo: PHENOMENAL COSMIC POWERS! ittybittylivingspace.
  • It Got Worse: Jafar turns up and declares himself Sultan. Then Aladdin realizes that the lamp is missing. Then he turns around to see a giant, pupil-less Genie pick up the palace and place it high above the city. Then Jafar wishes to be the most powerful sorcerer in the world, spirits Aladdin into a tower, shoots it to the other side of the world, and turns around to laugh maniacally at the sight of Jasmine and the Sultan cringing in his shadow. And all this happens about ten minutes before the giant snake...
  • I Want My Best Friend to Be Happy: Genie is willing to face an eternity of servitude if it means Aladdin and Jasmine get to stay together. And Aladdin is willing to give that up to keep his promise.
    • I Want My Beloved to Be Happy is also evident in the relationship between Jasmine and Aladdin. Jasmine will let Aladdin lose his chances of courtship to drop the disguise and be himself.
  • "I Want" Song: Aladdin sings about wanting people to not see him simply as a street rat.
  • I Will Show You X: When a prince tells a bunch of little kids in the street to get out of his way:

Aladdin: If I were as rich as you, I could afford some manners.
The Prince: I'll teach you some manners!
The prince then kicks Aladdin into the mud.

  • Jaw Drop: Genie, when he realizes Aladdin tricked him into providing a free "wish."
    • And again when Jasmine suddenly gets close and snuggly with Jafar.
  • Just Like Robin Hood: Aladdin steals bread, but ultimately gives it to some starving children.
  • Justified Criminal: Aladdin. "Gotta eat to live, gotta steal to eat, tell you all about it when I got the time!"
  • Karma Houdini: The rather jerkass guards who have no trouble throwing a prince (or so they thought) over a cliff for no better reason than the "tall, dark, and sinister ugly man" said so...go on to be jerkass guards in the other movies...karma, where'd you go?
  • Kiss of Distraction: Jasmine lays one on Jafar. Subverted when Aladdin gets caught because he's disgusted by the sight.
  • Kneel Before Zod: Hilarious, in that when Jafar first gives the command, the Sultan immediately begins to bow. But then Jasmine has to go and open her mouth...
  • Lampshade Hanging: Aladdin's "all this for a loaf of bread?" line. Honestly, it seems a little overkill for a bunch of palace guards to go to that extreme for shoplifting, then you consider that during that time period, theft may as well have been murder.
  • Laser-Guided Karma: Negative non-villainous example: The Sultan, during his interactions with Jafar prior to the latter's treachery being exposed, often fed Iago some crackers (something Iago did not enjoy or appreciate). One of Iago's first actions upon Jafar becoming both Sultan and the most powerful sorcerer in the world is force feeding the former Sultan the same crackers the sultan fed him.
  • Late to the Punchline: Robin Williams is a guarantee of dialogue children will only understand years later.
  • Large Ham: Genie and Jafar (the latter, mostly when he becomes a sorcerer and a genie).
  • Laughably Evil: Jafar; when he's not making horrible puns, he's trying to screw Jasmine.
  • Lava Is Boiling Kool-Aid: In the Cave of Wonders, although it is worth mentioning that the lava is a bright yellow, not crimson red. However, in Real Life, yellow means the lava is especially hot.
  • Leitmotif: Most of the main characters have one. Aladdin and Genie's are the refrains from "One Jump Ahead" and "Friend Like Me" respectively, while Jasmine's is (apparently) a few bars from the melody of "A Whole New World". While not based of a song from the movie, Jafar's leitmotif features heavily here, is extended during the scene where he schemes in the throne room, and is everywhere in the final battle.
    • Strains of Jasmine's unused song "To Be Free" are used constantly for both Jasmine and Genie.
  • Lean and Mean: Jafar.
  • Love At First Sight: On seeing Jasmine in the market-place, Aladdin is immediately smitten. After he rescues her from trouble, Jasmine isn't too far behind. Given the pure emotion of Aladdin and Jasmine's scenes together, the writers/animators actually make this trope work.
    • It can also be argued that it's more of a mutual crush at first sight. After they are initially torn apart, Aladdin spends a chunk of the film trying to win Jasmine's favor again. They have a little bonding time (albiet one night) and the two of them actually tackle issues like trust and self worth before they officially get together at the end. Compare to earlier Disney movies where the hero and heroine spend a grand total of one scene together, and by their second scene the antagonist has already been vanquished and the two are ready to be married.
  • MacGuffin Guardian: The Cave of Wonders itself.
  • Magic Carpet
  • Make a Wish
  • The Makeover: The transformation from Aladdin to Prince Ali.
  • Manipulative Bastard: Jafar.
  • Meaningful Echo: "PHENOMENAL COSMIC POWER... itty-bitty living space." Used by Genie when complaining to Aladdin about being a genie in the first place, and then used by Aladdin at the climax of the film, after tricking Jafar into using his final Genie wish to become a genie (complete with lamp) himself.
    • Also how Jasmine figured out Aladdin's ruse. "Do you trust me?" The first time he asked this when they were running away from the guards, and the second time was inviting her for a carpet ride.
  • Medium Awareness: The Genie. Most notably in his many transformations and mannerisms, but also in the song "Friend Like Me" when he sings that 'Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Sheherezade had a thousand tales'; most people don't know that both Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves and Aladdin were among Sheherezade's tales.
    • Also, the morning after Aladdin uses up his second wish, Genie pulls out an Aladdin screenplay and tells him it's time for the scene where he sets Genie free.
  • Meet Cute: Meet Jasmine.
  • Minsky Pickup: "Prince Ali", in the last line of the introductory verse: "...are you gonna love this guy..."
  • Misplaced Wildlife: Abu and Iago are a New World monkey and macaw.
  • Missing Mom: Of course, Jasmine is the victim here. For really no good reason. Sigh. Disney....
    • Aladdin as well, which is one of the similarities between them. Originally Aladdin was meant to have a mother and some brothers, but this was changed.
  • Mondegreen: When "Prince Ali" first visits Princess Jasmine's terrace, he has some trouble with Raja, whom he tries to shoo away. "Down kitty, good boy... take off and go!" The second line is both whispered and spoken very rapidly, leading some of the more paranoid Moral Guardians (not to mention giggling teenagers) to mishear the line as: "Good teenagers, take off your clothes."
  • Mood Whiplash: "But you're so old!" Also doubles as a Funny Moments. Probably the Sultan's best moment in the movie.
  • Mr. Fanservice: Aladdin. His animation design was based on Tom Cruise (at the point where Tom Cruise was the hot young thing of the moment) for this very reason. He was originally based on Michael J. Fox, but that design didn't go down as well.
  • Ms. Fanservice: Jasmine. Arguably the most sexual of all the Disney Princesses, and consistently the highest billed in their Princess Collection range.

And your beard. It's so... twisted...

  • Must Make Amends: After Aladdin left behind the genie lamp, which led to Iago bringing it to Jafar, then Jafar using it to wish himself to be sultan and the world's most powerful sorcerer, Aladdin said:

"I made a mess of everything... somehow I gotta go back and set things right."


Tropes N-S

  • Narrative Shapeshifting: Abu and Iago do this.
    • The Genie is likely to have done this as well.
  • Narrator All Along: An unused alternate ending features the salesman telling the story suddenly turning into the Genie before the credits roll. Not technically confirmed in the film itself, but both of them were still voiced by Robin Williams....
  • No Celebrities Were Harmed: Aladdin's initial design was based on Michael J. Fox. His final design was based on Tom Cruise.
  • No Flow in CGI: Averted. The whole point of rendering the carpet in CGI rather than traditional animation was to allow it to have an extremely intricate design, while still flowing and moving like cloth.
  • Non-Human Sidekick: Abu to Aladdin, Rajah to Jasmine, and Iago to Jafar.
  • No Ontological Inertia: The effects of Jafar's wishes and sorcery after he's changed into a genie.
    • Also, based on the characters' comments Aladdin's prince wish apparently has to be recast by the end.
  • No Problem With Licensed Games: Both the Virgin Games Sega Genesis game and the Capcom SNES game were well received by the gaming community.
  • Not-So-Harmless Villain: Jafar - not that he was never a serious menace for his enemies having an extensive knowledge of arcane lore, spells, potions, but initially he doesn't seem to possess any genuine magical power which apparently makes him look less dangerous. However as soon he wishes to be the most powerful sorcerer in the world he becomes one of the most omnipotent evil sorcerers in the Disney universe. Moreover, althought he is Laughably Evil, he CAN also be ruthless and cruel.
  • Obfuscating Stupidity: Iago pretends to be a dumb parrot to everyone but Jafar for a while, but drops the façade when Jafar seizes power (and briefly forgets it in shock when Aladdin confronts Jafar after the former was nearly killed by the latter).
  • Obsessed Are the Listmakers: In the animated series, the recurring villain Mechanikles is found to have a checklist with items like "Do dishes, do laundry, destroy world". The heroes even comment: "Boy, is he serious". Later, he adds "Destroy Aladdin" to the list, and wonders to himself whether he should do the dishes before or after he destroys the world.
  • Obstructive Code of Conduct: The Genie's rules, with one -- a Genie cannot kill—being a really big plot point of Return of Jafar.
  • Official Couple: Jasmine and Aladdin. They even get married!
  • Oh Crap: Just look at the Sultan's expression when Jafar is transformed into an almighty sorcerer.
  • Oh My Allah!
  • Only the Worthy May Pass: The "Diamond in the Rough".
  • Opening Monologue: The Merchant at the beginning.
  • Out of Sight, Out of Mind: Although Jafar's lamp is really sent far, far away.
  • Panthera Awesome: Rajah.
  • Parental Abandonment: Aladdin's mother died when he was young and Cassim left before that.
  • Parental Bonus: Robin Williams is a guarantee of dialogue not aimed at children, which they only understand years later.
  • Pre-Ass-Kicking One-Liner: "You wanted to be a genie, Jafar? You got it! And everything that comes with it! PHENOMENAL COSMIC POWER... ittybittylivingspace."
  • Pig Latin: Genie: "And ixnay on the wishing for more wishes!"
  • Pigeonholed Voice Actor
  • Pinocchio Nose: Prince Ali's hat (the plume falls and covers his face whenever he lies).
    • The genie actually turns into Pinocchio with an extended nose to imply what he thought of one of Aladdin's promises.
  • Politically-Correct History: As a woman in ancient Arabia, Jasmine's free spirit wouldn't have been quite so tolerated in Real Life. There'd be no such thing as suitors; she's marrying whoever Daddy chooses.
  • Polly Wants a Microphone: Iago
  • Pose of Supplication: The "Prince Ali" song directly references it. Also, Sorcerer Jafar forces Jasmine and the Sultan to bow before him.
    • Also Jasmine bowing down before Abu while playing along with Aladdin's story about her being mad. "She thinks the monkey is the Sultan."
  • Post-Kiss Catatonia: After his first kiss with Jasmine, Aladdin falls over backwards with a sigh, letting Carpet catch him.
  • Power High: Jafar's initial reaction to becoming a genie, before the drawbacks kick in.
  • Power Limiter: The Lamp. Itty bitty living space.
    • Subverted however in that, when freed, a genie has less power.
  • Primal Fear: Snake!Jafar
  • Public Domain Artifact: The Lamp.
  • Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: "Tell. Her. The. TRUTH!"
  • Pungeon Master: Jafar. Especially in the final battle.
  • Puppy Dog Eyes: The hungry street children.
  • Rags to Royalty: Aladdin (and Abu).
  • Reality Warper: Genie.
  • Rebellious Princess: Jasmine.
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: The Genie when he gets angry over Aladdin's taunts in the cave.
  • Refuge in Audacity: The Genie, who's pretty much the antithesis of subtlety.
  • The Renaissance Age of Animation
  • Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Snake!Jafar.
  • Rescue Introduction: Aladdin meets Princess Jasmine when rescuing her from a street vendor who she accidentally stole an apple from and her arm is nearly slashed off. Leading, of course, into a mini...
    • Rescue Romance: Aladdin and Jasmine first fall for each other after the rescue, and they connect further afterwards. However, while they each clearly begin to have a thing for the other, before the spark can grow Rasoul raids Aladdin's place and cuts it short before it can really start. The rest of the movie and some magical intervention is needed to continue things along.
  • Ring of Fire
  • Runaway Fiancée: Jasmine.
  • Sadly Mythtaken: Almost all "genie lore" in this film is made up out of wholecloth. Despite being critical to the climax of the film, the fundamental nature of djinn (genies) is not to be bound to a lamp or other vessel—djinn are beings akin to fallen angels, only they weren't bad enough to be cast into hell and were stuck in the mortal world, where they went around causing all manner of mischief. King Solomon (yes, the Biblical Solomon, king of Israel) bound them into various vessels with a compulsion to obey the owner of the vessel in order to keep them out of trouble. There is no limit on the number of "wishes" (commands) one can give a bound djinn in one's possession. (The scriptwriters seem to have conflated traditional European tales of items or beings granting three wishes with the tales of djinn.) And all djinn are not equal; some are more powerful than others, and a bound djinn will tell its owner when a command is beyond its ability to fulfill. If the scriptwriters had used actual djinn lore, they would have had to tell a completely different story—possibly the original Aladdin story—instead.
  • Scaled Up: Snake!Jafar, and despite what the Evil Overlord List would tell you, it works just fine. Aladdin only wins by goading him into wishing to become a genie, knowing that Jafar can't stand anyone else's power exceeding his.
  • Scheherazade Gambit: The Trope Namer was mentioned in passing by Genie.
  • Schmuck Bait: The treasure in the cave, particularly the giant ruby. Heck, it's the only other treasure in the lamp room.
  • Screw the Rules, I Have Money: "You've heard of the Golden Rule, haven't you? The one who has the gold makes the rules."
  • Screw the Rules, I Make Them: The Sultan changing the royal marriage laws so that Jasmine can wed Aladdin.
  • Sealed Evil in a Lamp: Jafar.
  • Sealed Good in a Lamp : Genie.
  • Secret Test of Character: Cave Of Wonders. The test is actually not that secret.
  • Self-Deprecation: Accidental, but ironic - "I don't know where she gets it from. Her mother wasn't nearly so picky."
  • Selfless Wish: Aladdin uses his third wish to free the Genie.
  • Shout-Out: Those elephants during "Friend Like Me" looked an awful lot like heffalumps...
  • Shape Shifter: Genie.
  • Shoulders of Doom: Jafar.
  • Shout-Out: Several; an early movie example has a chase scene end with Aladdin's pursuers fall into a pile of manure. Particularly interesting when you consider the initial inspiration for Aladdin's design.
    • The Beast makes an appearance in the Sultan's tower of toy animals.
    • When the Genie is looking for recipes to make a prince, the Alaskan King Crab produces Sebastian. There's even a snatch of "Under the Sea" included in the soundtrack.
    • Damn near everything Genie says or does.
    • During the song "A Whole New World", while Aladdin and Jasmine are flying on the Magic Carpet, they pass by a flock of storks in front of a full moon.
  • Show Some Leg: Jasmine seduces Jafar to distract him so Aladdin can take the lamp.
  • Sidekick Ex Machina: Genie.
  • Sliding Scale of Animal Communication: Abu is Level 4 (but briefly slips into Level 5 when he's trying to wake up Aladdin after the Cave of Wonders collapses) and Rajah is Level 3. Iago is Level 8, though his ability to talk likely comes from his being a parrot.
  • Slouch of Villainy: After Jafar takes over, he replaces the throne with a couch and slouches on it.
  • Smoke Out: Jafar.
  • Smug Snake: Jafar is a wicked version of this trope. During the climax, he even becomes literally a giant one.
  • Something Completely Different: After The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast this is the first Disney Princess movie to focus on the male character more than the female (of all the Disney Princess merchandise to ever show the Disney logo, this film and Tangled are the only ones that do not have a custom Disney Princess logo resembling a pink oval, instead a purple oval is substituted, all the merchandise based on other Disney franchises use a Disney logo resembling a blue oval). This is Justified Trope as Aladdin is the title character and so naturally the story would focus on him more than the Princess. However, this was a calculated move by the folks at Disney as after years of Princess movies they wanted to work on something that would attract a larger male audience and thus the film became more action-heavy than the standard Disney Animated Canon movies with multiple chase scenes, fights, and elements of male bonding between Aladdin, Abu, Carpet, and Genie. Jasmine is the only real female character in the entire trilogy (albeit a very strong and well-developed one).
  • Something Only They Would Say: "Whoops" version - Aladdin's "Do you trust me?" tips off Jasmine.
    • She may have been tipped off earlier, when he said "You should be free to make your own choice."
    • Of course she probably had her suspicions when she noticed that THEY LOOKED THE SAME.
  • Speech-Impaired Animal: Abu.
    • Although at one point he does clearly utter "Aladdin, wake up!" - along with other familiar semi-uttered expressions such as 'Why you!' or 'O brother!'
  • The Speechless: The Carpet.
  • Spikes of Villainy: If you pay attention, you can see that Jafar's "Real Sorcerer" Suit has pointer shoulders, his hat isn't round anymore(with two more points), and his Cobra Cane is more realistic and has its mouth open.
  • Stating the Simple Solution: The three rules of the genie are to prevent this.
    • An of course Genie's advice on winning Jasmine's heart...

Genie: Tell... her... the... *TRUTH!!!*

  • Stealth Pun: When Iago tells Jafar about the plan to marry the princess and then kill her and the Sultan, Jafar responds with "I love the way your foul little mind works!"[1]
  • Stepford Smiler: Kind of. Genie dances around, cracks jokes, and seems to have a lot of fun granting wishes...but Aladdin pokes around a little bit and discovers that Genie in fact desires freedom from his life of servitude more than anything else in the world and is miserable.
  • Stock Scream: A Wilhelm Scream when Genie is moving Agrabah up onto a cliff.
  • Street Urchin: Aladdin.
  • Suddenly-Suitable Suitor: Solved by the Sultan changing the law.
  • Suicidal Gotcha: Aladdin pretends to jump off a balcony.
    • And is caught by a flying device hovering at a height just far enough below the balcony for his head to disappear. Seems familiar.
  • Super Empowering: Jafar's wish.


Tropes T-Z

  • Tactful Translation: Aladdin does this for Abu when they're with Princess Jasmine.
  • Take Over the City: For all he wants power, Jafar never seems interested in political power beyond Agrabah.
  • Talking Animal: Downplayed with Abu, as he mostly speaks in monkey chatter, although he can vocalize some words. Completely averted with Rajah. Played straight with Iago, although it's strongly implied that his talking was not one of his natural traits, but the result of modifications made by Jafar (according to Jafar in Return of Jafar, the only thing Iago could say prior to Jafar getting his hands on him was indeed squacks of "Polly Want A Cracker.")
  • Tap on the Head: Jafar's guards to Aladdin when they kidnap him and Abu to Iago during the final combat.
  • Tempting Fate: "For the first time in my life, things are starting to go right." (It gets worse almost immediately.)
    • Almost??
  • Terms of Endangerment
  • Theme Tune Extended / Second Verse Curse: Arabian Nights was originally written to be three verses long, notwithstanding the reprises, but only the first stanza was used in the film. The recent stage musical used the full-length song and all four reprises.
  • This Is No Time to Panic: Said by Aladdin to Abu...until he sees the wall they're about to crash into. "Start panicking."
  • Through a Face Full of Fur: Iago's face turns pinkish-purple/purplish-pink after telling a seemingly maniacal Jafar to get a grip and he literally does, by strangling him.
  • Toothy Bird: Iago, who frequently displays teeth when he's griping, which, given that this is Iago, is most of the time.
  • Tricking the Shapeshifter
  • The Trickster: Genie.
  • Truck Driver's Gear Change Prince Ali does this nearly every chorus (around six!), including a massive one near the end that could pop a lung.
    • It's so bad that Robin Williams, despite his impressive vocal range, can't keep up as the song finishes.
  • Tuckerization: Razoul is named after layout supervisor Rasoul Azadani.
  • True-Blue Femininity: Jasmine's outfit is bluish green.
  • Twinkle Smile: See Audible Gleam above.
  • Tyrant Takes the Helm: Jafar briefly becomes Sultan.
  • Unknown Rival: Aladdin and Jafar spend a good two-thirds of the film unaware of each other's true identity/intentions. Jafar assumes Aladdin died in the Cave of Wonders, then when he returns as Prince Ali neither of them knows who the other is. It's not until Jafar sees "Ali" has the lamp that he puts it together.
  • Uptown Girl: Aladdin wants to pursue Jasmine but is insecure about his poverty.
  • Villain Ball: If Jafar had simply saved Aladdin and given him some pocket change or something, Abu wouldn't have stolen the lamp, Aladdin would never have known what it does and Jafar would have successfully conquered Agrabah. Furthermore, he would never have lost the final battle if he hadn't let his greed get the better of him and wasted his last wish turning himself into an immortal indentured servant.
  • Villainous Crush: Jafar for Jasmine.
  • Villain Song: "Prince Ali, Reprise".
    • Interestingly, Jafar had 5 separate songs and all but one of them were cut. Aside from Prince Ali, there was "Humiliate the Boy" where Jafar does what the title suggests (cut for being too caustic). '"My Time Has Come" where Jafar recounts how hideous his life has been and how he is going to make everyone else miserable (cut for being too slow and introspective). "Why Me" was basically the same as "My Time Has Come" (cut because the directors felt it didn't advance the story enough, they also wanted something with a big chorus). And "My Finest Hour" where Jafar pulls the earth into a ball and bats it around with the Genie (cut because the directors decided it was too late in the movie for an extended showstopper for the villain). "Why Me" was revived for some stageplay adaptations.
  • Voice Changeling: Iago. Uses the voices of Jasmine and Jafar.
  • Voluntary Shapeshifting: Genie.
  • Wait Here: Aladdin to Abu in the underground treasure caves.
  • Wedding Deadline
  • Well, Excuse Me, Princess!
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: When Aladdin first meets Jasmine, he rescues her from a man about to cut off her hand with a sword. Aladdin takes the sword off him and hands it to Jasmine. A few seconds later, it disappears completely.
  • Who Dares?: The Cave Of Wonders: "Who disturbs my slumber?"
  • Why Won't You Die?: "How many times do I have to kill you, boy?!"
  • Wicked Cultured: Jafar.
  • Wig, Dress, Accent: Aladdin/Prince Ali.
  • Wishplosion
  • A Worldwide Punomenon: Anything the Genie says.
  • You!: Jafar to Aladdin.
  • You Just Told Me: How Jasmine confirms that the Prince is really Aladdin.

Jasmine: It's a shame Abu had to miss this.
Aladdin: Nah, he hates fireworks, and he doesn't really like flying, either. Uh...that is, um...oh, no...

    • Odd that she's so shocked when Jafar reveals Aladdin's true identity.
  • "You?" Squared

"They're after me! They're after you?!"


The sequels provide examples of

Tropes A-M

  • Actor Allusion: Abis Mal is basically the Iraqi version of George Castanza. Both characters are also portrayed by Jason Alexander.
  • And This Is For: "That's for ruining my wedding!" when Jasmine punches out one of the thieves.
  • Animation Bump: Particularly the opening and climax of The King of Thieves, which comes very close to rivaling the original in animation quality, and is several levels above that seen in The Return Of Jafar and the series.
  • Bad Boss: Abis Mal, even before they upped his villainy a bit in the series where he pulls a You Have Failed Me... on one of his mooks, was a genuinely terrible boss to his gang of thieves: Specifically, in the beginning, he was shown to keep the lion's share of the the plunder that he and his gang stole, and gave his gang a small pocketbag of change at best. It's also strongly implied that this wasn't the first time Abis Mal cheapskated his followers either.
  • Bag of Spilling: Justified. The Genie gets noticeably nerfed in the sequels and television show, mentioning that his freedom from the lamp has reduced his powers. This culminates in a musical number where Genie Jafar (who Genie gave his power to and logically could not have been more powerful than imprisoned Genie) toys with and captures Genie with ease. Although he does maintain his apparent ability to perceive time and events as all occurring simultaneously, allowing for plenty of modern pop culture references and anachronistic objects to go around.
    • Although in King Of Thieves he seems much more powerful than he was in Return Of Jafar. Maybe he just learned how to make the most use of his weaker powers.
  • Big Bad: Jafar in The Return of Jafar, Saluk in The King of Thieves.
  • Big "Shut Up!": from Iago to Jafar. "Hey, Jafar! SHUT UUUUUUP!"
    • Also a Call Back - Jafar's last line in the fist movie was one of these to Iago as the two were flung into the distance.
  • Book Ends: King of Thieves ends with just like the first movie started, with the Peddler singing "Arabian Nights" (though a variant, not the original song).
  • Brick Joke: King of Thieves: "Will you be having the chicken or the sea bass?"
    • also from that movie in reference to the first movie, Abu's got a sword to defend himself, but instead of running, he tosses it up to bring a chandelier down on some of the 40 thieves.
  • Catch Phrase: Return of Jafar: "You'd be surprised what you can live through."
  • Cave Mouth: Aladdin and the King of Thieves had a huge turtle whose mouth was like a cave.
  • Changed My Mind, Kid: Iago in The Return of Jafar.
  • Character Name and the Noun Phrase
  • Continuity Nod: King of Thieves.
  • Darker and Edgier: With a truly despicable villain, very intense Fight Scenes, and arguably one of the most disturbing deaths in a Disney movie, King Of Thieves is easily the darkest movie in the Aladdin trilogy.
    • It also deals very explicitly with issues relating to organized crime, albeit of the ancient middle-eastern variety, but with surprisingly strong parallels to the modern western variety.
  • Disappeared Dad: Cassim. Trends into Daddy Had a Good Reason For Abandoning You, as he left with the intention of securing a fortune for his wife and son. Of course, he refused to return empty-handed and by the time he did, he couldn't find his loved ones. He "disappeared" for good because as far as he knew, he had no family left.
  • Disney Death: The first sequel loves this. Genie gets chucked across the garden but he's just unconscious, Carpet gets torn to shreds but it's just fine, and Iago gets blasted with lightning but "You'd be surprised what you can live through." Justfied as in his genie form Jafar cannot actually kill people directly.
  • Disney Villain Death: Subverted with Sa'Luk. He initially was knocked into the ocean by Aladdin from a high cliff from the hideout. However, it's later revealed that he actually survived. Not to mention, his actual cause of death later in the film is being turned into a gold statue by the Hand of Midas.
  • The Dog Bites Back: After Abis Mal failed to not only retrieve the plunder that Aladdin stole back from them and dispersed to the Agrabahian populace, but also get revenge on Aladdin when they encountered him at Agrabah's streets (not to mention nearly got them arrested thanks to Iago knocking them back), Abis Mal's gang of thieves evidentially had enough of their boss and attempted to kill him on the spot after he retrieved some water from the well (the same well that Iago literally ditched Jafar's Lamp into earlier). It's ultimately averted, and not because they forgave him so much as they were scared off by Jafar being unwittingly released from the lamp by Abis Mal before they could deliver the killing blows on him.
  • Easily Forgiven:
    • Aladdin keeping Iago's presence in the palace hidden comes back to bite him in the ass when Iago fumbles in being pursued by Rajah, which has the Sultan and Jasmine believe that Aladdin was hiding a villain from them possibly as a sign of switching sides. The latter in particular becomes furious as she was hoping Aladdin wouldn't lie to her again; however, all it takes is Iago using some reverse psychology and simply reminding her why she fell in love with him in the first place during "Forget About Love" for her to totally forgive the guy. She even interrupts Aladdin to sing about how smitten she is with him, before he has the chance to make a proper apology!
    • Jafar instantly forgives Iago for dropping him down a well, later stating that Iago's traitorous nature is one of the things he admires about him.
  • Eucatastrophe: Yep, Jafar also distrubingly close to defeating Aladdin.
  • Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: In the second movie, when Iago attempts to redeem himself to Aladdin by attempting to free the Genie from the crystal ball prison, Abu goes off on an unintelligible rant, to which Iago responds: "Do I insult your mother?"
  • Evil Overlooker: Jafar on the cover of Return of Jafar.
  • Generation Xerox: Visually, Cassim really is nothing more than an older version of Aladdin with a beard.
  • Getting Crap Past the Radar: "I thought the earth wasn't supposed to move until the honeymoon!"
    • This line was removed when aired on Disney Channel / Disney XD.
    • Aladdin's "Ooh, I'm gonna get some tonight!" expression right before he and Jasmine lay down on Carpet while kissing after departing their wedding.
  • Family-Unfriendly Death:
    • Jafar gets his lamp dropped in lava, has an electrifying seizure, then explodes into dust.
    • Saluk gets transformed into pure gold by inadvertently touching the Hand of Midas, and sinks to the bottom of the treasure room.
  • Forgot I Could Fly: When Genie escapes from the orb Jafar put him in, Genie races through the castle and snatches Aladdin away from the execution stand, only to poof the rest of the protagonists to safety seconds later.
    • To be fair: maybe he can only teleport people if he knows exactly where they are. Maybe he first had to fly around to pinpoint Aladdin's exact location, but the others, he'd seen them in the dungeon so he could just teleport them away.
  • A Form You Are Comfortable With: In The Return of Jafar, Jafar's true form of a huge red Genie is too much for thief Abis Mal, so Jafar spends most of the film looking as he did while human. Which only helped a little, since let's face it, even human Jafar is pretty damn intimidating.
  • Heel Face Turn: Iago in Return of Jafar.
  • Heel Face Revolving Door: Iago again, switching sides three times in Return of Jafar and then conspiring with Cassim in King of Thieves.
  • Hot Dad: Even though Cassim is Aladdin's father he still comes off this way to a lot of ladies, having one of the sexiest voices since Patrick Stewart doesn't hurt things.
    • Same as John Rhys-Davies, who is the actual voice of Cassim.
  • Inferred Holocaust: In King of Thieves, when Cassim discards the Hand of Midas by throwing it into the ocean, it accidentally hits the ship that was used by the remaining seven thieves who evaded capture by the Agrabah palace guards and were tricked by Saluk that Cassim sold the thieves out. The ship turns gold and sinks, and because the Vanishing Isle had submerged and would not rise until long after and there's no other land nearby, they must have drowned.
  • Ineffectual Death Threats: Subverted. Several characters try to downplay Jafar's threat level by pointing out that as a genie, he can't actually kill anyone this time around - but then, "you'd be surprised what you could live through." He also manages to get someone else to (nearly) execute Aladdin, so he's not all talk.
  • Jackass Genie: Jafar is a natural at this, wasting Abis Mal's two wishes and implying that he could just as easily twist the third to get Abis Mal to work for him. This later backfires on him when, after promising Abis Mal piles of treasures in return for wishing Jafar to be free; Abis Mal hesitates and asks if the treasure would disappear.

Abis Mal: I wish for Jafar to be— (stops suddenly) Wait... How will I know that these things won't disappear once I set you free?
Jafar: [losing it] The more pressing question is: HOW WILL YOU STAY ALIVE IF YOU DON'T?!
Abis Mal: B-But-But you-you said that genies can't kill! Y-Y-You said that!
Jafar: You'd be surprised what you can live through!

  • Jerkass: Jafar is this to Abis Mal in Return of Jafar.
  • "Just Joking" Justification: In King of Thieves, after Genie makes a crack about Aladdin not being essential to the wedding, he has to resort to one.
    • The joke isn't even that bad, it goes:

Genie: (as Chico Marx) Hey, that'sa no good! What this wedding needs isa theme!
Genie: (as Groucho Marx) Needs a groom too, but let's work with what we have!
Jasmine: Genie!
Genie: It was a joke! (deadpan) I do that...

  • Keep the Reward: Near the beginning of the The Return of Jafar, Aladdin saves the Sultan's life and the Sultan offers to make him Royal Vizier. In the end, he turns it down, because he says he wants to have adventures and see the world.
  • Killed Off for Real: Jafar is killed off for real. The Aladdin canon continued with three seasons of a cartoon series as well as a final movie, all without bringing him back, even though he is a relatively popular Disney villain. He does return in a Hercules crossover episode, in which he's still technically dead.
  • Literally Shattered Lives: In the final battle, Jafar petrifies Carpet when he and Aladdin try to reach Jafar's lamp. They subsequently crash, and Carpet is shattered in a hundred pieces. Like the previous film, Carpet regenerates after Jafar is defeated.
  • Little No: Jasmine when Iago is hit by Jafar's magic in The Return of Jafar.
  • Lock and Load Montage: Used hilariously in this scene
  • Long-Lost Relative: Aladdin and Cassim never really knew what happened to each other.
  • Loophole Abuse: Because he's now bound by the rules of the genie, Jafar can't kill Aladdin himself. So, it forces him to rely on proxies and indirect assassination attempts where he technically doesn't lay a finger on Al.
  • Luke, You Are My Father: Aladdin to Cassim. The Oracle shows Aladdin what his father looks like and where to find him. Cassim is convinced by Aladdin carrying a weapon he once owned and left to his young son.
  • Meaningful Echo: "You'd be surprised what you could live through."
  • Meaningful Name: Abis Mal really is the pits!
  • Mythology Gag: Literally. Aladdin's father and king of the Forty Thieves is named Kassim, after Ali Baba's doomed brother in the original story. On a related note, "Ali Ababwa", Aladdin's alias from the original film is Ali Baba's name with an extra "a" and "w" added in.
  • Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: The main reason for Iago's Heel Face Turn; he's sick and tired of Jafar constantly abusing him and pushing him around. Also the reason why Abis Mal's minions tries to kill him.

Tropes N-Z

  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: If Jafar had just swallowed his pride and actually treated Iago like somewhat of an equal after forcing him out of the Lamp instead of, well, ranting that Iago would have been stuck in the bazaar squacking "Polly Want A Cracker" had he not been involved, most of the movie would not have happened.
  • Not So Different: Aladdin and Cassim.

Cassim: You don't understand. You don't know what it's like to have nothing, to stare up at the palace and know you deserve more, to be called 'street rat.'
Aladdin: Yes, I do.

  • Oblivious Guilt Slinging: The good guys really lay it on thick in The Return of Jafar when Iago's planning to betray them (not that he didn't have any reluctance to betray them, however).
  • Off-Model: The Return Of Jafar has some pretty sub par animation. Just look at Jasmine's face during the "Forget About Love" musical number.
    • For some reason Genie looks less like... well, Genie when he's voiced by Dan Castellaneta. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that he's usually a darker shade of blue when Robin Williams is behind him.
      • Likewise, the Carpet looks less lively outside the first movie (as the intricate texture implanted through CG was replaced with a regular painted drawing).
    • Jafar in some scenes looks like he's being played by Captain Hook.
    • In a particular scene, the Sultan loses his eyebrows!
  • Off with His Head/Public Execution: Attempted in Return of Jafar, after Aladdin has been framed and condemned to die for "the murder of the Sultan". Fortunately, Iago does a Heel Face Turn and breaks the Genie free from the glass bottle, and in turn, the Genie becomes a Big Damn Heroes in flying at the speed of light and rescuing Aladdin a mere split-second before he is to be decapitated.
  • Open Sesame
  • Orphan's Plot Trinket: Aladdin turns out to have one of these in the third film—he thoughtfully mentions it just before it becomes plot relevant.
  • Parental Bonus: In Ko T, Genie passes out Frothy Mugs of Water to everyone, but quickly takes back Carpet's, claiming, "Not you, you're the designated flyer."
  • Poorly-Disguised Pilot: Return of Jafar works quite well as a pilot for The Animated Series. In fact the series premier on the Disney Channel was preceded by a showing of "The Return Of Jafar."
  • Quirky Miniboss Squad: The seven thieves who side with Sa'luk in King of Thieves: A Fat Idiot, a Mongol warrior, a green-skinned rope charmer, a Knife Nut, and a trio of acrobatic triplets.
  • Recurring Traveller: The merchant reappears at the end of King of Thieves.
  • Retcon: It's pretty heavily implied that Aladdin and Jasmine are married at the end of Aladdin, when they kiss during the fireworks. As we see in Return of Jafar and obviously King of Thieves, their wedding hasn't quite happened yet.
    • However, the implication is that the very end of the original Aladdin actually occurs after the animated series and films that follow.
      • It's actually mentioned by the film's directors on the DVD commentary that they felt that the ending may have been unclear on whether or not a wedding had happened, thus they actually felt that the Aladdin sequels were a good idea.
  • Slipped the Ropes: Iago does this in King of Thieves.
  • Shout-Out: A large chunk of the plot from The King of Thieves bears a striking resemblance to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Aladdin's father is even voiced by Sallah (John Rhys-Davies) doing a rather good Sean Connery impersonation.
  • Taken for Granite: Sa'luk's fate. He gets turned into solid gold!
  • That's No Moon: The Vanishing Isle in King of Thieves.
  • This Cannot Be!: "The street rat? Still alive!? NO!"
  • Villain Ball: Jafar saving Aladdin's life.
  • Villain Song: "You're Only Second Rate" (Return of Jafar) and "Are You In or Out?" (King of Thieves).
  • Wedding Smashers: The Forty Thieves.
  • We Need a Distraction: King of Thieves.
  • What Could Have Been: Mozenrath was originally planned as the villain in the third film. (However, whether he would actually be Aladdin's brother is another story - this is fan speculation, not Word of God.)
  • WTH Villain?: When Abis Mal and several shadowy assassins on horseback (with enchanted horses, actually all Jafar) manages to force Aladdin down a waterfall, Jafar then telekinetically lifts the unconscious Aladdin away from the waterfall's rocks and places him safely on the continuing river. Abis Mal then proceeds to call out on Jafar for this, causing Jafar to almost attack Abis Mal before calmly informing him that he only delayed the inevitable for Aladdin, and that the true revenge was yet to come.
  • Who's Laughing Now?: Double Subversion in The Return of Jafar:

Genie: [bold, heroic] HAHAHAHAHA, who's laughing now?!
Jafar: Mmmuhahahahahahahahahahahaha! Why, I believe it's me.

"Hello, and who are you?"
"I'm Thor."
"You're Thor?"
"Well it hurtth."

Cassim: You killed Saluk. The Code of The Forty Thieves is crystal clear at this point... You're in.


Tropes used in the animated series

Tropes A-G

  • Action Girl: Jasmine, who takes down Mozenrath in one episode and survives an Amazonian training course in another.
  • Actor Allusion: The Genie says D'oh! at least once (complete with a face resembling Homer Simpson).
  • Ancient Greece: Not the series itself, but the crossover episode "Hercules and the Arabian Night" strongly implies that "Aladdin" takes place in the exact same time period as Hercules (ie, the time of Hellenistic Greece).
  • All Amazons Want Hercules: In Queen Hippsodeth's first appearance, she's defeated by the Sultan, and suffers a minor breakdown; by her next appearance, she's smitten with him.
  • All Your Base Are Belong to Us: All four of the main villains have done this with the palace (and sometimes Agrahbah as a whole) at least once. Abis Mal in "Forget Me Lots", Mechanicles in "I Never Mechanism I Didn't Like", Mirage in "While the City Snoozes", and Mozenrath in "Black Sand".
  • Anachronism Stew: Apparently, the writers once again mixed up medieval Arabia with ancient Arabia. The Greeks Aladdin runs into seem to be from ancient Greece.
  • Animation Bump: In the Walt Disney Japan and Australia-animated episodes.
  • Artifact of Doom: In the episode "Armored and Dangerous", the Sultan puts on the invincible armor of Kileem, a powerful warlord, and ends up being taken over by the spirit of the warlord himself.
  • Art Shift: Genie's explanation of man in "The Secret of Dagger Rock" is drawn in UPA style.
  • Ass in Ambassador: The ambassadors in "Riders Redux", who boss Jasmine around and constantly threaten war.
  • Badass Back: Mozenrath blasts Jasmine to the ground this way at one point.
  • Badass Grandpa: The Sultan, surprisingly.
  • Baleful Polymorph: Jasmine twice - once into a rat the other into a snake creature. Other examples include a woman who turns into a jackal in the moonlight (and her husband who was changed into a magical treasure).
  • Barbarian Tribe: The Odifferous. They're usually friendly, although their leader isn't the brightest, making it relatively easy to set him against the heroes.
  • Bastard Understudy: Mozenrath's backstory.
  • Beleaguered Assistant: Haroud has the unfortunate job of being Abis Mal's lackey, but makes up for it by being much, much smarter than his boss.
  • Benevolent Genie: Eden; when Dondi's first wish is for a sandwich, Eden allows her to take it back, and convinces her to wish to never be hungry again.
    • And, once again, our blue pal.
  • Berserk Button: Amin Damoola's is being called by his nickname Butterfingers. Mechanicles' Super OCD should say enough.
  • Beware the Silly Ones: Chaos period... pissing him off is a REALLY bad idea.
  • Big Bad Ensemble: Abis Mal, Mechanicles, Mirage and Mozenrath. The first appears the most often, the second has the most dangerous arsenal, the third is the incarnation of all evil and the fourth is the most serious villain on the series.
  • Bilingual Bonus / Meaningful Name: One episode has Mozenrath seeking the power of Shamash, which turns out to be a miniature sun. The Hebrew word for sun is Shemesh (or Shamash in certain grammatical uses).
    • This is also a case of You Fail Linguistics Forever, as a shamash is a liturgic position in Judaism, or the candle used to light the other candles on a khanukiya.
  • Biological Mashup
  • Bittersweet Ending: The plant being Arbutus kidnaps Jasmine as payback for a slight the Sultan committed against him decades ago. Aladdin rescues Jasmine and kills Arbutus, but by then, Arbutus had been shown in a sympathetic light, and was more a victim than a villain.
  • Blind Seer: Fasir.
  • Boisterous Bruiser: The Odifferous are an entire tribe of these.
  • Brainwashed: Happens to all of the main cast at some point.
  • Buffy-Speak: Abis Mal.
  • Butt Monkey: Iago. According to the DVD Commentary, the filmmakers' motto was "When in doubt, hurt the bird."
  • Canis Latinicus: "Bobolonius", the name of the Sultan's grandfather, and possibly the Sultan.
  • Can't Get Away with Nuthin': Happens once again to Jasmine in "Do The Rat Thing," in an even bigger way than in the movie. After he says she couldn't understand what it means to be a street rat, she decides to spend a day in the marketplace pretending to be a poor thief to prove to Aladdin she can do it. While there, she is goaded into stealing a small trinket just once to prove to an angry thug that she can. The shopkeeper (Fasir the mystic in his first appearance) promises horrible mystical vengeance should she go through with the act, but since she was only pretending, she figured she could get away with the robbery then come back to pay later. Turns out the trinket was actually a magical cursed artifact that immediately turns her into a rat. Oops.
  • Cast From Lifespan: Mozenrath's gauntlet draws magic power at the cost of his lifespan and possibly (see Word of Dante in the Trivia tab) his flesh.
  • Catch Phrase: "It's showtime!" Most commonly Genie but everyone gets a crack at it.
  • Cats Are Mean: Mirage.

Iago: She's mean! She's beyond mean! She invented "mean"!

  • Changed My Mind, Kid: Iago and Abu at the end of "The Secret of Dagger Rock". Subverted in that they arrived late.
  • Character Exaggeration: Genie. Unfortunately.
  • The Charmer: Aladdin.
  • Chekhov's Gun: In "Lost and Founded", Iago, Abu, and Genie make Founder's Day merchandise to sell to the people of Agrabah. Genie keeps a spill-proof cup for himself. Later, he uses it to contain the time portal.
  • Chick Magnet: A fun drinking game is to chug every time a girl has the hots for Aladdin.
  • City of Adventure: Agrabah, especially in the later episodes. (Earlier they visited a lot more Adventure Towns.)
  • Clock King: Meckanikles.
  • Cloudcuckooland: Odiferus.
  • Control Freak: Mechanicles.
  • Criminal Amnesiac: Jasmine in "Forget Me Lots".
  • Crossover: With Hercules: The Animated Series.
  • Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: The Sultan is (or at least was) this, apparently. You should see all the ass he kicks in episode 75. I mean, somebody had to run a kingdom so rife with disaster before Aladdin came along, right?
    • The Sultan's badassery is touched on in a mid-1990s Disney Adventures comic, which features a flashback to a young Sultan brandishing a sword on horseback while kicking some villains the hell out of his kingdom.
  • Cue the Flying Pigs: Happens when genies fall in love.
  • Cute Bruiser: Scara.
  • Cute Monster Girl: Jasmine in "Eye of the Beholder".
  • Cute Witch: Sadira.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Haroud, Iago, Mozenrath, Aladdin, and even Jasmine on occasion.
  • Death Is Dramatic: Arbutus's death in Garden of Evil, so very much.
  • Demoted to Extra: Rajah. Word of God says that this is because his stripes are a lot tougher for the lower-budget TV animation studios. It's not especially noticable since he was never a very important character to begin with.
  • Deus Ex Machina
  • Disney Death
  • The Drag Along: Iago. In fact, at least a third of all his lines are complaints about this.
  • Earn Your Happy Ending: Subverted, when Jasmine is turned into a snake-woman, our heroes brave through a multitude of challenges to find the cure, which Mirage destroys before they can use it; defeated, Jasmine wants the others to leave her, so Aladdin turns himself into a snake to stay with Jasmine.
    • Double subverted, Mirage takes solace in that while she couldn't break the love between the two, at least they'll live the rest of their lives as monsters; Fasir insists that they beat her, and gives them the cure.
  • Embarrassing Rescue: Captain al-Butros, an heroic sailor doesn't want Aladdin, a landlubber, to rescue him from Mechanikles, saying it's not manly. Iago Takes a Third Option, letting Aladdin rescue him, while Butros tags along to protect him; the captain finds this much more agreeable.
  • Emotions vs. Stoicism: Kapok is a literal Head vs. Heart case, with his cold calculating head and his emotional heart; naturally the head is evil while the heart is good. As a powerful wizard, the heart defeats the head with a spell that decapitates himself, leaving the heart in full control of the body.
  • Eucatastrophe: Mozenrath keeps doing this trope as a hobby.
  • Evil Counterpart: Again, Mozenrath, towards Aladdin. If rumors are to be believed, there were plans to reveal they were in fact brothers. Said rumors being helped by just how much they look alike.
  • Eviler Than Thou: Mozenrath ends up on both sides of this. He proved to be the bigger evil against Destane, but the lesser evil against Khartoum.
  • Evil Gloating: In "Shadow of a Doubt", Mirage captured Jasmine, Carpet, Abu and Iago, and releases them as her obelisk destroys Agrabah, just so she can gloat.
  • Evil Is Hammy: So many of the villains.
  • Evil Sorcerer: Mozenrath, Caliph Kapok, Khartoum, and probably a few more.
  • Evil Twin: Aladdin is faced with an evil version of himself, thanks to Chaos. Though aside from how the twin looks, he's really more of Aladdin's complete opposite than anything else.
  • Eye Poke: In one episode, a magic disembodied hand is sent to attack Al. Inevitably, it pulls this move on him, but Aladdin is Genre Savvy enough to use the hand block on it.
  • Face Heel Turn: Mirage, according to Fasir.
  • Fat and Skinny: Abis Mal and Harud.
    • Abis Mal and Mechanicles when they temporarily teamed up. When they're fighting in a bar they're refered to as the fat one and the skinny one by onlookers.
  • Find the Cure: A few—a cure for Genie's cold in "Sneeze the Day", something to reverse Jasmine's transformation in "Eye of the Beholder", and something to awaken a poisoned Aladdin in "Mission Imp Possible" (the last one had Nefir poison Aladdin just so that the other heroes would get the rare and expensive cure from the imp-eating moth that creates it, without having to deal with the moth solo.
  • Fire-Forged Friends: Jasmine and Sadira.
    • Not exactly friends, but Rasoul lightens up after he and Aladdin have to team up against Aziz.
  • Fish Out of Temporal Water: Being a genie, Genie is a wealth of magical knowledge, but having been trapped in a lamp for thousands of years, some of his info is out of date.
  • Fisher King: This time, a child-king whose perpetual sulk makes his domain barren and ugly.
  • Five-Man Band: A perfect one if I ever saw one, starring:
  • For the Evulz: Mirage. Unlike other villains with more common desires like greed (Abis Mal) or power (Mozenrath), her whole motivation is to do things just because they are evil; her title is "Evil Incarnate".

Mirage: Chalk up another one for the forces of evil.

Arabian Nights! Like Arabian Days!
More often than not
Are hotter than hot
In a lot of good ways!

    • Episode "Bad Moon Rising" has this gem:

Genie: "And now for the ever-puzzling sawing a woman in half trick!" (proceeds to saw woman in half! Even if she is inside a box, as is tradition. Then he peeks at the result) "Yuh, let's pretend we didn't do that one."

  • Glad I Thought of It: Abis Mal and Haroud do this a lot.
  • Goggles Do Something Unusual: Mechanikles' telescoping monocle.
  • Goldfish Poop Gang: Dominus Tusk. Although he's by no means harmless, in every episode he appears he ends up being quickly defeated due to circumstances.
  • Grand Theft Me: In "Two To Tangle", Mozenrath tries to take over Aladdin's body.
  • Great Gazoo: Chaos.
  • Groundhog Day Loop: The main cast nearly gets caught up in one until Iago manages to prevent a magical crystal from shattering, thus breaking the loop and freeing the rest of the characters.

Tropes H-M

  • Hammerspace: Genie seems to keep a lot of odds and ends hoarded away for him to pull out when needed. And yes, these are different from the ones he just poofs into existence on the spot.
  • Heel Face Turn: Sadira was never evil, but in her first few appearances, she tried to use magic to steal Aladdin away from Jasmine; eventually she got over her crush and became friends.
    • Queen Hippsodeth and Prince Uncouthma played it the opposite way, each trying to steal Jasmine, but became friends later on.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: When the Ethereal judges Agrabah to be unworthy and starts destroying it, Jasmine sacrifices her life to save a child; this selfless act is what convinces the Ethereal that Agrabah is worthy, and she restores both Agrabah and Jasmine.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: Aladdin defeats Kileem by tricking him (i.e. the invincible armor possessed Sultan) into destroying the statue that was the source of his curse.
  • Hurl It Into the Sun: How they get rid of the fire elemental Magma, and it's suggested he would prefer it there.
    • A literal sun (albeit a much smaller version) was actually hurled into the air when the sprites took Mozenrath's glove in "Lost City of the Sun"
  • Honor Before Reason: Aladdin lives in his home in the slums and wears the same old peasant rags throughout the series because he doesn't want to mooch off the Sultan. When you consider just how sanitary that must be...
  • Hypocrite: Many of the villains have moments of complaining about the heroes not fighting fair.
  • I Am a Monster: Jasmine, when she is turned into a naga.
    • Fatima.
  • I Love You Because I Can't Control You: Saleen wants Aladdin, not because she finds him attractive, but because it's a challenge.
  • Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Despite being a thief, Aladdin has always been pure of heart, and only stole out of necessity; in the series, Mirage explicitly refers to Aladdin as "uncorruptable".
  • Incredibly Lame Pun: Many of the villains' names (Abis Mal, Haroud Hazi Bin, Ayam Aghoul, Amin Damoola, Nefir Hasinauf, and in an Alternate Continuity comic book, Iarr Ess).
  • Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Amin Dimoola.
  • Insufferable Genius: Aladdin's head in "Heads, You Lose".
  • Kansas City Shuffle: Mirage once threatened Agrabah with an obelisk with a killer shadow, and taunted Aladdin by telling him where to find a magic mirror that could stop the obelisk, which turns out to be a Cave of Wonders style death trap. Aladdin gets the mirror and saves the day, but Mirage created an illusionary Agrabah while Aladdin was gone. Aladdin really saved the fake, and while he's basking in the glory of a job well done, the real Agrabah is being erased by the real obelisk.
    • Mirage is beaten when Genie pulls a shuffle on her. Genie used an illusion of his own to make it look like she successfully defeated them, just to get Mirage to come out, bringing her captives with her. Once Mirage appeared, Genie dropped the facade so that Aladdin could destroy the obelisk once and for all.
  • Karma Houdini: Mechanicles and Mirage.
  • Kids Are Cruel: The sprites fit this perfectly, even though their actual age is never confirmed.
  • Killed Off for Real: Dominus Tusk.
  • Kitchen Sink Included
  • Knight of Cerebus: Mozenrath. You know you're a great villain when you're a bigger threat than the "Evil Incarnate" of the show.
  • Lampshade Hanging: Mechanikles/Mechanicles does this every time he makes an escape via a Deus Ex Machina. "People might ask, 'Why build an X?'"

Mechanikles: People might ask, "Why put retractable bat wings on the head?"

    • Done for why Genie wears the golden wrist-bands that came off when Aladdin wished for his freedom:

Genie: The only thing I'm a slave to is to fashion!

  • Limited Wardrobe: Jasmine's nightclothes are apparently a pink recolor of her day outfit. Aladdin rarely ever wears anything except his peasant rags, even though it would have made a lot more sense to get a new wardrobe like the one in KoT.
    • Later episodes do sometimes show him wearing an outfit that resembles his usual clothes, but includes boots and gold trim on his vest, in fact he wears this same outfit at the beginning of "King of Thieves".
  • Load-Bearing Boss: Arbutus' death also destroys his garden; justified in that he was a plant being with control over plants, so the garden was more likely an extension of himself, rather than a separate construct.
  • Lord Error-Prone: A brainwashed Aladdin becomes this in "Dune Quixote".
  • Losing Your Head: Kapok and Aladdin. Don't worry, the latter gets better. Losing his head makes Kapok better.
  • Love Redeems: Minos and Fatima, a pair of villains from Aladdin's past wind up being redeemed and cured of their Baleful Polymorphs through The Power of Love.
  • Mad Scientist: Mechanicles.
  • Make Wrong What Once Went Right: Abis Mal in "Lost and Founded".
  • Mama Bear: Abis Mal has stolen a griffin egg and is holding Iago hostage, what do you do? Release the hounds... er, mother griffin.
  • Marilyn Maneuver: Sadira, in "Dune Quixote".
  • Mayincatec: Thundra and Malcho.
  • Mental Picture Projector: Genie uses one to probe Abu's mind to find out who played pranks during Jasmine's dinner party. Chaos appears and comments on the remarkable likeness.
  • Mind Control Device: Mechanicles' robot, Gregarious.
  • Monster Suit: Machina.
  • More Criminals Than Targets: The Thieves' Quarter, where only thieves are allowed and they steal from each other.
  • Mundane Wish: Averted in one episode, when Eden actually refuses to grant her master's first wish for a sandwich (fortunately, lacking the words "I wish" in front of it) and instead talks her into wishing never to go hungry again.
  • Murder the Hypotenuse: Averted with Sadira, who has had the opportunity and motive, but not the will. She wants Jasmine out of the way, not dead.
  • My Master, Right or Wrong: Subverted, Rasoul is loyal to the Sultan and Jasmine, but despises Aladdin, intending to quit when he marries Jasmine; he eventually lightens up on the "street mouse", even saying that he'll think about calling Aladdin "Your Highness" if Aladdin gets rid of Iago.
  • Mysterious Past: Mozenrath. Part of what makes him interesting is all the unanswered questions about him.
    • Aladdin too, for all we learn about him there are still a thousand unanswered questions about his past. Even after meeting his father we still don't find out all the answers.


Tropes N-S

Mozenrath: "I'll get him yet. I'm so close!"

    • Not to say that other villains doesn't get close to winning at times, like Mirage in Eye of the Beholder, or Mechanikles in I Never Mechanism I Didn't Like.
  • Neat Freak: Mechanikles, in one episode, he tries to steam clean the desert to turn the sand into glass.
  • Nice Hat: Abis Mal has some kind of obsession with hats, including the Sultan's hat and a magical scorpion helmet.
    • This may have something to do with his being bald, which he seems to have a complex about (he makes fairly frequent comments about Aladdin's hair).
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In "The Vapor Chase" a disguised Abis Mal sells Jasmine a bunch of powder he says is for heating but actually releases a sentient smoke monster that steals valuables when lit. Aladdin is suspiscious of the substance from the start and questions if it's safe, but as Jasmine admits later she was too stubborn to admit she might be wrong.
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Mirage, in "When Chaos Comes Calling".
  • Night of the Living Mooks: Mozenrath's mamluks.
  • No Celebrities Were Harmed: Amin Damoola's voice is loosely based on the Peter Sellers version of Inspector Clouseau, including his mangled pronunciation of the word 'monkey'.
  • No One Could Have Survived That: Stated word for word by the Genie towards Abis Maul and Mechanikles in "The Flawed Couple" but...

Aladdin: If anyone could survive, it'd be those two snakes. (And they do)

  • Non-Human Sidekick: Xerxes to Mozenrath.
  • Non Sequitur Thud: Genie.
  • Not Rare Over There: Al and Iago go on a quest for the legendary Orb of Macana, the only thing that could cure a sick Genie. They have to overcome three arduous trials, and after completing each one, the guardian of the Orb goes to a chamber and retrieves it... from among thousands of identical orbs. The guardian complains that at this rate he'll never be able to get rid of them all.
  • Not Using the Z Word: Mozenrath's mamluks.
  • "Not Wearing Pants" Dream: In "As the Netherworld Turns", this is used to convince people that they are dreaming.
  • Obfuscating Stupidity: Chaos; when Mirage tricks the "Master Trickster Archetype" into bringing his brand of fun to Agrabah, she doesn't realize that she's walked right into his Batman Gambit.
  • Offscreen Villain Dark Matter: Abis Mal. He must be a lot better at being a thief than trying to take over Agrabah...
  • Off with His Head: Parodied in the episode, "Heads, You Lose".
  • Oh Wait, This Is My Grocery List: Mechanikles.
  • Ominous Floating Sphinx: Mirage lives inside a sphinx in an asteroid belt.
  • Our Founder: The episode "Lost And Founded" has the Founder's Day celebration of Agrabah, and Abis Mal going back in time to make it so that his family, rather than Sultan's, founded Agrabah.
  • Paint It Black: Evil Jasmine in the episode "Forget Me Lots".
  • Phlebotinum Muncher: The thirdac.
  • Plot-Relevant Age-Up: Prince Uncouthma's son Bud, who's a toddler just a few episodes after his parents were married.
  • Police Are Useless
    • Possibly the best example of the guards being useless is in the episode "Black Sand." They fail to stop an eel.
  • Power At a Price: Mozenrath's gauntlet grants him great power, but wearing it causes him physical pain, and the gauntlet is also implied to have dissolved the flesh on his hand until it's worn on down to the bone.
  • Punny Name: Abis Mal,[2] Abnor Mal,[3] Amin Damoola,[4] Hippsodeth,[5] Ayam Aghoul,[6] Al-Butros [7]... and probably more.
  • Recycled: the Series: It works.
  • Redemption Earns Life: Amal.
  • Red Right Hand: Mozenrath.
  • Rescue Romance: Invoked. Aladdin saves fellow street rat Sadira in a situation that is intentionally reminiscent to the way he saved Jasmine in the movie. Sadira falls hard for him as a result and doesn't really care that he already has a girlfriend, which proves unfortunate when she later gains access to powerful magic.
  • Best Her to Bed Her: Queen Hippsodeth.
  • Reformed but Rejected: Sadira, in "Witch Way Did She Go?", and Aladdin, from the point of view of the guards.
  • Rogues Gallery: Mozenrath, Abis Mal, Mechanicles, Mirage, Ayam Aghoul
  • Ruritania: Odiferous.
  • Safety Worst: In one episode, the Genie shelters Aladdin in a bubble for protection in this manner.
  • Sanity Has Advantages
  • Season Fluidity: Very fluid. Episodes and entire seasons can be watched in almost any order not only because they show was very episodic in nature but the show was also very good and providing light but informative exposition for returning characters.
  • Sharing a Body: Aladdin and Mozenrath, after a botched Grand Theft Me.
  • Shout-Out: Rasoul is named after Rasoul Azadani, who worked at the Disney Studios and proved invaluable in the movie. It didn't make it into the original movie, however. "Rasoul Azadani!" was also the original incantation Jafar shouts to open the Cave of Wonders, but that was considered too in-joke-y.
    • The series also has some Shout Outs to other Disney movies. For example, a mermaid character makes an allusion to The Little Mermaid when an attempt to restyle Jasmine's hair leaves her with an Ariel-style 'do ("She looks like any other princess under the sea").
    • A female genie named Eden also appears, who lives in a bottle instead of a lamp.
    • The episode "Forget Me Lots" features the Blue Rose of Forgetfulness. And here you thought they were done stealing from The Thief of Bagdad with Jafar.
    • Chaos's design is based off of The Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland. He even turns everything but his eyes and smile invisible.
    • In When Chaos Comes Calling, Chaos turns a couple of dinner guests into a a whale and a bowl of flowers.
    • Iago waking from a dream, "It wasn't me I swear! It was my twin brother Othello!
  • So What Do We Do Now?: Merk, the captain of a flying ship that spent his whole life chasing a giant sand shark, found himself in this situation when he (and Aladdin) finally caught it; faced with the prospect of an empty life, he sets the shark free, just so he could chase it again.
  • Somewhere a Palaeontologist Is Crying: In "Lost and Founded", Aladdin briefly goes back to prehistoric times. In the background you can see a massive ceratopsid skeleton, so at first one would presume they had gone back in time at about 65 million years or so, give or take a few. Then a smilodon appears, a creature that not only lived a mere 1.8 MYA to 10,000 years ago, but also lived in the Americas, not northeastern Africa. Later in the episode, fluxes in time cause a man and his camel to transform into a caveman and a ceratopsid, a rather silly thing considering that humans and non-avian dinosaurs are separated by about 65 million-ish years.
  • Space Whale Aesop: "Did you learn anything today?" "Yeah, never walk off a cliff inside a giant mechanical man."
  • Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Iago (not that anyone minds...)
  • Stable Time Loop: Aladdin has to follow Abis Mal back in time to ensure the Sultan's ancestor founds Agrabah, and not Mal's; as a result of their interference of the time line, Abnor Mal gets kicked out of the tribe and forced to live as a bandit, which ensures Abis Mal's life as a thief.
  • Stalker with a Crush: Sadira.
  • Starfish Character: Genie in "The Seven Faces of Genie".
  • Steampunk: Mechanicles's inventions. One episode takes the steam part to the extreme.
  • Straw Vulcan: Caliph Kapok.
  • Super OCD: Mechanicles in a nutshell. Hell, all his schemes revolve around his need for cleanliness. Not to mention he flies off the handle whenever he himself or his clothes, floors, and inventions get dirty.
  • Suspiciously Similar Song: Of Rhapsody in Blue when Genie is dressed as a flight attendant on the carpet. An obvious nod to the famous use of the song by United Airlines, although odd considering in 1992 Delta was the official airline of Disney.


Tropes T-Z

Mozenrath: Getting in was the easy part. Your royal guards served as my escorts.

  • Written-In Absence: Outside of maybe Genie, no character appeared in every single episode. (Yep, even the title character missed at least one episode.) Sometimes a character's absence was explained, other times not. In "Rain of Terror", for example, Aladdin's (plus most of the characters') absence is simply due to the action taking place completely out of Agrabah.
  • Xanatos Gambit: One of Mozenrath's plans involves using Genie as bait for a magic-eating monster, forcing Aladdin to capture said monster in order to save him. One outcome leaves Mozenrath with complete control over the beast. The other gets Genie out of his way. He does indeed end up with the monster in his possession... for a while.
    • Another plan also left him with a smaller victory if he lost, a plan where he would either end up with the Sultan as his hostage, or with Amin Damoola forever in his debt, repaying him for his "generosity".
  • You Need to Get Laid: In one episode Aladdin says Mozenrath needs a girlfriend, but Iago says "I think he's married to his work" and Mozenrath says it's true.
  • You See, I'm Dying: Pretty much Mozenrath's opening line in Two to Tangle.
  • You're Nothing Without Your Phlebotinum: Aladdin still gets this at times. Also, Mozenrath seems to think of himself this way, as he completely breaks down when he loses his gauntlet, even though he still has his kingdom and army of mamluks left. Of course, without his gauntlet, all that he gave up for it would all be for nothing.
  1. ↑ Geddit? Fowl? Because he's a bird?
  2. ↑ Abysmal
  3. ↑ Abnormal
  4. ↑ I'm in the money
  5. ↑ Hips o' death
  6. ↑ I am a ghoul
  7. ↑ Albatross
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