Aladdin and the King of Thieves

Aladdin and the King of Thieves wraps up not only the storyline from the first film, but from the animated series as well. It is miles better than Return of Jafar, and probably the best of the direct-to-video sequels. It is an enjoyable, breezy and fun romp with these familiar characters. And, unlike Jafar, it expands the mythology in a unique and interesting way. It never comes close to the heights of the original, but it is mindless fun. And it features the return of Robin Williams as the Genie.

As we all know by now, King of Thieves features the big reveal over who Aladdin’s father is, take a wild guess! But, it also brings in another of the 1001 Arabian Nights stories into the Disney-version continuity. This time around we have a variation of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, no Ali Baba, but we’ve got a band of thieves who hide in a cave that can only be accessed by proclaiming those two magic words. Do I really need to tell you what they are?

This by far the better of the two sequels, but it still suffers from poor animation and musical numbers. None of the songs are terribly memorable, and the animation seems to get cheaper and noticeably off-model in certain sequences. Budgetary issues? Seems likely, I can’t imagine a lot of time, care and money were poured into these things. But it’s harmless entertainment. I was entertained by it as a kid, I still kind of like it as an adult. But it doesn’t compare to the 1992 original.