My Review of Aladdin and the King of Thieves · 2:19am Aug 28th, 2021
Rating Scale:
12/10—a complete masterpiece; flawless and outstanding
11/10—Excellent, near-perfect film
10/10—the standard rating; awesome film with a couple of flaws
9/10—a wonderful film with several flaws
8/10–a great film with numerous flaws but not enough to ruin it
7/10—a fun and entertaining movie; not great but still enjoyable
6/10—a slightly above average film; it is something I might watch again
5/10—mediocre movie; not awful but not great either
4/10—a below average film; it could have been much better
3/10—a bad film; poorly written and poorly executed
2/10—a very bad movie; the few good things in the movie overshadowed by the bad things
1/10—a terrible movie; a total waste of time
0/10—a worthless piece of abomination; should have never been made
Good evening, everyone. I am back with another review for our Disney Friday. It is time to finally conclude my review for this trilogy as I talk about the third animated installment and the second sequel to the original film: Aladdin and the King of Thieves. In my humble opinion, this movie is a lot better than the previous film since it has a new villain, new characters, a much more intriguing plot, and actual character building for Aladdin. Even though it is far from perfect, it was a much better film than The Return of Jafar ever was. Once again, this will be a quick review since there isn’t much to discuss about it. Let’s go!
Just right off the bat, the animation is as terrible as was that of the previous film due to the low budget thereof. Nevertheless, the interesting plot and good characters make it forgivable and tolerable.
As for Aladdin, we see that he actually had a father this whole time, and that his father is the King of Thieves. Huh, that really makes a lot of sense to me. Considering the fact that Aladdin has always been a thief throughout most of his life, it would stand to reason that he could be recognized as the Prince of Thieves. We see how hard it was for both Cassim and Aladdin ever since they’ve been apart and how they had to make up for such lost time as father and son. To me, it made Aladdin’s backstory and character development so much more solid and grounded than ever. Cassim himself was a really interesting character too. The more he displayed his cunning demeanor and sassy personality, the more I liked him. John Rhys-Davies did a terrific job voicing him.
Also, it was really refreshing to hear the late Robin Williams return to his role as Genie for this movie. Considering how Disney did him dirty prior to The Return of Jafar, it made this movie featuring him much more watchable than that atrocity.
The main antagonist, Sa-luk, was very intimidating and imposing in terms of brute strength and intelligence. He’s basically Disney’s version of Bane (a villain from DC) if nothing else. With his sharp claws and menacing stature, he proved himself to be a force to be reckoned with and someone not to be screwed with. I mean, he literally killed a shark with his bare hands, single-handedly betrayed most of his own comrades with the help of the royal guards for his own selfish purposes, convinced and bested his remaining fellow criminals to join his mutiny, has a catchy villain song, and actually gained what he wanted at the end (which lead up to his ultimate demise). I gotta say, that guy fulfilled his golden opportunities to the end.
Props to the late Jerry Orbach (the same voice actor of Lumiere from Beauty and the Beast) for voicing this worthy sequel villain!
Almost everything else in this film were well done. The humor was kinda a hit and miss but still wasn’t entirely terrible, Genie stole every scene he was in, the character development was top-notch, the writing was great, and the music wasn’t that bad. In fact, two of my favorite songs from this are “Welcome to the Forty Thieves” and “Are you In or Out?” Well done, Carl Johnson and Mark Watters, for the music!
Overall, this was a great conclusion to the trilogy and was so much more entertaining and enjoyable than the previous dumpster fire. This gets a 9/10.
Peace!
Aladdin got closure on his dad. That's a bonus.
I have a question:
How interesting do you think it'd be if both this movie and "The Return of Jafar" eventually got re-animated to match the style of the first movie?
Ok, I did see this movie, and while the animation isn´t the best, it´s hilarious. I loved it as a kid. And to think that Lumière could also be an intimdiating villain
!
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That would be good.
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It’s funny, really.
As I look back on how many direct-to-video Disney sequels were made during the 1990s, I find that the biggest reason behind some of their shortcomings could very much be the fault of Michael Eisner. If he hadn’t decided to shove every sequel that several of Disney’s employees were coming up with into the direct-to-video department, then they likely would’ve gotten better results as films made from Disney’s Feature Animation department. Particularly in terms of the animation quality.
Suddenly I just remembered something:
“Out of Thin Air” is quite honestly the most gut-wrenching song this movie provided. It not only provided a great exploration on Aladdin’s backstory, but the melodies and singing were strong enough to make me feel like crying. In a good way, of course.
I particularly enjoyed how supportive, comforting, and wise Jasmine was being for Aladdin.