Following the huge success of Aladdin in 1992, Disney commissioned its television animation studio to create a show successor. When the creators of the series decided to make the pilot about Jafar seeking revenge on Aladdin and rule all of Agrabah, Disney chose to market the pilot as a direct to video sequel entitled The Return of Jafar. Released nearly 2 years after the first film, the sequel sold over $300 million on VHS sales alone and soon prompted a whole slew of straight to home video Disney sequels. That being said, it is today deemed one of the worst examples of such work, and for good reason too.
The film follows Jafar, now an all powerful genie, seeking vengeance towards Aladdin and his friends. At the same time, Iago turns against Jafar by means of going back to the palace, causing much turmoil towards the protagonists. With a premise like that, one would hope for a thoroughly engaging revenge story with the good and evil duking it out. Sadly, the biggest issue with Return of Jafar is how rushed and unfocused it is, as it would rather focus more on Iago trying to make amends with Aladdin and the gang than on Jafar plotting his master plan to rule all of Agrabah. It doesn't help that the person Jafar manipulates to help with his plan is a dreadfully annoying dimwitted thief Abis Mal whose only purpose is to get back at Aladdin for foiling his criminal activities. As a result, the story feels too fast paced for its own good in getting from plot point to plot point that the only amount of substance we get is the conflicting relation between Aladdin and Iago. At merely an hour runtime, Gilbert Gottfried has too much material for his own good that Iago is worth groaning at rather than rooting for.
Speaking of Gottfried, while the cast from the original do their best with the subpar material they have, the inclusion of Jason Alexander as Abis Mal is way too distracting. While Alexander can be very funny in the right role, Abis Mal comes off more as George Costanza in an Arabian thief disguise rather than a fully realized character, sadly aided by too much dialogue for the character's tolerance. It's sad when Dan Castellaneta doing the Genie is far more likable in his role than Alexander is as a villain, since at least there are times when he does sound close to matching Williams' energy. Even the singing talents of Liz Callaway and Brad Kane feel completely wasted on insipid musical numbers that feel more at place in a Saturday morning adventure series than a Disney sequel. It's bad enough that poor Gilbert has two songs to handle on his own, the movie doesn't need to shoehorn more forgettable material on sheer talent. Sometimes the cast of a feature can save a fairly weak feature with their talents, but when they fall short, it's not really their fault as much as the work itself.
As for the film being intended for television from the start, it goes without saying that the animation quality in Return of Jafar is lower than that of the first film. It's hard to be critical of the visual work when a whole different studio is working on a followup to a feature like Aladdin, especially when the people at Disney Animation Australia and Japan had done some fantastic work in later endeavors. Unfortunately, the difference in art direction can be sighted from the background art looking more like oddly painted backdrops than a full fledged Arabian landscape. Seeing the characters drawn hastily for efficient production is probably the worst offender as it shows just how it is to draw a Disney character, let alone get them to move. While the layouts are definitely ambitious enough, they're sadly undermined by grotesquely flat color palettes. Arguably, the biggest highlight in the animation comes from the effects department, as the broad range of lights and power create a lot of tension in the film's climax. Otherwise, we're left with a feature that should've stayed on television instead of VHS.
As a followup to Aladdin and as the first direct to video Disney sequel, The Return of Jafar pales in comparison in every single regard. While the cast and crew did their best with the rushed schedule and subpar material they had, the result is nothing more than Disney shamelessly cashing in on the success of one of their most popular films at the time without much care for who would see the film or not. Unless you're a die hard Aladdin fan or curious to get through all those weird Disney sequels of back then, you're better off pretending this never happened and hope that Jafar remained in the cave of wonders.
