Customer Reviews

Aladdin and the King of Thieves

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Cinderella II. Lady and the Tramp II. Lion King II. Pochahontas II. The Hunchback of Notre Dame II. Return of Jafar. The list of direct-to-video stinkers made by Disney seems to be endless. Fortunately, Aladdin and the King of Thieves is the exception.

Released early on before Disney decided to defile it animated classics, Aladdin and the King of Thieves features a solid, new storyline that does not simply rehash the original. Maybe this extra attempt at quality was made to get Robin Williams to reprise one of his coolest roles? After two movies and countless tv episodes, Aladdin and Jasmine are finally getting married. Then the forty thieves show up and trash the wedding, and Aladdin goes on a quest to find his father and a unique treasure with the golden touch. While not targeted to older kids like Disney's Atlantis was, this movie is slightly darker than the two that came before it, which is a good thing. A lot of this comes from the forty thieves, who sing about robbing, plundering, in an endearing kind of way. There is a sword duel conveyed in hellish reds, murky blues, and shadows, and lightning is used to symbolize Aladdin being wounded. And the villain's demise is quite original, not the usual "falling to their death" we've seen over and over. In fact, I daresay Atlantis even borrowed the demise for their film's climax. All in all, it's an entertaining, never-boring, thrill ride, and ties up the saga nicely, with a nod to the street merchant who began this whole thing.

The songs in Aladdin and the King of Thieves are not up the quality of the original, but they are much better than all the other Disney DTV's. The two songs the forty thieves sing are quite hilarious and memorable, the romance song didn't make me cringe at all, and the opening number gets the ball rolling really well. The only semi-clunker is the father and son song, but that wasn't bad either. The animation isn't cinema-quality, but it's also above-average and commendable. My only curiosity with this movie is some of the Genie's jokes. The animators went with whatever ad-libs Robin Williams came up with, and even after six years of watching this movie, I still can't understand most of them, especially the homages to past comedians. This is the only part children won't understand.

Aladdin and the King of Thieves is a high-quality Disney DTV, and as things stand, their ONLY high-quality release ever. Worth picking up on video, or even on the eventual DVD release.

"The Return of Jafar" was a big step down from the grand Disney hit "Aladdin." Everything about it - the animation, the acting, and the music - was low-quality. But probably the biggest disappointment was that Robin Williams, the perfect Genie, was gone. It was little more than a long Saturday morning cartoon.

"Aladdin and the King of Thieves," on the other hand, is a surprisingly well-made and entertaining direct-to-video cartoon sequel. Not only did the creators return Robin Williams to do his excellent job as Genie, but they also cast none other than John Rhys-Davies (Indiana Jones, The Lord of the Rings) as Cassim, Aladdin's long-lost father. Their acting is the best part of the film.

While the animation is by no means as good as that of the original "Aladdin," it is fairly well-done, and much better than that of "Return of Jafar." The locales and characters are colorful and original. The songs of the movie are only so-so, but the music is better. The storyline with its plot-turns moves along fairly well and keeps the viewer's interest as Aladdin and company search for Cassim's coveted treasure, the Hand of Midas.

All in all, the Aladdin trilogy is redeemed from the failures of the middle chapter by this surprisingly well-made and entertaining film. Hopefully, the entire trilogy will one day be available on DVD.

ALADDIN showed viewers an unforgetable world.... THE RETURN OF JAFAR was a trasy disappointment....

And now Aladdin has his final adventures as the trilogy comes to a close in this final episode, ALADDIN AND THE KING OF THIEVES. The best part was by far Robin Williams' return as the great blue Geenie. But another pleasent suprise was a fresh, orginial plot (compared especially to THE RETURN OF JAFAR's reused plot), and entertaining new characters (such as the Forty Thieves).

However, the music is no better than THE RETURN OF JAFAR's. Not even the big fanale song. I wish we hadd Alen Meken and Tim Rice back. Their music for the first ALADDIN film was extrodnary! I'll never forget how they helped Aladdin show his princess a whole new world! The visual effects were a treat, though, and made up for the loss of good music. The Geenie's scenes were extreamly elebrate, and the scenes featuring the Hand of Midis were also nicely done.

It was also nice for Aladdin to find relations, but his father's excuses for not being there for Aladdin when he needed him were extreamly poor. As bad as THE RETURN OF JAFAR was (in my opinion). And if you've seen my review of it, you know how I feel.

To sum everything up, ALADDIN AND THE KING OF THIEVES was a treat, but still not as 100% classic as ALADDIN was. It was enjoyable to find that Disney obviously learned their lesson after the trashy THE RETURN OF JAFAR. (Reccomended to rent, but NOT a must-have for your video library unless you have the other two and want to complete your ALADDIN collection.)

This DTV sequel of Aladdin would not have been as great without the talents of Robin Williams. The animation is very DTV-ish, with the exception of the Vanishing Isle sequence. The music is fair, but does not capture the spirit of Alan Menken, Howard Ashman or Tim Rice's music. The story is about Aladdin and Jasmine getting married. During the ceremony, a band of forty thieves bust in. The king of thieves is actually Aladdin's long lost dad, Kasim [John Rhyes Davies of the Lord Of The Rings trilogy]. The villain here is Saluk, played by the late Jerry Orbachs, who you probably know from Law & Order and Beauty and the Beast.
Robin Williams brings back all his wackiness and impersonations, including Forest Gump, Woody Allen, a funny spoof of the Osmonds.[''Boys! Come out here and see what's happening!''], Pumbaa, Mickey Mouse, and Rambo. The funniest scenes are when Genie is trying to cheer up Jasmine and a wild scene in The Vanishing Isle.

I've had this video since i was 3 years old and it still makes me laugh. The songs are wonderful, and the plot is great. Aladdin and Jasmine are finnaly getting married but at the wedding the are a few uninvited guests- the forty theives. Aladdin is greatly interested in one theif the King Of Theives. For the King of theives is his own dad. A great segual to the origanal.

I liked the movie, as did my 3 & 4 yr olds, but just not as good as the first movie. My kids have not requested to watch it in a very long time like most of the other Disney movies we own. It is a good movie - just not as much of a hit as The Lion King and Toy Story. Rent it. Then you'll know whether buying it is worth it or not.

1smileycat :-)

As if Jafar was bad enough, Disney added the forty theives to this movie. And Aladdin and Jasmine is about to finnaly get married. But the 40 thieves shows up un-invited. Aladdin does have a father. But Aladdin thought he was dead. But his father is alive. Robin Williams (Mrs. Doubtfire, Aladdin) is back as the Genie.

Exactly as described. Fast shipping and item came in fine condition. Loved that it was still sealed and filled the qualification of new. Thanks so much!

Aladdin and the King of Thieves is one hour and twenty minutes and released on video on August 13, 1996. This was the second and last sequel to the original Aladdin movie and in my opinion The Return of Jafar was better of the two sequels. The basic story is that Aladdin and Princess Jasmine are getting married and Aladdin feels empty because his parents are not around to enjoy this day. Aladdin finds out that his father is still alive and goes on a quest to find him and rescue him from the Forty Thieves. Aladdin finds out that is his father Cassim is the King of Thieves. Father and son reunite and go looking for the Hand of Midas. Find the Hand and Cassim realizes that his greatest gift is his son, tosses the hand into the sea. Aladdin and Princess Jasmine get married while Cassim watches from a distance because he is still a criminal. Cassim and Iago ride off to the sunset. To get a better dicription of this movie go to this website: [...]. For me this was nothing more then Genie singing and showing off during the entire movie and some of Robin Williams scenes could have been left on the cutting room floor. Also there is a major goof in this movie as well. At the end of Aladdin, Genie is given his freedom and his arm bands were removed. In this film however, the genie still has his arm bands. Even in the Return of Jafar there are no arm bands on Genie's wrists. During the first thirty minutes there was one musical number after another and some could have been left out. Aladdin and the King of Thieves only get a C from me.

VHS PREVIEWS

I. 101 Dalmatians-Live version
II. Muppet Treasure Island
III. Oliver & Company
IV. James and the Giant Peach

The big day has finally arrived. The entire kingdom has turned out for Aladdin (Scott Weinger) and Jasmine's (Linda Larkin) wedding. Thanks to the Genie (Robin Williams), it looks to be a spectacular day.

But then tragedy strikes. The 40 Thieves attack the wedding and try to steal just one present. Yes, that's right. But that present turns out to be an oracle that will answer one question. And through that oracle, Aladdin learns that his father is still alive.

What he doesn't realize is that his father, Cassim (John Rhys-Davies), is the leader of the thieves. The family reunion pits Aladdin against Sa'luk (Jerry Orbach) who isn't happy with the way that Cassim has been running the gang. How will Jasmine react to the identity of Aladdin's father? Can Aladdin reform his dad? And how many different Disney movies can Robin Williams reference?

This movie was better then I remembered. Having Robin Williams back as the voice of Genie really made a huge difference. And his many Disney references absolutely cracked me up. The story moved along fairly quickly, when it wasn't sabotaged by the songs. While some of the songs were fun in the last one, here they are all boring. They should have taken them out and just let the movie be that much shorter.

This is still only an average follow up to a great film. But fans of the original will enjoy it, and it will keep kids entertained.