Iago (Aladdin)
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| Iago | |
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| First appearance | Aladdin |
| Created by | Walt Disney Pictures |
| Voiced by | Gilbert Gottfried |
Iago (voiced by Gilbert Gottfried) is a fictional character in the 1992 Disney animated film Aladdin, a talking parrot resembling a Scarlet macaw who served as a sidekick for Jafar. Iago later switched sides in The Return of Jafar, in which his struggle against his power-hungry nature was a large part of the plot; he remained good in both the movie and the TV series, but he was still largely conniving, greedy, and cowardly. He is most likely named after the villain Iago in the play Othello, by William Shakespeare.
His character is selfish, rude and obnoxious, but he's mostly harmless and has a good heart, which he keeps hidden deep, deep inside. Iago can easily get frustrated, irritated, and fussy, and he is not the type who would want to openly show up his good side. His remarks are insulting yet hilarious and entertaining. The others take no notice of his insults, taking them in stride.
In the TV series, several episodes featured Iago attempting to get rich off of any sort of treasure he can find, sometimes by trying to sneak treasure out of the Sultan's treasure room. Most of the time, Aladdin's mischievous pet monkey Abu accompanied Iago whenever the parrot started to scheme, though Abu's simple-mindedness often made things more troublesome for Iago. At the end of the third movie, Iago, not wanting to put up with the newly-wed Aladdin and Jasmine, leaves with Aladdin's father, Cassim, as a partner.
In addition to being able to speak fluent English, Iago has the ability to perfectly mimic other characters' voices as he's disguising his voice. He also possesses knowledge of various magics, learned from Jafar, although he doesn't perform any magic himself; this proves useful on occasion as Genie's otherwise superior knowledge is 10,000 years out of date.
Like most characters from Disney's animated films, Iago made recurring appearances on House of Mouse. On that series, the movies' continuity did not seem to matter, and Iago was depicted as either Jafar's sidekick or hanging around with the good guys.
At Walt Disney World, along with Zazu from the Lion King, he appears as one of the hosts of The Enchanted Tiki Room (Under New Management).
[edit] Kingdom Hearts series
In Kingdom Hearts, like in the first movie, Iago works under Jafar. While not a major character, he took the lamp from Aladdin while no one was looking, and played keep-away with Jafar's Lamp with Sora and company trying to get it while dealing with Jafar in his Genie form. A facsimile of Iago would repeat that scenario during the boss-fight with Jafar in Chain of Memories.
In Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories he makes a brief cameo appearance during the Boss battle against Jafar's genie form. During the battle, attacking Jafar has no effect. Rather, the lamp must be hit which is held up high by Iago.
In Kingdom Hearts II, like in The Return of Jafar, Iago leaves Jafar and returned to Agrabah in a slump after failing to make amends to Aladdin and Jasmine. When he unintentionally assisted Sora in the task of beating the Heartless and retrieving Jafar's lamp, he managed to gain everyone's trust. But that trust was soon shattered when Iago was forced to help Jafar yet again in keeping Sora and the others occupied at the ruins. Despite losing face, Iago redeemed himself by intentionally getting shot by a spell that Jafar intended to shoot at Aladdin. He survived and was forgiven after Jafar's death. It should be noted that while his role is still minor, he does have a lot more lines and is a little more important compared with the first game.
His Japanese voice actor in the first game is Akira Kamiya, and his actor in the second game is Tōru Ōkawa. He is still voiced by Gilbert Gottfried in the English version of the games. {As a in-joke on the animated series, one episode showed Iago face being changed into Gilbert Gottfried and Iago runs away in panic.}
| Disney's Aladdin | |
|---|---|
| Films, TV & game | Aladdin | The Return of Jafar | Aladdin and the King of Thieves | Aladdin (TV series) | Video game |
| Soundtrack | Soundtrack | A Whole New World |
| Main Characters | Aladdin | Princess Jasmine | Genie | Iago |
| Villains | Jafar | Abis Mal | Mozenrath | Mirage | Mechanicles | Saluk | Amin Damoola |
| Minor Characters | Arbutus | Chaos |
