Aladdin and the King of Thieves

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Aladdin and the King of Thieves
Directed by	Tad Stones
Produced by	Jeannine Roussel Tad Stones
Written by	Mark McCorkle Robert Schooley
Starring	Robin Williams Scott Weinger Linda Larkin Gilbert Gottfried John Rhys-Davies Jerry Orbach Val Bettin Frank Welker CCH Pounder
Distributed by	Walt Disney Home Video
Release date(s)	August 13, 1996 (VHS) 2005 (DVD re-release)
Running time	80 min.
Language	English
Budget	N/A
Preceded by	The Return of Jafar (1994)
IMDb profile

Aladdin and the King of Thieves is a direct-to-video animated film made by Disney, released on August 13, 1996. It is the second sequel to 1992's Aladdin, following 1994's The Return of Jafar. It marks the end of the Aladdin films and the Aladdin animated series.

This movie grossed $186 million, making it the fourth highest grossing direct-to-video animated feature film of all time. In 2005, the film was re-released as a Special Edition DVD, with digitally restored picture and remastered sound.

The movie is based loosely on the tale Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves from the 1001 Arabian Nights, replacing Ali Baba with Aladdin.

[edit] Storyline

During their wedding ceremony, Aladdin and Princess Jasmine find themselves the targets of a raid by the infamous Forty Thieves, led by a man named Cassim. Although Aladdin, Jasmine and the rest of their gang successfully stopped the raid and drove the thieves away, they are unable to prevent the wedding from being ruined. Determined to learn what the thieves were after, Aladdin finds an unusual staff (which The King of Thieves tries to steal) among the treasures given as wedding presents. The staff contains an oracle, able to see into the past or the future, but is only able to grant an answer to one question asked per person.

Overcome with desire to know more about his family, Aladdin asks the oracle about his long-lost father, and learns with shock that it is The King of Thieves,Cassim. Struggling to believe this information, and still curious about what the thieves' real intentions were, he tracks them down and eventually defeats Cassim's right-hand man, Saluk, in battle, gaining him a place among the thieves. It is then that he learns the true motives behind the raid, and his father's leave of absence from his family: He had discovered evidence of the existence of the Hand of Midas, a powerful artifact that can transform anything it touches into solid gold. Cassim believed that, with the Hand, he could return to his family and give them the life they deserved instead of one living out in the streets, and had instigated the raid so he could capture the oracle's staff so he may question the seer as to the precise whereabouts of the artifact.

Aladdin convinces Cassim to come back with him to the Palace as his guest and, for a while, he is happy to spend quality time with his son; but, the pull of his obsession with the Hand is too great, and he ends up stealing the Oracle's staff and gets captured by the palace guards. Aladdin helps his father escape, but he is recognized by the Captain of the Guard and forced to flee with Cassim and Iago, Aladdin's treasure-loving parrot. Rather than abandon Jasmine (like his father had left him), Aladdin angrily confronts Cassim and returns to Agrabah to take responsibility for his actions. Meanwhile, Iago and Cassim return to the thieves' cave, and find that Saluk is still alive and is now the leader of the remaining thieves. Because Saluk has tricked the remaining thieves that Cassim has informed the palace guards to capture many of the theives, in which he didn't, Cassim is forced to use the oracle he took to find the location of the Hand: An enclosure built on the back of a gigantic undersea turtle.

Iago manages to escape, and leads Aladdin and Jasmine to his father. Aladdin and Cassim reconcile and retrieved the Hand once the turtle begins to submerge when they are attacked by Saluk, who doesn't know the legend of the Hand, is turned into gold. Aladdin and Cassim manage to escape with the Hand but, finally realizing how much pain his obsession with the trinket had caused, Cassim decides to toss it into the sea. However, it does not hit the sea just instantly. It hits the thieves' ship instead, turning it gold, and it sinks. As the movie closes, Aladdin and Jasmine finally tie the knot, and Cassim accepts the parrot Iago as a traveling companion as he goes off once again to see the world.

[edit] Voice Cast

• Aladdin - Scott Weinger (speaking) & Brad Kane (singing)
• Princess Jasmine - Linda Larkin (speaking) & Liz Callaway (singing)
• The Genie - Robin Williams
• Abu - Frank Welker
• The Sultan - Val Betin
• Iago - Gilbert Gottfried
• Cassim - John Rhys-Davies
• Sa'luk - Jerry Orbach
• Rajah the Tiger
• The Oracle - CCH Pounder
• Razoul - Jim Cummings

[edit] Japanese dub

• Aladdin - Shinichiro Miki (speaking) & Kazutaka Ishii (singing)
• Princess Jasmine - Kaoru Asou
• The Genie - Koichi Yamadera
• Abu - Frank Welker
• The Sultan - Kinpei Azusa
• Iago - Akira Kamiya
• Cassim - Masaru Ikeda
• Sa'luk - Haruhiko Jo
• Razoul - Yusaku Yara

[edit] Trivia

• In the original 1992 film, Genie makes a reference to the Forty Thieves during "Friend Like Me." In this movie, he in turn makes reference to that song when, referring to Aladdin, he tells Cassim, "You've had chums for pallin' around with, but you've never had a friend like him!"

• Robin Williams returned to voice the Genie after Disney apologized for the use of his likeness in the promotion of the original Aladdin film (Williams believed Disney had broken the terms of his contract). Dan Castellaneta had actually recorded all the dialogue of the Genie for this film, as he did with the previous sequel due to Disney's differences with Williams, but his recording session was not used when Robin Williams agreed to reprise his role. In fact, this was Williams' only true reprise of the Genie.

• 

  

  Genie transformed into Pocahontas from Pocahontas.
  Williams' many impersonations included someone he created: The title character of the 1993 comedy film Mrs. Doubtfire.

• In the tale, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, Cassim is the name of Ali Baba's brother, who is trapped in the cave after forgetting the password that opens it, and is killed by the thieves when they return.

• Earlier ideas for the film included Aladdin finding out that Mozenrath is actually his brother. They did not use this idea because the voice actor did not agree to reprise his role, and also because the filmmakers felt they should draw attention away from the TV show.

• The Merchant who started telling the story of Aladdin from the first film appears at the end of this one, implying that he told his unseen audience the story of all three movies. The song that the Merchant sings is a reprise of "Arabian Nights", the opening song of the first movie. The reprise had actually been written and recorded for the first movie, but was not included in that final product.

• At the very end of the credits, the Genie appears in front of the black screen and says, "Game over man, game over!" This is a spoof of an identical speech by the character Hudson in the movie Aliens.

[edit] External links

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Aladdin and the King of Thieves

• Aladdin and the King of Thieves at the Internet Movie Database
• See movie reviews for Aladdin and the King of Thieves at TopTenREVIEWS.com