Review of Aladdin and the King of Thieves (1996) by Raji K — 30 Sep 2016

Aladdin returns in his third and final chapter, Aladdin and the King of Thieves. On the verge of marrying Princess Jasmine, Aladdin cannot help, but wonder about the future and even more so his checkered past. He wonders the most about father who is presumed to be dead and wishes he could be present to witness the ceremony. As the wedding is about to begin, he is robbed by a band of the infamous gang known as the 40 thieves. He discovers the King of Thieves was after a particular scepter. The scepter brings forth an oracle which will grant its user the answer to any one question.

Aladdin decides to use this to determine who his father is, and the adventure begins as he soon learns his father is among the thieves who just crashed his wedding. King of Thieves features a pretty good story, and has some decent songs to go along with it. The songs are well written and advance the plot and do not seem to be forced like some other films have. Robin Williams returns to voice the Genie and offers a good comedic element to the film that was sorely lacking in the previous film Return of Jafar. Linda Larkin and Scott Weinger reprise their roles as Jasmine and Aladdin respectively. The new villain is a strong and violent thug in the name of Sa'luk. He uses a bit of mischief to get Aladdin and his father into quite a bit of trouble. His menacing character design and his claw hand weapon makes him a worthy adversary. A few of the other thieves have intriguing character designs and unique abilities that were fun to watch. The lot of them put on a good song titled "Are you in or out?". The gang is focused on obtaining the hand of Midas which will turn any item into gold.

The side characters, Sultan, Apu, and carpet have lesser roles in this film as this film primarily focuses on Aladdin and his father. Jasmine and the Sultan take a back seat as well for most of it, as they are most focused on making sure the wedding happens. The film focuses on the value of family and how this is more valuable than any treasure. The animation is good enough for a straight to video picture, and is easily one of the better Disney sequels out there. Fans who are fans of the first film may want to watch it to get complete closure for the characters that were so well developed and written in the original film. The film does not come close to surpassing the original, but this not expected, and it is a better follow up than the first sequel.

-10.01.2016.