THE RETURN OF JAFAR
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 1997 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): * 1/2
Imagine an INDIANA JONES sequel with Harrison Ford replaced by a minor actor whose repertoire consists mainly of small parts in a dozen obscure films. The 1993 direct-to-video sequel to Disney's huge hit ALADDIN, titled THE RETURN OF JAFAR, has all of the main actors back save one. But that one, Robin Williams, was the only reason for ALADDIN's success in the first place.
Replacing Williams in the role of the Genie is Dan Castellaneta, an actor whose most recent picture was SPACE JAM in which he appeared 24th in the credits and played the role of "Male Fan." Suffice it to say that he is no Robin Williams.
To be fair to Dan Castellaneta, the plot for THE RETURN OF JAFAR can be summarized as let's get the old cast together, have them cavort in the same settings, sing some songs and generally kill the minimum amount of time necessary for something to be called a movie rather than a short. In this case, the picture does fill 66 minutes of video tape and can, therefore, just barely be legitimately referred to as a feature length movie.
With his toothy smile and boyish good looks, Aladdin is back along with his gorgeous girlfriend Jasmine, wearing her same slightly revealing costume. Their voices are done by Scott Weinger and Linda Larkin and, like most of the rest of the cast with the exception of Williams, are the same as in the original.
In a movie about which it is hard to find positive things to say, the songs, while far from memorable, at least are tuneful and full of energy. Before watching this tape, we tried the 1970 movie SCROOGE with Albert Finney, where the songs are so pitiful that they sound more like sung dialog. The songs in THE RETURN OF JAFAR, none of which I can remember now, did have at least possess plenty of pep and sounded like real songs.
Jafar (Jonathan Freeman) with his sinister little goatee is up to his old tricks -- like most of this unimaginative movie, there are few new tricks. The show plays more like a series of outtakes from the original than a sequel. The only way you can tell this is not the case is the absence of Williams.
The jokes are not particularly funny or original. Even Disney's usual superlative animation isn't up to par. Looking at the credits, it appears that much of the drawing was farmed out. All and all, THE RETURN OF JAFAR is a pretty lame film.
THE RETURN OF JAFAR runs 1:06, which means less than an hour if you exclude the credits. It is not rated but would be a G and is suitable for all ages.
My son Jeffrey, age 8, thought it was "pretty good," and claimed he liked it almost as much as the original since the same characters are back.
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