Quick Update!

Hahaaa, you remember when I was like “I’ll continue this tomorrow” and then I turned out to be a liar? Work’s been crazy (I’m doing fortunetelling to make up the difference my job leaves; it’s been THAT kind of month). 

I do intend to continue and shall soon (just not at work because it’s not where my screencaps and scripts are). In fact I have my talking points and screencaps for the rest of the episode already planned out. Looking forward to seeing you there!

Because Carpet doesn’t want to spend an entire episode solving a mystery, he delivers the captured sprite immediately, and credit where it’s due: While Aladdin and company are quick to assume he did something wrong, they also figure out just as quickly that this tiny fairy-bug-thing is what made the mess. 

Carpet knew they had it in them. 

What ensues appears to be what is going to be the main focus of the rest of this episode: 

Cuteness overload. 

Somehow I suspect there might have been a plan to sell toys at some point. 

Meanwhile in Unobservant-Land

The gang’s debating how Carpet could have taken such a bad turn. Cue snide remark from Iago about how “it’s always the quiet guy,” and you’re all terrible.

I am also once again a little thrown by the gendered pronouns, but even here we have Jasmine expressing that Carpet has “always been a perfect gentleman.” Like, I’m not dropping them because the gender is canon, but I’m still over here going 

I said I’d let you have it Disney, and I’m going to, but I want to reiterate the girl carpet was a silly idea and I know it makes sense that the writers and the characters even within their own reality are imperfect enough to just make the assumption, and Carpet probably wouldn’t even complain, but really. 

Really. 

Of course, the conflict there could have been is resolved faster than it would be in an episode featuring another side character, because as I said before: Carpet is the smartest character in the main cast.

Also I was right in one regard: The Sprites will pick up anything they’re curious about. They are those kids for whom the words “look but do not touch” are understood only separately. 

Carpet, Nonverbal Characters, and Conflict

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I might have more to say on this subject once I finish the episode, but I’m just imagining having to do an entire episode developing on a character that doesn’t talk when all the other characters do. This can occasionally serve as a challenge to animators for a children’s show, but as we know, it is not impossible. We see it everywhere, and while Abu can manage a few decipherable words, we have entire episodes centered on him with similar challenges. 

This is the first time in the series, though, where a character’s inability to even make sounds in order to communicate becomes a sticking point for a conflict. We’ve seen Carpet play charades before – in Forget Me Lots he tried his best to explain to Aladdin that he’d forgotten his anniversary, so that’s twice now, at least, where Carpet’s ability to interact with his family is challenged. 

Juxtapose this with the fact that even the movie sets Carpet up as probably the smartest character in the cast, something reinforced in episodes like The Wind Jackals of Mozenrath, too. 

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There’s a lot of potential here. 

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There’s an opportunity to explore how a character may feel about being misunderstood because they haven’t the same tools everyone around them has to make themselves be understood. And that’s kind of an important issue to explore in a kids’ TV show and it’s kind of a shame that this probably isn’t going to be the central focus. 

I don’t think this is going to carry on for very long because for the sake of the episode moving forward and only having twenty minutes to tell a story, the writers don’t always have the opportunity to hold on an issue or explore deeper. 

Get ready to suspend your disbelief a little harder, everybody.

Because occasionally the show makes sense, the noise (and some mild pestering) awakens the Sultan. However, occasionally the show also doesn’t make sense and because we can’t have nice things, the Sultan immediately assumes Iago and Abu trashed the entire palace in the middle of the night. 

My favorite thing is that it immediately transitions to the next day where he’s lecturing them. As if he went “I know exactly who did this, but it’s 3 am and I’m tired so I’ll deal with this in the morning.” And apparently nobody else was woken in the night somehow? 

Iago and Abu are understandably confused because they sleep at the same time as everybody else, and Aladdin’s in double-trouble because the Sultan decides he’s responsible for them even though Aladdin was the only one in favor of punishing them the night before and was even prepared to banish them from the palace. (Seriously, the Sultan was the one demanding he go easy on them.) 

In this moment, everyone but Carpet, apparently, has stopped paying attention because the sprites come right out in the open and steal the Sultan’s turban and yet nobody else sees this. 

Give me a break. 

Sultan, at this point, is somehow still convinced that Iago and Abu are doing this. Somehow. From the floor. Yeah. 

Until Carpet gets it back. And then he’s immediately blamed. 

I made a sarcastic remark about how the sprites might handle living things but I kind of hope they drop literally everyone in this room at some point, because the conclusions they’re jumping to are ridiculous. This has gone from an “animal sidekick shenanigans” episode to a “nearly impossible misunderstanding leads everyone to assume Carpet is going through a destructive phase” episode, and this is how we want to develop this character? Really? Okay, let’s unpack this. 

So this is what I meant about these sprites not really lining up with any folklore I’m especially familiar with. Their whole thing is that they seem to interact with the physical world by picking it up – by which I mean they fly around things so fast that it causes them to fly. 

We get the impression that they’re curious and checking things out, so they must get something out of just…picking things up and carrying them. I don’t know if they get any sort of special feedback from doing this or if they’re literally just going up to each other going “look what I found!” But either way, as with most classic faefolk, your threshhold for good and evil varies between vindictive and viscious, or – as we see here, well-meaning but deeply irresponsible. As soon as they lose interest in an object they drop and break it. Can’t wait to see how they handle plants, pets, and people. 

So the sprites sneak in to explore the palace when everyone goes to sleep and HOLD THE PHONE

Jasmine, is that…

…

IT IS. 

It’s the cursed necklace from The Spice is Right. 

The one that got put back in the box at the end of the episode. What are you still doing with it, Jasmine? 

Why do you even WANT this necklace, Jasmine? Why would you choose to keep a piece of jewelry that even resembles it???