In this moment specifically, and once or twice with Abu in the scene preceeding. It sounds tinny, like the VAs for Aladdin, Mozenrath, and Abu were using bad mics or even phoned those lines in.
Throw on some headphones when you watch this episode on youtube, and when you get to “The Thirdac is under my control” line by Mozenrath you’ll see what I mean.
Behind literally everything else in the shot.
Once again pretty modern looking office supplies in the background.
Those glass things in the background are iffy but they DO resemble containers seen around tesla coils in some settings.
At the end of the day this could just be a design flaw that somebody didn’t catch when going through post-production and people just weren’t thinking about period correctness, but holy crap. If you take it at face value it’s a headcanon goldmine.
Looks like electrical equipment, with vents, metal plating, etc.
My brains are starting to leak out of my ears. SOMEBODY who lived or currently lives in this place is a time traveler. There is no other explanation.
And a modern desk?
Mozenrath what have you been doing and where have you been?
Did they recycle parts of this background from Darkwing Duck or something? What is going on here?
So the Thirdac gets Carpet. And this could have been really tense.
It takes Genie all of two seconds to grab what’s left of Carpet away.
Why didn’t you expand on this, writers? Genie is afraid to the point of near uselessness and there’s good reason for him to be that way. I know you don’t want to rehash him learning to be brave all over again after “In the Heat of the Fright” but that whole arc sucked, and showing Genie in a moment of real danger consider his options, acknowledge he’s still afraid and then risk his life to save a friend, which is something he’s never really done before would have made for a really strong, compelling scene.
On the Thirdac’s normal plane of existence, everything is magic. Everything.
Now, there’s a lot of magic in Aladdin’s world but it’s not a constant. So in this world, the Thirdac is, as Aladdin points out “dying of thirst.”
Mozenrath is going to let it starve so it’ll be more vicious toward his enemies – thus when he “feeds” it his rivals it gets to depending on his orders for food. And yeah… that’s kinda messed up, Mozenrath. I wonder where you learned that from.
Well that planet behind Iago is obviously Jupiter, and I’m guessing the one Abu is leaping toward is Saturn.
Is it space? Are you telling me the Thirdacs are from space? The cyclopic magic eaters that could eat Genie out of existence? Are from space? Are they the pets of the Old Ones? Is that what you’re telling me, episode?
Are you telling me magic is everywhere in space?
Because that would be kind of awesome.
I like seeing that my “stack all the books on top of each other in a precarious corner” form of organization also goes over well with Disney villains.
So they find the collar. That’s fine. I was expecting that. What I wasn’t expecting was for Genie to exclaim “AND HERE’S THE INSTRUCTION MANUAL” and be right.
Why did you make an instruction manual for a device you never intended to share, Mozenrath? Did you invent the collar AFTER the Thirdac got loose? And then just…plant it back in the Citadel hoping it wouldn’t get your scent?
Are you really so anal about your inventions that you have to clutter your lab up with patents you never plan to show anyone? Just in case of copyright infringement?
Were you and Mechanicles roommates?
Mozenrath is oddly confident that Aladdin won’t allow his friend to be the Thirdac’s next meal.
Because I spent so much time criticizing his little “hiring test” earlier I kinda had to roll over in my head the reasons why he’d be so confident – other than the fact that his ego seems to depend on not being wrong, ever.
Crappy exercise though it was, he could learn enough from his first encounter with Aladdin to come to this conclusion: 1) Aladdin said he would only risk his life to save others. 2) He demonstrated this when, as the creature came after him one last time, he put himself between the monster and the woman with no protection whatsoever, meaning he was brave enough to shoulder extreme harm to protect the life of a complete stranger and her sandpaper-voiced monster baby.
Now, I could be a little less harsh on Moze’s judging criteria and say he probably might have picked Aladdin on that merit alone in case he had to go back in there with him. If he was going to have to risk it and he was hiring help, pick the help that might feel inclined to try to save you if a monster gets the drop on you.
But I’m not going to give him the benefit of a doubt on this one. There was no way in Hell he intended to go back in there before the Thirdac had a collar on.
I also like to think that he snapped at Xerxes for “not being quiet enough” because he kept interrupting his monologuing earlier.
And Genie cannot handle his making light of the situation.
Aladdin, respect my terror; this thing doesn’t want to eat you.
(Also apparently Iago and Carpet are off looking for the collar. Thanks for not keeping it in a sensible place, Moze.)
The DVD Fairy 