The DVD Fairy

Abis Mal: Some rambling

So the thing about this character that I didn’t like when I was younger is that I didn’t much like the straight comedy characters (and I won’t lie; I usually tuned in hoping for a new Mozenrath episode that I hadn’t seen before), so I didn’t spend a lot of time really thinking on this character’s motivation. It usually began and ended with

1. He’s a bumbler. It’s pretty much what he’s there for.

2. He wants a Genie.

3. He wants to be Sultan because “big hat.”

4. Disney pretty much owned Jason Alexander in the 90s. (See other evidence: The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Rogers’ & Hammerstein’s Cinderella, Madeline, Hercules…)

But in watching this episode I kind of get him a little better, and you can see a clear line between the character he was in Return of Jafar and what he’s become between then and the start of the series.

Apparently another thing that his experience with Jafar has taught him is that magic at least somewhat increases his chances of success. He nearly killed Aladdin in the movie and totally would have succeeded if Jafar hadn’t intervened at the last minute.

The fact that he knows what a Roc is and how he can put a baby Roc to use in his plans suggests he has either been doing his research or he was smart enough to hire someone who does. And considering in later episodes he has to explain to Haroud why he’s stealing or using some given magical artifact that leads me to think he actually figures this shit out by himself.

Haroud has further served as a good balance for him because that heist was apparently a test run to see how well the feathers worked. Not something he probably would have bothered with before he got an assistant.

This picture is purely so you can appreciate some of these between frames. These animators did the better parts of Return of Jafar and it’s glorious.

Bit of headcanon: When Aladdin and the gang hear Haroud very loudly and unsubtly talking about how he agrees with Mal’s plan to use magic to kill Aladdin? I think he already knew they were there. Because it sounds like a canned conversation thrown out as bait.

Speaking of magic being used to kill people? Yeah, apparently Abis Mal has done that recently, too.

He’s killed somebody with a spell before. And despite that he has no qualm with killing or trying to kill people for the rest of the series this was apparently so bad it gave him nightmares.

Which makes me highly doubt he’ll actually use the spell again even if he threatens to.

Introducing: Haroud

Much of this liveblog will be devoted to explaining why I love this character so much. This is Haroud, technically Abis Mal’s second in command, who pretty much always says what he’s thinking.

I have to wonder what made Abis Mal decide to take him on, but I think after Jafar he decided he’s more marginally successful when he’s got someone working for him that he thinks is smarter than he is. Even if they are sassy.

And man, Haroud is sassy.

Since apparently nobody’s plotting to kill Abis Mal anymore it’s working out for both of them.

lolwat

You’re making it worse, Aladdin

Apparently when you taunt tornadoes:

They grow swords and attack. Nice going, Aladdin.

Look, I know it’s an Abis Mal episode, but I just expected him to have different employees. The one on the far right, at least, was in Return of Jafar and I thought their contract was pretty permanently severed when he tried to murder his boss and then fled into the desert.

Why are these people still working for him?

So they discover that the thieves can turn into whirlwinds with the use of baby Roc feathers. We learn this because Genie plays exposition man, pretty much his primary job on the show.

He knows everything when it’s convenient.

“Abis Mal, scourge of the desert, not a nice guy,” he says.

So apparently he also serves as exposition man even for stuff that Aladdin and Abu knew before he did.

The “Scourge of the Desert” title was coined here. It’s not mentioned before this.

And now for a string of screencaps for expressions that I found especially amusing:

Just most of the frames with Iago here. Look at a couple more:

Animation is a Hell of a drug.

And despite having the proof he needs Aladdin refuses to go back because he thinks they can catch Abis Mal, too.

…Abu, you can make that face again. It is appropriate.

Done with your shit, Aladdin.

Oh, it’s an Abu-centered episode, too. (Aladdin Might Be an Asshole, Part 3)

Not gonna lie, I didn’t have very high hopes for this episode when I started it. Abu’s not terrible but I don’t think he brings enough to the table to carry a whole episode aside from the fact that he’s Aladdin’s friend.

And after the Marketplace is attacked by thieves disguised as tornadoes, we learn why Abu is going to carry this episode: Because it’s time for another installment of Aladdin Might be an Asshole.

It begins with Aladdin lecturing the guards because they apparently never do anything. Leave alone that they were a good deal less capable of putting up a fight during the attack than he was because they couldn’t move. But now he expects they’ll do still more nothing (partly true because they assume the tornadoes are demons), said in a tone suggesting he thinks that’s pretty much all they ever do.

Leave alone that he spent most of his childhood being chased by them. And if that was so easy for him to do that he can accuse them of being lazy then what he was saying in his opening song from the original movie was that his ability to stay “one jump ahead” didn’t require any real skill at all.

Anyway, the guards bet he can’t prove they were thieves, and the price for losing is that Fizal, one of the guards, gets to keep Abu.

Now at first, Aladdin responds correctly. Abu is his friend and is not a possession he can give away.

But a little heckling from Razoul puts a stop to that right quick.

Quick sidebar: Razoul is interesting in that he shares similar design features with Pete and Lucky, two other Disney characters that Jim Cummings plays. He will pretty much consistently serve as “the cop who never listens” that is present in a lot of media, who has a personal problem with Aladdin because he spent so many years having to chase after him. He also serves as the “bad cop” because more than once in the series he will jump the gun on punishments and sentencing.

He will get an episode way down the line that allows him to develop as a character and for him and Aladdin to come to respect each other, all of which will be completely retconned by the third movie.

According to the IMDB page they had people on staff to keep an eye on continuity and fish-smack anyone that deviated from it, but I guess they were out sick when King of Thieves went into production.

But back to the story. He willfully bets Abu against the guards’ claims and has the nerve to be surprised when the monkey is pissed off at him for using him that way.

I sure hope he’s learned his lesson by the end of this episode because I will be really disappointed if this becomes a plot point again in the future.

Aladdin might be an asshole. Not an irredeemable one, but about as much of an asshole as you’d expect a teenager to be without meaning to.

Oh, and the lamp’s back.

Production Code Episode 1: Air Feather Friends

Why yes, the series does start off with an Abis Mal episode. I’m not surprised; it’s their first one, and they would have wanted to start with something familiar. Also it lets them reuse lots of backgrounds from Return of Jafar.

Note About Upcoming Episode Liveblogs

While I may jump around to favorites or to introduce specific series characters when I’ve a mind to/when they’re requested, on the Episode Master List I will be listing episodes by their production code number and not by the order in which they were aired. Usually when production code numbers differ from airdates they tend to reflect when they were actually written and when the writers intended for them to occur.

Looking over the episode lists for the Aladdin TV series, there are several code numbers that do not appear, implying there are at least a few episodes (13 by my last count) that were written but either never produced or never aired.

I just thought that was interesting!

Return of Jafar: Conclusion

Genie. Genie, no.

Credit where it’s due. Sometimes Abis Mal isn’t as unintelligent as I assume he is. Jafar has just given him everything he wanted from his original wishes and more, to convince him to use his final wish to free him from the lamp. (And if they’d explored the Genie conflict a little more this could have been rather interesting, with Jafar realizing that as long as Abis Mal refuses to free him [at least until he makes a wish] he’s bound to the lamp and whoever holds it. Pretty much forever.)

And Abis Mal? Sees right through this shit. How do I know that if I free you, this stuff won’t all disappear?

Of course Jafar has been counting on his ability to scare him up until now but you can sort of see that starting to unravel. He’s starting to understand the power he holds (which will make Abis Mal obsess over having his own Genie for much of the series).

Also, movie: Waiting until the last five minutes of the movie to point out that destroying the lamp will kill Jafar? That could have been vital information much earlier in the movie.

Can we take a moment to consider and appreciate the fact that Genie, a creature who is completely incapable of killing and is one of the nicest, most welcoming characters in the series is just like “KILL HIM” when it comes down to fighting Jafar.

Think about that for a minute.

And the destruction of the lamp is pretty interesting. There are some moments throughout that take a second or two to focus on facial expressions (which were fast enough that I had trouble capping them) showing that Jafar understands that he’s dying. They’re extremely brief closeups, but effective.

And then we get to the close of the film. Iago is a hero and is part of the family now. Aladdin refuses the Sultan’s offer to make him royal Vizier. What more does he want? Iago asks.

The world, he answers. (of course.) He wants to see more of it, which serves as an obvious but comfortable segue into the TV series to follow.

But how often will Aladdin’s adventures take him outside of Agrabah? When will the Genie’s lamp pop up again? Will there be any interesting crossovers with other Disney shows worth noting?

All of this and more to come in future liveblogs.

Want more episodes? See the Episode Masterlist.
Hop on over to the Series Theories page for organized rambling.
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Much better, movie.

This was actually a well-paced action scene.

Even Abis Mal’s presence didn’t harm the tension it built because he wasn’t overplayed. It showed he could be dangerous when given the upper hand.

The moment when Jafar chooses to save Aladdin so he can suffer later always genuinely surprised me as a child, not because I expected Aladdin to die but because this is usually when Carpet shows up (where the hell is Carpet anyway?)

And thus began Abis Mal’s obsession with taking over Agrabah so he could wear the Big Hat.

So the oversaturation of Abis Mal episodes in the series can be blamed on this.

Thanks a lot, Jafar.

JASMINE WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOUR ARMS?

Jafar why are you still trying to get in her pants? You’re not fooling anybody.

So another bit of headcanon: I think that Jasmine has probably witnessed one beheading in her life, and it was when she was wee. Her father prevented such a thing from ever happening again, and most executions were carried out under Jafar’s watch instead.

No hat.

THE BIG HAT LIVES.

I kind of love how Jafar avoids inevitable plot holes

He knows that he pretty much has to do what Abis Mal tells him to do until he’s made his third wish (having tricked him out of the first two), so he just scares the bejeezus out of him anytime he starts talking about wishes. This isn’t a man afraid of being killed. This is a man afraid of the genie that’s going to intentionally misinterpret his wish.

And Iago might not be a favorite among fans, but at least it can be said that he goes through genuine growth in the film. He’s changed enough well before this point that the choice to screw someone over because Jafar told him to is no longer an immediately simple thing to do. This is pretty much the moment he becomes the character that follows into the rest of the TV series.

Oh, and then Jafar sings a song at the Genie about how his powers are better. This could have been a lot more interesting. The notion that Genie is now “semi-phenomenal, nearly cosmic” is touched on here and several times during the series. He recognizes that he has become limited, and I like to think that a lot of his fail!antics here and in the series are because he’s so unaccustomed to being so limited.

He’s used to that shit just working.

And this could have been a fun conflict to explore, especially since Jafar even refers to the comparison between the two of them as a rivalry, but not enough time goes into playing around with this for it to really mean anything. We could have had a genuine moment where Genie wonders if he really is better off free from the lamp, because he lacks the power he used to have, ultimately deciding that yes, freedom is worth it and he knows Jafar envies him that now.

Kind of a big point this could have been, considering Jafar was the only person in the original movie who pointedly referred to him as “slave.”

Also interesting that Genie spends MOST of this movie, with few exceptions, with legs, as a way of showing he’s no longer bound to the lamp (as opposed to losing his bracelets). In fact, I don’t think you even SEE the lamp in this movie.

I’ll be interested to look for when it first pops up in the series.

Also what the Hell, Jafar:

Because we needed creepy imagery AND a rhyme.