The Disney Sequel Marathon: “Aladdin and the King of Thieves” (1996)

The third entry in the “Aladdin” trilogy comes close to capturing the magic of the original 1992 film.

Having recently watched The Return of Jafar, I figured I’d keep with the momentum and watch the third and final entry in the Aladdin trilogy, Aladdin and the King of Thieves.

At long last, Aladdin and Jasmine are going to be married, and all of Agrabah has turned out for the celebration. However, the nuptials are interrupted by the group known as the Forty Thieves, whose king wants to obtain a staff containing a powerful oracle. As it turns out, the King of Thieves is none other than Cassim, Aladdin’s long-lost father, who plans to use the Oracle to obtain the Hand of Midas, a powerful talisman that can transform anything it touches to gold. Aladdin thus finds himself torn, between the life he’s trying to build with Jasmine and the bond he always wanted with his father.

While Return of Jafar leaned into the slapstick of Saturday morning cartoons, King of Thieves takes a more measured approach to the material, which is evident in everything from the animation to the songs. Though it doesn’t come anywhere near the exquisite detail of its theatrical predecessor, the animation still captures more depth than we saw…