Return of Jafar, The

image for Return of Jafar, The

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Not suitable under 5; parental guidance to 8 (violence, scary scenes)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Return of Jafar, The
  • a review of Return of Jafar, The completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 5 November 2024.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 5 Not suitable due to violence and some scary scenes.
Children aged 5–8 Parental guidance recommended due to violence and scary scenes.
Children aged 9 and over Ok for this age group.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

Name of movie: Return of Jafar, The
Classification: G
Consumer advice lines: The content is very mild in impact (Disney+ Advisory: This program includes negative depictions and/or mistreatment of people or cultures. These stereotypes were wrong then and are wrong now. Rather than remove this content, we want to acknowledge its harmful impact, learn from it and spark conversation to create a more inclusive future together.)
Length: 72 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

The Return of Jafar is the sequel to Aladdin (1992), in which Jafar (voice of Jonathan Freeman) is trapped in a lamp to live out his life as a genie. Abis Mal (voice of Jason Alexander), leader of a group of thieves, finds Jafar's lamp, frees him and is given three wishes. However, from the moment Jafar exits his lamp, his one goal is to get revenge on Aladdin (Scott Weinger), Jasmine (Linda Larkin) and Genie (Dan Castellaneta). While Jafar is plotting his revenge, Aladdin, along with his pet monkey Abu and his magic flying carpet, are getting used to living in the palace and building a relationship with Jasmine, her pet tiger Rajah and her father the Sultan (Val Bettin). Along with the help of his parrot Iago (Gilbert Gottfried) and Abis Mal, Jafar captures and imprisons Jasmine, the Sultan and Genie, then aims to kill Aladdin using his magic. Iago, deciding to do the right thing, changes sides and breaks Genie and Jasmine out of their chains. Aladdin returns to the palace to stop Jafar but when Jafar sees him he is outraged Aladdin is still alive. Aladdin, Abu and Jafar begin a struggle for Jafar’s lamp in order to destroy it – in turn destroying Jafar for good.

Themesinfo

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Crime; Death; Animal distress or Cruelty to animals; Revenge; Hero vs Villain; Good vs Evil.

Use of violenceinfo

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is some violence in this movie, including:

  • Aladdin walks across the thieves' heads to get to their leader.
  • On multiple occasions, the thieves chase Aladdin with swords, trying to catch and kill him.
  • The thieves and Aladdin are fighting in a big group, and someone is seen being choked.
  • Aladdin drops a chandelier on the thieves.
  • Aladdin nearly falls into the thieves’ sword but is saved by Carpet.
  • Abis Mal shakes one of his men by the neck of his shirt in anger. He then grabs onto Carpet and falls to the ground, being hit on the head by a boulder.
  • Jafar shoots magic at Iago from inside the lantern, then Iago drops the lantern in a well.
  • During the song, 'I'm looking out for me', Iago is going around the streets trying to steal things, while shopkeepers are trying to grab and kill him with swords.
  • Aladdin, Abu and Iago get in a sword fight outside the palace with Abis Mal and the thieves.
  • The thieves pull the swords on their leader and threaten to kill him.
  • Jafar strikes lightning at Abis Mal.
  • Rajah chases, growls and tries to bite Iago.
  • Genie is playing pool and hits Iago with the ball and he flies across the room. Abu jumps on him to get the ball out of his beak.
  • In the song, 'You're only second rate', Jafar is using his magic to torment and hurt Genie and Abu. Jafar then locks up Abu and Genie so they don't interfere with his revenge.
  • Abis Mal kicks Aladdin into the river.
  • The guards put Aladdin's head in a bag and force him into a guillotine but Genie saves him before the headsman cuts his head off.
  • Jafar blasts fire at Aladdin, Abis Mal and Abu, pushing them to the edge of the balcony. He then crumbles the balcony, so they fall.
  • Jafar blasts the ground, almost hitting Jasmine and opening a chasm full of lava
  • Iago drops Jafar's lamp into the lava, destroying him.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:

  • Opening scene has a snake hissing into the camera as if it is going to lunge and bite someone.
  • Jafar comes out of the lamp in a puff of red smoke with yellow eyes. He takes up the whole sky and has an evil laugh. He immediately talks about taking vengeance on Aladdin and Jasmine.
  • Jafar disguised himself as Jasmine and sentenced Aladdin to death.
  • Jafar blasts out of the ground, becoming larger than everyone, to stop Aladdin from getting the lamp.
  • Jafar blasts Carpet, destroying him.
  • Genie and Abu are having a picnic and spiders crawl over the food, then turn into Jafar.
  • Rajah growls and walks towards Aladdin and Abu.

Aged five to eightinfo

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes and scary visual images, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged five to eight, including the following:

  • The first scene is a group of thieves entering what looks like a ruined castle, and stealing a lot of treasure.
  • Men with masks covering their entire face and body, and only their eyes visible, sit by a fire with darkness all around them.
  • When Aladdin flies above Agrabah there are people living on the street who are begging for food and/or money.
  • Abis Mal and Jafar sneak into the palace by jumping over the walls.
  • Jafar threatens and spies on Iago. He uses his magic to make Iago scared by becoming objects, like fire.
  • The guards arrest Aladdin and chain him in the dungeon, thinking that he killed the Sultan.
  • Iago is blasted by Jafar, nearly killing him.
  • Abis Mal and Jafar kidnap the Sultan, Jasmine, Genie and Carpet, and trap them in the dungeon.

Aged eight to thirteeninfo

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

  • Nothing further noted.

Product placement

  • None noted.

Sexual references

  • None noted.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is some nudity and sexual activity in this movie, including:

  • Aladdin and Jasmine kiss multiple times throughout the movie.
  • Genie's eyes pop out while he is watching a hula dancing bobble head, and he says, "Oooh she dances".

Use of substances

  • None noted.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • In the beginning, the leader of the thieves refers to his accomplices as “a band of desert skunks”. He also refers to Abu as a “stupid monkey”.
  • Jafar yells at Iago throughout the movie, calling him things like a “worthless pipsqueak”.
  • A shopkeeper yells at Iago, “steal from us again and your scrawny body will be dinner for the Jackal”.
  • Aladdin is referred to as a “street rat”.
  • The thieves talk about “slicing Aladdin in half”.
  • Jafar talks about killing Aladdin.
  • Iago calls Jafar an “idiot”.

In a nutshell

The Return of Jafar is an animated, fairytale-like Disney movie focusing on Jafar as a villain exacting revenge for the outcome of the 1992 movie, Aladdin. The film is likely to appeal to families with older children. Due to some violence and scary scenes, this film is best suitable for children over 8, with parental guidance for ages 5 to 8.

The main message from this movie is that focusing on good always defeats evil.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

  • Being true to yourself and working as a team can help you achieve anything.

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children the importance of treating people kindly, no matter their background or previous actions.