Jafar (Disney character)

Jafar is a fictional character, voiced by Jonathan Freeman, in the Disney film Aladdin and its sequel, The Return of Jafar. He is an evil sorcerer and the former Grand Vizier of the Sultan of Agrabah.

Jafar is tall and thin, and almost always depicted in flowing robes of black, dark red and other moody colors. Jafar has a pet parrot named Iago, who switched sides in The Return of Jafar. Jafar carries a cobra-head staff, which he uses for his sorcery. He tries to use Genie's powers to take over Agrabah, first wishing to become the sultan, and then the most powerful sorcerer in the world. Jafar had transformed himself into a giant cobra to kill Aladdin, but just as Jafar was squeezing him to death, Aladdin tricked Jafar into using his third and final wish to become an all-powerful genie himself. Jafar was red in hue, possibly to represent his more "evil" nature contrasting with Genie's blue tone. In Western culture, genies are almost always portrayed as being confined to small oil lamps until they are released to do a human's bidding; Jafar was therefore trapped by his own selfish wish for power. Jafar is usually shown to be somewhat comedic, even in his times of evil and cunning (proclaiming "ewww" when contemplating beheading, or constantly mispronouncing Aladdin's alias' name). His more interesting characteristics than most Disney villains is probably the reason that he lived at the end of his movie, at the same time arguing with Iago ("This is all your fault" "Oh, shut up, you moron!" "Don't tell ME to shut up!"). In the Return of Jafar he was considerably more fiendish, and was killed at the end of the movie.

In The Return of Jafar, the now-genie Jafar was released by Abis Mal, and, after cunningly making Abis-Mal waste his first 2 wishes, threatens Abis into helping him. His plan included kidnapping (and in some instances, replacing) the royal family and framing Aladdin for the Sultan's "death," (It happened when Jafar cuts down the Sultan's hat to think that Aladdin killed him.) which would have caused him to be beheaded, but (with help from a reformed Iago) the heroes managed to escape. When Jafar discovered this, he opened up a fissure into the earth, and was destroyed when his lamp was melted in the pit of lava he had created (ironically he was on the verge of getting Abis Mal to wish him free, which would have made him almost invincible, although his powers would have been reduced).

Jafar later made one more attempt at revenge in an episode ("Hercules and the Arabian Night") of Disney's Hercules TV-show spinoff, where he was temporarily revived by Hercules' arch-enemy, Hades. The two villains teamed up to get rid of Aladdin and Hercules by having them fight against each other, but their plan failed and Jafar ended up dead again, and has not at this point made any reappearances in the official Aladdin continuity.

However, despite his death, Jafar has also had a recurring role on Disney's House of Mouse. He was even the central villain of the direct-to-video film Mickey's House of Villains. Jafar even went on a date with Maleficent in one episode and many fans agreed that they did make an excellent Disney couple! The two are often compared as both have regal bearing, bird side-kicks, are exceedingy tall, and their robes seem to confine their movements.

Fantasmic
In the Disney-MGM Studios version of Fantasmic! Nighttime Show Spectacular, Jafar is one of the villains The Queen evokes to fight Mickey Mouse and ruin his imagination.

Like the movie, Jafar turns into a giant Cobra. When Mickey finds a lamp, he rubs it assuming it'll help, but Jafar instead changes into a Genie. Jafar then responds by calling Hades and Chernabog to help the rest of the villains. Mickey eventually defeats him with the rest of the villains after killing the dragon version of Maleficent.

Kingdom Hearts
Jafar debut as one of the members of Maleficent's inner circle. He planed to use the Heartless and take over Agrabah. Jafar kidnapped Princess Jasmine, one of the seven Princesses of Heart. Aladdin tried to save her by using a wish, but Iago then steals the lamp and gave it to Jafar. Jafar tried to kill Sora by sending the Pot Centipede Heartless after him while made his way to the Cave of Wonders. He used his magic to control the Cave of Wonders Guardian. Inside the Cave of Wonders, Jafar made his first wish to show Agrabah's Keyhole. Then, at Jafar's boss fight, he made his second wish to make Genie crush Sora and the gang (which should not be possible, since according to Genie in the movie, he can't kill anyone). Genie then relucantly fights alongside Jafar against Sora and friends but Jafar is defeated by Sora. Then, at Jafar's final boss fight, he made his third and final wish to turn into a powerful genie, then he sinks into a underground chamber lava filled to get big rocks to toss at Sora. In the end of this boss fight, Sora defeated Jafar by sucking him in his lamp.

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
In a facsimile of Agrabah created from Sora's memories, Jafar appears to take over Agrabah with the Heartless. In order to get the lamp, he tricks Aladdin to get the lamp so he could make Jasmine marry him. Jafar's first wish is to get Jasmine back. Then, he makes his second wish to make Genie protect him from a sneak attack, which was actually planned by Aladdin to have Jafar waste the wish. Jafar's third and final wish is to become a genie. He teleports the gang to a room filled with lava and attacks by throwing magma rocks, shooting lasers and pounding his fists. He is unique in that he is the only boss that cannot be directly attacked; the player must attack Iago, who carries the lamp, when the platforms rise to an appropriate height. In the end, Jafar is defeated.

Kingdom Hearts II
Jafar's lamp was found by the Peddler, making him a target for Pete, who intended to make Jafar into a Heartless under his control. But Sora and gang managed to take the lamp and sealed it in hope Jafar would never reappear. But that was not to be when the Peddler found where the lamp was placed and Jafar was released. As he forced Iago to keep Sora occupied, Jafar used his genie-powers in another attempt to take over Agrabah. However Sora destroyed him, his mystical body damaged enough to explode, and Jafar's lamp was no more.

Arabian Nights tales on Jafar
The name Jafar seems to be derived from a character named Jafar or Giafar (جعفر) in tales of the Arabian Nights, who is the Vizier to Caliph Harun al-Rashid; this character in turn was based on a real-life vizier, Ja'far bin Yahya Barmaki. Harun and Giafar were the protagonists of many stories in Arabian Nights, but Giafar was never presented as a villain. Note that the tale Aladdin (which was not part of the original Arabian Nights) features a vizier (unnamed) who is jealous of Aladdin but not a real villain, and an evil African magician. Disney's Jafar seems to be a merge of those two characters.

Jafar bears a strange resemblance to Ay, King Tutankhamun's Vizier. Tutankhamun's untimely death at the age of 18 or 19, together with his failure to produce an heir, left a power vacuum that his Grand Vizier was quick to fill: Ay is depicted in the famous treasures of the boy king's tomb conducting the funerary rights for the deceased monarch and assuming the role of heir. The grounds on which Ay based his claim to the throne are not entirely clear. He was certainly a powerful figure under Tutankhamun, as he had been under Akhenaten: in some records he is referred to as "regent", and he had been close to the center of power for some 25 years.

Trivia

 * Like many Disney villains Jafar is a representative of the evils of a certain flaw, in this case, ambition.
 * Jafar is usually placed in the category of "pun-spouting villain," which is obviously shown in the previously named Hercules episode. However, while he does shoot off a series of puns at the end of the first movie (when he decides to amuse himself with his rather bad sense of humor), he never really says any other puns before or after.
 * The villain in the 1989 computer game Prince of Persia is also a vizier, but his name is spelled "Jaffar".