One of my favorite Disney movies growing up was Aladdin. The rebellious and tenacious protagonist in combination with the humourous and ever-quipping genie made for such a fun experience.
Upon thinking over the movie recently I came to realize that part of the movie was strange to me. All of the animals in the film are more intelligent than their real-life counterparts, but one in particular stands out.
Iago is the parrot sidekick and secondary antagonist of the movie. Throughout he is poking fun at both the protagonists and Jafar, he almost seems to be there against his will and is taking his frustration out on anyone he can talk at.
Before I talk about my theory on Iago, I want to set the context with the other animal characters we see in Aladdin.
The most prevelant animal would have to be Abu, Aladdin’s monkey sidekick. Abu seems to be a pretty normal monkey. He doesn’t talk, he moves in a traditional monkey form where he primarily uses all four appendages to get around, and he’s intelligent enough to be loyal to Aladdin. There may be slightly more personality and independent thinking than a real-life monkey, but I can’t think of any activity that goes beyond the norm of an animated monkey.
There is also Jasmine’s much less-seen animal sidekick, Rajah the tiger. Rajah also seems to be a pretty standard tiger. I’m sure some could make points about Rajah never attacking Jasmine, but there have been records of tigers being raised by a human and basically becoming a huge family outdoor cat.
There are a few other animals seen throughout the Aladdin movies, but only the three that I’ve mentioned get enough screen time to warrant attention in this theory.
Now that we’ve established that the Aladdin cinematic universe largely follows normal animal logic, what makes Iago different?
The first thing I want to address is Iago’s intelligence. While he is the only animal that can talk in this universe, it’s not just the normal parrot talk. Parrots learn words and phrases and the times to use them (with occasional misuse of phrases). But Iago is actively responding with full sentences and humor that is far beyond the scope of normal parrot behavior.
Iago also shows signs of a conscience. In the second film, The Return of Jafar he has a change of heart and helps the protagonists. While I’m sure the promise of not stuffing his face with crackers would be a solid incentive to change sides, Iago’s switch is more of a change based on principles. He simply doesn’t want to be with the bad guys anymore.
All of that is fine and good, but my question is why is Iago different?
Well first, Aladdin is set in a world with magic. While magic isn’t an everyday occurrence in this world, it seems accessible to those who are looking for it.
Second, the character that we initially and regularly see Iago with is Jafar, one of the characters who is confirmed to use magic. We see him hypnotize (or at least attempt) the sultan throughout the first film. It’s not outside the realm of possibility for Jafar to have been able to use other magic at times.
What if Iago used to be Jafar’s assistant as a human? We see that Jafar looses his temper and gets frustrated easily when Iago picks fun at him. I think that in one of Iago’s sarcastic rants Jafar got so frustrated with him that spells were cast and poof, Iago is a parrot now.
Now I know that this is a take with little evidence to back it up, and I can see the argument that Iago has plenty of opportunities to mention getting turned into a parrot or even to ask the protagonists for help. But I think that Iago kind of like being able to fly and do parrot stuff (whatever that all entails).
But ultimately, that’s just a cinema theory.
Cianan’s Content 