Jafar is a fictional character in Walt Disney Pictures' animated film Aladdin (1992). He is voiced by Jonathan Freeman, who also portrayed the character in the Broadway musical adaptation.
Aladdin (voiced by Scott Weinger, singing voice by Brad Kane, portrayed by Mena Massoud in the live-action film) is a street urchin who ends up becoming the prince of Agrabah after meeting Jasmine in the streets and being recruited by Jafar to retrieve the magical lamp from the Cave of Wonders.
Jafar is the main antagonist of Disney's 1992 animated feature film Aladdin. As Royal Vizier of Agrabah, he was presented as the Sultan's most trusted and loyal advisor.
The original Aladdin story was actually set in China. Aladdin is one of the stories compiled in The Thousand and One Nights — a collection of Middle Eastern and Indian folk tales, however, it did not appear in the original Arabic text.
Jafar serves as Grand Vizier of Agrabah (so he's sort of like a prime minister) and chief advisor to the Sultan. He is also secretly plotting to overthrow the beloved ruler and take his place on the throne. Acquiring the lamp — and Genie — is part of his scheme, but Aladdin stands in his way.
Aladdin(1992) - Jafar Helps Aladdin Escape The Prison
Is Jafar a bad guy?
In the 1992 adaptation of Aladdin, where he is voiced by Jonathan Freeman, Jafar is the grand vizier of Agrabah, the Sultan's most trusted advisor. He is also an evil and sinister sorcerer who strongly dislikes being second best. Jafar secretly plots to obtain the Genie's magical oil lamp and rule Agrabah.
He manipulates the Sultan, believes that other lives besides his own are worthless, and creates quite a ruckus when he finally becomes an all-powerful sorcerer.
Aladdin is a young man from a Chinese/Cathay town tricked by a sorcerer from Maghreb (North Africa). While the setting is in China, most of the characters of the story are moslems, which suggests that the setting is probably in Turkestan (from Central Asia to Modern China's province of Xinjiang).
While the movie is set in a city based on Baghdad, Iraq, Aladdin contains aspects of multiple Middle Eastern and Asian cultures. The sultan's palace in Aladdin, left, and the Taj Mahal in Agra, India.
Her country of origin, for example, has been frequently disputed. While some claim Jasmine is Arab because the movie opens with a song called Arabian Nights, others believe that the architecture in Agrabah is clearly based on the Taj Mahal, making Jasmine Indian.
Jafar is an old, Arabic man who seems to appear crippled from the scarceness of his body weight and poor conditioned teeth, he wears a long white beard, dark skin, a big nose, and tired eyes. In the movie he is made out to be an evil character due to his appearance and Arabic dialect.
Nasira is the main antagonist of the 2001 Disney videogame Aladdin: Nasira's Revenge. She is Jafar's fraternal twin sister who tried to resurrect him in the game, and bears many similarities to the fairy witch Maleficent.
Cassim is the father of Aladdin. Long before the events of the first film, he left his wife and young son in order to find a better life for the poverty-stricken family. While he was gone, Aladdin's mother died, leaving Aladdin as a presumed orphan.
Known along with Ali Baba as one of the "orphan tales", the story was not part of the original Nights collection and has no authentic Arabic textual source, but was incorporated into the book Les mille et une nuits by its French translator, Antoine Galland.
Princess Jasmine, a fictional character from Disney's animated film "Aladdin," is not explicitly identified as Indian in the movie. Instead, she is depicted as a resident of the fictional city of Agrabah, which is often seen as a blend of Middle Eastern and South Asian cultures and influences.
Mena Massoud (Aladdin) is Egyptian, Nasim Pedrad (Jasmine's handmaiden) and Navid Negahban (the Sultan) are Iranian and Marwan Kenzari (Jafar) is Tunisian.
But, though those tales were of medieval origin, Aladdin may be a more recent invention. Scholars have not found a manuscript of the story that predates the version published in 1712 by Galland, who wrote in his diary that he first heard the tale from a Syrian storyteller from Aleppo named Hanna Diyab on May 8, 1709.
Like some villain characters from other franchises, Jafar is attracted to a beautiful girl or woman that is a protagonist. He was attracted to Princess Jasmine, but primarily for her good looking body, and not for Jasmine herself as a person.
Jafar has no morals at all. He's willing, even eager, to kill Aladdin. He wants to become Sultan because he's a complete megalomaniac who can never be satisfied. He wants his revenge on the present Sultan - under whom he has risen to the role of Grand Vizier, because he was born into the position.
However, Iago tried to attack Jafar in Aladdin's defense. The sorcerer managed to hit Iago and nearly killed him, but the bird managed to muster up enough strength to kick his former master's lamp into the lava, destroying the lamp and killing Jafar for good.
