Iago (Aladdin)

DisneyChar
name = Iago


image caption = Iago during one of his relatively calmer moments
first appearance = Aladdin
created by = Walt Disney Pictures
voiced by = Gilbert Gottfried (English)
Éric Métayer (French)
Marc Bellier (Quebec)
Wolfgang Ziffer (German)
Javier Pontón (Spanish)
Héctor Lee (Latin American)
Marco Bresciani (Italian)
Pierre Bokma (Dutch)
Ryszard Nawrocki (Polish)
Rodney Gomes (Portuguese)
Seppo Pääkkönen (Finnish)
Torben Zeller (Danish)
Anders Öjebo (Swedish)
Akira Kamiya (Japanese, film and TV series, "Kingdom Hearts")
Tōru Ōkawa (Japanese, DVD releases, "Kingdom Hearts II")
aliases =

Iago (voiced by Gilbert Gottfried) is a fictional character in the 1992 Disney animated film "Aladdin". He is also featured in the film's two sequels, and is a regular character in the television series. A talking parrot, Iago resembles a Scarlet macaw. He is named after the villain Iago in the play Othello, by William Shakespeare, as evidenced by a throwaway gag in the TV series revealing that he has a twin brother called Othello.

Role in Aladdin

He initially served as a sidekick for Jafar. In the movie he resents living under the Sultan and Jasmine as much as Jafar does, though he contrasts Jafar's dark brooding with his angry, sarcastic ranting. Iago often says how he hates the crackers which the Sultan always gives him, saying " I can't take it anymore! If I gotta choke down on one more of those moldy, disgusting crackers...bam! Whack!". The Sultan seems to not know until the end of the first movie that Iago can talk full English and is one of the bad guys. Whenever Iago gets annoyed he points out that he is molting, often pulling out his own feathers to emphasize it. He is dragged into Jafar's lamp with him at the end of the movie and then banished to the Cave of Wonders as well.

Having escaped from the lamp, Iago then switched sides in the second movie "The Return of Jafar," (in which he had a main role) initially seeming to just want to side with the winners, but in the end choosing to save Aladdin and his friends due to them actually showing concern about him, as opposed to Jafar's typical disdain. Another reason he joins Aladdin is because he's fed up with being pushed around by Jafar. He is, in fact, the one who kills Jafar when, after he is badly injured by him, he kicks Jafar's lamp into the magma. Aladdin saves him from falling into the magma and wonders about his condition, as he thought that a genie couldn't kill anyone. Iago proves this when he revives with a cough and says "You'd be surprised what you can live through."

In the TV series he is still easily frustrated and still very vocal about it. He often provides a sarcastic, realistic or cowardly perspective on things and is only really willing to face danger if great reward is promised. He is sometimes forced to battle between his personality and doing the right thing, which he inevitably (and grudgingly) always does, sometimes even taking independent action when there is no immediate benefit to him. On one occasion when Sadira- a beggar with a wide range of sand-based spells and an obsession with Aladdin- cast a memory spell that made her the princess and Jasmine the street rat, with only the animals unaffected, Iago served as the temporary leader of the group as he, Abu and Rajah fled the palace to find Jasmine before Aladdin married Sadira, while on other occasions he has declined the opportunity to betray the group even if it would result in him acquiring something of value. Iago's common schemes involve trying to sell anything with any value (real or not), trying to steal things, and trying to treasure-hunt. He can usually convince Abu to be his partner in crime but Abu is less greedy (more likely to leave at the sign of danger) and often lacks the finesse that Iago requires. Also during the series, it would seem that he has a crush on the rain bird and protector of the rainforest, Thundra.

In addition to being able to speak fluent English (or possibly Arabic, given the setting of the franchise), Iago has the ability to perfectly mimic other characters' voices. It is implied in "The Return of Jafar" that this is due to Jafar's influence ("If it weren't for me you'd still be in a cage in the bazaar, squawking 'Polly want a cracker'"). He also possesses knowledge of various magicks, learned from Jafar. This proves useful on occasion as Genie's otherwise superior knowledge is 10,000 years out of date.

He has a supporting role in the third movie "Aladdin and the King of Thieves" and chooses to depart Agrabah with Aladdin's father Cassim at the end instead of staying with Aladdin and Jasmine on the grounds that he couldn't handle the "lovey-dovey" stuff.

Like most characters from Disney's animated films, Iago made recurring appearances on "Disney's House of Mouse". On that series, the movies' continuity did not seem to matter, and Iago was depicted as either Jafar's sidekick or hanging around with the good guys.

At Walt Disney World, along with Zazu from the Lion King, he appears as one of the hosts of The Enchanted Tiki Room.

"Kingdom Hearts" series

In "Kingdom Hearts", like in the first movie, Iago works under Jafar. While not a major character, he took the lamp from Aladdin while no one was looking, and played keep-away with Jafar's Lamp with Sora and company trying to get it while dealing with Jafar in his Genie form. A facsimile of Iago would repeat that scenario during the boss-fight with Jafar in "Chain of Memories". In this game, the feathers at the tips of his wings are aqua in color. This changes to its original royal blue in "Kingdom Hearts II".

In "" he makes a brief cameo appearance during the Boss battle against Jafar's genie form. During the battle, attacking Jafar has no effect. Rather, the lamp must be hit which is held up high by Iago.

In "Kingdom Hearts II", like in "The Return of Jafar", Iago leaves Jafar and returned to Agrabah in a slump after failing to make amends to Aladdin and Jasmine. When he unintentionally assisted Sora in the task of beating the Heartless and retrieving Jafar's lamp, he managed to gain everyone's trust. But that trust was soon shattered when Iago was forced to help Jafar yet again in keeping Sora and the others occupied at the ruins. Despite losing faith, Iago redeemed himself by intentionally getting shot by a spell that Jafar intended to shoot at Aladdin. He survived and was forgiven after Jafar's defeat. It should be noted that while his role is still minor his appearance is more important compared with the first game.

His Japanese voice actor in "Kingdom Hearts" is Akira Kamiya, and his voice actor in "Kingdom Hearts II" is Tōru Ōkawa. Gilbert Gottfried reprises his role in the English versions of both games. (An in-joke on an episode of the TV animated series has Iago running in panic after his face is turned into that of Gilbert Gottfried).

References