Iago (Arabic: ياغو‎) is a fictional character in Disney's Aladdin franchise, starting out as a secondary antagonist and comic relief of the first film, and later supporting protagonist of the film's sequels and TV series. He is nominally part of a royal menagerie in fictional Arabian city, Agrabah. Iago is voiced by Gilbert Gottfried.^[1]

Development[link]

Voice acting[link]

Iago's animator Will Finn tried to incorporate some aspects of Gottfried's appearance into Iago's design, specially his semi-closed eyes and the always-appearing teeth.^[2]

Gilbert Gottfried has said that his voiceover career really began after voicing the character in the 1992 film. “... that has been one of those things that lives on,” he said. “That seemed to open the door for other voiceover jobs.” ^{[1] [3]}

Gottfried's unique onstage persona led to him being cast as the wise-cracking Iago.^[4] Gottfried is often referred to as "the Iago guy" and similar terms, being more known by his voice role than by name.^[5][6]

Personality traits[link]

Iago resembles a Scarlet macaw. He can speak fluent English and has the ability to perfectly mimic other characters' voices.^[7] He also possesses knowledge of various tricks learned from Jafar. He is easily frustrated and openly vocalizes his frustrations, and avoids direct confrontations if he can help it, but when required, he can be quite cunning and mischievous.

Iago is also known for his notorious greed of treasure and gold, for which he will go to outlandish lengths to acquire, usually dragging along Abu to help him, but Abu's incompetence always costs him. Iago is often put in situations of deciding between saving his own tailfeathers or doing the right thing. His guilt always leads him to do the latter, usually costing him some form of reward or riches, for which he always berates himself afterward.

His name is actually an ironic reference to Shakespeare's play Othello. In the play, the main character Othello has a sidekick he believes to be trustworthy named Iago. All Shakespeare's Iago cares about is getting himself ahead and his own selfish wants. He ends up creating a devious scheme to find a way to get what he wants and ends up surprising Othello when he betrays him.

Appearances[link]

Aladdin[link]

According to a piece of conversation in Return of Jafar, Jafar had picked up Iago in Agrabah's bazaar and reared him as his accomplice in crime. In the first movie he resents living under the Sultan and Jasmine as much as his owner Jafar does, though he contrasts Jafar's dark brooding with angry, sarcastic ranting. Iago often says how he hates crackers which the Sultan always gives him. The Sultan seems to not know until the end of the first movie that Iago can fully comprehend and coverse in human speech and is evil. In the end Iago is dragged into Jafar's lamp with him at the end of the movie and is banished to the Cave of Wonders.

The Return of Jafar[link]

Iago serves as the deuteragonist of The Return of Jafar. Having escaped from the lamp, Iago switches sides, mostly because he is fed up with being pushed around by Jafar. Over the course of the film, Iago slowly warms to the idea of friendship after Aladdin saves him from the Sultan's wrath in return for Iago unintentionally saving him from Abis Mal, finally risking his life to kill Jafar by pushing his lamp into molten lava. After his heroic deed, he is welcomed into Aladdin's extended family.In the Film Iago performed the song "I'm Looking Out for Me."^[8]

Aladdin and the King of Thieves[link]

He has a supporting role in Aladdin and the King of Thieves, where he helps out with Aladdin and Jasmine's wedding, as well as aiding Aladdin to find his estranged father Cassim, who happens to be the King of the Forty Thieves. Acting on behalf for Aladdin, Iago convinces Casssim to attend the wedding, promising that he will help him get the Hand of Midas. In the end, Iago chooses to depart Agrabah with Cassim instead of staying with Aladdin and Jasmine on the grounds that he could not handle the "lovey-dovey" stuff. He also points out that Cassim's sense of thievery is more in line with his as well. However, Iago does promise to visit the couple frequently. He is last seen with Cassim waving farewell to the newly-wed Aladdin and Jasmine as they ride off to the night.

Aladdin TV series[link]

In the series he provides a sarcastic, realistic, or cowardly perspective on events and is only really willing to face danger if great reward is promised. However, he is sometimes forced to battle his conscience, and generally does the right thing even when he doesn't have to; when Sadira used a memory sand that somehow caused her and Jasmine to switch lives, with Iago, Abu and Rajah the only ones unaffected, Iago led the three animals in finding Jasmine to restore the world to normal when he could have just as easily left the city altogether. 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 more likely to leave at the first sign of danger and often lacks the finesse that Iago requires. He and the rain-bird Thundra had feelings for one another, although Iago was hesitant at first, admitting his manipulative personality made appealing to others difficult. Aladdin has occasionally exploited this, since antagonists are more willing to accept Iago as being ruthless and amoral than he is. Like Genie, Iago commonly references modern things for humor, even though he does not have a logical excuse like Genie does. Additionally, due to his time with Jafar, Iago possesses extensive knowledge of various magicks, which proves useful as Genie's otherwise superior knowledge is ten thousand years out of date. In one episode he mentions that he has a brother named Othello; a reference to the play where his name may have come from. 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.^[9]

Disney Princess Enchanted Tales: Follow Your Dreams[link]

Iago appears as a supporting character in the straight-to-DVD movie Disney Princess Enchanted Tales: Follow Your Dreams^[10] and he performs a musical number called "Peacock Princess" with Princess Jasmine.

Kingdom Hearts[link]

In the video game Kingdom Hearts he is initially Jafar's sidekick, but then later is used by the player to assist in defeating Jafar. 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.

In Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories 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, à la The Return Of Jafar. It can therefore be assumed that Iago is on the side of the good guys again.

In Kingdom Hearts II, like in The Return of Jafar, Iago leaves Jafar and returns 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 manages to gain everyone's trust. But that trust is soon shattered when Iago is forced to help Jafar yet again in keeping Sora and the others occupied at the ruins. Despite losing faith, Iago redeems himself by intentionally getting shot by a spell that Jafar intended to shoot at Aladdin. He survives and was forgiven after Jafar's defeat.

Other appearances[link]

Like most characters from Disney's animated films, Iago made recurring appearances on Disney's House of Mouse, he also sings "A Parrot's Life For Me" at the House of Mouse where the movies' continuity did not seem to matter, and Iago was depicted as either Jafar's sidekick or exhibiting his protagonist behavior.

At Walt Disney World, along with Zazu from the Lion King, he was introduced as one of the hosts of The Enchanted Tiki Room (Under New Management) in 1998. In 2011 the two were removed as the attraction reverted to its earlier format as The Enchanted Tiki Room. Reports had described the 1998 format as "unpopular" and Iago as "annoying."^[11][12]

Reception[link]

In reviews for The Return of Jafar Iago was often described as being the real star of the film: "The plot thickens when Aladdin becomes indebted to Jafar's former partner, Iago (a wisecracking parrot), for saving his life. Struggling with issues of honesty and loyalty, Iago becomes the film's focus as he grapples between standing by Aladdin or succumbing to Jafar's evil pressures."^[13]

In popular culture[link]

Iago's turn of phrase and humorous quotes have become gained use in unrelated popular culture. For example:"Bush wasn't truthful? (In the words of Iago [the sarcastic Parrot from Disney 's Aladdin,] "I think I'm gonna have a heart attack and die from not surprise! ")."^[14]

Iago's ability of mimicking voices (e.g. Aladdin) was referenced during a sketch entitled the "Real Housewives of Disney" in an episode of Saturday Night Live.^[15]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Iago at the Internet Movie Database