Iago

**Iago** is the secondary antagonist of Disney's 31st full-length animated feature film, *Aladdin*. He later returns and serves as the anti-hero of the sequel *The Return of Jafar*, the tetartagonist in *Aladdin and the King of Thieves* and the supporting protagonist in the animated TV series. He is Jafar's former pet parrot and is now one of Aladdin's good friends.

He was voiced by Gilbert Gottfried in both movies and TV series.

## Personality

Iago is amongst the most complex characters to originate from the Disney animated feature film. When first introduced as the loyal follower of Jafar, he appears to be just as evil and cruel as his superior, being snide, greedy, selfish, uncaring, murderous, deceitful, manipulative, traitorous, arrogant, and cunning. However, Iago is the more aggressive of the two, as well as the more vocal and easily-frustrated. He has a difficult time keeping his comments to himself, lacking a collected demeanor, and can often fall into fits of rage, shouting and ranting on about his annoyances, when things don't go as planned. He also craves for power, as he gave Jafar the idea of marrying Jasmine to become the next Sultan. He also seems to hate crackers (which is not what you would normally expect for a parrot), which the Sultan, apparently being completely unaware of Iago's distaste for them, often fed him directly to the mouth, which also acted as the main reason why he aided Jafar in his treacherous ambitions against the Sultan in the first film.

Despite his highly antagonistic nature in the original film, The Return of Jafar shows a different side to Iago; one capable of growth and reformation. The film implies that Iago's harsh attitude and villainous actions were partially displayed due to a lack of respect and appreciation over the course of his lifetime. Even as Jafar's partner, Iago faced abuse and neglect, which would eventually lead to the downfall of their relationship. As an opportunist, Iago cunningly used Aladdin's caring nature to weasel his way back into the palace, though it was the latter's genuine compassion that first sparked a change in Iago's character, as he was shocked, and notably touched by the fact that anyone would actually show care, and treat him with any form of compassion. Throughout the course of the film, events such as that would continuously take place, specifically with Aladdin and Jasmine who, over time, come to appreciate Iago's apparent goodness and officially welcome him back into the palace, despite his attacks against them previously. This would eventually result in Iago feeling guilt and reciprocated care for the couple, and their allies, prompting him to turn against Jafar and risk his life for his new companions, despite coming dangerously close to death in the process.

From that moment on, Iago has apparently come to understand what must be done to truly earn respect and love: giving it to others. From that moment on, he would remain a steadfast ally to Aladdin and Jasmine. Throughout the series, his greed persists, but it is shown that he can, and will, do the right thing when necessary. He (deep down) appreciates his friendship with Aladdin, Abu, Genie, and Jasmine and shows that he is extremely loyal and intelligent, so he will help them when the situation truly calls for his assistance, though he generally tries to avoid danger by any means necessary; often advising the others to do the same. In the episode, "The Secret of Dagger Rock", he was given the opportunity to keep away from a potentially dangerous mission, which he accepts. However, he spends the entire time worrying for Aladdin and Jasmine, to the point where he willingly sets out to rescue them.

Nevertheless, his villainous nature from the original film doesn't fade completely. Iago is still every bit aggressive, quarrelsome, loud-mouthed, argumentative, impertinent, diabolical, obnoxious, cocky, rude, menacing, and narcissistic, but in a more comedic light than anything, no longer willing to result to extreme measures such as murder to obtain his goals. Iago would instead become a mischievous schemer, retaining his flaw of constantly plotting by concocting various ways to cheat the citizens of Agrabah for their riches or any form of high value. This ties into his unhealthy obsession with wealth. In Aladdin and the King of Thieves, he was even willing to steal one of the valuable treasures given to Aladdin and Jasmine as a wedding gift, as it had the power to lead to a supposed "ultimate treasure". Now with a sense of moral, however, Iago ultimately sacrifices his greed for the greater good (such as the safety of others) in most, if not all occasions.

Iago resembles to that of a scarlet macaw. He can speak fluent English and has the ability to perfectly mimic other characters' voices, possibly due to Jafar's influence. He also possesses a fine knowledge of magical lore learned from Jafar, which often comes in handy as Genie's magical knowledge is 10,000 years out of date. He's easily frustrated and openly vocalizes his frustrations. Although he denies it, he actually has a good heart, and his guilt from abandoning his friends or leaving them to deal with a crisis usually makes him return to intervene, and he even sometimes come out as a hero, but almost every time at the expense of losing something of value, which he without fail berates himself for afterwards.

Interestingly, Iago often displays a certain fondness for Jasmine, being generally unhappy when he disappoints her, and often helping her out in smaller matters. In the *Return of Jafar*, it seems to be her compassion towards him that increases his guilt to the point of near-confession, and then her anger and disappointment that prompts him to release Genie to save Aladdin.

Iago will do almost anything to keep out of danger or at least try and talk with Aladdin or the others out of attempting something he deems crazy or impossible, usually both. And yet, he is willing to do Jafar's dirty work, such as retrieving Genie's lamp at times. His loyalties to Jafar either pertain out of true loyalty of a Promised reward (like in the first film), or out of fear (the second film). He's very clever, and makes witty, sarcastic remarks constantly. But he's also very greedy, which sometimes makes him gullible if he thinks there's treasure to be found. In other words, he's a wacky bird that can make anyone laugh.

## Trivia

* Iago is the only Aladdin villain to be in all three films.
* Even though Iago was originally an antagonist and is not even the lead character in the Aladdin-franchise, Iago's the second most popular character in the Aladdin-franchise after the Genie.
* Iago is the first villain in Disney history to lastingly reform in a production other than his debut film. Among the few other characters to have this distinction are Anastasia Tremaine and Captain Gantu.
* Originally, Iago was meant to be a snobbish parrot with a British accent. However, to further the comedy, his character was changed drastically to what animator Will Finn calls "Gilbert Gottfried as a parrot".
* Iago was deliberately given teeth to give more resemblance to Gilbert Gottfried.