Awesome / Aladdin

Franchise works with their own Awesome Moments pages:

• The Return of Jafar
• Aladdin: The Series
• Aladdin and the King of Thieves

The Disney film

Prince Ali, amorous he, Ali Ababwa! Not pictured: Jafar, flattened by the door to the left of the image.

• Aladdin's Indy Ploy at the climax of the movie. He has nothing except his wits and agility, and he wins.
• "One Jump Ahead". It establishes in the first five minutes that the hero of this movie is already a badass; it's the story of how he became an even bigger badass.
• One for the Sultan has an Establishing Character Moment. When the latest prince walks off in a rage, Sultan goes to ask Jasmine what happened. Cue Rajah showing up, with shredded underwear in his mouth. The Sultan gets into a tug-of-war with a tiger, and then angrily asks Jasmine if she set her pet on Achmed. He may be oblivious to Jafar's machinations, but the Sultan is a good man through and through.
• Pretty much any time Genie's on screen. Could also count as a Funny Moment and Awesome Music for his musical numbers "Friend Like Me" and "Prince Ali".
  • The "Prince Ali" sequence is particularly spectacular. This, my friends, is how you grant a wish with all the trimmings.
  • The film's amazing orchestra, sadly, was severely muted for this number so as not to drown out the sound effects. The original instrumental track has been found and restored. You've never heard "Prince Ali" like this before!
• Jafar after he wishes to be the most powerful sorcerer in the world. He effortlessly humiliates the characters while singing his Villain Song, a mocking reprise of a previous song that praised the hero. The scene ends with some of the most psychotic laughter ever recorded. When he sends Aladdin and Abu packing in the palace tower, Jafar uses his staff to whack it into orbit like he's teeing off at the first hole of the Masters. Epic.
  • While this is going on, Carpet gets his own awesome moment, quickly hitching a ride on the tower. If not for his quick thinking, Aladdin and Abu would have frozen to death, most likely, and certainly would have had no way to immediately get back to Agrabah.
• When Aladdin manages, against all odds, to escape the ends of the earth and fight for the lamp, Jafar overwhelms his allies one by one—imprisoning Jasmine in an hourglass, turning Abu into a toy monkey, and unraveling the Carpet—and then turns into a giant snake to finish off Aladdin himself. And if not for some quick thinking on Al's part, he would have won.
• The titular hero himself gets his own Moment of Awesome in the rematch, however - even though Jafar is just as powerful and seemingly just as unbeatable the second time around - by tricking him into wishing for even more power... which comes with some rather significant drawbacks.
  • The best part is that Aladdin has the balls to mock him about it at the same time.
    Aladdin: Not so fast, Jafar! Aren't you forgetting something?
    Jafar: Huh?!
    Aladdin: You wanted to be a genie? You got it!
    Jafar: (as genie manacles appear on his arms) WHAT!?!?
    Aladdin: (holds up Jafar's new lamp) And everything that goes with it!
    Jafar: (gets sucked into the lamp) NOOOOO!!! NOOOOO!!!!!
    Iago: I'm getting out of here! (gets grabbed by Jafar)
    Jafar: (still getting sucked into the lamp) NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    Aladdin: (as Jafar is sucked into the lamp along with Iago) Phenomenal cosmic powers!
    Iago: Come on, you're the genie! I don't wanna go inside— (gets sucked into the lamp)
    Aladdin: Itty-bitty living space.
    Genie: Al! You little genius, you!
  • Look at the entire Disney canon. Aladdin proves to be one of the very few heroes who win the day not through violence or accident, but through his own intelligence and humility, putting him in the same group as Mulan, Judy Hopps, Basil of Baker Street, Moana, and Raya.
  • Likewise, while Genie!Jafar does get Laser-Guided Karma for it immediately afterward, his utterly hamtastic, flamboyant, melodramatic, scenery-guzzling A God Am I speech — complete with him literally juggling planets — is still quite an adrenaline rush.
    Genie!Jafar: Yeeeeesssss...! YEEEESSSSS!!! THE POWER...!!!!! (Evil Laugh) THE AB-SO-LUTE POWEEEEEEEEEER!!!!!!!!! THE UNIVERSE IS MINE TO COMMAAAND!!!!!!!!!!!!! TO CONTROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
• Another one for Aladdin: After Jafar's brilliantly intricate plan to do away with Aladdin seemingly succeeds, he mesmerizes the Sultan into allowing him to marry Princess Jasmine. When Jasmine states that she wants to marry Prince Ali (a.k.a. Aladdin), Jafar tells her the news, in his best fake mournful voice. Then, out of nowhere:
  Aladdin: Better check your crystal ball again, Jafar!
  • Aladdin then proceeds to march right in, grab Jafar's snakehead staff and demolishes it on the ground, freeing the Sultan from Jafar's spell.
• Jasmine herself confidently wows Aladdin by showing just how quickly she can master the art of vaulting from roof to roof.
• Right after the Genie's song-and-dance, reality-warping Disney Acid Sequence introduction, Aladdin effortlessly tricks him into providing a "free" wish — by prodding Genie's ego until the Genie whisks him and Abu out of the cave. Cements Aladdin's reputation as a Guile Hero par excellence. Aladdin even tells Genie he never wished to get out of the cave. Genie concedes the point.
  Aladdin: Oh, you sure showed me. Now about my three wishes...
  Genie: Doth mine ears deceive me? "Three?" You are down by one wish!
  Aladdin: No, no! I never actually wished to get out of the cave. You did that on your own.
  Genie: (Beat, then a Jaw Drop) Well, I feel sheepish. (turns into a sheep)
• The entire sequence where Aladdin, Abu, and the carpet try to fly out of the Cave of Wonders while lava shoots everywhere.
• Jasmine revealing her identity to Jafar's guards, and making them tremble.
  Jasmine: Unhand him! [pulls off her hood] By order of the princess!
  Razoul: Princess Jasmine! [kneels down and forces Aladdin down on his knees, the guards kneel down]
  Aladdin: The princess?
  Abu: The princess?!
  Razoul: What are you doing outside the palace, and with this street rat?
  Jasmine: That's not your concern! Do as I command, release him!
  Razoul: I would, Princess. Except my orders come from Jafar...you'll have to take it up with him.
  Jasmine: Believe me, I will.
  • Jasmine was one of the first heroines of Disney to break the prototype of placid Disney Heroines.
    • No only that, but Aladdin himself is the first male in the lead role in a princess story by Disney, and has a fleshed-out personality.
  • When the Sultan tries to brush the whole thing under the rug and get back to finding Jasmine a husband, she makes it clear that she is not letting it go.
    Jasmine [To Jafar]: At least some good will come out of my being forced to marry. When I am queen I will have the power to get rid of you!
• While on the rooftop watching fireworks, Jasmine finally gets Aladdin to confess his identity by tripping him up with a question about Abu. Just Carpet's "facepalm" cements it. She just caught him off guard and he fell right into her trap.
• Carpet being the best wingman ever and giving Aladdin that extra push for The Big Damn Kiss with Jasmine. One wonders if they would've spent the whole night just looking into each others eyes if he hadn't.
• Aladdin telling off a rich jerk who is visiting Jasmine at the start of the movie (the guy nearly ran over some kids and was ready to whip them for getting in his way):
  Aladdin: If I were as rich as you, I could afford some manners.
  • After getting kicked into the mud by the snobby prince, Aladdin arguably gets the last laugh by loudly saying "Look at that, Abu! It's not every day you see a horse with two rear ends." BURN.
  • Even more awesome if you know what happens later. Not only does the prince get humiliated by Rajah and sent home packing, but the very "street rat" he'd insulted earlier ends up marrying princess Jasmine instead.
• "How dare you? All of you! Standing around, deciding my future? I am not a prize to be won!" A lot of people have applauded Jasmine's outburst there. Even Jafar, who cares nothing for Jasmine's feelings, looks uncomfortable at her words.
• The Carpet is only a secondary character with nary a word to say - but variants on his leitmotif get a lot of use because that's what's being used in all the flight scenes and there's a lot of them. The Cave Of Wonders escape? A lot of that is based on Carpet's theme.
• Aladdin and Jasmine's chemistry. From the very moment they meet, they show what a great team they make. Unlike previous Disney couples, they actually help each other in distress and talk about their problems with each other.
• How Aladdin and Jasmine meet. Aladdin was smitten with Jasmine the moment he laid eyes on her but he snaps out of his trance enough to actually help her out when he saw she was in danger.
  • Jasmine is also incredibly quick on the uptake when Aladdin jumps in to help her in the marketplace and whispers for her to play along. She quickly realizes what he's doing and plays along enough to convince the baffled street vendor. She even improvises talking to a random camel like it's her doctor. This buys them time when Abu inadvertently reveals he pickpocketed the vendor.
  • Although he didn't realise it, Aladdin retroactively saved the street vendor from a very ugly fate. Imagine what would have happened if he'd gone through with the punishment and then discovered he'd cut off the hand of the princess.
• After Jafar takes over and enslaves both the Sultan and Jasmine, he tries to have her marry him. Jasmine's response? Grab a glass of wine and throw it directly into Jafar's face. Most powerful being on Earth though he may be, Jasmine will not submit to him.
• Jafar tries to make Genie use his magic to force Jasmine to love him. The Genie...says no. Part of it is the rules, but he takes the time to explain to Jafar that not only he can't do it, but he also doesn't want do it even if he could. Best of all, Jafar arguing with him creates a distraction for Aladdin and Abu to alert Jasmine they're in the room, but to keep mum.
• In the end, everyone gets what they wanted. Genie gets his freedom and Aladdin and Jasmine are allowed to marry.
• Abu saving Aladdin right before Jafar can plunge a dagger into him as "thanks" for recovering the lamp, and managing to steal the lamp right from under Jafar's nose even as he tosses the monkey back into the collapsing Cave of Wonders.
• Jasmine is able to distract Jafar to help Aladdin get the lamp simply by fooling him into thinking Genie's wish to make her love him worked. She's even willing to kiss him to preserve the ruse. Sadly Jafar sees Aladdin's reaction in her crown through sheer bad luck.
• While this is more heartwarming in the film, the sultan's decision to allow Aladdin to marry Jasmine also becomes CMOA for him when you consider everything that happened afterwards. In the sequel it is revealed that his decision was influenced by the realization that Aladdin is simply too valuable a man to be allowed to quietly slink back into the streets of Agrabah. Initially, he intended to make Aladdin his new Grand Vizier, but Aladdin refuses the nod, feeling that the life of courtly intrigue is not for him. Instead, Aladdin becomes the Champion of Agrabah and proceeds to protect the city and the kingdom against a variety of (mostly supernatural) threats. All in all, the sultan got a great return for his daughter's hand.