Why does Jafar have such a large fanbase???

After having watched a lot of top 10s and top 30s of disney villains, I have come to realize something: Jafar is one of the most popular disney villains. Heck, even house of mouse made him the leader! THE LEADER!! I mean, forget Chernabog, or maleficent, no, put the stupid-weirdass moustache-dude!

...

Ok, sorry if you don't like rants, but this is a rant thread, so here are my reasons for disliking him. If someone could make me a list of why they love him so much, I would be glad to hear it.

1: His appearance. When he first appears, he isn't just UGLY, but he lacks originality. Lean tall magitian/sorcerer with a magic scepter built to advance the plot, with a bird pet? No, Maleficent, I didn't call you, I'm talking about Jafar! Now, I may not be the best to judge male attractiveness, but this guy seems not only ugly, but not even in a remarkable way. Look at Hades, he is gray, with a torch on his head. Frollo is an old perv who looks outright demonical. Dr. Facilier bests Jafar mainly for the fact that he somehow seems hot to some fangirls. Jafar, on the other hand, looks ridiculous and hideous, at least to me.

2:Motives. Look, disney villains may not have the best motives ever, but they make them work in a good way, or they are so ridiculous or convoluted that it makes you laugh. Jafar, like so many before him, wants to conquer the world/kingdom/universe. He wants the lamp? ok, whatever, but his plans look utterly idiotic, it hurts. Plus, when he gets the lamp, he spends the whole thing like a spoiled child. Sure, I get the "be yourself" aesop, and how jafar, by not being who he was, and intending to be someone else, ended up loosing, and sure, it was the climax, but, at least in my opinion, it failed.

3:Simpathy/evilness: Hades wasn't totally evil, but he had wit, and a "sassy" relationship with megara. Frollo was a sadist who lusted after esmeralda and later tried to appear as a saint, while making a gypsie holocaust. Gaston was hammy and a perfect combination between prissyness and evilness.Facilier was a good way to represent sloth. Maleficent was badass, and chernabog represented pure evil. Jafar now... A troper said in the article for the movie that he was...Relatable. HOW?? I mean, he was lame! He got stomped by a door, failed to get the lamp by being bitten by a monkey, and his kiss with Jazmin looked utterly horrendous. And he was a wimp and prissy. His evilness? He LIED about executing someone!!! Oh the horror!! Finally, he wasn't funny. At all. I could relate hade's short fuse, or how he had to be the sarcasticone among the gods, or his deal making. But Jafar? WHY IZ HE SO POPULAR? WHYYYY???

Note: I like the movie, not the villain, that's all.

You don't think attaining a magic lamp that literally makes all your desires come true is a good motive?

Jafar is popular? That's new to me. I never saw him place high in any such lists...

Eh, I'd say it's mostly the voice.

It's mostly because of all the Disney villains, at least at the time he was made, he had the most... human moments. You got to see him plotting and such outside of simply being menacing more than most other villains, and he's somewhat more... relatable, you might say.

That "Beheaded! Eugh..." scene is one of my favorites, and his and Iago's banter is hilarious - you get the feeling they wanted to make a less overtly evil character and instead made a guy who's villainous but you can almost sympathize or even relate to him. Like I said, he's a bit more human than the average villain.

It's because Jafar had all the best lines and songs. The voice is a factor too.

"Hey Jafar,what if you were the chump husband?"
"What."

I still use that explain-yourself-right-NOW tone of voice to this day. :-D

Probably has a bit to do with Charisma, as well.

his voice actor was what really took the cake.

Two words: Large Ham.

Two more words: Evil Laugh.

You're dissing Jafar?! I'm sorry, but I have to agree that he is indeed one of the best Disney villains. His Maleficent-esque design was a deliberate homage on Andreas Deja's part. His motive to rule the world was perfectly fine; he was unhappy with his life and serving the Sultan and wanted to get the exaltence he felt he deserved. And as for the last part...

And he was a wimp and prissy.

A wimp how? Aladdin would have been KILLED by this guy if he hadn't thought of a way to outsmart him, and he was definately no slouch in Return of Jafar either. And Scar was even prissier than Jafar; are you going to deny him his title of being a great villain?

His evilness? He LIED about executing someone!!! Oh the horror!!

He lied so that he could use the still-living Aladdin to get the lamp for him, and stab him with a knife when he had served his purpose. He then plotted to marry Jasmine only so he could rape and/or kill her afterwards, he tried to drown Aladdin, he turned all of Agrabah into a hellhole when he took over...how is any of this not totally evil?

Finally, he wasn't funny. At all.

I beg to differ.

Long story short: Jafar was awesome. And please, try to type better!

edited 18th Oct '10 9:49:04 AM by ManwiththePlan

Jafar worked well because he was pretty much the perfect opposite number to Aladdin. Most really good Disney villains are the ones who are the perfect Ying to their heroes' Yang- Gaston is the full opposite of Beast, Frollo is the complete antithesis of Quasimodo, Scar is pretty much the Anti-Mufasa and Anti-Simba in a whole package, even Negaduck is the obvious antithesis of Darkwing.

Meanwhile, most blander Disney villains don't mesh that well with what their heroes stand for, like Madame Medusa or Ratcliffe.

Because he may need glasses.

Probably has something to do with becoming that Red Genie in number 2.

I recall him being one of my favorite Disney Villains, but Chernabog is better, because I liked Fantasia.

ok, well first of all, I'm really REALLY sorry for the spelling mistakes (I'm venezuelan, and while I have a no-gramatical/ortographical mistakes record, I can't say the same for other idioms.) Now:

Large Ham... You see, THAT is one of the things I needed to see, as I told you already, while I mostly like to watch my movies in their original language, I cannot find the english version of aladdin.

Secondly, yes, he was prissy. He HAD power, but he wanted more, and as soon as Jazmin refuses to bow to him, Jafar goes nuts and (in the spanish version) asks the genie in a REALLY whiny voice, and the FACE he makes while asking it...ARGH!

His 'evilness" just doesn't appeal to me, because scar, unlike Jafar, actually managed to DO something evil. He killed mufasa, and while I didn't cry at that scene, I hated the bas****.

Finally, I actually like his second appearance a LOT better, but I don't want to include sequels in this rant. On the other hand, I agree with you on the "perfect foils" argument. Jafar, at least manages to put to good use what greed/not valuing yourself can lead to. But I actually think that ratcliffe is a SOMEWHAT good opposite to the heroes: he wants gold, something that the natives don't want, and he doesn't even care about peace, he just wants gold. The only complain that I have is, since it is a movie about Pocahontas, he should have had a deeper relationship with her (did they even MEET in the first movie??) and madame medusa demonstrates that you don't follow the formula to be a good villain. She is just...Evil, the way she treats penny, and the pets and...Ugh, I hate that lady.

Moving on, and to not make another topic, is there a way to analize the foil between Tarzan/Clayton?? I mean, yeah, he kills kerchak, and he is played by Brian Blessed, but I just don't see any way he can make the hero's traits stand out...

The core difference between Clayton and Tarzan is that Tarzan was raised by apes and elephants, but Clayton is more of an animal than he is.

And, while Tarzan was noble, honest, and cared about his family above all others - wanting to include Jane and the Professor in that family as well - Clayton was deceptive, manipulative and only pretended to care about Jane and the Professor's well being so that they could find the gorillas for him.

Lots of other ones branch off from that - another foil is how Tarzan was naively innocent (so to speak) and thinks in jungle terms but is cunning and resourceful, while Clayton was Wicked Cultured but brutish.

Then there's the "eagerness to learn" vs the "eagerness to make money" contrast. Etc.

OK, well there we go, your opinion is mostly based off of never getting the pleasure of hearing Jonathan Freeman's performance. The Spanish version is probably more prissy/whiney/lame than the original English version is.

And the whole "evil foil" to Aladdin thing was more clear in early, in-progress versions. Jafar had a whole song about how he was pretty much "a street rat" himself once and built himself up to higher glory and continues to want it; just like Aladdin is a street rat who wants more. This also makes Jafar alot more contemtable in his behavior and how he looks down on Aladdin for being a "street rat". I guess once he's at the top, he can't afford to treat poor people like he once was with any sort of kindness.

If with 'the Spanish version' he means the Mexican dub (most dubs we hear here are Mexican), Jafar was dubbed by Jorge Santos, who did an overall fine work IMHO. Not as good as the original actor, but still good, although better when Jafar was confident and in charge, not so much at the other times. He also voiced Cable in FOX's X-Men animated series.

Good to see another Venezuelan here, by the way.

"ah yes the Ape m— Overmaster!" (sorry I love that part)nice to see you too, but I already had heard from you by the troper demographics proyect and the unpublished works page

ok, so I will be honest. Back when I was...Five or seven, my cousin lent me copy of aladdin, but in english. While I cannot remeber too well the english version, it was certainly a LOT better than the mexican dub. I mean, the Big "YES!" after getting the lamp? Not in the mexican dub. It's just a stupid "finally" said as in "finally I got the shtty lamp, now, can we get out of here?" not a "FINALLYYYY!!" even. Also, I, for some unknown reason, do not own the freaking movie. Maybe that's the reason why Jafar doesn't appeal to me that much?

Some good Jafar scenes in English.

And Prince Ali Reprise.

I think he's one of the more iconic villains in Disney due to being so recognizable, but he's not my favorite either(though I do like him somewhat). It's like for every attribute he has for a villain, other Disney villains have done better. He's a what I'd consider a solid Disney villain, but not a great one. His visual design doesn't bother me though, in fact I rather like it. It fits his character well.

Jafar was a badass!

edited 24th Oct '10 10:15:03 PM by ninjaclown

I think that his voice actor had something to do with his success. As for why he's the leader in House of Villains, I guess precisely because he's got less personal traits than other villains. Jafar is pretty much a big mash-up of lots of features from lots of villains. My point is, Jafar is the "ultimate villain" in that he has so many things in common with so many of them ! That's why he's the leader: he's the one every villain can relate to.

Personally, I think he's got a very good voice actor but the character is indeed not as fleshed out and comical as he should (and could) have been. They tried two characterizations for him that were much more original than the phlegmatic Jafar we got:

— the first was "Insane Jafar", seen in "Humiliate the boy" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9vXZncjGvk). This Jafar was a sadistic madman who over the course of the story would become obsessed with taking Aladdin down even more than gaining power. What's interesting and comical about him is how he switches mood in a split second numerous times during the scene. His facial expressions are rarely symmetrical and as such make him look the insane man he's supposed to be.

— the second was "Egocentric Jafar", seen in "Why me ?" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AU6AfCWuZKI). This version of him is an efficient Grand Vizier (or thinks of him as such) and thinks he should be sultan in the sultan's place because 1° he would be a much better sultan and 2° he deserves it from "inherent abilities" (one of his lines is: "For a man of my charisma and mystique, I have taken far too long to reach my peak !"). The whole point of the song is that he's crying on himself "Why me ? Why is the world treating me badly ? Why do not everybody love me for the wonder I truly am ?" while actually hurting the Genie and Iago and breaking everything in the room without even noticing he does.

Dont revive such an old topic. And such a negative and whiny one to boot.