Iago

"I'm so ticked off that I'm molting!"

- Iago Iago is a loud mouthed selfish male parrot and one of the major characters in the Aladdin film series. He used to work for Jafar in the first film as the secondary villain, but in the sequel he has a change of heart and joins Aladdin and becomes good.

He is voiced by Gilbert Gottfried.

Personality
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knowledge of magical lore learned from Jafar, which often comes in handy as Genie's magical knowledge is 10,000 years out of date.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 is 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 Aladdin or the others out of attempting something he deems crazy or impossible, usually both. However, he is at times willing to do Jafar's dirty work, such as retrieving Genie's lamp. 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.

The Return of Jafar
Iago is the tritagonist in the second film. He digs himself and Jafar out of the sand, and becomes frustrated with Jafar's treating him like a slave. After Iago claims (with a degree of accuracy) that he does most of the work and comes up with the schemes, Jafar retaliates by saying that without him, Iago would still be in a cage in the bazaar, squawking "Polly want a cracker!". With that remark, Iago dumps Jafar, still trapped in his lamp, into a well. He returns to Agrabah, claiming that he needs nobody's help, and that he'll be running the town within a week.

After discovering Aladdin now lives in the palace, Iago decides to use Aladdin's good nature to return to the palace, but Aladdin is not taken in by his act. But as Aladdin and Abu chase after the parrot, both groups bump into Abis Mal and his thugs and a brawl ensues. In a turn of events, Iago (unintentionally) saves Aladdin from Abis Mal and his thugs, and in gratitude Aladdin brings him into the palace, but locks him in a cage to give himself time to explain everything to the Sultan and Jasmine, and convince him that Iago has turned over a new feather. Abu unintentionally lets Iago escape (he intended to open the cage to scare Iago for Rajah being nearby as joke, but it backfired), resulting in Iago being chased by Rajah into the dining room, ruining an important dinner and blowing his cover. Aladdin protects Iago from the Sultan and his guards at the expense of losing the Sultan's favor, and Jasmine's trust.

Genie talks Iago into persuading Jasmine to forgive Aladdin with the song "Forget About Love", in which he uses reverse-psychology to tell Jasmine that she's absolutely right about wanting to be alone, and that love is over-rated, while reminding her of how wonderful love really feels, and she realizes how much she still loves Aladdin despite their argument.

Soon enough, Iago is enjoying the Royal Treatment, planning his future, believing that Aladdin will become the Grand Vizier, and that when he becomes Sultan, Iago will become the Grand Vizier. He is however horrified when suddenly, the lights go out and Jafar (set free by Abis Mal) appears out of the darkness! Jafar subtly threatens Iago, who is intelligent enough to know he will suffer if he disobeys again, into luring Aladdin and the Sultan into a trap. Iago talks with Aladdin and Jasmine, and finds it surprisingly easy to persuade Aladdin into taking the Sultan on a carpet ride without Genie. Jasmine apologies to Iago for doubting him, and Iago has a sudden flash of conscience, but Jafar then appears in the form of two omniscient eyes, and fearful for his safety, Iago refrains from warning them.

Iago's guilt over how he has treated the trusting Aladdin increases visibly to a degree where he appears sickened by his own actions, especially during the Sultan's kidnap. He frees the captured Genie to save Aladdin from being beheaded when he's framed for murdering the Sultan through Jafar's schemes, in the process also freeing Jasmine, the Sultan, Carpet and Abu. Now that his debts are repaid, Iago leaves them to fight Jafar alone, somewhat surprised that they do not hold him to any further obligations. But in the struggle against Jafar, when all hope seems lost, Iago returns unexpectedly. He grabs the lamp and attempts to hand it to Aladdin, but is hit by an energy bolt by Jafar and horribly injured. Aladdin and the others believe that all is truly lost, but with his last ounce of strength Iago kicks Jafar's lamp into the boiling lava, causing Jafar to electrocute, then violently explode into nothingness, destroying him for good. Aladdin saves the helpless Iago from falling into the lava himself, but his injuries are so severe that for a moment everybody believes him dead. However this is not so, as Genies lack the power to kill and Iago coughs "You'd be surprised what you can live through!". The fully redeemed parrot officially turns over a new feather and is welcomed into the Palace, although he ends up upset when Aladdin decided to turn down the position of Grand Vizier.

Aladdin: The Animated Series
In the TV series he provides a sarcastic, realistic, or cowardly perspective on events and is only really willing to face danger if great reward is promised. He is sometimes forced to battle his conscience, acting more noble than might be expected. A particular example of this was when Sadira used her sand magic to alter history so that she was the princess and Jasmine the street-rat; the animals of Agrabah were the only ones who remembered how history should be, and while Iago could easily have adjusted to this new world, he instead risked his life and security to lead Abu and Rajah in finding Jasmine and restoring the world to normal. Iago's common schemes involve trying to sell anything with any value (real or not), trying to steal things, and trying to treasure-hunt (Although he abandoned his greedy ways on one occasion after sustaining a bump to the head, he eventually returned to normal after his new charitable ways got him into almost as much trouble, concluding that at least greed was profitable). He can usually convince Abu to be his partner in crime, but Abu is rather less deceitful than Iago, due to his close friendship with Aladdin, and also more likely to run from danger.

Also during the series, he has a crush on the rain bird and protector of the rain forest Thundra.

Aladdin and the King of Thieves
In the final chapter, Iago is more interested in the extravagant wedding gifts Aladdin and Jasmine are getting from guests. During the raid of the Forty Thieves, he tries to defend the gifts from the King of Thieves (for personal gain, of course) but is stuffed in a perfume bottle. He's freed and they learn the King of Thieves was most interested in a beautiful scepter. Thinking out loud, Iago asks why, out of all the marvelous gifts this was the only thing that the King of Thieves really wanted. But his question is answered by the Oracle from the Scepter who explains the King of Thieves seeks her in order to find the Ultimate Treasure, which piques Iago's interest. He tries to discover where the Ultimate Treasure is from the Oracle, but she is bound by one rule "One question, one answer", and informs him that he already asked his question, regarding the scepter's worth.

He accompanies Aladdin, Abu and Carpet to find the Forty Thieves to find Aladdin's father. They sneak into the Forty Thieves' hideout and are discovered, and their law demands they die. but Aladdin's father, Cassim, who is in fact the King of Thieves, gives Aladdin a chance to save their lives by defeating Saluk, one of the strongest members of the Thieves, in single combat, which he does. They learn from Cassim his past and his dreams and goals. That he desperately seeks the ultimate Treasure, the Hand of Midas, which can turn anything it touches into solid gold, and has proof in the form of a ship of gold. This causes Iago to take an instant interest in Cassim. When Cassim agrees to come to Agrabah, Iago helps him to get the scepter, but Razoul, the Captain of the Palace Guard, and the guards catch them in the act and the Sultan has no choice but to imprison them.

Aladdin breaks them out and is forced to join them in their escape, but refuses to leave. Iago tries to convince Aladdin to come, not wanting him to get locked up, but Aladdin is prepared to face the consequences.

They return to the lair only to be betrayed by the Forty Thieves under the command of Saluk, who survived his fight with Aladdin. With the scepter in their possession, they sail off to find the Hand of Midas, but Iago escapes and returns to Agrabah to warn them. They go to Cassim's rescue, and during the whole thing, Aladdin and Cassim finally settle their differences aside and truly become father and son.

Returning to Agrabah, Cassim attends his son's wedding to his new daughter-in-law, but decides to leave to make a fresh start and a new life. Iago decides to accompany him in his adventures, saying, "You're a good guy, Cassim.... but not too good. HA HA!" And with a wave of farewell to Aladdin and his new wife, Jasmine, they ride off into the night.

Trivia

 * 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.
 * Iago was originally 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.

Similar Heroes

 * Peridot (Steven Universe)