Iago/Synopsis

The synopsis of the loud mouthed greedy parrot Iago from Disney's Aladdin franchise.

Beginnings
Not much is known about Iago's first years before being captured by a merchant and being closed into a cage. His first years was not happily for him, he was adopted by Jafar by that merchant, he would pass many of his years being abused and ignored by his boss Jafar despite he gave to him all the good ideas and doing all the work.

Aladdin
Iago, as Jafar's parrot, is first seen during his and Jafar's confidential visit to the desert, in the middle of the night, where they are met by a thief, Gazeem. After forcefully handing over a stolen piece of a golden scarab, courtesy of Iago, Jafar is able to create one full, magical scarab, which reveals the location of the Cave of Wonders. Gazeem is ordered to enter in order to steal a magic lamp (as Jafar wishes to use the Genie to take control of Agrabah), but is killed in the process, as a result of being unworthy to enter. A frustrated Iago voices his annoyance, believing their mission to retrieve the lamp will forever be an impossible task to complete. Jafar, however, remains level-headed, and assures Iago that the lamp will be in their possession once they find the "diamond in the rough".

After returning to Agrabah, Jafar and Iago (still Jafar's mindless parrot) visit the Sultan, needing his blue diamond ring to uncover the individual worthy to enter the cave and successfully did with the hypnotic magic power of Jafar's gold cobra-headed scepter. Here, Iago shows his disdain for the Sultan; specifically due to the ruler constantly shoving "moldy, disgusting crackers" down his throat. Jafar reassures Iago that they will no longer have to abide to the Sultan's reign in good time, with Iago gleefully plotting to extract revenge once that time has arrived.

After discovering a boy named Aladdin, via Jafar's bewitched hourglass with the Sultan's diamond ring inserted in the middle of it, is the one worthy enough to enter the cave, he travels to the Cave of Wonders with Jafar, though the mission goes awry, resulting in both the lamp, and Aladdin, being lost. Afterwards, at the Palace of Agrabah, Iago (still disguised as Jafar's mindless parrot) concocts a new plan involving a rise to power. He advises Jafar to marry Princess Jasmine, which would result in the vizier legally becoming the sultan. Once he holds such power, Iago continues, they will kill Jasmine and her father. Jafar agrees, but their plot is interrupted by a new coming prince—Ali.

Jafar and Iago, after fleeing the palace guards for brainwashing the Sultan as they quickly retreated back to Jafar's private lair hidden behind the wall of his royal bedchamber at the palace, soon discover that Ali is Aladdin, and holds ownership over the lamp. Iago (secretly revealed as Jafar's assistant) is sent to retrieve it, doing so by cunningly disguising his voice as Jasmine to lure Aladdin away from the lamp.

With the lamp in his possession, Jafar takes over the kingdom of Agrabah, bestowing Iago with his own turban, to signify his leadership, as well as his own lounge area near the throne, with a throw pillow and plenty of fruit for his pleasure.

After scarfing crackers down the dethroned Sultan's throat, Iago wallows in luxury before noticing Aladdin trying to steal back the lamp. Abu, Aladdin's monkey, tackles Iago to prevent him from alarming Jafar, which leads to a tussle. As a battle ensues between Jafar and Aladdin, Iago watches sadistically, rooting for Jafar to eliminate the threat, until Jafar wishes to become an all-powerful genie. Unfortunately for Jafar, this means an eternity of slavery and imprisonment, though his greed and lust for power made him oblivious to this.

As Jafar is quickly sucked into his magic lamp, Iago tries to flee, only to be grabbed by the villain, and dragged into the lamp, as well. Trapped and annoyed in this tiny space, Iago berates Jafar on his stupid decision, just as the two villains are sent to the Cave of Wonders to endure 10,000 years of imprisonment.

The Return of Jafar
Iago appears as the second film's deuteragonist star. He digs himself and Jafar out of the sand in the desert the Cave of Wonders is located in, 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 isn't taken in by his act. But as Aladdin and Abu chase after Iago, all three bump into Abis Mal and his gang, and a brawl ensues, ending with Aladdin and Abu cornered by the thieves. In a turn of events, Iago (unintentionally) saves Aladdin from Abis Mal and his thugs, by causing them to crash into a chicken cart, destroying the eggs. The upset egg merchant calls for the guards and Razoul and his goons recognize Abis Mal and his thieves and the guards chase the thieves into the distance. 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, 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. Iago believes he's in trouble, but Jafar, still believing Iago is still on his side tells him that he isn't. He assigns Iago, who is intelligent enough to know he will suffer if he disobeys again, into luring Aladdin and the Sultan into a trap. Scared, 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. Iago has a sudden flash of conscience to warn Aladdin and Jasmine of what danger they are in, but Jafar's evilly omniscient eyes suddenly appear on the curtain above Al and Jas and fearful for his safety, Iago refrains from warning them. As soon as Aladdin and Jasmine leave, Jafar appears from nowhere and sadistically praises the ashamed parrot for following through on his evil plan.

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 kidnapping. 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 don't 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, leading to the animated series.

Aladdin: The Animated Series
In the TV series, Iago is a recurring character and 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 the tetartagonist (The protagonist being Aladdin, the deuteragonist being Cassim and the tritagonist being Genie).

He 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 (He partially justifies leaving the palace by saying that he believes even lavish palace life will be unbearable for him now that Aladdin and Jasmine are married, claiming that "Everything will be all lovey-dovey"), 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.

Other Appearances
Iago appears as a minor character as well as a boss in the video-game adaptations of the 1992 Disney movie Aladdin on Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis.

Iago made an appearance as a helpful NPC in the Disney video game Aladdin in Nasira's Revenge on PlayStation where he helped Aladdin and his friends throughout a perilous adventure to rescue both Princess Jasmine and her father and save the city of Agrabah from the sinister Jafar's vindictive twin sister Nasira. He even guided Aladdin alongside Genie on the way to the heart of her volcanic secret lair where Aladdin alone fought the evil Nasira and the unsuccessfully resurrected ghost of her brother Jafar.