Aladdin Summary

Aladdin is all about—you guessed it—a kid named Aladdin. He goes on some pretty amazing adventures that revolve around one pretty ordinary-looking lamp. Want to hear about these adventures? We thought so.

It's a dark and stormy night, and there's this creepy villain named Jafar. He's got to get inside this weird cave in the middle of the desert to get his hands on a magical lamp, so he can finally realize his evil dream of becoming sultan and ruling over everyone. He's gonna need a little help from "the diamond in the rough," though. Oh, do tell.

Enter Aladdin. This dreamy orphan street rat is forced to steal to eat and survive on the mean streets of Agrabah. Wouldn't life be easy if he were rich and powerful? Meanwhile, the rich and powerful Princess Jasmine is in a tizzy because the law says she needs to choose a prince to marry in the next three days. Better get on that, girl. Talk about a ticking clock.

Jasmine can't take the pressure of palace life anymore, so she sneaks out one night and makes her way into the town. There, she manages to get her hand nearly cut off but is saved by Aladdin. He's a total dreamboat, but their romance takes a turn for the worse when the palace guards capture Aladdin. Jasmine tries to use her princess privilege to get him set free, but it's no good. These orders come straight from the top—Jafar.

Yes. Turns out that creepy villain from the beginning of the movie is also the royal vizier, which means he's right-hand man to Jasmine's dad—the Sultan of Agrabah. He's also really great at ruining Jasmine's life every chance he gets.

Meanwhile, Aladdin's down in the dungeon when an old man makes him an offer he can't refuse. Why not bust out of this place, high tail it to a creepy cave, and find a magical lamp? Sure. Sounds like fun.

…And it is, until Aladdin emerges with the lamp and the old man tries to kill him. Not cool.

Luckily, Aladdin's pet monkey, Abu, is able to snag the lamp from the old man, though Aladdin and Abu wind up trapped inside the cave with a friendly magic carpet, anyway. On the plus side, the old man, who was Jafar in disguise all along, doesn't get to lay his slimy fingers on his prize.

Down in the cave, Aladdin rubs the lamp and discovers that it contains a wise-cracking genie who will grant him three wishes. Once the Genie uses his magic to free them from the cave, Aladdin makes his first wish: he wants to be a prince to catch Jasmine's eye. Hubba, hubba.

Aladdin—disguised as Prince Ali—rolls into town in style, but Jasmine is not impressed. Trust us, this girl ain't all about the Benajmins. The Genie encourages Aladdin to be himself, but Aladdin ignores that sound advice…and gets himself ignored by Jasmine in the process. He finally has some luck when he offers to take her on a magic carpet ride. The ladies can't resist a smooth mode of transportation.

Yeah, "A Whole New World" is going to be stuck in your head now.

Back on solid ground, Jafar has Aladdin kidnapped and thrown into the sea. See, now that Jafar doesn't have the lamp, he's got to take matters into his own hands. This evil plan involves forcing Jasmine into marrying him so that he can become sultan. Talk about a dramatic turn of events.

Meanwhile, the Genie has to save Aladdin from drowning, which uses up our hero's second wish. Aladdin arrives back at the palace just in time to foil Jafar's evil schemes. Our hero gets the girl and is named future sultan of Agrabah. Yay, right?

Kind of.

Aladdin's sort of nervous, because he's been essentially lying to everyone this whole time. He's not actually a prince. What if they find out he's a fraud? Plus, he told the Genie he would use his third wish to free him from a lifetime of servitude, but he can't do that now; he needs the Genie's help. And one other bummer is that Jafar has seen Aladdin with the lamp and knows exactly who he is. We get the feeling that's gonna be his biggest problem.

Of course, we're right. Jafar sends his pet bird, Iago, to snatch the lamp and then uses it to start making evil wishes. Poof: Jafar is now sultan. Poof: Jafar is now the most powerful sorcerer in the entire world.

Jafar also unmasks Aladdin in front of everyone. Oh, that one hurt.

But Aladdin manages to fight his way back to the palace to battle with Jafar, who turns into a huge, monstrous snake. Aladdin tells Jafar that his work has been impressive so far, but it's no match for what the Genie can do. Jafar realizes Aladdin is right. Then, Jafar makes his third wish: he demands to be made into an all-powerful genie.

Okay, but the downside to being a genie is that you get trapped inside a lamp for thousands and thousands of years. Jafar doesn't think this one all the way through and ends up falling victim to his own hubris. Eh, he isn't the first.

At last, everything is back to normal. Aladdin uses his final wish to free the Genie. The Sultan (the original one, that is) changes the law so that Jasmine can marry anyone she wants, even if that person has grown up in abject poverty and will be expected to rule over an entire kingdom someday. Hey, it's cool. Everyone is happy.

Aladdin and Jasmine sing. There are fireworks. Are we crying? No, you're crying.