Abis Mal's Thugs are the henchmen of Abis Mal in The Return of Jafar and Aladdin, the Disney animated series.
Background[]
Personality[]
Despite his obvious stupidity and incompetence as an antagonist, Abis Mal has his own gang of various sword-wielding thieves who do his bidding, even though the majority of them are clearly smarter and more competent in crime than he is. In the 1994 sequel film, they are introduced as traitor minions who tire from their leader's stinginess, since Mal was influenced by the greed of gold and was relying upon his thugs to do his jobs. In the TV series though, while continuing to follow his lead, they appear to be more obedient to his authority whenever they take orders from him and occasionally seem to fear him. "Air Feather Friends" even reveals that Mal tortures or kills his minions whenever they fail him.
Appearances[]
The Return of Jafar[]
The bandits are first shown during the opening of the movie returning from a successful raid on Agrabah, with apparently little to no help from Abis Mal himself. Nonetheless, Mal claims the majority of the loot as a combined "beloved leader bonus" whilst leaving the rest of his troop with a small bag of coins as their share. Their anger at their stingy boss is cut short by the shocking sight of the chest of some of their loot seemingly moving on its own. One thief lifts up the chest crossing his path to reveal it being Abu who was carrying it. Abis Mal grabs Abu as he tries to run away, only for Aladdin come from nowhere to the monkey's defense, jumping on four of the thugs' heads in the process. Mal orders his men to attack him and they do so in the form of a brief brawl cloud, which reveals them pummeling one of their own in the place of Aladdin once subsiding. The crooks chase Aladdin and Abu as they steal back the treasure they took, but are consistently outwitted along the way. The next day, three of the henchmen also appeared with Abis Mal at the marketplace where they attempted to exact revenge on Aladdin (even reminding their leader of who he was in minor annoyance when he failed to remember who he was), although they were ultimately forced to flee after Iago not only sent them flying into a cart of eggs, but the guards also recognized them, or rather, their leader for his prior thefts. They eventually tried to kill him at the well both for the failure and for his stinginess, although his unknowingly summoning Jafar from his lamp forced them to flee.
Aladdin: The Series[]
Although continuing to serve under the authority of Abis Mal, as well as that of their late-established second-in-command Haroud Hazi Bin, the clan of thieves's involvement with their boss is somewhat infrequent. When seen with him, they are shown to be more respectful and somewhat even more fearful to his command, with the only firm exceptions being temporarily in "Forget Me Lots" and briefly in "The Flawed Couple". Occasions where they appear out of conjunction with Abis Mal are typically as patrons at the Skull and Dagger, a local diner for Agrabah's criminals, often referred to as a "den of thieves" by Mal himself. Here, Abis Mal's men can often be seen fraternizing with other thieves and, in one episode, one such minion (the muscular, barefoot goon) is shown being paired with a random mugger named Douani, implying that their allegiance isn't limited to each other or Abis Mal himself.
"Air Feather Friends"[]
Three tornadoes rage through Agrabah, leading everyone to believe they were wind demons, but Aladdin believes they are only thieves, as he sees one taking a pile of gold off of a stand and another stealing a man's gold, jewels, and clothes. Betting with Razoul and Fazahl that he could prove the tornadoes aren't demons, Aladdin, Abu, Iago, Genie, and Carpet track down the three whirlwinds and try to trip them up with a rope, which fails. As they continue off into the distance, Aladdin taunts them by calling them cowards, causing them to retaliate by attacking the group with swords, one of them shreds the feathers off of Iago's lower body. When Genie blows a huge gust of wind that sends the attackers away, three thieves fall out of the propellers, whom Aladdin recognizes as Abis Mal's men. When Aladdin tries to stop the thieves, they grab their loot and reform whirlwinds to escape, one of them accidentally leaves behind a golden feather. The group examines this feather and realize it is that of a baby Roc and that the thugs are using them to turn themselves into tornadoes. At their hideout, Abis Mal berates his thugs for losing to Aladdin and threatens to kill them (though he apparently either changes his mind or forgets), despite Haroud's advising against it. Abis Mal then boasts about how he'd use his feather-wielding thugs to rule Agrabah and it is revealed that they have a baby Roc imprisoned, which explains how they obtained the feathers. The same night, Aladdin and his friends free the baby Roc from its cage, only for Mal and Haroud to catch them, the former calling his guards to stop them. Genie flees with the Roc while Aladdin and the others narrowly dodge the swords and daggers of Abis Mal's henchmen. Genie escapes with the baby by turning into a rocket shuttle and blasting out of the door into the distance. Aladdin, Carpet, Iago, and Abu almost follow but are thwarted by Haroud using a hooked rope to snatch Carpet. Abis Mal takes out a handful of golden feathers to dispose of the group, but accidentally only ends up blowing them back to Agrabah. The next morning, Mal and a gang of his minions attack Agrabah the next morning, revealing their true identities to Razoul and Fazahl. Aladdin is able to stop several of Mal's men with a tarp, a rope, and a snake, but Abis Mal and his remaining goons trap them in a whirlwind and prepare to cut them to ribbons with their swords. Suddenly, Genie and the baby Roc arrive with the mother Roc, who blow Mal and his men away.
"Forget Me Lots"[]
After using the Blue Rose of Forgetfulness to erase Jasmine's memory of who she is, Abis Mal, Haroud, and a group of their goons infiltrated the palace and imprisoned the Sultan and his guards with Jasmine's help. However, Jasmine betrayed Abis Mal as he announced his victory, saying no one as incompetent as he could be her father, and had his minions imprison him as well, apparently deciding along with Haroud that Jasmine makes a better leader. Aladdin, Abu, Iago, Genie, and Carpet then barged in and Jasmine ordered them to be executed immediately rather than being imprisoned. Genie quadruples himself to fight the goons, using his tricks to dispatch them, while Carpet, Iago, and Abu dealt with the brainwashed Rajah. Aladdin and Jasmine fought, Aladdin trying to convince Jasmine of who she really was but to no avail. Aladdin was forced to flee but remembered what he'd forgotten: the anniversary of his Jasmine's first date. When Aladdin told Jasmine about this, the rose wilted, breaking the spell. Abis Mal, Haroud, and their henchmen showed up, but Genie sprayed them with the essence of the rose, making them forget who they were. Iago and Abu told them that they were their attendants.
"Lost and Founded"[]
On Founder's Day, Abis Mal and two twin goons stole a magic hourglass from an old fortune teller. The hourglass allowed them to travel in time, causing Abis Mal to change history so that he ruled Agrabah. Aladdin and company followed him through the time vortex to when Agrabah was first founded by a group of nomads. Abis Mal convinced his ancestor, Abnor Mal, to get rid of Hamed, Agrabah's founder, and Jasmine's ancestor, and who found Agrabah himself. Abis Mal sent Hamed to prehistoric times, causing Jasmine to vanish. Aladdin was able to rescue Hamed, just as Abis Mal and Abnor were forcing the rest of the nomads, as well as Abu and Iago, to build Agrabah. When the two saw Aladdin and Hamed were back, they fought over the hourglass and broke it, creating a massive time vortex that sucked in Abis Mal, Aladdin, Abnor, Hamed, and Abis Mal's goons. The six men fight, adopting different outfits and weapons from different time periods until Genie was able to contain the vortex and bring them back. The gang then returned to their own time, Hamed now motivated to found Agrabah and Abnor sent to live in the desert as an outcast, which is probably why Abis Mal became a thief. While the twin thugs likely returned to present Agrabah, Genie revealed he had sent Abis Mal in the same prehistoric times Hamed was sent to, being chased by a saber-tooth tiger (the same one that tried to devour Aladdin and Hamed).
"Smolder and Wiser"[]
Whilst Abis Mal and Haroud bought a candle called the Candle of Magma from a green-skinned sorcerer, their followers were among the many thieves at the Skull and Dagger eating and socializing. A disguised Aladdin tried to steal the Candle, only to have his cover blown by Abu and Iago, who tried to rob Akbar, a large, overweight thief. Abis Mal recognized Abu and Iago and had his men attack Aladdin, Akbar briefly joining in as well. Aladdin was able to elude the thieves and tried to take the Candle again, only to have Haroud cast the 'Curse of Clumsiness' on Aladdin, making him unbelievably clumsy as the three minions who had continued chasing him returned. Abis Mal and Haroud were able to escape while Aladdin barely escaped from their gang of thieves.
Aladdin and the King of Thieves[]
A number of the Forty Thieves who work for Cassim resemble most of Abis Mal's men, though it's unclear if these are the same characters. It's more likely that they are merely recycled character designs.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Abis Mal's unnamed followers are shown aiding him in only four of the 13 episodes that he appears in as the antagonist. It's likely because the writers for the show wanted to weaken his enforcements in order to portray him as a more comic villain.
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