Amuk Moonrah is a villain in the Aladdin TV Series. He is an ancient, powerful and demonic being that ruled Agrabah thousands of years ago before he was sealed away in the mountains.
History[]
Amuk Moonrah once ruled over ancient Agrabah thousands of years ago, but was somehow imprisoned by the people.
Physical appearance[]
Amuk Moonrah is a giant demon with blood-red skin covered in fur and glowing yellow eyes. He sports a purple loincloth, and has a lion's legs, tail and mane, and giant eagle wings covered in black and white feathers. His hands also have four fingers and are tipped with black claws.
Role in the series[]
Amuk Moonrah's first and only appearance in the series is as the main antagonist of the episode, "Hero with a Thousand Feathers". Fasir warns Iago about Amuk and that he alone can defeat him. Iago doesn’t believe in prophecies and brushes Fasir's words aside. Later, Iago explores a cave for a new trade route with Aladdin and friends. Iago freaks out in the dark, grabs a torch, and lights up the cave, awakening Amuk Moonrah, a fire demon whose fire was burned up long ago.
Amuk easily defeats Genie, but is forced to hide from the sunlight since he can only appear in darkness. The following night, he appears before the gates of the city. After a very short fight with Genie, Jasmine gives him the city and becomes his slave. He forces the people to build him a throne at the palace. He acts as if he’s a god enslaving the people into worshipping him and paying him tribute. As the night passes by and morning slowly approaches, a merchant shows Amuk the magic of fireworks. Amuk likes it and orders both a fireworks spectacle and a lifelike, gold-filled statue when he returns. Aladdin sees this as a way to destroy the monster. He tells the people to make the statue, but instead of filling it with gold it would be filled with fireworks. Jasmine presents Amuk his statue and while he examines it, she takes cover. When she’s safe, Aladdin lights the fuse and the statue blows up right in the creature's face. At first, it seems everyone celebrates his defeat. However, Amuk Moonrah then reappears bigger than before, proudly declaring that he was born from fire and that it only increases his power.
At this point, Iago (who had spent his time relaxing on an island far away and had been scared back by a frightful image of his conscience in chains) flies in and shows him the amulet Fasir had given him. Amuk reels back at the sight of it, but nothing happens. Iago isn't sure what he's supposed to do at that point until he realizes the amulet won't work unless Amuk ingests it. Aware of this, he flies headlong into the open mouth of the monster. At the same time, Genie makes a final attempt to take Amuk down and "succeeds", making it look like he did the work. Iago, pretending to be ungrateful about it, chastises Genie and flies away. Aladdin wonders what Iago's deal is and hopes they never have to rely on the parrot to save the day. What no one realizes, or will ever realize, is that is exactly what happened, and despite Iago not getting the credit, he is happy with the fact that he did something heroic for a change.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Although Amuk Moonrah was never seen again, his name was mentioned in "Poor Iago" when Iago, after having a nervous breakdown, was selling some of Aladdin's mementos from their previous adventures. One of these included "the sacred chalice from the temple of Amuk Moonrah", as he stated.
- The story's conclusion presents an interesting aspect of the common heroes' dilemma; they don't fight to earn recognition, but rather they fight knowing their efforts save other people's lives.
- Amuk Moonrah seems to bare likeness to the Gargoyle creatures from Gargoyles. Both are monstrous winged-humanoid creatures who move freely at night but are hindered by sunlight (turning into statues in the gargoyles' case, becoming a smoke cloud in Amuk's case).
- Amuk is one of two characters in the series voiced by Tim Curry; the other being Caliph Kapok.
