One thing Disney tend to do with their animated series is only allow 65 episodes most of the time and not exactly allow any series finales. DuckTales, Goof Troop, and Aladdin are the only three to do this as far as I know; Treasure of the Lost Lamp ended DuckTales while An Extremely Goofy Movie ended Goof Troop. Aladdin and the King of Thieves was to be the finale for the Aladdin series, and of course one way to improve over Return of Jafar was to bring back Robin Williams.

To date, Aladdin and the King of Thieves is typically considered the best of the direct-to-video movies.

The 40 thieves remind me of Team Rocket from the Pokémon games, given how they steal/kill Pokémon (i.e. the Marowak in Pokémon Tower) and do black market stuff like selling slowpoke tails and stolen fossils from Mt. Moon. They’re also based on the mafia, but pretty much anything mafia inspired is likely to be based on Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves.

Dota 2 already has the Hand of Midas. But that’s a different universe.

Saying that Aladdin was Cassim’s ultimate treasure made me think that Cassim was trying to find Aladdin and not the Hand of Midas.

Although considered a sequel, I do not consider Aladdin and the King of Thieves to be that. Since Return of Jafar was the pilot for the classic animated series, King of Thieves is the series finale.

1. Robin Williams as the genie. Enough said. Though the genie was still good voiced by Homer Simpson.
2. Better song numbers.
3. Sa’Luk is probably the best of the direct-to-video villains out there.
4. Feels like more effort was put into this than Return of Jafar.

1. Several unnecessary scenes, notably with the genie and Jasmine.