IAGO

While Cogsworth allowed Will Finn and his assistant, Tony Bancroft, to create a unique mixture of broad acting and pompous dignity, it was on Iago the parrot in ALADDIN where Finn’s taste for comedy really shines.
According to Finn, the character was originally written with a Cogsworth-esque persona and to act as the straight man while Jafar was more outlandish and over-the-top. But that all changed around when Ron Clements and John Musker cast Gilbert Gottfried as the Voice and his personality did a complete 180 into a cranky loudmouth who nonetheless serves as a very useful sidekick.
Will Finn was truly elated when Gottfried (one of his favourite comedians) was cast, and he was given a great chance to go all out and create a unique, zany character.
As with my Cogsworth post, here are a bunch of scenes worked on by Tony Bancroft. My apologies for no images. When I can get it sorted, I will edit them in.

When the Sultan complains to Jafar about how Jasmine refuses to choose a husband, he playfully feeds Iago a cracker (“Have a cracker, Pretty Polly!”), a food which Iago despises. We see him force-feed the cracker into Iago’s beak while breaking the rules of logic by making the beak stretch out to wild lengths.

Jafar manages to identify Aladdin as the diamond in the rough by placing the Sultan’s blue diamond upon a mechanical device that Iago powers up as if running on a treadmill. Once Jafar makes the discovery, Iago yells “That’s him?! That’s the clown we’ve been waiting—“ before suddenly getting yanked off the wheel once he accidentally lets go. The brief extension of his neck before he exits is a surprising and unexpected shot that strongly echoes the film’s Looney Tunes sensibility.

After Aladdin is thrown in jail, Jasmine angrily confronts Jafar on the whole matter. Their serious conversation is intercut with Iago getting trapped in the doorway to keep up the comedic style while not overly distracting from more dramatic matters. Once Jasmine runs off crying, there is a brilliant moment where Iago heaves his way out and flies up onto Jafar’s shoulder. For a moment, he is out of breath and dishevelled . . . and then he instantly becomes cool and relaxed as he asks Jafar how it all went.

One more Bancroft scene I was able to find is during the ‘Prince Ali’ song. While the Genie is singing, Iago gets briefly caught up in the upbeat rhythm of the music and starts dancing along before Jafar catches him out with an angry glare. If you ask me, I think that’s a subtle wink to how Iago will eventually become one of the good guys later on.

Hope you all enjoyed this post, and I’ll see you next time with more surprises!

Creedon