Mozenrath is the main antagonist in the Disney 1994-95 animated television series Aladdin in the saga.
Background
Personality
Mozenrath is very ambitious and self-centered. He has many character traits similar to Jafar, because he too is a psychopathic villain whose primary motivation is power and is very sarcastic. Although he rules The Land of the Black Sand, his main goal is becoming powerful enough to conquer the Seven Deserts, including Agrabah. He will step on anyone to achieve his goals. He is calm and calculating, but he loses his temper when things don't go his way. He is also selfish and a little bratty, getting angry when he learns that Aladdin was destroyed by somebody else. However, he is immensely intelligent, devious, cunning, and scheming. He can think on his feet, deduce correct facts from very little clues, adapt his plans to the situations at hand and devise nearly flawless schemes.
Despite his evil personality, there are hints that he may have possess some degree of sense of honour and gratitude. Logically, he can simply slay Aladdin by teleporting to where he is or when he is alone, and then kill him with his dark magic on the spot. This may be due to Aladdin and co. always sparing his life every time they foil his evil schemes, which shows that he might grudgingly remember their mercy on him.
Physical Appearance
Mozenrath is tall and slender, unlike the bony Jafar. Rumor has it that the writers were planning on revealing that he and Aladdin were brothers in the third movie before the focus was shifted to Aladdin's father. Unlike Aladdin, Mozenrath is very pale, which is probably because he spends most of the time in the Land of the Black Sand, which doesn't get much sun. In the episode "The Secret of Dagger Rock", his skin gradually gets darker and more normal looking from being out in the sun all day.
Powers & Abilities
Mozenrath possesses a fairly extensive array of magical artifacts (most were probably acquired from Destane), which is shown when he offers many of them to Amin Damoola in exchange for his services in capturing Agrabah's sultan in the episode "Vocal Hero". His most powerful and treasured artifact is a magical gauntlet that gives him tremendous magical power. He always wears his gauntlet on his right hand. This power comes at a price though, as the flesh beneath the gauntlet has rotted or dissolved away, leaving only bones, although he can still manipulate his motions of the skinless hand and fingers.
While he has an extensive knowledge of magic (spells, potions, etc.), he has no magic without the gauntlet or his other artifacts. Mozenrath's magic can be used to move, trap, and hurt people, but not kill. The blasts from Mozenrath's gauntlet are painful and they can render people unconscious, but they don't pose much of a threat to someone with nerves like Aladdin, which explains why Aladdin was never afraid to face Mozenrath head on. There seems to be a rule in the Disney universe that magic can't be used to kill people, only to trap them, hurt them, and create threatening circumstances where people might end up dying. Alternatively, Disney purposely didn't show its characters kill by using magic in order to make their shows family friendly as possible.
Mozenrath's magic has been shown to be very effective against Genie. In their first encounter, neither knew that Mozenrath's magic was stronger, so Genie was able to fake him out. However, in every encounter after that, Mozenrath's magic was shown to be more powerful, except for one time at the end of the episode "The Wind Jackal of Mozenrath" when Genie grabbed him and contained his magic with magic proof mittens while Mozenrath was distracted. Mozenrath only has two weaknesses. He cannot perform offensive magical spells that would cause pain or injury while being touched or when someone is very close by, and he can't use magic without the gauntlet or his other artifacts. Perhaps he can't use magic when people are touching him or close to him because the magic would rebound and hurt him as well. This has allowed Aladdin to stop him on multiple occasions by grabbing him or tackling him, and in one episode Genie was able to contain him with anti-magic mittens by grabbing him while Aladdin was distracting him.
Despite Mozenrath's young age, his body was physically weak and was not going to live much longer. His physical deterioration was a side effect of wearing his gauntlet. Because of this, Mozenrath attempted to switch bodies with Aladdin in the episode "Two to Tangle".
History
Mozenrath is an evil, power-hungry young sorcerer with many character similarities to Jafar. He is the ruler of the Land of the Black Sand, a kingdom where the sand is black, the sun is usually blocked by clouds, and the only residents are himself, his flying eel sidekick Xerxes, and an army of Mamluks, undead soldiers who serve him. He is quite open and accepting about his own cruelty and he prides himself on his ruthlessness. He took control of the Land of the Black Sand from its former ruler, the sorcerer Destane. According to Iago, Destane was a real hard case and even Jafar steered well clear of him. Mozenrath explained that Destane was like a father to him until he "stole his power and his humanity," turning him into one of his undead soldiers. This implies that Destane was his master until Mozenrath betrayed him, killed him, and turned his body into a zombie. However, the actual story is a mystery. Nobody knows exactly what happened, just that Destane is a zombie now, Mozenrath has his magic, and he's ruling in his place. His floating Eel familiar Xerxes (voiced by Frank Welker) and his undead Mamluk army are loyal to him and will follow any of his orders.
His main goal is to conquer and rule the Seven Deserts, including Agrabah. While he and his undead Mamluk soldiers have secure control over the Land of the Black Sand, they are not powerful enough to conquer the other kingdoms that Mozenrath wants to rule. Because of this, his plots and schemes usually involve obtaining more magic and becoming more powerful, and it is up to the heroes to stop him. Through the course of the series he tried to kill Aladdin and his friends whenever they got in the way of his plans, nearly succeeding on several occasions, only to be defeated in the end. He also attempted to capture Genie several times so that he could tap his magical energies and use them for his own purposes. In Mozenrath's debut episode (Episode 37 - "The Citadel"), Iago referred to the sorcerer as "Jafar Jr." It was an apt comparison, as Mozenrath demonstrated Jafar's ambition and cruelty. In the episode "Black Sand", Mozenrath was seen in Jafar's old room, and later in the episode Iago asked him if he knew Jafar. Mozenrath did not answer.
The last time they defeated him, after becoming fed up with his repeated attempts to harm them, they took away his gauntlet, the source of most of his magical power. Genie then trapped him in a cage attached to a giant balloon and sent it flying away. It is unknown what happened to Mozenrath after this but it is presumed that his life force continued to fade and he eventually died.
Trivia
- Disney studied Jonathan Brandis' appearance and movements, and incorporated them into Mozenrath's character.
- Mozenrath was also voiced by Jeff Bennett in the episode "Black Sand".
- Mozenrath's name comes from the writers Bill Motz and Bob Roth. They also wrote the first Mozenrath episode, "The Citadel".
- Mozenrath is the second most recurring villain (next to Abis Mal) in the Aladdin TV Series, appearing in nine episodes.
- Mozenrath's Mamluks are named for the slave soldiers who served the Muslim rulers during the Middle Ages.
- Mozenrath was designed by Paul Felix, art director at Disney features.
- Despite popular belief, Mozenrath is not Jafar's son. In the episode "Black Sand", Iago tries to distract Mozenrath, bringing up Jafar asking Mozenrath if he ever had heard of him—to which the young sorcerer doesn't even react. Iago has often called Mozenrath "Jafar, Jr." because of the sorcerers' similarities.
- The Aladdin staff first planned to make Mozenrath appear in the third movie as the primary antagonist. However, they later decided to distance themselves from the television series, because they couldn't get in touch with Jonathan Brandis among other reasons. This started a rumor, according to which Mozenrath would have been revealed to be Aladdin's long lost older brother. The idea was recycled into Cassim, Aladdin's father and leader of the Forty Thieves.