Continuity mistake: When the guards arrest Jafar, the sword on the guard to Jafar's right switches from his left to his right side and back.
Continuity mistake: Aladdin is holding the Black Genie Lamp as Jafar is swirling down into it. Just before the moment of impact, Aladdin removes his left hand from the base of the lamp, and grasps the handle with his left hand, Instantly, his left hand is back around the base again. You can see it well at full speed, but is much more startling on slow motion play.
Continuity mistake: As Princess Jasmine is sneaking out at night to run away from the palace, she is wearing a peasant gown with a small thin scarf around her neck. As she is climbing a tree to go over the palace wall, Raja, her tiger, grabs the scarf to pull her back. The tiny scarf has grown to superhero cape proportions, particularly in the shot looking back at Raja's face with the scarf in his mouth. After Princess Jasmine has stopped to reassure Raja that she will be all right, she turns to climb the tree again and the scarf has returned to its short, tiny and slender form.
Continuity mistake: Jasmine and her father are speaking by the fountain about the law preventing a princess from marrying anyone except a prince. As they walk towards the fountain in a dramatic downshot, it is apparent that the water in the fountain has no lily pads floating in it and the water is rapidly moving from the water spilling into it from above. When Jasmine swishes her hand through the water in a closeup shot, the surface now is covered with lily pads and is still.
Continuity mistake: Jafar shows the law scroll to the Sultan with writing on only on the inside, then writing appears on the outside when he tosses it to the Sultan.
Continuity mistake: Just before Aladdin jumps off the rooftop through the clotheslines, he glances down at the clotheslines and the street. Where are the three different canopies that he crashes through, 2 canvas and one of sticks?
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Jafar tells Jasmine he beheaded Aladdin, the roaring fire, stack of pillows, and smoking pipe all disappear between when Jasmine enters and when she exits.
Continuity mistake: After the "One Jump" chase scene has ended, Aladdin and Abu sit down to eat the bread that they had stolen. When they spot the two street urchins, a boy and a girl, they give each one a half of the loaf. Later, the same little boy runs out into the path of the suitor for the Princess. His arms are outstretched with no bread while his sister is running close behind to save him. She carrying half a loaf in her left hand, which instantly switches to her right hand. When the shot pulls in to see her snatch the boy from the suitor's path, the loaf of bread is now one large complete loaf in her right hand.
Continuity mistake: When Abu sees the magic carpet in the Cave of Wonders, he runs away and his hat falls off. A few shots later it's positioned differently.
Continuity mistake: Jafar is being reprimanded in the Throne room by Jasmine and Sultan for having Aladdin beheaded. Jasmine quickly leaves the scene for a door to the left of the scene. This is the same doorway Sultan and Jafar went through to view the Ali Parade and it dead ended at the balcony. However, we must guess it also leads to a stair case as Jasmine and her father appear at the fountain when Jafar and Iago look down off the back balcony moments later. Jasmine and Sultan made it to the fountain in 20 seconds flat. The balcony is at least 150 feet above the fountain estimated by Jafar's observation point. The fountain is at least 200 feet from the Palace in earlier scenes. How did Jasmine and her father make it so fast without jumping.
Continuity mistake: As Prince Ali and Jasmine begin their "Magic Carpet Ride", they have just cleared the wall of the palace walls by crossing over the top of the front palace grounds gate. Immediately on the other side of the wall are several towers and turrets. One is particularly tall and pointed, just over the wall, next to the gate. The architecture has become much more rich and varied. We have seen many long shots looking at the palace head on. There are no turrets and towers anywhere near the Palace, and the buildings in the area in front of the palace are mostly low, simple and plain adobe buildings.
Continuity mistake: During the apple vendor scene in the marketplace, the vendor says to Aladdin (while picking Aladdin up by his vest and spinning him around away from Jasmine) "She says she knows the Sultan," and Aladdin responds "She thinks the monkey is the Sultan". At this point the large, branched, canopy support on the left side of the apple stand is missing entirely.
Continuity mistake: When Aladdin is being held prisoner in the palace dungeon, he is seated on the floor with his hands secured above his head. A very thick heavy metal chain hangs on the wall in an arc directly to the left to his hand irons. The chain is shown bolted twice to the wall Aladdin is against in the first long shot looking down. The next shot showing Aladdin in this position and the chain is much closer to his shackles, now just inches away. After Abu picks the lock on the shackles, the heavy chain vanishes altogether. The shackles also shrink in length throughout the scene from over 2 feet long at the beginning to under a foot as Abu picks the lock.
Factual error: Jasmine and Prince Ali sit on top of the Chinese Imperial Palace to watch a fireworks show including bursts of Pinks, Greens, Purples and Blues. The only available colors prior to 1850 are white and pale yellow.
Continuity mistake: During the song "One Jump" the guards throw swords at Aladdin, and they hit a wooden post. Then when the guards shake them off, there are no cuts in the post, which should have happened.
Continuity mistake: In every scene with the guards, their swords have blue handles. But during the song "Price Ali", when Genie says, "Show some respect down on one knee.", the guards' swords have grey handles.
Continuity mistake: Jafar, on horseback, starts to follow the leading Scarab. Gazime is on foot as Jafar rides away. Jafar has several shots during the chase, but Gazime is never in sight. Yet they both arrive on horseback at the Cave of Wonders together.
Continuity mistake: After the Prince Ali Parade has ended, and Jafar is pushing the participants out the door, Ali is standing on Magic Carpet on top of Abu as the elephant. Ali and Carpet lift off and fly towards the Sultan sitting on his throne. As Aladdin swoops up and we get a quick shot showing the 3 marble columns that are each side of the throne. A balcony is on each side of the throne which is only accessible by walking through the columns. When Ali stops and bows to the Sultan. The background behind Aladdin shows all balcony. They forgot to add the columns.
Continuity mistake: Jafar attempts to stop the Sultan from taking a Magic Carpet ride around the throne room by holding the carpet to the floor with his snake head staff. Iago, the parrot, is holding onto the smooth part of the staff when the Sultan looks up at Jafar. In error, Iago is shown with three long toes on each foot rather than two on each. Iago is supposed to have two long toes on each foot and one very tiny toe that forms a heel. This fact shows up often in the rest of the film. It is extremely rare for a lead character in a Disney Feature Film to be drawn "Off Model".
Continuity mistake: Rajah has backed away from Prince Ali on Jasmine's balcony. It is a still, breeze less night as evidenced by the feather on Prince Ali's turban. After Ali hops down off the balcony wall, Ali's cape is hanging straight down behind him. Jasmine says "You remind me of someone I met in the marketplace", just then, we cut back to Aladdin and his entire cape is fully draped over right right shoulder for no reason.
Chosen answer: The cave has some level of sentience. It is aware of who is entering the cave, and decides whether to allow them to enter. It is able to tell that Abu is with Aladdin. It seems to keep a watchful eye on the person in the cave, and when it says "touch nothing" what it means is "don't try to take anything. It seems it was fine with them interacting with the carpet, and only had an issue when Abu was attempting to actually take something.