Continuity mistake: Aladdin has just jumped off a rooftop as being chased by palace guards. He has gone through several clothes lines along the way. He speaks to two ladies after he lands. One lady says "Getting into trouble a little early today, aren't we Aladdin?" He gathers a piece of material over his head as a disguise as he remarks, "You only get in trouble if you get caught". Just then a guard seizes him from behind, leaving the disguise fabric behind. As the fabric falls away, he is not wearing his hat. But when the shot changes and Aladdin says" I'm in trouble" the hat is back on.
Continuity mistake: Jafar is in the throne room on his knees before the Sultan while being questioned about the "Beheading" of Aladdin. While Jafar is in the kneeling position he is holding his snake headed staff next to him upright in his left hand. The length of the staff has become only about 3 feet high. When Jafar later stands up, it is restored to it's original length. The staff can't fold up or telescope like a car antenna. It is shown to be solid and sturdy many times, notably when Jafar uses it to try to prevent the Sultan's Magic Carpet Ride around the Throne Room. Jafar pins the Magic Carpet down with a thud then Sultan forcefully kicks it away.
Continuity mistake: When Aladdin is on Magic Carpet flying desperately toward the mouth of the cave, from the outside the tiger mouth is roaring and contorting, but it is still from the inside.
Continuity mistake: During the One Jump chase scene, the firewalker has a few spectators seated on the ground. They disappear as Aladdin and the guards run past.
Continuity mistake: The scene that begins with Jasmine in her room brushing her hair after the Magic Carpet Ride. Aladdin walks in and confronts Jafar about trying to have him killed. Two guards seize Jafar. The guards are roughly the same size. The one on the left is about 2-3 inches shorter, but very robust and overweight. After Jafar throws the vial to create clouds of smoke, allowing him to escape, the two guards are now shown holding each other. They release each other to go after Jafar. Now the one on the left is 12-14 inches shorter than the one on the right. He has lost all his upper body bulk, and is barely overweight now.
Continuity mistake: When Jafar sees Aladdin in the reflection of Jasmine's crown he turns toward him and shots an energy ray of magic at him. Jasmine rushes to stop Jafar and the crown she is wearing simply vanishes for the remainder of the movie.
Continuity mistake: Directly after the "One Jump" sequence, Aladdin rescues the two beggar children from the wrath of the Suitor for the Princess. The Suitor Prince knocks Aladdin into a mud puddle where he stays for several seconds. The streets are crowded with onlookers who laugh. The Suitor says "You were born a Street Rat, you'll die a Street Rat and only your fleas will mourn you". When the scene changes back to Aladdin and he claims not to have fleas, the entire street is deserted except for him. What happened to the crowd in 5 seconds? When he turns to walk away with Abu, Where is all the mud that was all over him seconds before?
Continuity mistake: When the Head Palace Guard grabs Aladdin, after Aladdin's fall through the clothes lines. The guard grabs Aladdin with his right hand, (you may need to slow down or freeze the tape to see this ), but pulls Aladdin to himself with his left hand as Aladdin says, "I'm in trouble".
Continuity mistake: After Aladdin jumps of the roof while being pursued by the guards, once he reaches the second clothesline and has picked up a white bra, his pants are lacking the patch and are now painted mustard yellow in error for several seconds.
Continuity mistake: After Jafar has wished to become Sultan, look behind Jasmine and the Sultan: the pattern on the low walls has ovals leaning to the left. Later, when Iago says "Let's all give a warm Agrabah welcome to Sorcerer Jafar," the oval pattern leans to the right.
Continuity mistake: We can see in the first half of the film "Aladdin", that the garden with the peacock fountain occupies the entire back walled yard. We see this as Sultan runs out to Jasmine, as Jafar looks down from a throne room balcony, we see this as Jasmine sneaks off at night, as Prince Ali flies down from Jasmine's balcony. We have also seen the side yard, As Prince Ali takes off with Jasmine we can see the small side yard of the palace as they fly over it to the left looking at the back of the palace. Where is the GIGANTIC garden area called the menagerie, which has the enormous marble columns going to a giant overhang. With giant reflecting pools of water with flamingos. Prince Ali is tricked by Iago into thinking Jasmine has called him into the Menagerie. We have a grand view looking out upon a walled landscape that goes on forever. How are they hiding this paradise. We can also see the side palace grounds walls from the front views of the palace and they are very close to the palace itself.
Continuity mistake: Just as Aladdin takes the sword from the apple vendors hand and passes it to Jasmine, the entire back and second shelf of the vendors stand disappears for several seconds. A blank canopy against the wall is in its place.
Factual error: During the Song "Never Had A Friend Like Me", Genie the waiter is writing an order in Arabic, but he writes from left to right. Arabic is written from right to left.
Continuity mistake: After the genie becomes free he kisses Abu and then spits out a hairball. In the next shot, as the genie says "I can't do any more damage around here", the hairball has disappeared.
Continuity mistake: When Jafar is called before the Sultan to answer why he had Aladdin beheaded, the scene opens with a dramatic shot looking down on the throne room. You can see Jafar, Jasmine and Sultan from above. You can also see three large pieces of furniture on the carpet around the throne. Those pieces of furniture disappear entirely after the initial opening shot. It's easy to see when Jafar says "Marry the shrew" and sits on the throne, and the closing shot which is a reverse of the opening, minus the vanished furniture.
Continuity mistake: Throughout the "One Jump" scene, the Guards chasing Aladdin have their swords drawn, except when they are moving the sheep out of the way. When Abu snatches a sword from the mouth of the sword swallower one Guard exclaims in fear "Look, He's got a sword!" The Lead Guard exclaims "Idiots, we've all got swords!" Then he draws his sword, followed by the rest of the guards. Their swords were already drawn and above their heads at that point in the chase. Also of note is the dramatic metal against metal sound as the swords are being drawn from the cloth or leather belts at that moment. Other people had determined that the swords were simply kept in their belts not scabbards. What is causing the dramatic metal against metal sound if not a scabbard?
Continuity mistake: Aladdin begins to scale the stairs leading to the lamp in the "Cave of Wonders". Aladdin first looks up the staircase and the stones lining the stairs are Huge, small, huge, small, huge, etc. When he begins his ascent and the shot looks down, the rocks lining the staircase are all equal in size compared to the originals.
Continuity mistake: Jasmine and her father speak by the fountain of the "Suitor Business and the law requiring a Princess to marry a Prince". Jasmine gets up and takes eight steps to reach the bird cage. After Sultan replaces the bird, we see a long down shot of Sultan walking back to the fountain with Jasmine, they are at least 30 steps away, three times farther than walking towards it.
Continuity mistake: After the famous scene in which the Sultan, Jasmine's father, is stacking the toys which includes the "Beast" from Beauty and the Beast. Jafar enters the room and the force of the door shutting startles the Sultan, causing the stack of toys to fall. After the point in their conversation when the Sultan pulls out his magnifying eyepiece to study the law scroll, the table and toys that fell disappear for the rest of the scene. This is very clear when the sultan jumps up to view the Prince Ali parade.
Continuity mistake: When the Suitor slams teh palace gates in Aladdin's face, they have large, scrolled iron brackets extending across the doors from the hinges. When the Prince Ali parade goes through them, they have massive flat iron bars attached to the hinges held on with giant nails. Later, when the Sultan announces that Jasmine has chosen a suitor, the doors no longer have hinges or brackets at all. The carving in the doors also changes between these shots.
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.