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.
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.
Continuity mistake: When Aladdin is talking to the ladies after his fall through the clotheslines, he has a beige fabric over himself as a disguise. The guard grabs a big handful of the beige fabric with the back of Aladdin's vest underneath. One sixtieth of a second later, the guard has managed to grab Aladdin, get rid of the beige fabric between his hand and the vest, turn Aladdin completely around and have Aladdin held in the air by clutching both halves of his open vest in the front with one fist.
Continuity mistake: The front and reverse shots of the opening of the Cave of Wonders show differences as Aladdin enters. The bottom teeth and most of the upper teeth disappear, the mouth changes shape, the uvula is gone, and the mysterious light has disappeared.
Continuity mistake: In the scene when Jasmine is trying to seduce Jafar to distract him so that Aladdin may seize the lamp, Jafar notices Aladdin's reflection in Jasmine's crown. Jafar is substantially taller than Jasmine. When he notices the reflection after the famous "Kiss", Jasmine's head is looking up at Jafar. It is impossible for the crown to have reflected Aladdin crouching on the floor. It should have reflected Jafar's hat or the ceiling area.
Continuity mistake: The padlock Abu picks changes from thick and heavy to paper thin as he takes off the shackles.
Continuity mistake: At the end Jasmine and Aladdin are waving goodbye to the genie. Between shots they move further away from the edge of the balcony.
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.