Continuity mistake: When Aladdin is underwater, the chains holding his shackles together disappear after he goes unconscious.
Continuity mistake: Prince Ali and Jasmine are taking off on their "Magic Carpet Ride". Just before Prince Ali begins to sing, They swoop over the top of the gates exiting the palace grounds. The massive brackets leading to the hinges on the palace ground gates are on the inside of the door rather than the outside where they belong. As a special note. these are the Brackets and hinges shown during the Prince Ali parade entrance. One of three distinctly different variations shown in the film. Also, the staircases used by Jasmine and Prince Ali the very next day, leading to the reviewing stand above the palace grounds gates, are missing as well.
Continuity mistake: When Carpet is first introduced and steals Abu's hat, the hat constantly changes size until Abu puts it back on.
Continuity mistake: One half of the Scarab is female (missing a half circle) and one is male (extends a half circle). Gazeem pulls the female from his shirt and shows Jafar. Iago snatches the female Scarab from him and drops the male into Jafar's hand. Jafar takes the female half out of his pocket. They aren't identical: the male has a head and the female does not.
Continuity mistake: As the Sultan addresses the people near the end, we can see two large columns on each side of the reviewing stand topped with onion domes. Jasmine coaxes Aladdin up the stairs and the large columns are missing.
Continuity mistake: When Prince Ali and Jasmine are resting on the Chinese Palace, Aladdin says, "I really am a Prince," and tilts his head and body toward Jasmine. Pause this frame. Aladdin's head is enormous compared to the size of his body. Later, as he and Jasmine cuddle, his build is almost exactly the same as hers, though in other scenes he is much more muscular.
Continuity mistake: During the "One Jump" song Aladdin sings "You're my only friend Abu", and the both swing into the harem. From the outside the window is so small Aladdin just makes it through feet first. However once inside the window is very large. A harem girl wraps a scarf around Aladdin and spins him into the matron. She chases him back to the same exact spot where the window was, and now it is a large balcony that the girl pushes him off.
Continuity mistake: When the Sultan finds Jasmine by the fountain after Prince Achmed leaves, Jasmine takes a piece of his boxers, throws it away, and pats Raja. A few shots later, we see the area on the ground where the boxers should have been, and they are gone.
Continuity mistake: Thoughout the scene involving the Apple Vendor, the support on the left side of his canopy is a large and obviously forked tree branch. Then, at the end, after Abu takes a bow and spills all of his stolen goodies from his vest, the Apple Vendor hollers out," Stop, you little thieves". The support on the left side of his stand is very shown next to him, is an single, straight and unforked branch.
Continuity mistake: When Prince Ahmed comes to the palace he pushes Aladdin into the mud, and Aladdin stays there for a few seconds. Then when he comes running up to the palace gates, his pants are dry.
Continuity mistake: When the Sultan was discussing marriage with Jasmine while she was holding a white bird from the cage in her yard, he takes the bird and holds it between his hands and as she walks by, his hands are switched.
Continuity mistake: During the Magic Carpet Ride sequence, Jasmine's flower in her hair disappears when she pats the horse. Also, the horses are ridiculously small compared to Jasmine.
Continuity mistake: The Prince Ali parade climbs the staircase to the throne room. Watch this scene in slow motion, or frame-by-frame and you will see that Jafar disappears as the Sultan opens the door. There is no obstacle in front of the door where Jafar is supposedly slammed into the wall, and the doors swing open through the Sultan. Also, Iago suddenly appears crushed on Jafar's shoulder.
Continuity mistake: While Jafar is hypnotising the Sultan, the alcove that the throne sits in disappears. The three columns behind them were originally to the right of the throne and the blue and gold tilework next to the throne alcove is also missing.
Continuity mistake: At the end of the One Jump sequence, the Head Palace Guard and two others stop Aladdin a the top of a staircase. He is missing a tooth. Shortly after, the guards all jump out the window and the missing tooth has reappeared as he grits his teeth. Slowmo helps.
Continuity mistake: When Jafar reveals Aladdin's true self to Jasmine, he is about two inches shorter than her. During the marketplace and rooftop scenes, Aladdin had bare feet and was about four inches taller than Jasmine.
Continuity mistake: When Aladdin rescues the beggar boy and girl from the wrath of the suitor prince with the whip, the width of the street directly in front of the wooden palace gates can be seen. Later when Jasmine and Aladdin go to the reception stand at the top of that very gate to announce their engagement, the street is now 10 times wider when you look at the crowd. Did they level several blocks of homes for the occasion?
Continuity mistake: When Aladdin is in the "One Jump" Song sequence, he sings "You're my only friend, Abu" and they swing into a Harem type room. The wall is covered with a giant rug weaving loom. It is in every shot. Then the matronly woman says "I'd blame parents except he hasn't got 'em". She chases him out of the window, The gigantic rug loom that once commanded the entire wall space behind the entire scene has disappeared.
Continuity mistake: After Aladdin soothes the apple vendor and is leading Jasmine away, Abu jumps from standing in the middle of the road to standing between two vendor stands.
Continuity mistake: When Aladdin first notices Jasmine enter the marketplace, a side street or wide alley way separates the apple vendor's stand and the melon vendor's stand where Aladdin was sitting on the canopy, (easily seen in the opening long shots). Just after Jasmine is accused of stealing, the two stands are directly next to each other, against the same building, very evident when Aladdin first tries to turn Jasmine around to walk off. Then after Aladdin finally has convinced the apple vendor that Jasmine is crazy, Aladdin says "Come along sis. time to see the doctor", the side street between the two stands has reappeared, and the stands are at least several feet apart.
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.