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: While Aladdin is in the stranded in the frozen wasteland, the scene cuts back to the newly evil Palace now sitting on the hilltop. You can see stairs leading up to the throne room doors. When Aladdin returns and flies by this same spot, the stairs are gone. An interesting note here is that both of the mentioned views only show the Palace itself on the mountain top, without the surrounding walls and gardens. When Jafar has become a Genie and is being sucked down back into the palace, (on the mountain top), the shot looking down at the palace shows it to have it's walls and gardens still attached. (01:12:05 - 01:13:00)
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: In the Prince Ali parade, the monkeys are on top of wooden poles, with wooden cross member arms, with bells hanging from them. When Jafar is pushing the participants out of the Throne room doors, we see one of the monkeys and the bells are missing from the pole he is sitting on. (00:48:10 - 00:49:00)
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.
Continuity mistake: Prince Ali and Jasmine are on the Chinese Palace rooftop after the "Whole New World" song. A rare "Off Model" character error happens with the Jewel in Aladdin's turban. When they are discussing royalty going out into the public in disguise. The Jewel begins to shrink steadily in size throughout the scene. After Jasmine flicks the feather up on Ali's turban, the jewel is now 25% of it's normal size. Extremely noticeable as Ali leans towards Jasmine. The shot cuts to carpet for a second and when we see Ali and Jasmine again, the jewel is restored to nearly correct size, but then we are treated to a rare "Swimming" animation error. The jewel in Ali's turban very noticeably migrates up at least 2 inches in a second.(as though it were alive and moving), The jewel actually leaves the band on camera. The bottom third of the jewel is supposed to be attached to the gold hat band, with the fabric in the front supported and swagged by it to keep the turban high in the front. So the movement can't be caused by the fabric falling in the back pulling it up. The jewel in Ali's turban is correctly drawn and scaled when they return to the palace in the next scene, so that you may make an easy size and placement comparison.
Continuity mistake: Aladdin, Magic Carpet and Abu have returned to the evil throne room. Aladdin tries to grab the lamp, but is unsuccessful. Abu runs for it and is turned into a toy cymbal clanging monkey. Magic Carpet swoops down to grab the lamp a split second after Abu is transformed, yet Abu is nowhere in sight on the floor even though he was directly next to the lamp clanging his cymbals. (01:15:00)
Continuity mistake: Near the end of the "Street Rat" song, Aladdin tucks Abu into bed on a little pillow by the window. The next shot from outside, shows Aladdin opening the curtain. Then you next see a shot looking out the window from the room, looking towards the palace. Abu and his little pillow are obviously missing from view. If they show up on the DVD version being released this fall, in a wide screen format view, they still are in the incorrect position. They should be in front of the red pillow.
Continuity mistake: When Jasmine is walking through the marketplace, one of the vendors yells "Fresh fish. We catch them, you buy them". In one shot, his thumb is in front of the fish's fin, and in the next shot it is behind the fin.
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.