Continuity mistake: In the beginning of the song "Friend Like me", Genie puts Aladdin on a rock. Then after he says "Whilst I illuminate the possibilities", the rock Aladdin is on has changed shape.
Continuity mistake: The appearance of Aladdin changed dramatically during film production. I was an artist of licensed Disney products at the time. I constantly received updated appearance drawings of Aladdin as he was re-developed. Originally Aladdin was a boy about 12 years old. He was made older after a substantial amount of the film had been done. In the process of re-animating the film to match the now 16 year old Aladdin, some parts were overlooked. Particularly in the "Friend Like Me" segment. Compare the size of Abu to Aladdin. In some spots Abu is almost half the size of Aladdin(long shots). When this happens, look at the childish proportions of Aladdin's body. In the film Abu is normally about 10 percent of Aladdin's size.
Continuity mistake: As the palace guards arrest Jafar, the blue curtains behind him disappear and reappear.
Continuity mistake: Sultan runs out of the palace to have a talk with Jasmine, by the fountain, regarding Rajah biting off the seat of the suitor's pants. As Sultan exits the building and runs down the stairs, we can see that the two peacocks on the top of the fountain are back to back with one pointing directly to that staircase exiting the palace and the other pointed directly away. Later after night falls, we can see Jasmine in disguise sneaking by the fountain in an overhead long shot. We can see that the peacocks on top of the fountain have made a one quarter turn, so that neither one points at the palace.
Continuity mistake: In the first pan down shot of Aladdin in the dungeon, a small staircase and door are just two wall blocks away to the left of the spot Aladdin is sitting. After the opening shot, we can see several blocks in that direction in several different shots from where Aladdin is sitting, and we never see that door or staircase again.
Continuity mistake: When the scene first showing Jafar and Jasmine opens, The fact that there is a thin crescent moon in the shape of a reversed letter "C" with points to the left, is established. The "Magic Carpet Ride" happens two nights later. When we see the crescent shape as a reflection in the water, the "C" is now the incorrect shape for the reflection. Even as a reflection in the water, the crescent moon still would have looked like a reversed letter "C" with points to the left.
Continuity mistake: Prince Ali is lying back, face up on carpet, has just landed in the garden after dropping off Jasmine following the "Magic Carpet Ride." The guards seize Aladdin and turn him onto his belly to shackle him. A guard ties a gag around Ali's mouth that goes around to the back of his head on the outside of the fabric that hangs down around his turban. Instantly, it is underneath that fabric that hangs down. Also of note is the fact that the cape is secured under his hands, but as he travels down to, and then through the water, it is fluttering above his head. However, one of the guards could have pulled it out when he is moved to the water's edge.
Continuity mistake: Abu threatens the chasing guards with the sword pulled from the sword swallower's mouth during the "One Jump" chase scene. The Head Palace Guard yells "Idiots, We've all got swords." The Head Palace Guard pulls his sword with his left hand from the belt on his right side. When they chased Aladdin past the firewalker just seconds before, we can see that the Head Palace guard was leading and was wearing his sword on his LEFT side, and should have needed to use his right hand to pull it. (00:08:20)
Continuity mistake: When Genie rolls out his tongue into a staircase, he drops Aladdin and the pillow at the base of the staircase. When the miniature Genie reaches the bottom, Aladdin and the pillow disappear. (00:38:25)
Continuity mistake: When we first see into Jasmine's room from the balcony, we look through a pair of open doors in an expanse of latticework in front of sheer curtains. The doors are flanking an opening of about 5-6 feet, judging by the size of the lattice pattern, compared to Jasmine standing next to it later. After the "Magic Carpet Ride", Jasmine looks back while walking through the sheer curtains to get one last look at Prince Ali. The doors and latticework on each side of the opening on the VHS tape version don't even show, and the opening shown is at least 15-20 feet wide which is definitely an error. Once the widescreen DVD comes out this fall we will find out if the doors and latticework are lacking altogether at that point.
Continuity mistake: When Abu and Aladdin enter the first treasure room in the Cave of Wonders, there is a tall rectangular arch in front of them. They meet Carpet just a few feet in front of it. Somehow, though, they never actually pass through it.
Continuity mistake: In the Market Place, the Rug Vendor's stand is next to and to the left of the Apple Vendor's stand, ( Where Jasmine is accused of stealing). The rug stand goes through multiple changes. First as Jasmine walks past the Rug Vendor's stand, it has a large window with open shutters on the wall behind it, in the center under the canopy, with no rugs hanging up. Then as she is told by the Apple Vendor, " You better be able to pay for that", the Rug Vendor's stand to the left has nothing on the wall behind it at all. As Aladdin and Jasmine are leaving the scene, Jasmine says to the camel, " Why, Hello Doctor" and the Rug vendor's stand has rugs hanging all over the entire wall.
Continuity mistake: When the King is stacking the little animal toys next to his throne, he is startled by a large door slam which causes him to lose balance and make the toy animals fall. The noise was from Jafar entering the throne room. But when he is walking up towards the throne you can see behind him that the door is opened about three quarters of the way, not shut or fully opened. Where did the loud door slam noise come from?
Continuity mistake: After Aladdin has landed on the ground after he jumped through clotheslines, emptying them all along the way, Aladdin glances up and a guard on the rooftop says "You won't get away so easy". All the clotheslines are still completely covered in clothing.
Continuity mistake: As Aladdin has jumped off the rooftop and is falling through multiple lines of clothing, he falls to the second set of two side by side clotheslines, which he slides down (he has a white bra on at this point). Aladdin heads straight for a window. A woman hanging clothing out that window drops her clothespins and clothing and quickly shuts the shutters. From Aladdin's view approaching the window there are two clotheslines tied to a peg above the window completely covered in clothing. When the angle switches to the side to show the impact, now there is only one clothesline going to that peg with no clothes hanging on it. Also how does anyone hang clothes out on a clothesline that is tied to a peg on the building with no pulley? Do they go out hand over hand?
Continuity mistake: As Aladdin is sinking in the ocean, he sees his turban falling as well. This turban doesn't match his earlier one: it lacks the gold brim that goes all the way around the Prince Ali hat and the fabric that hung down around Prince Ali's neck. This turban has a very wide white border, a much smaller jewel and feather, and is very round, almost like a helmet.
Continuity mistake: When Aladdin is on the roof with the loaf of bread, the lines on the loaf are pretty close together. but after he jumps and says "You think that was easy?", the lines are further away from each other, and remain that way for the rest of the scene.
Continuity mistake: When Jafar entered the throne room and attempted to hypnotize the Sultan into letting him marry the Princess the spell is broken by the sound of the Prince Ali parade. They ran to the balcony to see the commotion, then the Sultan ran to the throne room door to open it to let the procession in. Both doors were fully closed although Jafar left one side of the double doors open when he entered a few minutes before. No one else was in the throne room and there is a tremendous staircase leading up to that door from the outside.
Continuity mistake: When Aladdin is handing the lamp to Jafar in disguise, towards the end of the Cave of Wonders scene, the lamp switches position between shots.
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.
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.