With the new gummi blocks installed in their ship, Sora, Donald, and Goofy are able to reach many new worlds they couldn't access before. The first of these is the desert city of Agrabah, where Maleficent and Jafar are already plotting. Jafar explains to her that he and the Heartless are in the midst of searching for the Keyhole, as well as Princess Jasmine. Iago, Jafar's parrot, arrives and informs him that Jasmine is nowhere to be found. Jafar questions why she is of such importance, but Maleficent reminds him that they need all seven princesses to open the final door, meaning that they would be useless if the Disney villains are unable to find all of them. Hearing this, Jafar redoubles his efforts, ordering the Heartless to find Jasmine at once. Before she leaves, Maleficent warns Jafar not to become consumed by darkness, but he simply laughs and says her concern is unneeded. Unbeknownst to the two villains, Jasmine is hiding nearby.
When Sora, Donald, and Goofy arrive, they find the city strangely deserted, and crawling with Heartless. They soon find Jasmine, who explains that Jafar is the evil vizier who overthrew the Sultan and is now ruling Agrabah with an iron fist. She tells them that she managed to get away thanks to the help of a young man named Aladdin. Just then, Jafar himself appears and taunts Jasmine. Sora tells her to run while they hold the vizier there. Jafar is intrigued to finally have met the wielder of the Keyblade for himself. He summons some Heartless and departs.
After dealing with the Heartless, Sora, Donald, and Goofy decide to search for Aladdin. They find his house, where a flying carpet is stuck underneath some rubble. They free the carpet, which heads for the desert. They follow it outside the city, and it offers to take them across the desert, where they find Aladdin and his monkey friend Abu stuck in a quicksand pit and under attack by Heartless. They try to defeat them, but there are too many Heartless for them to deal with. Aladdin pulls out a lamp and rubs it, asking the Genie inside to get rid of the Heartless. The whimsical blue Genie emerges and grants Aladdin's wish, announcing it was the first one. Afterwards, the group rides the carpet back to Agrabah.
On the way back, the Genie explains his job, which is to grant three wishes to the one who finds and rubs the lamp. He laments the fact that he rarely gets to leave his prison due to being bound to the lamp, so Aladdin agrees to use his last wish to free the Genie. In the meantime, though, he plans to use his second wish to make himself a prince so he can win the heart of Jasmine. Hearing the princess's name, Sora remembers that Jasmine is in danger, so they rush after her after returning to Agrabah.
The group reaches Agrabah, where they find the entrance to the palace gates has been blocked off. After sneaking through the city, they find Jasmine and Jafar. Aladdin uses his second wish to save the princess, but it is interrupted when Iago steals the lamp and brings it to Jafar. Jasmine falls into a pot which actually turns out to be a Pot Spider Heartless. Jafar disappears as many Pot Spiders come to life, merging together to form the Pot Centipede. The group destroys the monster, but Jasmine is nowhere to be found, so they return to the desert.
Back in the desert, they find that the Cave of Wonders, where Aladdin found the lamp, has been overtaken by darkness. They fight the cave's tiger head and free it from the darkness. As they make their way through the cave, Jafar uses his first wish to reveal the Keyhole. When they finally reach Jafar in the lamp chamber, they see Maleficent conversing with him. Jafar suggests getting Riku to help them deal with Sora, but he is interrupted by the arrival of Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Aladdin. Sora meets Maleficent for the first time, but she vanishes without saying a word to him. Jafar reveals the villains' plan of opening the door with the seven princesses to the party. He uses his second wish to order Genie to destroy them, but the Genie holds back as much as he possibly can while fighting alongside Jafar.
The group defeats Jafar, but before they can rescue Jasmine, the vizier uses his final wish to turn himself into a Genie. As he transforms, he creates a huge hole in the ground, descending into an underground chamber full of lava. The group follows him there, where they see he now has a lamp of his own, which is protected by Iago. The group chases the parrot down and claims the lamp, allowing Sora to suck him into it. Sora also obtains the first of Ansem's reports from Jafar. Meanwhile, back in the lamp chamber, Jasmine is abducted by someone else. The group returns to the chamber with Carpet's help, and Sora seals the Keyhole, but the princess is gone. Before they can search for her, the Cave of Wonders begins to collapse, forcing them to flee and return to Agrabah.
Back at Aladdin's house, Genie encourages Aladdin to use his last wish to find Jasmine, but Aladdin sticks to his word and uses it to free Genie instead. Although he wants to come along with Sora's group, that would be considered meddling, so he isn't allowed to join. Instead, he asks Genie to accompany them, and he agrees to do so if Sora calls upon his power. With that, Sora, Donald, and Goofy leave for the next world.
Meanwhile, it is revealed that the one who kidnapped Jasmine was none other than Riku. Hades chastises the boy for not staying behind to help Jafar, but Maleficent says he was already doomed, since he was consumed by his lust for power much like Clayton. It is revealed that Maleficent made a deal with Riku: if he brought back Jasmine, she would find Kairi for him. Maleficent announces that Kairi is on board Captain Hook's pirate ship. Before Riku leaves, he questions why Maleficent would help him, to which she responds that she considers him like a son and wants him to be happy. Riku doesn't buy it, but Maleficent reminds him that she held her end of the deal. With that, Riku departs with Hook to finally reunite with Kairi.
Later, after the Final Keyhole is opened, Sora and friends return to Agrabah. In Aladdin's house, they see Carpet panicking about something, so they decide to investigate. Carpet takes them out to the desert, where a fearsome Heartless called Kurt Zisa appears and traps them in an arena. After an arduous battle, they manage to destroy the fiend, restoring peace to the desert...
Tropes
- Apologetic Attacker: Genie really, really doesn't want to fight you, outright apologizing for it and openly hoping he'll miss whenever he takes a swing at you.
- Arc Villain: As in the film, Jafar. Here, he seeks both Jasmine (because she's one of the Princesses of Heart) and the Keyhole of Agrabah on Maleficent's orders.
- Becoming the Genie: Just like in the film, Jafar uses his final wish to become an all-powerful genie. However, since Iago is holding onto Jafar's lamp throughout the entirety of the fight against him, Jafar is not sucked into the lamp immediately, forcing Sora's party to get the lamp from Iago in order to do so.
- Freeing the Genie: When Genie suggests that Aladdin use his final wish to get Jasmine back, he instead uses his final wish to free Genie from his lamp so he can help Sora on his journey.
- Loophole Abuse: Jafar can order Genie to fight you, and Genie has no choice but to comply. However, he doesn't order him to try particularly hard, allowing Genie to hold back, announcing his blows so you can get out of the way before he hits you, and even covering his eyes while he fights, so his aim will be off.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Jafar uses his first wish to make Genie reveal the Keyhole in the Cave of Wonders, but since he and Maleficent don’t do anything to cast the world into darkness, Sora is able to seal the Keyhole after dealing with Jafar and Iago.
- You Can't Thwart Stage One: Although Agrabah's Keyhole is sealed, ensuring neither the bad guys nor the Heartless can plunge it into Darkness, Riku captures Jasmine and takes her to Maleficent while Sora's party is busy fighting Jafar and Iago.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: After Jafar uses his last wish to become a genie, Maleficent and Riku just leave him to his fate, with the former declaring Jafar beyond help.
