"Strike Up the Sand" is the eighteenth episode of Aladdin that aired on September 23, 1994. It is the fifteenth episode to air in syndication.
Plot
One day In the marketplace, Jasmine is shopping for fabrics to make a special outfit, however to everyone's surprise and amusement she is making the outfit for Aladdin. While the vendor shows Jasmine some more fabrics, Iago and the others start to make fun of Aladdin. Suddenly they hear a commotion and Aladdin sees a girl named Sadira, who is a street rat just like him, getting chased by Razoul and the other guards. Aladdin becomes impressed with Sadira's skills and decides to follow to help her, the others soon follow, but accidentally leave Jasmine behind.
Sadira is soon cornered. She finds a rope next to her and tries to escape but is caught by Razoul thankfully before anything happens, Aladdin arrives and asks why they are after her. Razoul explains she is a thief as she stole a watermelon. Aladdin however starts to to trick Razoul into thinking she's a Royal Fruit Inspector. Sadira starts to play along, but in order to prove they're telling the truth, Razoul asks if she has a Royal badge. While Genie distracts Razoul as a fly, Abu is able to grab his badge and give it to Sadira. When Razoul again asks about the badge, Sadira shows it to him and he now believes her to be the Royal Fruit Inspector. Once Razoul and the rest of the guards leave them alone, Sadira thanks Aladdin for he did as no one has ever done anything like that for her before and because of his kind deed Sadira ends up falling in love Aladdin. Aladdin however, starts to become uncomfortable and soon he and the others leave.
When Aladdin and the others arrive back at the stall they see that Jasmine is no where to be seen. Believing him to have a bit of troubles, Genie gives Aladdin advice about women, such as noticing their hair, helping them in need and showing them compassion. Unknown to Aladdin or the others, Sadira does all those things to try and get Aladdin's attention but to no avail. Sadira decides to go straight up to Aladdin who then immediately starts to feel uncomfortable again. When Aladdin explains they're looking for someone, Sadira offers to help but becomes upset when he reveals they're looking for his girlfriend. Jasmine shows up with a brocade for Aladdin. As Aladdin introduces Jasmine and Sadira to each other Razoul and th Royal guards arrive and still believing Sadira to be a fruit inspector has come to check up on things. Sadira says that everything is fine and tells Razoul to carry on with his duties, but as he starts to leave, Jasmine reveals Agrabah has no fruit inspector thus rising Razoul's suspicions.
When Sadira asks Jasmile how she would know, Jasmine says that her father is the Sultan and reveals herself to be "Princess Jasmine". Realizing they have been fooled, Razoul and the guards go after Sadira again and tell Aladdin to stay out of the situation. Sadira runs off, hides herself in an abandoned building and loses the guards. Sadira now starts to complain about Jasmine not only being rich and beautiful but she is also the princess of Agrabah and feels that she will never be able to win Aladdin for herself. Suddenly the floor below soon breaks apart and she falls down to an ancient ruin. A voice tells her that she has entered an inner sanctum of the Witches of the Sand. However, Sadira says that the Witches of the Sand disappeared thousands of years ago, the voice is revealed to be a sand worm who use to work for the Witches, having become annoyed that this whole time the witches were gone and nobody told him until now quits his job and starts to leave the ruin. Sadira however wants to learnt more about the witches, but he simply tells Sadira to read the scrolls about them and soon leaves to go home to his mother.
Realizing with the help of the scrolls, Sadira learns that she will be able to do magic and picks up an amulet. Now having gained magical abilities, Sadira declares that things will be different from now on. As Sadira tests out her new Sand Magic powers, by creating a throne, a miniature copy of the palace and a statue of Aladdin, she is overjoyed but realizes that though these new powers are great, they're not enough to get Aladdin. She then creates a sand beast with the amulet and tells him that she has a crush on Aladdin and she wants him to get rid of Jasmine.
At the palace gardens, Jasmine has finished making Aladdin his new outfit. Aladdin is shown to now be wearing the new, but ugly outfit. As Genie, Abu and Iago laugh at Aladdin, Jasmine tells him to ignore them and says that he looks very dashing. Suddenly the sand beast arrives from underground and grabs Jasmine. Aladdin soon frees her and they both try to escape while Carpet, Abu and Iago hold it off, however it easily defeats the trio and catches up to Aladdin and Jasmine. The sand beast kicks Aladdin away, grabs Jasmine and throws her down his mouth which results in her now being imprisoned inside the beast. The beast then soon goes back underground with the now kidnapped princess, however unknown to the beats he is being followed by Aladdin and company to rescue Jasmine. When the beast gets back in the ruins, Sadira, now dressed in a nicer outfit, doesn't know what to do with Jasmine.
When Aladdin and the gang show up, the beast eats the amulet, lets go of Jasmine and decides to take matters into his own hands. Everyone tries to escape him, but they are unable to, so they have an idea. They make the beast spit out the amulet and, ignoring the sand beast's pleas for forgiveness and mercy, Sadira gets rid of the monster.
After Sadira apologizes to the gang, they invite her to have dinner at the palace, but Sadira says that she would rather be alone. When the gang leaves, Sadira picks up a scroll, reads it, and has another idea to make Aladdin love her.
Trivia
- The episode's title is a play on "Strike up the band."
- This episode marks the first appearance of Sadira.
- At one point, Genie imitates Sigmund Freud.
- After supposedly destroying the sand beast quotes the famous "sand through the hourglass" line from Days of Our Lives.
- In the end, Sadira begins to plan the events for "SandSwitch".