The Genie is a fictional character who appearing in Walt Disney Pictures' animated film Aladdin (1992), later appearing in other media of the Aladdin franchise as one of its main characters, as well as several other Disney media. He was voiced by Robin Williams in the first film. Following a contract dispute between Williams and Disney, Dan Castellaneta voiced the Genie throughout the direct-to-video feature The Return of Jafar, as well as the television series, before Williams reprised the role for the final installment, Aladdin and the King of Thieves, as well as for the character's own mini-series, Great Minds Think for Themselves.
As well as largely driving the plot in the first film, the Genie serves as comic relief in each of his appearances. He is shown to have unlimited shapeshifting abilities, which allow for many and varied sight gags; however, he is unable to kill anyone, make anyone fall in love, fully revive the dead, or provide additional wishes. The Genie's supernatural abilities permit him to break the fourth wall, as well as parody real-life people and popular culture completely beyond the boundaries of his native universe. For instance, during production of Aladdin Williams would improvise various impersonations at will, and his animator Eric Goldberg would choose the ones that would be translated into the film. One of those was an imitation of Pinocchio's nose growing, which made the Genie's head turn into Pinocchio's.[2] Composer Alan Menken and Lyricist Howard Ashman had conceived the Genie as "a hip Harlemjazz singer, like Fats Waller or Cab Calloway." Thus Menken was afraid Williams would not be able to display the required singing capabilities, only changing his mind after seeing Williams perform "Friend Like Me" and "Prince Ali" at his Los Angeles home.[3]
The Genie first appears in Aladdin, where he is released from a magical oil lamp, which formed the phrase "genie in a lamp" or "genie in a bottle", which coined the term by the titular character in the collapsed Cave of Wonders. After he explains that he can grant three wishes, Aladdin, knowing that Genie would only grant his wish to get out of the cave if he used one of his wishes, dupes him into freeing Aladdin and Abu from the cave without using a wish. At a faraway oasis, the Genie is shocked when he finds that Aladdin didn't use his first wish to get out of the cave and reluctantly agrees to let Aladdin's first wish to be spared. Asked by Aladdin what he would wish for, Genie admits he would wish for freedom, since genies must follow the orders of a master—in this case, Aladdin. He accepts Aladdin's promise to use the third wish to set him free, then grants Aladdin his first wish: making him a prince so he can legally court Princess Jasmine. Genie goes into hiding after leading a parade to the Agrabah palace. Genie is released again when Aladdin is shackled, gagged, and thrown off a cliff into the ocean by Jafar's guards. He rescues Aladdin as the second wish upon liberally interpreting Aladdin's nodding head. Later, Genie has an argument with Aladdin when he starts to think he may have to break his promise to use the third wish, out of fear of what will happen should someone find out he is not royalty.
Iago the parrot soon steals Genie's lamp and delivers it to Jafar, making Jafar Genie's new master. The Genie has no choice but to grant Jafar's first and second wish to become Sultan of Agrabah and the world's most powerful sorcerer. He is then made a slave with no purpose in life but to entertain the cruel Jafar by torturing the former Sultan. During the final fight between Aladdin and Jafar, the Genie is forced to grant Jafar's final wish to become an all-powerful genie when Aladdin convinces him to do so, much to his reluctance. However, as they both know, the fulfillment of this wish causes Jafar to be imprisoned in a lamp of his own, which a now-more-relieved Genie hurls into the desert, freeing Agrabah from his tyranny. While the Genie is willing to sacrifice his freedom in order to allow Aladdin to be with Princess Jasmine, Aladdin decides to live up to his original promise and uses his final wish to free the Genie from his lamp's power, much to the latter's surprise and happiness. Aladdin still gets to marry Princess Jasmine, as the Sultan is touched by the young couple's love for one another, so he changes the law so the princess can marry whomever she pleases. The freed Genie bids a tearful goodbye to Aladdin and leaves Agrabah to explore the world.
Also, at the beginning of the film appears a Peddler who narrates to the audience the story about the magic lamp, the character being confirmed by the film's directors to be the same Genie in disguise (the peddler's singing voice was provided by Bruce Adler).[4][5][6][7][8][9]
In the Aladdin sequel The Return of Jafar, the Genie returns to Agrabah after his one-year trip around the world, deciding it isn't all that great without his friends to share it with. His powers are lessened by his own admission, as a freed genie is less powerful than one bound to a lamp, though he still retains several of his abilities, most notably shapeshifting, flight, and conjuration. On the night of his return, after Jasmine and Aladdin have a fight over Aladdin keeping Iago's presence secret from her, the Genie convinces Iago to help him get the couple to reconcile. Later in the film, when Aladdin, Iago and the Sultan go on an outing without him, the Genie and Abu have a picnic for themselves but are confronted by Jafar. Despite a brave fight against him, the Genie is outmatched and both he and Abu are imprisoned. Eventually, they are joined by the Sultan, Princess Jasmine and the Carpet who were all captured by Jafar. After being freed from imprisonment by a morally confused Iago, Genie saves Aladdin from being executed by the palace guards, which Jafar had orchestrated by falsely framing Aladdin for murdering the Sultan. After the heroes regroup, the Genie reveals destroying Jafar's lamp is the only way they can destroy him. Their plan to discreetly take the lamp does not go unnoticed and they are drawn into combat. Genie assists the heroes several times during this battle, by catching a falling Aladdin and by shape-shifting into him in an attempt to distract Jafar while Aladdin grabs his lamp. However, this too fails as Jafar is able to prevent Aladdin from seizing the lamp, and uses his powers to split the land open over a sea of magma. After the reformed Iago is shot down trying to hand over the lamp to Aladdin, the parrot bravely kicks the lamp into the lava and thus destroys Jafar once and for all. The Genie saves Jasmine from a dangerous situation as the ground is closing back up by stretching himself so they can get out in time. When he finds out that Iago survived the battle, he celebrates by turning into a firework.
In Aladdin and the King of Thieves, the Genie plays a considerably smaller role. Unlike the first and second films, he does not have an active role in the main plot, resulting in less screen time.
Nevertheless, he still acts as Aladdin's best friend and moral support. He also appears to be just as powerful as he was in the first film, as he has no problem with anything he tries, something that implies that his reduction of power was merely temporary.
Aladdin (2019 remake)
Genie (portrayed by Will Smith) in the 2019 live-action adaptation.
In the 2019 live-action adaptation of Aladdin, the Genie is portrayed by Will Smith, with his appearance alternating between his classic blue-skin and a human form as a disguise to blend in. This version is significantly less wacky than in the original film, having a more relaxed and sarcastic personality. In the remake, wishes must be done with more specific words or else the Genie could give something different from what was intended, something Aladdin later uses to trick Jafar into becoming a genie. Additionally, in this version, the Genie states clearly that his power comes from the lamp as well as himself, with the result that he becomes human when freed from the lamp. Genie is also portrayed as forming a romance with Jasmine's handmaiden Dalia, to the point that he asks her to join him in travelling the world after he is freed from the lamp. The start of the film features a plot twist featuring a human Genie telling Aladdin's story to his and Dalia's children,[10] a reference to a deleted concept from the original film in which the Peddler from the start would reveal himself as the Genie.[11]
Other films
The Genie appears in the two direct-to-video films based on the series House of Mouse: in Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse (2001), he is present among the characters surprised to not be able to leave the club because of the snow blizzard, later he is seen setting along with Abu and Jafar while they enjoy the Christmas celebration, and in the end as part of the characters who sing the musical number "The Best Christmas of All"; in Mickey's House of Villains (2002), he is part of the characters that are locked up by the Card Soldiers in the club's kitchen.
He can be seen at the end of The Lion King 1½ (2004) among the Disney characters who meet to see the movie again.
The Genie has a major supporting role in the Aladdin television series (1994-1995), although his contributions are sometimes limited; as the show is directly after the sequel, the once-omnipotent Genie is now reduced to "semi-phenomenal, nearly-cosmic powers", which renders him incapable of undoing some of the spells he is confronted with, and lacks some degree of his old intellect. A particular example of this is the episode "Love at First Sprite", when a group of sprites lift the palace into the air and then drop it back to the ground; Genie explicitly references how he lifted the palace in the past, but is unable to repeat the feat on this occasion, requiring Carpet to trick the sprites into lowering the palace to safety. However, Genie is still an indispensable member of Aladdin's team: there were many, many occasions in the TV series where the Genie's magic was crucial for the heroes to win, and the situation would have been hopeless without him.
In addition, Williams himself returned to the role from 1997 to 2002 for an educational spot series in ABC's One Saturday Morning programming block, called Great Minds Think 4 Themselves, where the Genie tells the stories of various historical figures who defied the assumptions and prejudices of their times to produce great achievements.
The Genie also is a guest in House of Mouse (2001-2003), having cameo appearances among the audience of the titular club, often sitting with other Aladdin characters.
Video games
Kingdom Hearts series
The Genie appears in some of the installments of the Kingdom Hearts series of video games (voiced by Dan Castellaneta in the english dub, while Kōichi Yamadera voices him in the original japanese version).[13]
Genie in his "Valor Form" in Kingdom Hearts II.
His role in the first Kingdom Hearts (2002) is mostly the same as in the film as his lamp is found by Aladdin. The general difference is that all of Aladdin's wishes are wasted to get him out of trouble: the first wish was spent on getting rid of Heartless attacking and the second one is to rescue Princess Jasmine from Jafar. Eventually, Iago steals the Genie's lamp, forcing him to show Jafar the keyhole of Agrabah and assist him in fighting Sora and his friends. After Jafar is defeated, Aladdin wishes the Genie free from his lamp. He then becomes a summon for Sora.[14][15]
The Genie has much less screen time and much less to do with the plot in Kingdom Hearts II (2005). Like in The Return of Jafar, he goes off to see the world along with Carpet. He misses most of the action, but arrives near the end of Sora's first visit and disturbs Pete when he is about to free Jafar from his lamp. Also, the Genie once again becomes a summon partner for Sora, but his newest feature is copying Sora's Drive forms and wielding his own copy of the Keyblade (excluding the Limit Form in Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix).[17]
He also serves as the host of Disney Think Fast (2008), introducing the game's players and rounds, as well as ranking the players based on the number of points (and commenting on things such as all players getting an answer wrong, and stopping to take very brief breaks).
Genie is a meet-and-greet character at Disney Parks.[23] On August 18, 2021, Disney announced the Genie would be the mascot of a new paid skip-the-line service called Genie+, which was implemented later that fall.[24]
The Genie (voiced by Isaiah Mustafa) has an appearance in the Robot Chicken episode "May Cause Immaculate Conception" (2021), where one of the bell-ringers that he made appear during the Agrabah parade asks him for food for the animals that were part of the parade.[28]
Reception
Reception to Williams' involvement influenced tributes following his 2014 death, with critics considering the Genie to have been his most memorable performance. Aladdin composer Alan Menken lamented that Williams was "a brilliant, adorable, hilarious, compassionate, vulnerable manifestation of the human condition."[29][30]
