Genie (Aladdin)
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| Genie | |
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The Genie in the 1992 film Aladdin |
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| First appearance | Aladdin |
| Created by | Roger Allers Ron Clements |
| Voiced by | Robin Williams (English, first and third film) Dan Castellaneta (English, all other appearances) Richard Darbois (French) Kōichi Yamadera (Japanese) |
| Also known as | Genie of the Lamp |
Genie is a fictional character from the Disney animated features canon movie Aladdin, as well as related series and sequels. For the original movie, his voice was provided by Robin Williams, though it was later taken over by Dan Castellaneta, after a contract dispute between Williams and the Walt Disney Company. Castellaneta continued to voice the Genie throughout Aladdin the Series, as well as the direct-to-video feature The Return of Jafar, before Williams reprised the role for the final installment of the franchise, Aladdin and the King of Thieves. Castellaneta also voiced Genie in the Kingdom Hearts series by Square Enix and Buena Vista Games.
Like most popular depictions of genies, Disney's Genie was originally a slave. Though he possessed "phenomenal cosmic powers", he was bound to an "itty-bitty living space" and could only use his powers when the owner of the lamp (his master) made a wish. Each master had three such wishes. The lamp came into the possession of the character Aladdin during the course of the first movie, and remained in servitude until the end of the movie, when Aladdin used his third and final wish to grant Genie his freedom.
As well as largely driving the plot in the first movie, the Genie serves as a comic relief element in each of his appearances. He is shown to have incredible shape-shifting abilities, which allow for many and varied sight gags, and the Genie's supernatural disposition permits him to break the fourth wall, as well as parody real-life people and popular culture completely outside of the boundaries of the fictional universe in which he is contained. Robin Williams is responsible for most of these because he improvised many of the lines in the film.
Along with the character of Iago the parrot, Genie is one of the most well recognized of characters from Disney's Aladdin franchise.
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[edit] Reduction of Genie's powers
After the first movie, Genie's Phenomenal Cosmic Powers were reduced to Semi-Phenomenal, Nearly-Cosmic Powers as he admitted in The Return of Jafar and the TV series. Evidence of his power reduction can be observed by comparing the first Aladdin movie to the Aladdin TV series.
In the first movie, Genie's powers were all-powerful and he was able to do anything except three forbidden things: murder, making one fall in love, and raising the dead (although he explained that he simply does not enjoy doing the third as the revived person would be turned into a zombie, hinting that he does have the ability but prefers not to use it). Additionally, he disallows using a wish to get extra wishes. He was able to get out of the collapsed Cave of Wonders, lift the palace in to the sky with his bare hands, and undo the work, causes, and results of magics from other sources. He also demonstrated a significant amount of wisdom on mortal matters, such as when he encouraged Aladdin to tell Jasmine the truth while he was posing as 'Prince Ali', and subsequently being willing to sacrifice his chance at freedom by encouraging Aladdin to use his third wish to become a prince again rather than to set him free, saying that Aladdin wouldn't find a girl like Jasmine "in a million years". He basically is a near unlimited reality warper and shape-shifter. He was possibly the most powerful entity in the Disney universe.
With the ability to use his magic for himself came the reduction of his capabilities, seen most evidently when he was unable to stop the palace from falling despite having lifted it before (A feat that he actually mentioned while attempting to stop it). In the series his powers often fail for various reasons, or he takes a relatively ineffective means of dealing with a problem; for example, on one occasion when he was trying to stop a flood, he used a large umbrella to hold the water back until the village below could be evacuated rather than simply repairing the original dam. He either does not do or create something strong enough, he is often not allowed to undo other magics- sometimes with disastrous effects; he once attempted to negate a sand spell cast by Sadira and Aladdin was left believing that he was a dragon-slaying prince- and he seems so willing to tell a joke that he makes them in times of peril when he really needs to save the cast. He is also given the weakness that he is "powerless once confined" (from the episode "Prophet Motive") and is often captured in glass bottles. On a related topic, he still dwells in his lamp despite no longer being required to do so, even going to great lengths to get it back when it was stolen on two occasions by Abis Mal and Iago despite his main complaint about his original powers being his confinement; presumably his primary objection to it was his inability to get out unless expressly summoned or desired, rather than it just being cramped.
Genie's physical and mystical abilities were reduced, as well as his wisdom, intelligence, and personality. In the first movie he has complete self-confidence, and gives good advice unlike in the TV series where he has very little self-confidence and is usually out-smarted and needs Aladdin's mortal wisdom to save him. The logic behind Genie's reduction was most likely to make Aladdin's adventures more challenging by keeping Genie from making any problem irrelevant. However, he still retains some advantages over the rest of the cast, such as when he and Carpet were the only two members of the cast unaffected when villain Mechanicles used a robot to hypnotise the others into believing him to be a friend, and his shape-shifting and magical knowledge are still impressive even if he is not omnipotent.
Ironically, this reduction is less obvious in Aladdin and the King of Thieves (in the opening number he sings, "My buddy's gettin' married and you're gonna see / Just how much I can do!"). In that movie he never gets beaten, humiliated, or intimidated, and his magic never fails (Possibly suggesting that the movie is set some time after the end of the cartoon series, at which point he has thus better learned how to deal with his new limitations). He was able to defeat the Forty Thieves when the palace guards failed to do so, multiply himself to countless soldiers of a modern-day military while using a Code Red Order, and rebuild the completely destroyed wedding pavilion in one night. His wisdom, intelligence, and personality appeared to be similar to that in the first movie, such as when he encourages Aladdin to talk about his fears regarding his upcoming marriage to Jasmine and how they tie in to him losing his own father when he was younger. It is notable that this coincides with Robin Williams voicing the Genie again.
Being a nearly omnipotent being, the Genie can transcend time and space, which is why he is capable of making impersonations of celebrities and pop culture references despite the movie's old-time setting.
Notes: The chakles on Genies wrists disapeared at the end of the first movie but returns at him at all later points.
[edit] Songs
The list of songs Genie sings follows.
- He sang "Friend Like Me" as his intro in the first movie, to tell Aladdin he's no joke, and to tell Aladdin his powers.
- He also sang "Prince Ali" in the first movie as an intro to Aladdin's Prince Ali alias. He was dressed as a Bellboy running through the streets introducing Prince Ali, as well as being a commoner, a Guard, an old man, a goat, a cheetah, two announcers (one male and one female), a young boy, and large woman, having commented on Prince Ali's accomplishments in each appearance.
- In the second movie he sang "Nothing in the World Quite Like a Friend" when he returned from his journey to see the world. In this song he told of his tales around the world and as well said that nothing in the world is better than a friend.
- Also in the second movie, he features in the song "You're Only Second Rate" sung by Jafar, during which Genie is beaten in a magical battle and finally imprisoned in a small glass dome.
- In the third movie he sang "Father and Son" where he told of the things that Aladdin can now do with his father, and in the opening scene of the movie he sings "There's a Party Here in Agrabah," a song with scenes showing the preparation for Jasmine and Aladdin's wedding.
[edit] Kingdom Hearts series
[edit] Kingdom Hearts
Genie's role in the first Kingdom Hearts game 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 Jasmine from Jafar. Eventually, Iago steals Genie's lamp, forcing Genie to show Jafar the keyhole of Agrabah and assisting him in fighting Sora, Donald, Goofy and Aladdin. After Jafar is defeated, Aladdin wishes Genie free from his lamp. He then becomes a summon for Sora.
[edit] Kingdom Hearts II
Genie has much less screen time and much less to do with the plot in the second game. 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. Aside from that the only important things he does is clear out a sandstorm for Sora and fix Agrabah after Jafar wrecks it. He seems to have somewhat more ego here than in the first game, as he complains that one lousy sandstorm is just too easy and that he didn't get to help in the battle against Jafar. 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.
[edit] Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days
His role currently unknown, recent screenshots have confirmed that Genie will make an appearance in the upcoming Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days.
[edit] References
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