Genie

Genie
The Genie in the 1992 film Aladdin
First appearance	Aladdin (1992)
Created by	Roger Allers Ron Clements
Voiced by	Robin Williams (English, first and third film) Dan Castellaneta (English, second film, all other appearances)
Aliases	Genie of the Lamp

The Genie is a fictional character and a protagonist from the Disney animated features canon movie Aladdin, as well as related series and sequels. He was portrayed by Robin Williams in the first film, though the role 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; he occasionally does things without granting a wish, but never anything that greatly affects the world around him. He is also bound by 3 laws; He can't kill anyone, he can't make people fall in love and he can't revive the dead. It is possible, however, that he can do the third one, but that, as he puts it; "It's not a pretty picture. I don't like doing it!". Each master has three such wishes, and cannot exceed this amount by wishing for more wishes. The lamp came into the possession of the character Aladdin during the course of the first film, and he remained in servitude until Aladdin used his third and final wish to grant Genie his freedom at the end of the film.

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 shapeshifting abilities, which allow for many and varied sight gags. 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.

The Genie's true name, if he has one, has never been revealed; he answers to being called "Genie", and never says that he does have a real name.

Along with the character of Iago, Genie is one of the most well recognized of characters from Disney's Aladdin franchise.

Appearances

Aladdin film trilogy

The Genie first appears in Aladdin (1992), where he is released from a magical oil lamp by the titular character in the collapsed Cave of Wonders. After he reveals that he can grant three wishes, he is duped into freeing Aladdin and Abu from the cave without using a wish. At a faraway oasis, the Genie is asked by Aladdin what he would wish for. The Genie admits he would wish for freedom, since he is a prisoner to his lamp and must follow the orders of the lamp's master. After accepting a promise from Aladdin that Aladdin would use the third wish to set the Genie free, the Genie grants Aladdin his first wish: making him a prince so he can marry Jasmine. The Genie goes into hiding after leading a parade to the Agrabah palace. The Genie is released again when Aladdin is shackled, gagged, and thrown off a cliff into the ocean by Jafar's guards. The Genie rescues Aladdin as the second wish after liberally interpreting Aladdin's nodding head. Later, Genie began to lose his respect when he sees that Aladdin has to break his promise by using the wish for Aladdin himself. The Genie's lamp is later stolen and delivered to Jafar by Iago, 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 sadistic Jafar by tormenting 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. However, the fulfillment of this wish causes Jafar to be imprisoned in a lamp of his own, which the Genie hurls into the desert, freeing Agrabah from his tyranny. While initially more than willing to sacrifice his freedom in order to allow Aladdin to be with Jasmine (saying, "You're not gonna find another girl like her in a million years. Believe me, I know. I've looked."), Aladdin decides to live up to his original promise and uses his final wish to free Genie from his lamp's power. (In this film Genie loses the bangles around his wrists which signifies his freedom from the lamp. In the sequel and all other appearances however, he still has them.) The now-free Genie leaves Agrabah to explore the world.

In the direct-to-video sequel The Return of Jafar (1994), the Genie returns to Agrabah, deciding that the world isn't all that great without Aladdin and Jasmine around him and that he can't live without them. He is later confronted by the newly-free Jafar in the Palace gardens and imprisoned alongside Abu. After being freed by a morally-confused Iago, the Genie informs Aladdin that the only way to dispose of Jafar permanently is to destroy his lamp before Jafar himself is wished free. The Genie later attempts to discreetly grab Jafar's lamp from Abis Mal, but ultimately fails, and assists Aladdin in the final battle against Jafar by shapeshifting into Aladdin in an attempt to distract Jafar while Aladdin grabs his lamp, but this fails as well.

Others

The Genie has a major supporting role in the Aladdin television series.

Genie cameos in the Hercules: The Animated Series crossover episode "Hercules and the Arabian Night", in which he pops Pain and Panic upside the head when they try to steal the lamp.

Genie also makes a breif cameo appearance in the Roger Rabbit short Trail Mix-Up as one of the bees that Roger spits out after the beehive drops on his head.

Powers and abilities

Genie was, before he got his freedom, the most powerful being in the Disney universe shown so far. As shown in the first movie, he could break the laws of nature, shapeshift into virtually anything, break the fourth wall, warp reality at a whim, lift the palace of Agrabah with no problems, give other people his power, undo the works of any magic, and escape a magically sealed cave. However, he had three limits to his powers; he could not kill, could not make people fall in love, and could not raise the dead (though he states that he can perform resurrections, but simply does not enjoy doing so as the resurrected are implied to be turned into zombies which he describes as "not a pretty picture"). Aside from these three limitations, he was omnipotent. After getting his freedom, his powers were severely reduced to a mere fraction of what it used to be, as shown when he failed to lift the palace he had lifted before with ease (he explains that his "phenomenal cosmic powers" were now only "semi-phenomenal nearly-cosmic powers", and Jafar defeated him with almost no effort during the "You're Only Second Rate" musical number as well as deflecting all of his magical attacks). However, he still had an unlimited amount of magical knowledge, and all his shapeshifting abilities. He also had high magic power, but was unable to undo any magic, a weakness with disastrous consequences; it is revealed in this film that he can also flawlessly imitate the voices of others, as seen when he shapeshifts into Aladdin in the ultimately failed attempt to distract Jafar while the real Aladdin grabs the latter's lamp. He appears to have gotten stronger in "Aladdin and the King of Thieves" (1996) where he had no problem with anything he tried.

Conception and creation

John Musker and Ron Clements created the Genie with Robin Williams in mind, even though Disney studio chief Jeffrey Katzenberg suggested names such as John Candy, Steve Martin, and Eddie Murphy, Williams was approached and eventually accepted the role. Williams came for voice recording sessions during breaks in the shooting of his other two films at the time, Hook and Toys. Unusually for an animated film, much of Williams' dialogue was ad-libbed: for some scenes, Williams was given topics and dialogue suggestions, but allowed to improvise his lines.^[1] It was estimated that Williams improvised 52 characters.^[2] Eric Goldberg, the supervising animator for the Genie, then reviewed Wiliams' recorded dialogue and selected the best gags and lines. Goldberg and his crew then created character animation to match Williams' jokes, puns, and impersonations.^[1]

Controversy

In gratitude for his success with the Disney/Touchstone film Good Morning, Vietnam, Robin Williams voiced the Genie for SAG scale pay ($75,000), on condition that his name or image not be used for marketing, and his (supporting) character not take more than 25% of space on advertising artwork, since Toys was scheduled for release one month after Aladdin's debut. The studio failed on both counts, especially in poster art by having the Genie not only take up 25% of the image, but having other major and supporting characters portrayed considerably smaller. Disney's Hyperion book, Aladdin: The Making Of An Animated Film, listed both of Williams' characters "The Peddler" and "The Genie" ahead of main characters, but was forced to refer to him only as "the actor signed to play the Genie".^[3]

Williams and Disney had a bitter falling-out. As a result, Castellaneta voiced the Genie in The Return of Jafar, the Aladdin animated television series, and had recorded his voice for Aladdin and the King of Thieves. When Jeffrey Katzenberg was fired from Disney and replaced by former 20th Century Fox production head Joe Roth (whose last act for Fox was greenlighting Williams' film Mrs. Doubtfire), Roth arranged for a public apology to Williams by Disney. Williams agreed to perform in Hollywood Pictures' Jack, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, and even agreed to voice the Genie again for the King Of Thieves sequel (for considerably more than scale), replacing all of Castellaneta's dialogue.^[4]

Appearances in other media

Kingdom Hearts series

The Genie appears in all installments of the Kingdom Hearts series of video games. Genie's role in the first 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 assist him in fighting Sora, Donald, Goofy and Aladdin. He attacks by blindly swinging at Sora with his fist and tail, but he intentionally inflicts low damage and even drops HP orbs to heal the damage done by him; also at points of the fight when Sora hits Jafar he will cheer and occasionally drop Munny. After Jafar is defeated, Aladdin wishes Genie free from his lamp. He then becomes a summon for Sora.

Genie has much less screen time and much less to do with the plot in Kingdom Hearts II. 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.

Recent screenshots have confirmed that Genie will make an appearance in the upcoming Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, though his role in the game is unknown at the time.

In a series of short segments called Great Minds Think For Themselves, Genie talked about historical characters like George Washington Carver and Louis Armstrong.

Non-Disney

Genie made a guest appearance in the Simpsons 20th season episode, "Mypods and Boomsticks", again voiced by Castellaneta.

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Aladdin Platinum Edition, Disc 2: Diamond in the Rough: The Making of Aladdin.
2. ^ James Lipton (host). (2001). Inside the Actors Studio: Robin Williams. [Documentary]. Bravo. 
3. ^ "DISNEY'S GOT A BRAND-NEW BAGHDAD". Entertainment Weekly. 1992-12-04. http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,312562,00.html. Retrieved on 2008-07-11. 
4. ^ Hill, Jim (04 2000). "Be Careful What You Wish For". Jim Hill Media. http://jimhillmedia.com/blogs/jim_hill/archive/2000/12/31/312.aspx. Retrieved on 2008-07-11.