Genie

Being a Genie, he was created from the smokeless fire, along with the Angels by God at the beginning of time. Genie was originally a slave imprisoned within his lamp, which, itself, was sealed away in the Cave of Wonders for 10,000 years. Though he possesses "phenomenal cosmic powers", he is bound to an "itty bitty living space" and can only use his powers when the owner of the lamp (his master) makes 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 three laws; he cannot kill anyone, he cannot make people fall in love with each other, and he cannot revive the dead. It is possible, however, that he can do the third one, but as he puts it, "It's not a pretty picture. I don't like doing it!". Alternatively, it could mean that while he can revive a person's corpse, he cannot bring them back properly. Each master has three wishes, and cannot exceed this amount by wishing for more wishes. After enduring 10,000 years of imprisonment, the lamp comes into the possession of Aladdin during the course of the first film, and Genie remains in servitude until Aladdin uses 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 film, 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. His 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 universe in which he is contained. Robin Williams is responsible for most of these because he improvised many of the lines in the film. Genie's true name (if he has one) has never been revealed; he answers to being called "Genie" and never says he has a real name.

The production of Aladdin was greatly influenced by the creation and development of the Genie. As the first character to be conceived, the Genie's design would set the stage for the other characters, as well as the film's art direction on the whole. Eric Goldberg was assigned as the Genie's supervising animator. When designing the Genie, Goldberg looked to the artwork of the famous caricaturist Al Hirschfeld for inspiration. The Genie was originally going to be purple, but the color theme of the film established that red represents "evil" while blue represents "good"—thus, the Genie was given blue skin. In terms of characterization, Eric Goldberg has always imagined Genie as being Jewish. This relates to Genie's occasional use of Yiddish phrases. Songwriters Alan Menken and Howard Ashman envisioned the Genie as a big, bombastic entertainer. They looked to famous 1920s, Harlem jazz musicians such as Cab Calloway and Fats Waller for inspiration. This is mainly evident in "Friend Like Me," in which the Genie actually imitates Calloway's dancing and vocalizations. At one point, the Peddler that opens the movie was going to reveal himself to actually be the Genie at the end of the movie. However, the filmmakers were convinced that the audience would already be leaving by the time the reveal came, and it was ultimately cut. However, there is still evidence of the Genie and Peddler's connections, such as both characters having blue clothing, red sash, bushy eyebrows and beard ending in a curl, the fact both characters had only four fingers in contrast to everyone else who had five, and the fact both were voiced by Robin Williams.

Genie is full of life and bursting with positive energy. Though he is amongst the most powerful, chaotic beings in the universe, Genie is benevolent, easygoing, and friendly; so much so that he primarily uses his abilities as a means to amuse both himself and those around him. According to the filmmakers' commentary, Genie's energy is a direct result of his imprisonment; his years of isolation have left him teaming with vigor, so whenever he is given a chance at freedom, his first instinct is to go wild with his powers by cracking jokes and entertaining whatever audience he has. He is also inviting, as when he first met Aladdin, Genie immediately introduced himself as a friend to rely on and emphasized the fact that his purpose was to magically enhance Aladdin's life by any means necessary so long as it did not interfere with the three rules of wishing. Though he was generally devoted to whoever held temporary ownership of the lamp, Genie has always had a will and mind of his own, outside the bounds of a stereotypical genie slave. As seen during his time as Jafar's lackey, Genie's job did not require him to agree with his masters' morals. It did, however, force him to adhere to their three commands without question, no matter how vile they may have been. Nevertheless, he was still able to provide advice to masters that were willing to listen. In the first film, he served as a mentor figure to Aladdin, often giving the latter advice and encouragement when needed, as seen when he urged Aladdin to tell Jasmine the truth about not being a prince. As mentioned, Genie did not offer himself as a mere slave, but rather as a supportive friend to his masters. His friendship with Aladdin proved that he was capable of forming genuine relationships with masters, though it was not until Aladdin that Genie was treated as anything beyond a mere slave by his superiors. This tied to Genie's dream of being freed from the lamp.

Though mischievous, manic, and explosive, Genie is also compassionate, wise, and serious when he feels it's necessary. He understands human emotions to a profound degree and takes matters such as love, trust, and being true to yourself quite seriously. His more sincere moments are indicated by his tone, which changes from wily and exuberant, to low and soft when he wants to get a serious point across. Despite this, he still tries to lighten even the darkest moments with a dose of comedy, an example of this being the climax of the original film, where Genie transformed into a cheerleading squad to root for Aladdin during his battle against Jafar. By the time of Aladdin and the King of Thieves, Genie is now freed, but continues to show genuine love and support for Aladdin and his endeavors. He is still every bit comedic, chaotic, and lighthearted, but never holds his tongue when it comes to objections towards Aladdin's more controversial choices. He is nevertheless shown to assist Aladdin, magically, whenever asked to.

.....

In the context of the original Aladdin, dialogue suggests that Genie was the most powerful being in the universe. As shown in the first movie, he could easily break the laws of nature, shapeshift into anything, break the fourth wall, warp reality at a whim, alter his size (shrinking down to the size of a bug or growing large enough to lift the palace of Agrabah with no problems), give other people his power, undo the works of any magic (though mixing his magic with someone else's had consequences), and escape a magically sealed cave. However, he had three limits to his abilities (and also refuses to accept substitutions, exchanges, refunds, and wishing for more wishes); he cannot kill, he cannot make people fall in love, and he cannot raise the dead (though he states that he can indeed perform resurrections, albeit imperfectly, but simply does not enjoy doing so as the resurrected are implied to be turned zombies in which he describes as "not a pretty picture"). Aside from these three limitations, he was virtually omnipotent. This level of power was carried over into Aladdin and the King of Thieves, where Genie had no problem with anything he tried.

After getting his freedom, Genie stated that he had suffered a reduction in power due to his new freedom, describing his current powers as now being "semi-phenomenal, nearly cosmic power" as opposed to his previous "phenomenal cosmic power". Due to his weakened state as opposed to Jafar's full power, the now-genie Jafar defeated him during "You're Only Second Rate", as well as deflecting all of his magical attacks. However, he still has a nearly unlimited amount of magical knowledge and all his shapeshifting abilities. He also has high magic power, but was unable to undo certain forms of magic; a weakness with disastrous consequences in the television series, such as when he had trouble turning Jasmine back to normal after she was turned into a rat by a magic mirror, or his inability to break a spell cast by Sadira that brainwashed Aladdin into thinking that he was a dragon-slaying knight. It was revealed in The Return of Jafar that he can also flawlessly imitate the voices and appearances 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. In the series, it is often shown that one of his exploited weaknesses (often by Abis Mal and Mechanicles) is that he can be tricked into getting into a bottle but then cannot get out until someone releases him. Items that can affect magic also affect him, such as the magic-eating creature Thirdack, nearly succeeded in eating Genie from the episode "The Citadel". It is also shown in "Sneeze the Day" that guava juice is the only thing that can give genies a cold, which makes their magic uncontrollable and unpredictable (along with dangerous).

His default appearance, though, is a blue, barrel-chested man with three fingers and black hair tied in a ponytail and a beard with a swirl that sticks out at the chin. For most of the first movie, Genie is seen mostly with his lower-half as smoke, but, after being freed by Aladdin, Genie is seen more on two legs.