| “ | It's all part and parcel of the whole genie gig. Phenomenal cosmic powers! ...Itty bitty living space. |
” |
— Genie, Aladdin (1992)
| ||
| Genie | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| |||
| Naming | |||
| Others | Genie of the Lamp | ||
| Personal information | |||
| Species | Genie | ||
| Gender | Male | ||
| Place of origin | Agrabah (possibly) | ||
| Age | Over 10,000 years | ||
| Affiliation | Ajed Al-Gebraic (formerly) Aladdin Jafar (formerly) | ||
| Relations | Eden (love interest) | ||
| Occupation | Slave (formerly) | ||
| Current status | Active | ||
| Biology | |||
| Body type | Shapeshifter | ||
| Height | Variable | ||
| Abilities | Reality warping Conjuration Multi-presence Shapeshifting Size-shifting Teleportation Flight Immortality | ||
| Sentience | Sentient | ||
| Sapience | Sapient | ||
| Behind the scenes | |||
| Universe | Aladdin | ||
| Created by | Ron Clements and John Musker | ||
| Designed by | Eric Goldberg | ||
| Performed by | Robin Williams Dan Castellaneta Jim Meskimen Will Smith | ||
The Genie of the Lamp, usually known simply as Genie, is a phenomenally powerful blue Jinni, originally confined to a magical oil lamp and bound to grant three wishes to whoever the current owner of the lamp is. A zany, comedic and overall friendly being, he does his best to please and serve his masters dutifully, even though his own real desire is to have freedom.
Genie's powers allow him to materialize objects, shape-shift, size-shift, alter the laws of physics and teleport, among other things. Described as eternal, he is completely immortal and has lived for millennia, having spent at least 10,000 years in imprisonment while the lamp was hidden inside the mystical Cave of Wonders, before he met Aladdin.
Overview[]
Although immensely powerful, Genie is basically a slave and must abide to certain rules. Said rules dictate that Genie must reside inside the lamp, even though he describes it as "itty bitty living space", and can only come out when someone rubs the lamp. To each person who does so, he must grant three wishes and no more than three, although he seems to have at least some liberty to decide what qualifies as a valid wish. He is eternally bound to the lamp, and cannot be freed unless one of his masters opts to use one of his or her wishes to do so.
Genie claims that there are three kinds of wishes that are off-limits:
- He cannot kill anyone.
- He can't make anyone fall in love.
- He can't resurrect anyone from death.
The questions of who or what made these rules, who or what is responsible for enforcing them, of whether Genie would be physically capable of breaking them and what would happen if he did so are mostly unaddressed in the series. However, it is possible that they're simply a self-imposed code of conduct. This is supported by Genie's comment about resurrecting the dead: "it's not a pretty picture, I don't like doing it", implying that he theoretically could if he wanted to.
When Aladdin tricked the Genie by daring him into helping him escape without phrasing it as a wish, Genie tried to count it as one of the three wishes at first, claiming that Aladdin only had two left. However, when Aladdin pointed out that he didn't technically ask for anything, Genie reluctantly agreed that no wish had been granted yet, and thus declared "no more freebies".
Later, when Aladdin was falling into unconsciousness at the bottom of the sea (as Jafar had ordered the guards to kill him), he managed to rub the lamp and summon Genie. The latter was horrified to see that Aladdin needed help but was physically unable to ask for it. In order to save Aladdin without "cheating" (as he put it), Genie decided to interpret Aladdin's gestures as confirmation that he was asking Genie to save him and then did so, counting this as one of the three wishes this time (which a grateful Aladdin didn't mind the least).
Both of these situations seem to imply that Genie does have a lot of room to decide what is and isn't a valid wish according to each specific context.
Personality[]
Despite being essentially a slave, Genie is a cheerful and jovial figure, eager and helpful; he never misses out an opportunity for humor. His shape-shifting allows him to comically impersonate figures from across time and space, much to his own amusement, and he isn't above breaking the fourth wall. When a Sprite asked Genie "What are you?", he answered "Comic relief, mainly". Similarly, the sorcerer Mozenrath has referred to Genie as "Aladdin's comic relief".
Genie is extremely loyal to his friends and will go to great lengths to help them. He also takes his job seriously, in spite of all the humor, as he described Jafar as a psychopath, but still served him obediently, even if reluctantly, as his job demanded.
History[]
Genie has had numerous masters over the course of his existence, and therefore has granted numerous wishes - although he claims that, before Aladdin, none of his masters ever questioned him about his own insight on what to wish. Genie himself, of course, desired nothing more than freedom, although he tried not to think much about it, as he felt sure that no one would ever abstain from one of their own wishes to grant him that.
One of Genie's old masters was a man named Ajed Al-Gebraic, who later sold Genie to a sorcerer in exchange for eternal life. Genie also met the sapient magic Carpet at some point in history, and the two have been friends ever since. At some point after this, Genie's lamp and Carpet both somehow ended up amidst the treasures of the mysterious Cave of Wonders, unreachable to most mortals, and so remained trapped there for 10,000 years until the arrival of Aladdin and Abu, when Aladdin tricked the Genie into helping them return to the surface without using any of the three wishes.
After hearing about Genie's desire for freedom, Aladdin promised that he would use his third wish to free him. With his first wish, he asked to become a Prince in an attempt to marry Princess Jasmine, the daughter of the local Sultan. Genie and Carpet both became close friends of Aladdin over the course of his adventures, and the second wish was used to save Aladdin from drowning, even though he was unconscious at the time and so Genie had to use some poetic license to grant that one. Finally, after defeating the evil sorcerer Jafar and regaining control of the lamp, Aladdin did as he had promised and used his final wish to free the Genie, who traveled over the world and eventually returned.
Even though he was no longer bound to serve him, Genie remained friends with Aladdin and accompanied him in his numerous further adventures, defeating monsters and villains and helping to save Agrabah from evil.
Appearances[]
- Aladdin (1992)
- Aladdin: The Return of Jafar (1994)
- Aladdin TV series (1994 - 1995)
- Aladdin and the King of Thieves (1996)
- Aladdin in Nasira's Revenge (2001)
- Disney's House of Mouse (2001 - 2003)
- Kingdom Hearts (2002)
- Kingdom Hearts II (2006)
- Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories (2008)
- Aladdin (2019)
Notes[]
- This character is based on the Jinni of the Lamp from the original story of Aladdin, first included in Antoine Galland's translation of One Thousand and One Nights; although Galland claims that he heard the story from a man named Youhenna Diab. Unlike Disney's Genie, the original character didn't actually reside in the lamp, but was merely summoned by it, and there was no restriction to the number of wishes he could grant, or to the nature of them. It's interesting to note, however, that no one in the story ever makes any wish that would be forbidden by the rules established in the Disney adaptation.
- Genie's gold cuffs disappear at the end of the first film when Aladdin frees him. However, they're still present in his subsequent appearances, even though he's freed. In "The Secret of Dagger Rock", Genie comments on the fact, explaining that the only thing he's a slave to is fashion.
- The Peddler who appears in the film's prologue has also been identified as the Genie by directors Ron Clements and John Musker. Notice that both characters have four-fingered hands, whereas all the film's human characters have five. Both also wear a red sash on their waist and are both voiced by Robin Williams. It should be noted, however, that this isn't consistent with the Peddler's portrayal in Kingdom Hearts II, where he seems to be a clearly different character.