Genie

The **Genie** is the tritagonist of Disney's 1992 animated feature film, *Aladdin*. He is a comedic, larger-than-life spirit (a "jinni") who acts as a servant to whomever holds ownership of the magic lamp in which he resides. Genie possesses phenomenal cosmic power that allows him to grant wishes, shape-shift, and transcend space and time; however, he is burdened to remain bound to his lamp for eternity unless granted freedom by a master.

The Genie is loosely based on the Genie of the Lamp featured in the *One Thousand and One Nights* folk tale, *Aladdin*. The figure in the tale, while important, was portrayed as a mere slave while the Disney interpretation was greatly expanded into an identifiable character personality, the most notable difference being the Disney genie's ultimate wish to be free.

**Genie** is the spirit of the magic lamp and is a recurring character and Summon in *Kingdom Hearts*, *Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories*, and *Kingdom Hearts II*. His Data-Version also appears in *Kingdom Hearts coded*. Genie holds the cosmic power of granting three wishes to the one who holds his lamp.

## Appearance

The Genie is a large, sky blue being with black hair tied into a topknot (secured by a small gold ring). He has a small, pointed nose and curved, pointed ears. He wears a single gold earring on his right earlobe and has a black beard that ends in a curl. Like other Disney characters, Genie only has four fingers on each hand. He wears a gold bracelet on each wrist, later revealed to the "shackles" that symbolize his enslavement as a genie.
Normally, Genie's legs are usually nonexistent, replaced by a ghostly tail that is a slightly darker shade of blue than the rest of his body. A red sash divides the upper and lower halves of his body. Due to his virtually unlimited magical power, Genie can morph his size and appearance in any way he chooses, so his appearance is not set in stone.

## Personality

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.
Genie is a fun-loving, wacky eccentric character. Never frowning, never still, he is always ready to brighten up someone's day. He is an eternal optimist, not caring that he has been stuck in a lamp for 10,000 years. He is incredibly loyal to his master, but equally loyal to his friends.

## History

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 shape-shifting 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.

## Powers and Abilities

* **Phenomenal Cosmic Power****:** 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, shape-shift 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, 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. There may be beings that are stronger than him though, such as other Genies, Angels, and God himself.
* **Semi-Phenomenal, Nearly Cosmic Power:** 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 shape-shifting 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 shape-shifts 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).

In Kingdom Hearts, he is able to perform multiple magic tricks to attack Heartless, such as shooting magic beams and performing the magic spells Sora already knows by activating the command on the lower section of the menu, Showtime. His attacks can only become available if the player locks onto a target.

In Kingdom Hearts II, when Genie once again becomes a summon partner for Sora, he can copy Sora's Drive forms and wields his own copy of the Keyblade. In each form, he can perform a different kind of attack. However, he can only mimic the Drive Forms that Sora has obtained. If Sora gets injured, he will heal his wounds, which is the only thing he can do besides the Limits.

He also aids Jafar in his battle by smacking, slapping, or shoving Sora in the battle. However, he drops MP orbs and HP orbs when you are hit.

## Weapon

**Genie's Keyblade** has a dark red handle surrounded by a guard with two, light-blue teardrop-shaped cloud wisps pointed upward ending in a light purple gradient and connects to two circular gold cloud wisps. At the bottom base of the handle, there is another cloud wisp that seems to flow when the Keyblade moves.

The shaft of the Keyblade begins white at the base and ends in a flat gold cylinder at the top. A replica of Genie's lamp sits atop the shaft and the spout of the lamp serves as the "teeth" of the Keyblade. There is no Keychain for Genie's Keyblade, as the flowing cloud wisp at the bottom connects to Genie's smoky tail.

## Role in Sora’s Adventures

He appeared in the Sora’s Adventures in Kingdom Hearts