Genie (Disney character)

Genie
Disney's Aladdin character
The Genie in Aladdin
First appearance	Aladdin (1992)
Created by	Eric Goldberg
Portrayed by	Giancarlo Esposito (Once Upon a Time) James Monroe Iglehart (Broadway adaption)
Voiced by	Robin Williams (1st film, 3rd film, Great Minds Think 4 Themselves shorts, Disney's MathQuest With Aladdin) Dan Castellaneta (2nd film, television series, Aladdin in Nasira's Revenge, Kingdom Hearts-Kingdom Hearts II) Jim Meskimen (Disney Think Fast, Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded (HD 2.5 Remix) and Kinect: Disneyland Adventures)
Aliases	Genie of the Lamp, Blue Genie
Species	Jinni
Gender	Male

The Genie is a jinni appearing in the Aladdin franchise from Disney. He is never given a proper name. He was portrayed by Robin Williams in the first film. Following a contract dispute between Williams and the Walt Disney Company, Dan Castellaneta voiced the Genie throughout the direct-to-video feature The Return of Jafar, as well as the television series, before Williams reprised the role for the final installment, Aladdin and the King of Thieves, as well as for the character's own mini-series, Great Minds Think for Themselves. Castellaneta voiced the Genie in Aladdin in Nasira's Revenge and later the Kingdom Hearts series of video games by Square Enix and Disney Interactive Studios for both Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II (with archived audio used in other Kingdom Hearts games). Jim Meskimen took over the role in Disney Think Fast (2008) and Kinect Disneyland Adventures (2011) and currently voices him, after Williams' death in 2014.

As well as largely driving the plot in the first film, the Genie serves as comic relief in each of his appearances. He is shown to have unlimited shapeshifting abilities, which allow for many and varied sight gags; however, he is unable to kill anyone, force anyone to fall in love with anyone else, or fully revive the dead (he suggests that he has tried to revive the dead before but can only create zombies when he says the result is "not a pretty picture"). The Genie's supernatural abilities permit him to break the fourth wall, as well as parody real-life people and popular culture completely beyond the boundaries of his native fictional universe. For instance, during production of Aladdin Robin Williams would improvise various impersonations at will, and his animator Eric Goldberg would choose the ones that would be translated into the film. One of those was an imitation of the onomatopoeia for Pinocchio's nose growing, which made the Genie's head turn into Pinocchio's. Composers Alan Menken and Howard Ashman had conceived the Genie as "a hip Harlem jazz singer, like Fats Waller or Cab Calloway." Thus Menken was afraid Williams would not be able to display the required singing capabilities, only changing his mind after seeing Williams perform "Friend Like Me" "Prince Ali" at his Los Angeles home.