Genie - Aladdin (1992)
Can’t lie, I love everything about this character - his design, the way he's animated, his dialogue and, perhaps most importantly, he's voiced by one of my all-time favourite actors. But in all honesty, who doesn't love the Genie?
He appears about 20 minutes into the film and changes the tone completely, taking over from lago as the comic relief. Genie's introductory scene, alongside his showpiece song "Friend Like Me," is also one of my favourite animated segments from all movies.
The Genie was actually quite a revolutionary character at the time of Aladdin's release - very few animated characters of that period were known for pop culture references and repeatedly breaking the fourth wall, particularly within Disney. True, some of those references have served to age the film (a Peter Lorre or William F. Buckley Jr reference may now require a Google search) making it less timeless than it otherwise could have been.
However, there's no doubting how important he was (a huge part of this came directly from Robin Williams frequent ad-libbing) and I believe he opened the door (good or bad) for movies like Shrek which are choc full of pop culture and contemporary references.
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