# Did blue genies originate with Disney's Aladdin?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-blue-genies-originate-with-disneys-aladdin/921804>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [September 29, 2020, 10:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-blue-genies-originate-with-disneys-aladdin/921804 "2020-09-29T10:34:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2020, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-blue-genies-originate-with-disneys-aladdin/921804/21 "2020-09-30T19:20:06Z")

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> [@DPRK](#):
>
> Cf. Vishnu looking blue:

But most certainly not a jinn. Completely different culture, religion, and artistic heritage.

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**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2020, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-blue-genies-originate-with-disneys-aladdin/921804/22 "2020-09-30T19:34:31Z")

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> [@GreenWyvern](#):
>
> But most certainly not a jinn

I think we gathered that from DPRK’s use of “Cf.”.

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**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2020, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-blue-genies-originate-with-disneys-aladdin/921804/23 "2020-09-30T19:36:43Z")

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> [@psychonaut](#):
>
> I think we gathered that from DPRK’s use of “Cf.”.

My point was that the comparison is invalid and irrelevant.

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**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2020, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-blue-genies-originate-with-disneys-aladdin/921804/24 "2020-09-30T19:40:01Z")

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> [@GreenWyvern](#):
>
> But most certainly not a jinn. Completely different culture, religion, and artistic heritage.

Most certainly. I am definitely not suggesting there is a link between the two. Only pointing out that jinn are not the only creatures to be depicted with stylized skin colour. Also, I cannot say that Disney illustrators were influenced by any Hindu iconography, I have no such information or reason to suspect it. You are right that since we are talking about the specific movie, bringing it up was irrelevant.

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**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2020, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-blue-genies-originate-with-disneys-aladdin/921804/25 "2020-10-01T07:44:34Z")

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> [@RealityChuck](#):
>
> No, he was blue-green, though the color came and went

I thought that perhaps the ‘color came and went’ because of a poorly controlled matte process. I think they had to do the color matching frame-by-frame for that film.

That was the first blue-screen color film, so if he is deliberately blue, that would have been an extra difficult step.

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