12 Movie Characters Who KNEW They Were In Movies
9. The Genie In Aladdin
The two main characters who speak to the viewer in Aladdin are, if you believe the popular theory, possibly the same character. The peddler at the beginning of the film actually gets hit by the camera lens when it moves towards him too quickly, and of course the Genie seems to exist more in our world than the world of the movie. The fact that they both break the fourth wall lends credence to the theory that the peddler is the genie in human form.
All of the genie's pop culture references are from after when the movie is set: game shows, impersonations of Jack Nicholson, Rodney Dangerfield, Robert De Niro, things that the audience know, but that the characters within the film don't. He's riffing for the entertainment of the viewer rather than Aladdin, and in one case, literally gets out the movie's script to read from.
The defining moment comes towards the end of the movie, when he pushes himself up from below the 'The End' animation cell (complete with an animation/frame code in the corner). Finally, while the Disney castle logo appears at the end of the movie, he tells us that we have been a fabulous audience.