Blue happens to be the world’s favorite color. Though scientists say that it is a color that doesn’t occur much in nature, it is still the most loved. If you do think of nature, other than plants and animals, the sky and sea are blue. There are so much of these two around, it’s no wonder that we love things that are blue.
Naturally, if we love the color blue so much, it would follow that we love characters that are bluetifully blue in movies that we watch. First, since many things in nature are not really blue, but just the way the light reflects off them, we are thrilled to see blue characters in films. Second, they appear as large as life up there on the big screen. With that beautiful color right in your face, you can’t help but admire it when it appears as the skin tone of a character.
You must have come across at least one blue character from a film you’ve seen. It’s hard not to have done. Many fantasy and science fiction films have blue characters – it’s the “in” color chosen by writers for these characters. Animated movies have a lot of blue characters as well – there’s Dory from Finding Nemo, Sully from Monsters Inc., and Blu from Rio. Which are your favorite blue-colored characters from films? Here is a list of the top five we think really rock the color blue that defines them.
Neytiri
Neytiri is the heroine in the film Avatar. Being the daughter of the leader of the Na’vi people, at the heart of the story, she is attracted to Jake, the protagonist. She is a brave warrior, skilled in archery and hunting. As a character, she is braver than most men of the clan. She sees many of her own qualities and traits in Jake. That’s why she falls in love with him in the film. Her goal is to protect Pandora, a sacred tree that her clan is devoted to.
In the beginning, Neytiri was not forthcoming or friendly towards Jake. She, like most of her people, is shown as hostile toward humans, as she doubts their true intentions. She is only friendly with Grace Augustine, who is a friend of the Na’vi and who taught the clan how to speak English. Nonetheless, after getting familiar with Jake, Neytiri gradually begins to start trusting humans. She still hates the RDA, a human militia group, for destroying her beloved Pandora and the wildlife and spirits contained in it.
The character, like all members of the Na’vi, was created by the use of performance capture. The way she appears onscreen visually, is completely generated by a computer. Neytiri is played by Zoe Saldana, who incidentally, also portrays Gamora in Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy.
Blu
One of the most beloved blue characters that anyone has ever laid eyes on, if not the most, is Blu from the animated film Rio. The production house of the movie is called Blue Sky Studios too. The film released in 2011 and was distributed by Twentieth Century Fox in 3D animation. The location of the film is Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, hence the title. The story’s centers around Blu, a pet Spix’s macaw, owned by Linda. Linda had found him as a little girl, and Blu has been with her since then.
His owner wants him to mate with a female Spix’s macaw called Jewel, since Blu happens to be the last male of his kind. Blu is a timid bird who isn’t used to the outside world. As an adult, Linda becomes the owner of a bookstore. Since Blu has always been a tame, domestic bird, the geese outside Linda’s bookstore tease and bully him. Jewel, on the other hand, is free-spirited and smart. Both birds are bright blue with gray beaks and huge brown eyes. They eventually fall in love with each other.
In the film, Blu can’t fly, not due to any physical problem, but because he’s never flown before. His fear hampers his ability to do so. This just makes the viewer love this little blue bird more. What could be more adorable out of all the things that are blue than a small bird that melts your heart? As the story unfolds, Blu and Jewel are caught by Nigel, the villain smuggler, a bird himself, a cockatoo. Nigel wants these birds as he sees them as rare, and he can make a killing out of them. The character of Blu is voiced by actor Jesse Eisenberg, and Jewel by Anne Hathaway.
Why everyone loves Blu?
The character of Blu prompts anyone who has watched Rio to remember the bird instantly because of his lovely blue color and the stunts he performs. Blu is portrayed as a macaw of great intelligence and compassion. These are two qualities that match all that is symbolic of the color blue.
Mystique
What would the sci-fi X Men series of films be without Mystique? Her real name is Raven Darkholme, and she is an enigmatic all-blue mutant in her true form. She is brave and defiant, proud to be different from the rest. She is a shape-shifter. Her early life is portrayed as a report of tragedy in the X Men films. In the films, her mutation, it’s told, was so weird to other human beings that she feared the repercussions of this. Apparently, her parents, also very afraid of her “abnormality”, feared her and even attempted to murder her. Raven ran away after many years of being abused.
In 1944, as depicted in the films, Charles Xavier, a man who had set up a mansion for mutants, noticed Mystique. This mansion housed mutants who were otherwise outcasts of society because of their mutations. Xavier provided a haven where they could live and hone their abilities and learn to control their powers. Of all the things that are blue that Xavier had seen, he thought Raven was the most beautiful.
In Marvel’s universe, there are many extraordinary mutants, but if you’ve watched the movies, you’ll find that many of them are blue characters. If you’ve seen the Dark Phoenix, you’ll discover that a fair amount of X Men are blue. Why? More often than not, they are just born like that. At other times, they turn blue for several purposes. To be sure, Stan Lee, creator of the comics in which these characters sprang from his head, thought blue was a vivid enough color to catch the reader’s full attention. He wasn’t wrong there. All his mutant characters who are blue – Mystique, The Beast, Nightcrawler and Apocalypse – tend to leave a lasting impression on the reader or viewer.
The Genie
Arguably, The Genie is the total of all the things that are blue in the movies. Widely acknowledged as one of the world’s best animated characters in Disney’s Aladdin, The Genie is funny, loud, frenetic, jazzy and finally quite serious. In the Disney version, the voice of The Genie could only have been portrayed by one man, Robin Williams. People who saw the movie agreed that the voice of Williams, with all its incantations and variety of tones, matched The Genie to perfection. Williams had a flexibility of speech and intonation that went so well with the gestures and antics of the blue entity that came out of a lamp. Viewers were left spellbound.
The Genie was created blue as this was the most vibrant color that was identified with its mystical nature and its bouncy attitude. Besides this, there is a scientific explanation as well. In the realistic version of the movie, Will Smith plays The Genie in a blue form too. The science behind the color blue here is that Aladdin’s Genie exists in a state that is gaseous. As molecules of gas scatter shorter wavelengths of light, The Genie, made of these, seems blue.
Dory
The character of Dory in the animated classic Finding Nemo, is forgetful, to say the least. She is also very blue and much-loved. Nonetheless, even as Dory herself admits that the problem of short-term memory loss “runs in the family”, we can’t seem to forget her. The actual fish that the character of Dory is based on has no memory loss whatsoever. The species of fish, called the Royal Blue Tang, have a bright blue body with black hints and a yellow tail. These fish keep the ocean healthy by feeding on algae that destroy coral reefs. They help in keeping coral alive, as a result. So, in reality too, as in the film, Dory is responsible for saving the day. At night, the way light reflects off this fish’s body, makes the fish look paler.
Other blue characters
Several characters in films are blue colored. From Abe Sapien in Hellboy to The Smurfs, you have to admit that you can’t forget any of them. Everyone has their favorites, and they’ve been trending in films for years. Blue characters in the movies are here to stay.
