Rationale
My task was to ensure that, once turned into a typical Brothers Grimm short story, the 2019 film Aladdin will be both consistent with the original storyline and yet reflective of the themes and motifs that the authors used to explore in their stories. As a first step in making sure that this is indeed the case, I changed the names of the movie’s positive characters to sound Germanic: Aladdin – Grubel, Jasmine – Rosamunde, Sultan – King Baldur.
Instead of the character of Genie that comes from the lamp, my story features the character of Fairy Ostara, who fulfills the desires of the magic stick’s owners. This, in turn, is meant to help making sure that there is indeed a strongly defined folkish sounding to my story. In it, Chancellor Mordechai acts as the equivalent of Jafar in Aladdin. The reason I named him in this way is that many short stories by Brothers Grimm are implicitly marked by the motifs of anti-Semitism.
Whereas in the movie Aladdin, the main character is seen to be a thief, the character of Grubel in my story is described as a lumberjack. The reason for this is that Brothers Grimm would never make a thief a positive hero in their stories. After all, most of these stories glorify the unmistakably Christian virtues. And, the “profession” of a thief is hardly compatible with the latter.
Unlike what it is the case in the movie, my literary adaptation features a few graphically violent accounts. The reason for this is also apparent. Graphic violence is an integral element of just about every Brothers Grimm stories. This, in turn, is best explained by the fact that being essentially the literary versions of German folkish tales, these stories draw heavily from the period of religious wars in Germany.
Another distinctive trait of my story is that its characters are “fixed”, in the representational sense of this word. That is, they do not develop psychologically as the plot unravels: just as it is being the case in Brothers Grimm fairy tales.
In the film, Jafar that has been turned into a powerful Genie ends up being sucked back into the lamp in the end. In my story, Mordechai simply explodes, as a result of the deep-seated inconsistency between his newly acquired status of God and the ways of the universe. The reason I came up with such an ending for my story is that I wanted to accentuate the overall absurdist sounding of the themes and motifs, explored in it. I believe that by doing it, I was able to contribute towards ensuring that there is indeed much discursive similarity between my story, on the one hand, and Brothers Grimm tales, on the other. After all, the motif of absurd does resurface in these tales rather consistently.
Finally, my story contains a few episodes that do not adhere to the conventions of political correctness. The most notable of them is the one in which Mordechai refers to Fairy Ostara in the strongly derogative manner. This is expected to remove any remaining doubts about the fact that my story indeed correlates well with the original spirit of Brothers Grimm stories. (529 words).
Story
In the olden days, there once lived a poor lumberjack named Grubel. One day he went to the town’s marketplace to try selling a load of firewood. Even though he had spent a good half of the day there, Grubel was not able to make even a penny. Just as he was about to leave, Grubel has heard a woman crying at a distance. As it turned out, a few merchants had apprehended a young woman who stole a loaf of bread from one of them and fed it to the poor. The bastards were about to cut off her hands as a punishment. Being unable to stand the sight of such an injustice taking place, Grubel pulled out his trusty ax and decapitated one of the woman’s attackers. The rest of them just ran away.
After having had a closer look at the woman that he saved, Grubel could not help falling under the spell of her sheer beauty. He learned that she lives at the royal palace while acting as a servant for King Baldur’s daughter, Princess Rosamunde. The two fell in love with each other within an instant. However, being an impoverished orphan, Grubel knew that he did not have even a slight chance to marry her, so he just walked away while feeling overwhelmed with sadness.
As he was walking back towards his little house in the forest where he lived all by himself, Grubel saw a glowing figure of Fairy Ostara descending from the sky and approaching him. “My poor friend”, said Ostara, “I have been watching you for a while and you sure do deserve better in life”. She pulled out what it seemed to be a richly decorated golden pencil out of her purse and handed it over to Grubel saying: “This is the magic stick. Rub it with your hand and I will appear to fulfill whatever the desire you happen to have at the moment. I will only be able to grant three of your desires, so think carefully about what you may be wishing for”.
Fairy Ostara confined it to Grubel that the lady he had saved from being crippled at the marketplace earlier that day was, in fact, Rosamunde herself, as she has made it a habit in venturing out of the palace secretly to socialize with ordinary people.
It did not take Grubel too long to come up with the first desire to be fulfilled. After having rubbed his magic stick in a prescribed manner and seen that Fairy Ostara has indeed reemerged in front of him out of nowhere, he exclaimed “I want to be a prince from some remote kingdom so that I will be able to marry Rosamunde, after all”. Within an instant, the lumberjack’s worn-out cheap clothes turned into nothing short of royal garments, decorated with gold and precious stones. He also realized himself being the head of his kingdom’s diplomatic mission to King Baldur’s court, with the rest of his escort’s members referring to him as Prince Vladislav of Russia.
After having spent a few weeks at the court, Grubel came to realize that his feelings for Rosamunde are indeed true and genuine and that his initial encounter with her was not incidental. On her part, the young Princess was also growing ever more appreciative of “Prince Vladislav”. Having been forced by circumstances, Grubel did not have any other choice but to reveal his true identity to her. This, however, did not undermine Rosamunde’s love for the lumberjack. Quite to the contrary: it made her feel being attracted to him even more.
Nevertheless, the two were not able to enjoy each other’s company for much too long. The kingdom’s second strongest man, Chancellor Mordechai, decided to openly rebel against old Baldur. While suspecting Grubel of pretending to be someone that he is not and assuming that “Prince Vladislav” holds wizardly powers, Mordechai subjected the former to painful torture. Grubel, however, did not say even a word to his torturer.
Being unable to contain his anger, Mordechai ordered Grubel to be drowned. While he was falling to the bottom of the lake, Grubel managed to untie his hands. He pulled out the magic stick and called Fairy Ostara for help. She came right away and removed Grubel from the bottom of the lake to the safety of his house. “I count it as having fulfilled the second of your three desires”, said Fairy to Grubel while he was laying in his bed back at home.
Back at the royal palace, Mordechai succeeded in winning the support of the army and overthrowing King Baldur. Baldur and his daughter Rosamunde were arrested and sent to be kept in jail. After having found out about Grubel’s miraculous survival, Mordechai sent his guards to arrest his archenemy once again. As a result, evil Chancellor has found himself in the possession of the magic stick, given to Grubel by Fairy Ostara. This turned the latter into Mordechai’s reluctant servant, as Fairy Ostara has been cursed to fulfill the wishes of whoever happened to be the magic stick’s current owner.
At first, Mordechai requested Fairy Ostara to make him the richest man on earth. “Are you sure you will be able to handle the never-ending inflow of gold at you that I am about to trigger?”, asked Ostara. “What a stupid woman you are. There can never be too much gold”, was Mordechai’s reply to her. She waved with her hand and Mordechai saw the suddenly emerged rivers of golden coins flowing towards him from all directions.
More and more gold kept on coming and eventually, Mordechai has found himself grasping for a breath of air while struggling not to drown in the deepening pool of gold coins inside the palace. “Please, remove all the damned gold at once, otherwise I will suffocate in it”, yelled Mordechai in horror. One second later, there was not even a small trace of all that gold to be found in the palace. “That counts as the fulfillment of your second desire”, Fairy Ostara looked at Mordechai as if he were nothing but a brainless bug.
Even though he was present at the scene all along, Grubel felt being much too powerless to intervene. Yet, as soon as it became apparent to him that Mordechai continues to hold the magic stick in his hands and that his enemy still has one more wish remaining to be granted, Grubel decided that the time has come for him to step in. While looking straight into Mordechai’s eyes, he said: “No matter what you wish for, you are still doomed to be second in power to Fairy Ostara.
Only God is more powerful than her”. These words had a maddening effect on the treacherous Chancellor. His skin turned all red and his bulging eyes and crooked nose made him look like a Devil. “No!”, he shouted, “I shall never be second to anyone, even to God. I hereby request Fairy Ostara to turn me into the Almighty himself: this is my final wish to be granted”. “As you wish”, said Fairy Ostara and waved with her hand.
All of a sudden, a huge thunder cloud appeared above King Baldur’s palace. Out of it, everybody heard an ominous voice proclaiming: “Mordechai is appointed to be the God”. In front of everybody’s eyes, Chancellor began to grow ever larger in size, with his overall appearance becoming increasingly evocative of the Biblical account of the deity: a long white beard, white sheets wrapped around his torso, stone tablets with commandments in his hand, etc. After having confirmed to himself that he is now indeed the almighty God, Mordechai started to laugh loudly and ominously: “Ha, ha, ha… I am going to destroy the human race!”.
After having said that, Mordechai suddenly exploded, with his brains flying as far as a few meters in all directions. Not quite believing his eyes, Grubel turned to Fairy Ostara, “Care to explain?”. She said: “It was very wise of you to provoke Mordechai into wishing to become God”. Ostara looked around as she was about to tell a secret: “You see, being God means being able to bend the laws of nature, and in the universe governed by the unbendable laws of nature, the existence of God is not tolerated”. The nature of Mordechai’s sudden demise became apparent to Grubel: the universe has killed him.
Fairy Ostara has once again looked at Grubel and said: “You have one more wish remaining on the list, please make your mind”. He approached Rosamunde, whom he had just released from jail, and began whispering something into her ear. She nodded. Grubel walked back to Ostara and said: “I wish to lift your curse: from now on, consider yourself relieved from the duty of having to serve the master of the magic stick”. She smiled gratefully at him and disappeared into the thin air. Grubel and Rosamunde got married the next day and lived happily ever after. (1500 words).
Work Cited
Aladdin. Directed by Guy Ritchie, performances by Will Smith, Mena Massoud, Naomi Scott, and Marwan Kenzari, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, 2019.