Everyone who had a decent childhood has seen disney's Aladdin. There are so many loveable moments in that movie- from the carpet with a personality to Abu to the music. Although perhaps not the best moment in the movie, one that certainly stands out- and has been the root of the most conversations, I'm sure- is the scene where the genie first comes out of the lamp and gives Aladdin three wishes. Who hasn't wondered what they'd do in that scenario? Before I dive into what I personally would do, let me set some quick rules.
1. No wishing for more wishes. No, not even using all of those loopholes that you can come up with. No asking to be able to grant yourself wishes, no asking to be a genie without all of the shackles and chains that come along with being one, no asking him if he could pretty please give you a few more because you're really a super nice guy. We'll assume that the genie is smart enough to realize that this is cheating.
2. Also, no curing diseases or stopping all of the worlds problems in one fell swoop. I suppose we can accept donating to charity or giving money to family members, however.
3. This isn't a rule, just an observation, but why didn't Aladdin cure the world of all pain and suffering with one of his wishes? He only helped himself to get a girl and the girl to get away from her father. Aladdin was greedy!
Oh, and one other thing… he totally didn't need all of that prince stuff. If I remember correctly, she fell in love with him before he even found the lamp, correct? Anyways, on with the show.
1. I'm going to have to use the loophole that I set into rule two. If I can't cure the entire world of pain and suffering in one go (which I'm not even sure I'd want to do, for some reason. It not only seems like cheating, but how are people going to enjoy the happy things if they've never known everything else? You need to eat your vegetables to appreciate dessert. Actually that's a lie, but you get my point), then I still want to do something useful wish my wish.
And so I'd donate a bazillion dollars to everyone I knew who I thought would actually use the money for good. They can help improve the world, if I can't directly.
2. You know how in the Sims games you have those little skill bars floating over your sims' heads to track their skill levels in certain areas? I'd love to be able to know exactly how good I was in something, although preferably I wouldn't be notified by a glowing bar above my head. Imagine it, with 0 just starting the skill and 10 being a world renowned master. Somebody tell me that that wouldn't be cool. I would also be tempted to ask the genie to stop my skills from ever going downhill, so that I was constantly improving. However, then I'd feel like I was cheating. That probably counts as two wishes, besides.
3. And, although this is terribly cliché, I would still want to set the genie free. I mean, he's helped me out quite a bit. He deserves something in return! Besides, if I was super nice to him, then he'd probably feel he was indebted to me, which means… more wishes! We could help each other in that way. I seem to remember that they made an Aladdin TV show, and that the genie was always helping Aladdin out in that, even though he was free. So why not save the genie?
Aladdin has to have been one of my favourite disney movies (although Hercules probably tops Aladdin, partly because I really hate the "I can show you the world" song). In the end, the genie has to be the best character, and one of the reasons that I remember the movie so fondly. Just a quick note before I go, however. A few years ago, I read the actual Aladdin story, and I still remember it being a wonderful book. Just throwing that out there. Unfortunately, that's the best way I can think of to round this one off, and so...
Thanks so much for reading,
-Mark
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