AARON’S MAGIC VILLAGE

Who says foreign animation can’t match Disney’s animation prowess? Hungarian-made AARON’S MAGIC VILLAGE gives the big American animation powerhouse a run for its money with a delightful movie featuring the peculiar habits and eccentric ways of Eastern European Jewish culture before the Holocaust. Based on Nobel-Prize winner Isaac Bashevis Singer’s short story, AARON’S MAGIC VILLAGE tells the tale of a little Orthodox boy who saved his village from certain destruction by a scary monster. With a bouncy musical score and funny, quirky moments, AARON’S MAGIC VILLAGE is an uplifting musical morality tale which doesn’t take itself too seriously, but still imparts biblical truth.

AARON’S MAGIC VILLAGE starts with an animated view of the clouds, as narrator Fyvush Finkel tells the biblical narrative in Genesis. He adds that following His rest on the seventh day, God dispatched two angels to distribute gifts of intelligence and wisdom evenly all over the earth. God also sends out a third, dumb angel, who carries a bag of foolishness, all of which he dumps on the village of Chelm.

Enter Aaron, riding his old goat, Zlata, who wears a pair of glasses. Aaron is on his way to Uncle Shlemiel’s and Aunt Sarah’s in the Polish village of Chelm, near Warsaw. In Chelm, all the inhabitants act foolishly. Rabbi Gronam Ox runs a benign dictatorship in Chelm and announces Aaron’s arrival to the congregation. Shlemiel’s three daughters, Danna, Deana and Dawna, excitedly pull out each other’s hair in anticipation of the arriving cousin. When he gets to the village, Aunt Sarah gushes that Aaron is their first, and most important Chanukah gift.

Meanwhile, her husband, Shlemiel, goes about his daily duties as beadle of the Synagogue to warm up the building before services, to keep it clean and to call the men to morning prayers. On the day that Aaron arrives, he makes a tour of the local tradesmen, introducing him to Bender the cobbler, who makes Aaron a pair of ill-fitting shoes, to Driedle, the tailor, who badly cuts a jacket, and to the carpenter, who makes a wobbly high chair for the boy, who protests, only to be told by everyone that the problem is only a “detail.”

At the same time, the dastardly sorcerer with saw teeth who lives in the scary castle outside of Chelm has made a clay monster, Golem, to wreak havoc on the village. The problem is that the sorcerer doesn’t know the secret curse which brings Golem to life. Although he tries to conjure up life in Golem by sorcery, he fails. He does know that the secret lies in the Book of Marvels and that the only copy remains in Chelm, which he calls “the village of idiots.” He orders his henchman, the fox, to retrieve it.

Back in Chelm, Uncle Shlemiel has gone to the Rabbi to petition him for a raise from 3 to 5 groschen per month. He says that with another mouth to feed, he needs the extra money to pay for extra food. In a comedic ruling, Rabbi Gronam Ox decrees that instead of the Synagogue’s granting a raise to Shlemiel, the beadle should marry off his three daughters, so that only Aunt Sarah and Aaron are left with him and the 3 groschen per month salary will now be a fortune. Overjoyed at the Rabbi’s surpassing wisdom, Shlemiel becomes worried that he won’t have sufficient money to pay a dowry to marry his three daughters to worthy men. He cries into a handkerchief.

Ever vigilant, the fox overhears Shlemiel’s predicament and tells the sorcerer, who comes to Chelm disguised as a matchmaker who offers to trade the three handsome (and identical-looking) men for the Book of Marvels. Shlemiel refuses, but the sorcerer comes back and steals the book anyway. He takes it to his scary castle and reads that the secret to bringing Golem to life is to write a secret Hebrew name on Golem’s forehead. Writing the secret Hebrew letters on the clay monster’s forehead, it comes to life.

Meanwhile, Aaron, armed only with his courage, hurries to the sorcerer’s castle, determined to defeat Golem, and his evil master. The sorcerer orders it to destroy Chelm, and like King Kong, it lumbers into town, punching down all the inhabitants’ houses with its huge fists. Rabbi Gronam Ox and the villagers retreat to the Synagogue and huddle, waiting for Golem to destroy their place of worship. Instead, Golem pauses, then turns aside and strides down the road.

The fairy Lantuch who lives inside Aaron’s jacket casts a spell on Golem and turns the monster and the sorcerer into stone. Chelm is saved. Al the inhabitants honor the glorious victory and decide to “share our wisdom and intelligence with the rest of the world.” Rabbi Gronam Ox asks each man what he will do now that each has lost his house, and they answer that each will go in a different direction: one to the Promised Land, one to America and another somewhere else.

Blessed with superlative animation and good music to complement the uplifting and funny story, AARON’S MAGIC VILLAGE is a joy to watch. Aside from the obvious minor occultic elements in the sorcerer’s and Lantuch’s spells, this delightful movie tells a morality tale to children about confronting evil without taking itself too seriously.