Wouldn't it be nice if we could just make a wish and have it come true?
I know, it sure does sound good on paper, to desire something and have our own personal Technical Fairy First Class to dip his wand and make it
REAL and not a dream.
That's what
Private SNAFU thought, but he soon found out that wishes have consequences, some of which may be rather severe.
Well, that's the very lesson driven home by the two movies today.
Not that I watched the movies for that point in common, as I had not known
"The Magic Christmas Tree" had anything to do with wishes.
Other than spending far too much time on Dad cutting the lawn and Mom on the phone, the little movie wasn't that bad.
The boy climbs a tree to help get the old lady's cat down and he falls, hitting his head.
When he awakes, the old lady, who he thinks is a witch, give him a ring with a Santa Claus image and tells him it contains a seed which will grow a tree that will grant him three wishes.
(I guess a genie and a lamp were not available.)
(smile!)
So, after he gets home, he plants the seed.
The next morning, a giant fir tree stands there!
Somehow, no one thinks of using it as an outdoor Christmas tree, not once.
Instead, Dad goes off on Christmas Eve to buy a tree while Mom and Sis go shopping, leaving the boy home alone.
Eventually, the tree ends up inside and beautifully decorated, too, all of its own accord, and then tells the boy to start making his three wishes.
For the first wish, the boy wants the tree's power for just one hour.
Wish granted!
And the boy proceeds to point his finger and cause mayhem and distress for others until the time runs out.
For his second wish, the boy wishes to have Santa all to himself to give him all the toys he wants until he's done with him.
Wish granted!
So the boy gets to have every geegaw and trinket that he could think of while every other child gets naught and Santa is confined all night to a chair beside the magical tree, as the boy is not ready to release him.
But one of the toys the boy received was a rifle, so off he went to shoot.
He ended up in the forest, trapped by a giant who threatened to enslave him if he doesn't release Santa and cancel out that second wish.
Scared straight, the boy does just that, telling the magical tree that his third wish is to recant his second wish as if he had never made it.
Wish granted!
Santa disappears, as do all the selfish toys the boy had amassed.
And the boy goes to bed...
and awakens at the old witch's house, just as she is offering him the magic ring.
The boy recoils as if it were poison, gladly accepting a plate of cookies and glass of milk instead as his reward for getting the cat untreed.
Not a bad little movie at all, and with a great message attached!
Then I went to "Wonder Woman 1984", opting for the BigD experience!
See that citrone sculpture she is gazing at so wistfully?
There was a Latin inscription on its metal band about the gemstone's ability to grant one wish for anyone who held it.
Of course, no one needed to hear her wish aloud - all in the audience knew she would most wish for Steve to be in her life again.
(No, I'm not giving out any spoilers about the movie, at least none that weren't already given in the previews.)
What she failed to realize at the time was that Death cannot be cheated.
As a girl, she had taken a shortcut to attempt to win an athletic contest and she had been caught up and told that cheating was not the way to win.
She had not again cheated... until she beheld this gemstone.
And she had not known of its true origin until she read the script on the inside of the metal band, the ancient tongue that bespoke the god that was its maker.
By that time, she knew the price exacted upon her for the granting of the wish...
and, yet, she still wanted the man, even knowing his image was a lie...
she still wanted the pilot she had missed for forty years.
I'll definitely be seeing this one again.
I'm so glad I watched "Wonder Woman" last week to refresh my memories of this particular story, with this particular Wonder Woman.
Still.
Always.
