Ancient tale modern magic ?. Review on Hatim

I love this series. It helps of course that there are English subtitles, but the goody/baddy theme music and actions help a lot too.

Hatim is the Prince of Yemen. On his wedding day to Jasmine, a Princess of Fairyland, a jealous Demon King stops the wedding as he wants to marry Jasmine's sister, who loves another handsome prince. He turns Jasmine's younger brother into a stone statue, and issues Hatim with a challenge. Hatim must find the answer to 7 questions in 7 months or lose his bride forever whilst the little boy remains a statue.

Hatim of course takes up the challenge, and the stories each week form a continuous serial where Hatim and his friend, Hobo, seek far and wide for the answers. Their travels take them to strange lands and they meet even stranger people, good and bad, with of course lots of difficulties, magic and mystery. Some of the plots are daft, and some of the answers to the riddles a bit peculiar (well I don't understand them anyway), but overall the series is most enjoyable. Some of the special effects are awful, but in contrast many are very well done indeed. People magically disappearing, non-people who appear to be made of fire or stars, magic mirrors and bubbles, flying ships, all the trappings of pantomime and fairy stories are here, with an adult twist.

Hobo, whose name and appearance are remarkably like Hobbits of Lord of the Rings tales, lives in a village where the houses are under turf with round windows and doors, just like Hobbits. Both his parents are played by the same actor as Hobo, where the pantomime element comes in. Hatim has fought in the arena dressed just like the fighters in the Gladiator film, and other ideas from films and other stories have been obviously copied for the series, yet is not imitation the sincerest form of flattery ?

Each time Hatim gets an answer, part of the little boy is freed from the stone, but there are many backward steps, and sub-plots. In order to solve a, Hatim and Hobo have first to deal with problem b, but to achieve that they first have to solve c, and so on , so the plots get quite complex. Women feature prominently as good princesses and bad witches, and even fighters, although there are one or two sexist remarks, Hatim says of one woman pirate that he is ashamed to see her like that ( ie not as a wife or mother).

The demons are really bad, yet magestic, striding along with powerful music to emphasise their entrances and power. The costumes are beautiful, and the stories move from sadness to amusement and back again. Much is very typically Eastern in style, which is a real treat for a European like myself.

I heartily recommend this series to everyone.