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YMMV / Twisted: The Untold Story of a Royal Vizier

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  • Adorkable: Ja'far, in his youth, due to his incessant optimism, desire to please, and love of science. Especially evident around Sheherezade.
  • Alternative Character Interpretation: A lot of the same events and actions from the movie take on a new meaning by changing the character's motivations.
    • Ja'far is a kind-hearted, well-intentioned, Only Sane Man who just wants what's best for the kingdom, but is nevertheless mistaken for an evil sorcerer by the people who doesn't understand him.
    • Aladdin is a womanizing sociopathic douchebag who only wants to get into the princess's pants.
    • The Princess is a whiny and extremely naive teenager who falls for Aladdin's tricks.
    • The merchant from the beginning of the animated movie is an Unreliable Narrator who paints Aladdin as the hero because he is Aladdin.
    • Prince Achmed may have been a throwaway joke character to stand in for elitist douchebags, but he does in fact have every right to be offended that the Princess had a freaking tiger attack him.
    • The Captain of the Guard is a jerk to Ja'far but he's also right in his assessments. Is he just a snarker, or attempting Cruel to Be Kind to remind Ja'far that Life Isn't Fair?
    • Did the Disney Villains actually appear to Ja'far when he held the lamp or was he considering all of Scheherezade's stories, and how maybe there are two sides to every situation? Logically, Cruella and Hook are the only ones whose stories are set in the modern world, but everyone else might slide in time-wise. Scheherezade also believed in magic, so it's possible she was anachronic and pulling stories out of order. The Sea Witch tells Ja'far what he already knows — "It's an unfortunate situation, but you do have a choice." If they really did appear, was it a Pet the Dog moment, or was Ja'far holding the lamp and asking for help a signal to the Sea Witch?
    • Is the D'jinn practicing Obfuscating Stupidity for the greater good with his pop culture routine? Like in the film, he outright refuses to brainwash the Princess for either Disney Jafar or Twisted Aladdin's benefit—he cites there are rules, quid pro quo, and provisions— but with Ja'far he follows all of his wishes and requests, no strings attached. He's just annoying and makes his exit when Ja'far wishes to take his place.
    • The Sultan orders for the 2D department to be sacked... except here, it means they're stuffed into sacks and beaten to death. Is it because the Sultan is an idiot, so he didn't understand what "sacked" means nor that he didn't actually have to have the 2D department killed instead of just firing them, or is it because he's evil and enjoys killing the kingdom's subjects?
  • Base-Breaking Character: Aladdin in particular; some like the darker take on his character, while others feel that the storyline lost some points by making him an outright villain. Where Wicked managed to essentially make the Wicked Witch a misunderstood hero while at least suggesting that Dorothy and her allies were being manipulated (or in the case of the Tin Man had other issues clouding their judgement), Twisted just makes Aladdin a sociopath with a Split Personality rather than take a more nuanced approach.
  • Catharsis Factor:
    • Aladdin's Villainous Breakdown when he realises he can't get his third wish, and subsequent running away from Djinn!Ja'far, are this, particularly after holding the Princess at knifepoint with the very clear intention of forcing himself onto her.
    • Considering the Sultan has allowed the Magic Kingdom to descend into an impoverished, lawless hellhole and took Sherrezade away from Ja'far, the former dying in childbirth without Ja'far getting her back, it's also a relief when he's found dead, and the Princess can take over and bring back the sacred 2Ds so that everyone is treated with respect and compassion. What makes it even better is that Ja'far had the sultan killed himself in order to fulfill the Princess' second wish.
  • Ensemble Dark Horse: Ursula is a very minor character in the story but very memorable. She is the one who brings in all of the other Disney villains and starts the song that the musical is named after. In her small amount of stage time, she manages to be very likable and sympathetic, making great points about how the rampant Beauty Equals Goodness through the Disney canon is unfair to people like her. There are many fans who would love to see this version of Ursula get her own musical portraying her side of her story.
  • Harsher in Hindsight:
    • Achmed as the kingdom of Pixar with artisans and given a reputation a "tiger-fucker" after the Princess's tiger tears apart his pants? Hilarious. The former founder of Pixar being accused as a creep and forced to step down? Horrifying.
    • The idealized metaphorical depiction of Pixar, and the happy ending being it bought out, falls apart considering that starting with Cars 2 a few years after Disney bought the company in 2007, Pixar fell into a major Audience-Alienating Era; while it recovered from that they haven't had a financial success since Toy Story 4 due to Disney curtailing the release of Onward in the face of the coronavirus pandemic and from there sending its next three films straight to streaming. When it did release its next film to theaters, Lightyear flopped out of the gate. And that's not even bringing in the reports of a toxic work environment that John Lasseter's ouster brought to light.
    • Disney attempted to revive 2D animation at the turn of The New '10s and failed miserably when neither The Princess and the Frog nor Winnie the Pooh (2011) lived up to box office expectations, whereupon they permanently switched to CGI films.
    • And while Disney is a bigger company than ever in The New '20s, it is also an easy target for those who believe mainstream American media has become perpetually infantile (be it via their animated features, Star Wars, or the Marvel Cinematic Universe), endlessly milking children and their parents for every penny they have and shortchanging their employees from making a living — The Empire of entertainment.
  • He Really Can Act:
    • Dylan brings tears to many people as Ja'far: an idealistic man that fails all the time and is ultimately remembered wrongly as the villain of the story.
    • Jeff Blim becomes chilling in the final act when he reveals he has a Split Personality and the other guy is murderous.
  • Heartwarming in Hindsight: The Captain, played by Jim Povolo is genuinely excited to be given the title 'Princess' in the end. Since the show's release, Povolo has come out as non-binary.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight:
    • Maleficent's part in the title song, considering that she got her own sympathetic retelling a year later, on top of its sequel having the exact same heavy implication that the original story was a tale spun by the villain to make the protagonist look bad.
      • Even more hilarious was the news of Disney making Cruella, an origin story for Cruella de Vil, despite the scene in Twisted lampshading how she's the one Disney villain it's almost impossible to find a reason to sympathize with. Even better, the trailers make it clear she's still as haughty and narcisistic as her original incarnation.
      • And the film itself does indeed make Cruella more sympathetic by turning her plan to murder Dalmatians into a prank to mess with her Hate Sink Arch-Enemy. Even more than that, her initial disdain for the Dalmatians is even given justification by a pack of them pushing her adoptive mother off of a cliff and killing her. So the one supposedly unredeemable Disney villain was actually able to get a sympathetic retelling of her story like the rest of the crew seen here, albeit by turning her motivations from the original movie into a prank. That this is widely considered extremely stupid, if anything, makes the joke here even funnier, turning it into an accidental, prophetic Take That!.
      • Gaston's joined the bad guy backstory bandwagon, considering his live-action counterpart got a TV series about his and LeFou's lives before the start of the film.
    • The musical's entire concept is now this, after an official Disney game introduced a school that gives Jafar (as well as other Disney villains) a similar portrayal. For bonus points, both productions have "Twisted" in their titles. The character that acts most like Jafar is also pretty sympathetic, but unlike Twisted, so is its stand-in for the Sultan.
    • Amusingly, Frozen (2013), a film Disney released the same year as Twisted, goes both ways on the premise: the character initially portrayed as a Prince Charming is actually a cunning bastard in disguise, while the novel A Frozen Heart explains his backstory through a symphathetic (though no less condemning) lens.
    • The social reformist princess being named the new Sultan is exactly how the story played out in the Aladdin (2019) remake.
  • Love to Hate: Slimy and sleazy as he is, Aladdin's douchebag antics are incredibly entertaining to watch, frequently dipping into Crosses the Line Twice.
  • One-Scene Wonder:
    • The Djinn. He would have been annoying as hell with a bigger part, but we get just the right amount before it gets there.
    • The former Grand Vizier.
    • The other Disney villains. Some are even getting requests to have their own shows.
  • Questionable Casting: As with several of Starkid's casting choices, the initial announcement took some people aback — from the moment this musical was announced, Starkid fans were clamoring for Joey Richter to play Aladdin, since he's an extremely good fit for what they pictured a parody of Disney's Aladdin would be. The announcement that Joey was unavailable for this production, and that Aladdin would be played by Jeff Blim — the Comedic Sociopath Sweet Tooth from Holy Musical B@man! — signaled this show would be going a different direction entirely.
  • Sacred Cow: Twisted is a popular candidate for StarKid's magnum opus.
  • Signature Song:
    • "A Thousand and One Nights", Ja'far and Sherrezade's love ballad.
    • The title song, "Twisted".
  • Squick:
    • The Sultan talking about how he accidentally gave himself an inverted penis.
    • Aladdin is 33. The Princess is 16.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Bird, considering his role as Jafar's confidant in the original Disney film. Here he's just a non-sapient pet who makes one brief appearance before vanishing.
  • Tear Dryer: Ja'far has been condemned to eternity in the lamp, and he and the Princess can never be together again... but then, as a result of her wish for him to be happy, Sherrezade is reincarnated in the lamp so she and Ja'far can spend eternity together, able to see any point in time they please.
  • Wangst: The Princess talking about how she wants to be free... while being pampered by her slaves. Deliberately done as part of the Princess's Alternative Character Interpretation, setting up her Character Development later on. This line, in particular, deserves a mention:
    I just want to be free so badly! You slaves could never understand this feeling...
    • Even more so, Aladdin's self-pitying sob story about being tossed out on the street to fend for himself after his parents' death... at the age of 33. Gets worse when you find out he's in fact a Self-Made Orphan.
  • The Woobie: Ja'far, but he doesn't complain much. Same goes for Sherrezade.

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