Aunt Gladys kidnapping all of her “nephew”‘s classmates reflects a combination of two folkloric figures: the Pied Piper of Hamelin from German folklore, and Baba Yaga from Slavic folklore.
The Pied Piper is famously known to have lured children away from their families via a magic woodwind instrument that he played to hypnotize them in revenge against the villagers of Hamelin cheating him out of a promised payment.
Baba Yaga is a repulsive and/or ferocious-looking elderly woman who is known to eat children.
