Kingdom Keepers: Disney after dark

“You can’t get any ‘cooler’ than Disney World.”

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REVIEW

Would I read this again? Yes No Maybe

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SUMMARY

Finn Whitman isn’t just any ordinary 13 year old boy. He is one of only 5 DHIs in the world. What’s a DHI? A Disney Host Interactive. This is a hologram that walks around Magic Kingdom spouting off fun facts about Disney World (kind of like I do when I’m there….).

Finn has a dream on the night the book opens that he’s in Magic Kingdom after it's closed, except not as human Finn, but as Hologram Finn. He meets a man named Wayne who is one of the first Imagineers. Wayne tells him he needs to get in contact with the other 4 DHIs and they all need to meet up in Magic Kingdom, in their sleep, to help him save Magic Kingdom.

The problem? Finn doesn’t know the other DHI’s full names or where they live. There’s a new girl at school, Amanda, whose parents work at MGM (aka Hollywood Studios), and Finn thinks maybe she can help him out.

Finn isn’t allowed to go to Magic Kingdom whenever he wants and he is not allowed to go unless he is wearing a “disguise” of a hat and sunglasses (good ole spy disguise). The park doesn’t want him walking in looking like himself and confusing kids when they see him as Human Finn at the same time as Hologram Finn. He doesn’t want to ask permission to go to MK in case he’s not allowed to be there for whatever reason since Wayne made it seem like a secret. But Amanda - she can get comp tickets because of her parents so she gets them both in. Finn wants to go around and take pictures of the other holograms and then go to other schools in the Orlando area and try and figure out who these kids are.

Unfortunately, his incredibly elaborate disguise doesn’t fool Disney security so they come after him. Him and Amanda manage to get a few pictures and then end up hiding out in Haunted Mansion before finally getting out of the park. They head to MGM to ask Brad, one of the Imagineers that had helped create the holograms, about the other hosts. Brad refuses to answer or give him any information until Finn tells him that he talked with Wayne.

The next day at school, Finn has a list of schools that the other hosts go to. Amanda helps him with step 2 of the plan as well - going to other schools and asking around. They find one of the girls at the first school, Charlene. She says she knows the other girl, Willa, a little and she will try and get in contact with her. Charlene has also been having weird dreams so she believes Finn.

That night, Finn goes to sleep early so that he can hopefully meet up with the other hosts. When he wakes up as Hologram Finn, Wayne is waiting for him. Charlene and another host, Philby, arrive. Wayne tells him that while he is in this state he is neither full hologram or full human, something in between. Whatever Finn chooses to believe or think will have an impact on his form. Finn notices characters walking around the park that Wayne can’t see. The first night he saw Goofy and Chip and Dale. Tonight he sees Pooh and Piglet and some Pirates. (There’s a whole scene here where the Pirates realize Finn can see them and they verbal spar until the Pirates use a laser from the Buzz ride and shoot Finn with it and he realizes he can get hurt here). Wayne cannot see them but the hosts can. Wayne tells them that if they can see the characters, maybe they can stop them.

Finn says stop them from what?

Wayne tells them that the other night, during the Fantasmic show, the dragon set Mickey on fire. The animatronic acted in a way it should not have. Wayne says there is a fine line between imagination and reality. And if enough people believe in something that isn’t real, can it become real? (According to my boys, Sam and Dean Winchester, yes it can, it's called a Tulpa).

Wayne says this park has both good guys and bad guys. Good magic and bad magic. Millions of people every year visit a Disney park, cruise, movie, tv show - they are all believing in the magic. What if their belief has made things come to life?

Wayne says “what is inevitable once evil gains power?” Philby says “It wants more.”

Wayen says they are called the Overtakers.

Imagineers have known for a long time that the characters come to life after the park closes and that was never an issue until bad things started happening - like the dragon trying to off Mickey. Now they are concerned that the bad magic will overtake the good magic. He says the belief in these characters keeps growing stronger and that’s making them stronger, making them real.

Wayne says Walt had a feeling something like this might happen so it made a scavenger hunt with clues so that the Overtakers couldn’t figure it out but that one day someone could help save the park and the magic. Wayne says that's why they came up with DHIs - part of the park world and part of the human world. They can see the characters unlike humans. They need the kids to solve the riddle Walt left of the Stonecutter’s Quill.

When Finn wakes up the next day, he finds that the burn he got from the laser is real.

The next day at school, Amanda has arrived with information about the last two missing hosts and she wants to tag along with Finn while he goes and talks to them. Before they can do that, Finn is all of a sudden freezing cold and feels like he is going to pass out.

When they arrive at Terry Maybeck’s house, Terry doesn’t want to talk about anything until Finn asks him if he almost passed out today. That convinces Terry and they make a plan to get online later and talk.

After dinner, Finn and Amanda get online to play a game called Virtual Magic Kingdom. Kinda sounds like online Sims. He creates a chat room and pretty soon all the DHI hosts' avatars are in there. Finn tells them they all need to go to sleep at the same time tonight so they can sync up and meet as holograms. Not all of them are on board to do this but they all eventually agree.

They all meet up and Wayne is waiting for them. He leads them into Cinderella’s castle and up a very complicated stairway path, giving me Hogwarts feels, to a secret room. Wayne says as long as they memorized their exact way up, they will be safe because the Overtakers won’t know the exact way and they’ll fall into the Moat below. He says the other place they should be safe is Frontierland Train Station towards the Indian Encampment.

The room he leads them to is Walt’s secret hideaway. There are three phones hanging from the wall - red, blue, and yellow - and he tells them never to touch them. They don’t come up again but I’m assuming they might be important for later in the series? He also shows them a black fob that looks like a garage door opener and tells them that it will transport them back to their human forms. He then proceeds to tell them the fable of the Stonecutters Quill.

Long fable short - it's basically be careful what you wish for, be happy with who you are, and no matter how strong you are there is always someone/thing stronger.

Wayne says the main things to focus on are “the sun, cloud, wind and stone.” That all four of these themes are repeated in Magic Kingdom and he thinks that is where they should start looking. He said Walt told him, “I have plans for this place that should put things in perspective”.

Finn tells Wayne that this afternoon he fainted, and the others confirm the same thing happened to them. Wayne tells them the DHIs went down in the parks for a few minutes. He believes that the Overtakers are onto what's going on and they are trying to sabotage the hosts.

The next night they meet up in one of the teepees at the Indian Encampment. While in the teepee, their holograms are invisible because there are certain places in the park where the holograms won’t work. They are in there making plans when they all get real cold and hear footsteps. Then they hear a woman's voice saying “I feel you” and being all creepy. She eventually sticks her head in the teepee so they can see her but she can’t see them. It's Maleficent. Finn believes she is an Overtaker.

The next day is The Fall Games at the Wide World of Sports (now called ESPN). All the local schools are there competing so all the hosts are there. Finn is approached by some girl he doesn’t know, Jezebel, but she knows his name. Jez tells him that he is her favorite host at Magic Kingdom which kinda makes Finn uncomfortable. She invites him to a Girl Scout car wash the next day and even though she is kinda making Finn feel weird he still continues to talk to her and says maybe he’ll show up.

He meets up with the hosts and Philby says that the first clue is the sun so he believes they should start looking for clues at It's a Small World because the biggest sun in the park is there. They agreed to meet up that night at 8pm.

That night, Finn is trying to go to sleep when the doorbell rings and his mom calls him downstairs saying he has a visitor. It's Jez. How did this creepy stalker girl know where he lived? He is trying to get her out of there and then Amanda shows up. Finn is like what is going on I need to go to sleep! He pretends to be sick to get them out so he can go to bed. By the time he gets his hologram self to MK, the others are waiting for him outside of my least favorite ride of all time - It's a Small World - they all board a boat and go on the ride.

Then a scene from one of my nightmares happens - the dolls come to like, climb off their platform, and chase after the boat. Some of them manage to get into the boat and attack the kids. One of the kids listened to the lyrics and apparently the lyrics of the song that haunts me is “There is just one moon and one golden sun and a smile means friendship to everyone”. Finn yells at them that this ride is about friendship and Willa suggests they should try smiling while the creepy murder dolls attack them. Maybeck voices all of our thoughts by saying, “You’re out of your mind!” But hey, what do they have to lose? They all start fake smiling really creepy and this makes the dolls stop attacking them. When the boat finally passes the big giant sun, Finn realizes he doesn’t see anything that could possibly be a clue.

That Saturday, Finn goes down to the Girl Scout car wash. Dude is 13, he doesn't own a car, he’s just there to watch the girls. Amanda shows up and she says she heard about It's a Small World but Finn won’t tell her what happened because he doesn’t think she’ll believe him. She makes a comment about how sometimes when she does things she shouldn’t, her mom tells her she needs a new pair of glasses so she can look differently at the dumb decisions she’s making. This makes Finn have a lightbulb moment and think about looking at things from a different perspective. Finn notices that Jez has gone over to some car that has a woman in it, hiding behind makeup, glasses, and white gloves. Just looking at her direction gives Finn the creeps. He wonders if that could be Jez’s mom but Amanda quickly says no.

That night, they meet in the teepee again and Maybeck has brought 3D glasses. Finn says that Wayne said Walt had made a comment about putting things into perspective and then Amanda had mentioned changing her glasses to get a new perspective so he thinks maybe they need 3D glasses to find some clues.

They decide to split up - Finn and Philby will go to Splash Mountain while Charlene, Willa, and Maybeck will go back to It's a Small World. Maybeck is acting all suspiciously about being in a hurry.

In Splash Mountain, Philby tells Finn that they need to float along the water and if they get out of the water area that it will trip alarms. This is just fine until they hear the ride start up which means the logs are coming at them. Oh, and they are nearing the big drop. At the last moment, Finn remembers what Wayne said about whatever Finn believes while in the hologram form is true, so Finn believes that he is more light than solid form and manages to get into the log with Philby before dropping down the big drop. They manage to get their 3D glasses on in time to see the clue - F, M, E.

They meet up with the other group but Maybeck is missing. The girls say that he took off and said he’d be back but he hasn’t returned. They got their clues from the ride too - Y, I, R. They decide to head back to the castle and the hidden room and maybe Maybeck is waiting there at the key fob button thing. But when they approach, they see two Pirates standing guard. They manage to sneak in a back way but when they are halfway up the confusing staircases, the Pirates appear at the bottom. Finn is confident that they won’t know the pattern to get up and he’s right. They end up falling through a false step and into the moat below. They get up to the room and the button is still there but Maybeck isn’t. Finn doesn’t feel right leaving him so they decide to go head to the teepees - maybe he went back there instead.

But he isn’t there. Maleficent shows up - she makes some comment about how they must be missing something and when they all start running, she calls Finn by his full name. They all get back to the room and hit the button but Maybeck is nowhere to be found.

The next day, Finn calls Amanda and asks for her help. He wants to go to Maybeck's house and see if he can talk to him. His aunt says that he isn’t feeling well. Amanda distracts her while Finn tries to sneak up and see him. He sees him sleeping in his bed and Finn tries to wake him through the window but Maybeck isn’t responding. His aunt catches him and she tells him that Maybeck isn’t waking up but she doesn’t know why (and the doctor doesn’t seem concerned so they're just going to let the unresponsive kid sleep it out one more night before maybe taking him to the hospital to do tests because why not?).

On the way back to his house, they encounter an icy cold front which could only mean one thing - Maleficent. Then Finn starts thinking in rhymes which he thinks is weird. He mentions this to Amanda and she gets all weirded out and says that's “one of the signs”. They get chased through a skateboard park by a minibike. Amanda yells at the minibike in a foreign language, crosses her arms and throws them at the rider. The minibike rider gets thrown in the air. Amanda and Finn take off in different directions.

Later that night, Finn passes out again, and ends up at Disney before the park closes. Philby is also there and they go see Wayne, who lives in the apartment above the firehouse. They talk with Wayne and realize that Maleficent is hiding Maybeck, she is hiding him somewhere dark, so they go to Space Mountain to investigate. Finn finds him tied up in a storage room inside Space Mountain. Maybeck says it was Jez who did this to him. He was supposed to meet her at the carousel that night so he ditched the girls at It's A Small World. But when he got there, he got all cold and felt frozen - aka Maleficient was there.

One day the next week, the girls decide to go to Magic Kingdom during the day as their human selves to search for clues. Because Wind is another clue, they decide to check out Pooh Bear because of the blustery winds in the ride. The ride “malfunctions” aka the Overtakers are messing with it and end up flooding it. The girls manage to get out and get the last letter - an S.

Now, the last clue is stone. What place has more rocks than Big Thunder Mountain? Philby and Finn head there and find the last three letters - T, P, and N. Overtakers again are trying to thwart them and turn the rocks into a TRex who tries to attack them. They manage to get away and they laugh thinking of Disney security watching a rock Trex come to life.

Finn’s mom confronts him about him acting weird and the fact that his clothes appear dirtier in the laundry than when she last sees him wearing them. She thinks he’s sneaking out so he comes clean about what’s going on. She, of course, doesn’t believe him.

All the kids meet at Cosmic Rays and try to figure out what the letters mean. They come up with “My First Pen” which makes sense since the fable is called The Stonecutters QUILL. So now they are looking for Walt Disney’s first pen.

They go to Wayne and tell him they are looking for Disney’s first pen and they think it's in MGM (Hollywood) Studios in the Walt Disney One Man’s Dream attraction. Wayne says they must retrieve it in their human forms - not their hologram ones because they won’t be able to pick it up.

The next afternoon, they are heading to MGM and they run into Amanda. She tells them since her parents work for MGM, she knows the guys at security, and she can distract them while the others go and try and find the pen.

Finn goes inside the One Man Dream building, goes into the theater to watch the last movie of the day, but then crawls underneath the seats and hides out until it's over. He waits for awhile after the movie is over to make sure everyone is gone. He manages to break into one of the displays and there’s a bunch of pens so he takes all of them. He also sees some architectural plans leaning up against the desk so he takes those too, just in case. He almost gets caught but manages to escape.

They go to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party where they run into Jez and then Amanda. Amanda starts to tell Finn something that she isn’t supposed to when she appears to start having a seizure. At the same time as Charlene.

Finn, Maybeck, and Philby take off after Jez and a woman she is with. They follow them into Pirates of the Caribbean. They lose sight of her but hear them go a different way than the queue goes. They go into the little area where the two pirates are in the jail cell playing chess and follow a long hallway. They pass a whole bunch of cells with brand new shiny padlocks on them. Philby says it appears that Maleficient is planning on taking prisoners and he’s guessing park employees. They keep following the hallway and then realize they were led right into a trap. Maleficent wanted them to follow her so she could steal the pen.

Jez is also there working with Maleficent and Finn assumes it’s her daughter. Maleficent says she isn’t the leader of the Overtakers but just a simple errand runner.

Finn makes a deal with Maleficent to let the other two boys go and then he tries to outsmart her. He ends up stabbing her with the pens and it makes her powers go all wonky. Finn is able to escape.

Finn goes to see Wayne and they work out a plan to trap Maleficent.

The next day, the kids go back to Disney as their human selves during the day. Wayne has borrowed a bunch of cast member outfits for them and has each of them wear one. Wayne also has brought along Amanda which confuses Finn, how do they know each other?

The kids all make their way underground to the tunnels which is known as the Utilidor. It’s basically its own underground city (and it really exists). Finn and Maybeck are to go to the control room because they think Maleficent will be hiding out there. Which they are right. They try to deceive her and Philby tries to get her with the pens again but she goes flying into one of the electrical servers which ends up juicing her back up to full power.

They’re all running from Maleficent and end up top side. Finn runs into Jez who starts using spells on him and Finn, thinking that if he can wish himself solid or light as a hologram maybe can do the same in human form, starts wishing he was in his hologram form and it works. Finn does something to Jez and she says, “You freed me!” and then she transforms into Amanda’s twin. Amanda happens to be there and she tells him he needs to go down the trash chute. Jess, who was Jez, tells him thank you, they hadn’t been able to break the spell by themselves.

Maleficent throws herself down the trash chute after Finn and when he finally shoots out of it, Wayne and other adults are there waiting. They have a giant container like thing that they trap Maleficent in. Wayne says she’ll go to a cell until they figure out how much power the Overtakers have.

The next night, they meet back at Waynes as their hologram selves. He has the plans and the pens that Finn had stolen. He tells Finn to do the honors and Finn drops some of the ink onto the plans. The ink spreads across the plans and more details emerge - parts of the park that haven’t been made yet. Wayne looks out the window and he can see light spreading across the ground - exactly like it's doing on the plans. Whatever this magic is - Walt made it to make sure that no evil could destroy his park.