OK, disclaimer time: I came across this near the end of my freshman year of high school. At the time, I loved it. Now, it’s… probably one of those books I’m not really interested in anymore. Again. (Same goes for the first sequel I got sometime senior year of high school. It’s just been so long between reading sequels that I just… slowly lost interest, for the most part.) Not that the series sucks, like so many of the other books I used to love ended up being trash, but more like I just kinda grew out of the series, I guess? Anyway…
So, Finn just woke up in the middle of the Magic Kingdom in Disney World. And apparently this is a slightly more real version of a recent recurring dream?
So, who’s this cryptic old man called Wayne? (When I first read this, it was just after I first watched that Adam Sandler movie Click, and I couldn’t help but picture Wayne looking like Christopher Walken’s character in that. Also, I was still in my Sleepy Hollow phase then, which didn’t really help. Now… I don’t even know anymore.)
Oh, right. Not only are Finn and Wayne the only ones there, it’s, like, the middle of the night.
Apparently Wayne lives in the secret apartment above the fireplace in the Town Square section.
Oh, fun. Finn’s glowing. And Wayne’s still being cryptic about what’s going on and why they’re there.
Chip and Dale just ran by, going towards Toontown (Is Toontown still a thing at Disney World anymore?), and Goofy just ran towards Frontierland.
OK, apparently Wayne’s one of the earliest Imagineers at the Disney World park there in Florida. Supposedly.
Apparently, the moon’s about to be in the same spot where it is now when Finn wakes up or something.
And Wayne’s worried about this Overtakers group invading Disney. Or something.
Yeah, this is a lot to unpack. In addition to his worry about the Overtakers, Wayne wants Finn to contact these other four Disney kid hosts to get them to transport to the Magic Kingdom like Finn just did, and they have to track down this Stonecutter’s Quill thing to protect the park.
Oh, jeez, they’re still calling it MGM Studios instead of Hollywood Studios. This was right before the name change, wasn’t it?
Finn doesn’t have much time until he wakes up, and Wayne’s still reminding him about the moon. I keep wanting to add that one gif from the Hillywood Show Umbrella Academy parody, but I keep getting an error message.
And of course the moon is in the same spot.
The more I think about it, based on, like, a lot of thematic elements, getting into the Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica series felt like the next logical step in what sort of books I’m interested. At least, on an initial surface level.
OK, so, Henry likes making little cardboard models, and he’s just finishing a flying pig model.
Oh, fun. This specific model flying pig has a little mechanism inside that makes it actually fly.
Henry’s super happy he got the pig to work, and his mom’s too out of it to care.
Henry’s dad apparently had a late night at work the night before, and now he’s supposed to be taking Henry to… do some sort of volunteer thing where he’s helping an older guy called Mr. Fogarty with gardening or household work or something.
And Mrs. Atherton’s still… super uncharacteristically spacey.
OK… Mr. Atherton apparently stayed in the spare bedroom the night before. That’s totally not suspicious.
Yep. The parents are definitely fighting. Because probably an affair with the dad’s secretary.
Apparently, Henry’s got a sister called Aisling.
Ah, yes, here’s one of those cases of “the kid confronting the parent about Something Huge Obviously Going On and the parent beating around the bush.”
And now Henry’s dropped the bomb and asked if there’s something between dad and Anaïs the Secretary.
Well, that’s a plot twist already if I ever heard of one. It’s not the dad having an affair with the secretary, it’s the mom.
So, they’re going shopping with their friend Hornet, and they’ve got a friend Mosca.
Also, she’s only been there for less than two pages, but I’m pretty sure Prosper’s got a crush on Hornet already. (Pfft, fake cousins.)
OK, I’ve gotta get this out of the way. Bo keeps getting described as looking angelic. I remember when I started reading this my senior year of high school, and my friend Katherine had read it a few years before. She kept complaining about how she thought in the movie, “angelic Bo” looked like “girly Bo,” so when I started reading Inkheart a couple years after graduation, I kept imagining Meggie looking like Bo the whole time instead of… whatsherface who actually ended up playing her in the movie.
Oof. Bo and Prosper have tattered clothes, and it’s getting too close to winter.
Prosper’s paranoid that Esther and Max are trying to look for him and Bo. I mean, he’s not wrong, but seriously, they can’t check the photos of every single tourist in Venice.
Oh, fun. Bo’s already learning how to steal. Ah, yes, the first reference to Scipio the Thief Lord himself.
So, Bo got sick pretty soon after they got to Venice, and it was enough for Prop to want to turn themselves in so they could get medicine. And then Hornet showed up to the rescue.
And all the kids (minus Scipio, apparently) live in an abandoned movie theater.
Oh, right. The Winter King did just ditch Magwich with the Indigo Dragon after ordering the ship destroyed, didn’t he?
Fun. The Indigo Dragon sank, John started drowning because he didn’t want to give up his coat (and everyone thinks it’s another case of PTSD shock), Magwich is knocked out, and the eagles cranes are coming to save everyone.
Fuck. This chapter and the next are some of those “Very Important Exposition” chapters that bore the hell out of me, even though they’re packed with Backstory.
Oh, yay. Here’s the beginning of the “calling him Maggot” joke.
This dude from the Black Cauldron movie is who Magwich reminds me of. Because of reasons.
I’m just facepalming over here at Bug saying he likes Aven in wet clothes when she says she hates sleeping in them.
OK, yep. It was Magwich who followed John from London to Oxford.
Lovely. John didn’t want to lose his coat because he had the Imaginarium Geographica in it, and he’d actually given the Winter King the copy of Tummeler’s cookbook.
Speaking of which, can I finish this chapter before dinner? Probably not.
Magwich is… good for one thing? He totally just revealed that the Winter King wants the Geographica to find the royal ring and use the dragon summoning spell to completely take over the Archipelago.
So, a lion just showed up. OK.
OK, this lion kinda reminds me of Llyan from the Prydain books, and… something about the gang staying with Ordo Maas reminds me of… something else in the Prydain books, but I forget what.
Yay Tummeler reference!
Also, Ordo Maas is a friend of all animals.
Oh, whoops. I was closer to the end of the chapter than I thought when I stopped for dinner.
Hey, Jack, obvious crush on Aven is obvious. Stop being jealous of Bug and John.
And the shadowy places the Winter King took over probably aren’t completely destroyed, which is good.
The people from the Shadowed Lands become Shadow-Born, which are worse than the Wendigo. Apparently they can’t die, as far as anyone knows. And nobody knows how they actually get turned into Shadow-Born once the Winter King takes over. Yet. Although foreshadowing was already a thing.
Oof. A quarter of the places in the Geographica are already taken over by the Winter King. That’s a scary thought.
So, the Indigo Dragon is like a day out from the Cartographer’s island, and the Black Dragon shows up because of course it does.
“What do you see in the telescope?” “Trouble.” “No shit.” “I meant Shadow-Born trouble.”
Jack wants to turn the Indigo Dragon to face the Black Dragon, and he’s getting Bug to help with A Thing. This is going to be nuts, isn’t it?
So, they just blew a hole through the Black Dragons masts, and it’s still going. And the fact that the Black Dragon apparently has an actual dragon like the other Dragonships is Not Good.
And now the Black Dragon is almost on the Indigo Dragon, and John’s run off to the cabin. And everyone’s Jack’s still being super rude about his PTSD.
OK, John’s finally back to fight right as soon as the fight’s basically over and the Indigo Dragon gets taken over.
Oh, fun. The Shadow-Born are… basically stealing the crew’s shadows and turning them into basically zombies.
And now the Winter King is here in person. When it got mentioned that he’s missing his right hand, the first time I read this, I half-jokingly was like “So, like, is he Captain Hook or something?” Oh, how right I’d be in The Search for the Red Dragon.
Also, I keep imagining him as looking like Miles Richardson because Doctor Who expanded canon reasons that I’ll probably explain more in The Indigo King, even though the Winter King is described as Not Really Looking Like Miles Richardson.
Unless…
So now the Winter King is… basically sizing up all the Important Peeps on the Indigo Dragon.
OK, honestly, I didn’t like the Winter King at first, but he kinda grew on me, especially starting in The Dragon’s Apprentice. (I would say the end of The Shadow Dragons, since that book’s like, a huge turning point in the series, but honestly, that book kinda bored me…) Because redemption arcs are fun. Especially because this one was actually done well.
John’s over here like “OK, fine. Have the Imaginarium Geographica. It’s in the cabin, all wrapped up for you.” Everyone’s over here freaking out about him doing that and not paying attention to the suspicious wording about it being suspiciously wrapped up.
And now the Winter King’s like “Oh, one last thing. Magwich sucks as my right hand man, as it were. Jack shows promise. Wanna trade?”
Oh, fun. The Actual Kings and Queens that the Winter King replaced with the Clockwork Parliament are the four Shadow-Born he brought with him.
Jack’s seriously considering the Winter King’s offer to join him, but then he’s like, “nah.”
And now the Winter King’s leaving and ordering the destruction of the Indigo Dragon.
So, apparently, on the outside, Coraline’s house looks the same. Except for the huge neon lighted billboard for Misses Spink and Forcible’s theater flat.
Oh, fun. The cat showed up. Just good old Cat because there’s no Other Cat. Also, apparently he’s just Cat because cats don’t need names because they’re not like humans and don’t suffer constant identity crises or something.
Oh, right. Cats can talk in the Other Mother’s world. (The more I think about it, in the context of this book, I wouldn’t be surprised if cats can talk in Coraline’s part of the real world, too, but choose not to.)
Is this cat some distant feline relative of the Marquis de Carabas? Because I kinda feel like that now that I’m older and have read Neverwhere.
The cat’s glad Coraline brought protection into the Other Mother’s world but wouldn’t explain what he was talking about. Because, y’know, cat reasons.
And now Cat’s running off to go hunting for what seems like an invisible mouse but is probably one of the rats from the Other Upstairs Flat.
So now Coraline’s going to check out the theater in the downstairs flat.
OK, so, apparently dogs can talk here, too. Talking animals are a thing in general here.
One of the dogs from the downstairs flat is the ticket taker at the theater, and he’s letting Coraline into the theater even though he’s annoyed that she doesn’t have a ticket. Also, the theater’s full of Misses Spink and Forcible’s other dogs and then some.
OK, what even is this vaudeville show that’s going on? Yeah, these Other Misses Spink and Forcible are kinda weird.
And apparently dogs in the Other Mother’s world don’t get sick when they eat chocolate.
Yep. The Other Mother definitely being creepy already. And a little bit too touchy.
“Wanna stay forever, Coraline? We’ll… I mean I’ll… make it super fun like this all the time for you. You just gotta let me give you these button eyes.” “LOL, no thanks, I just wanna go home now.” “OK, see you later.”
OK, so the builders of the city of Ember was planned to be lived in for at least 200 years.
And the lead architect left instructions for how to leave the city after the 200 years to reenter… whatever civilization is left after the apocalypse the architects are preparing for.
The box with the instructions apparently is time-locked, and the mayors of Ember are supposed to pass the Instructions Box to the next mayor.
And then there’s this corrupt mayor who lived during the plague in Ember, and he kept the Instructions Box for himself. And he thought the Instructions had a cure for the plague.
Joke’s on him. The Instructions box got forgotten and chilled in the back of a closet until the time-lock ran out.
This dude from the Black Cauldron movie is who Magwich reminds me of. Because of reasons.
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