For awhile there, if you wanted to return to the magic of Walt Disney World, you either had to buy a plane ticket for a return trip (not that anyone would complain, mind you) or be satisfied with the photos in the souvenir book you had purchased upon your last visit. Now, there are dozens of ways to bring that Disney magic home with you. From Travel Channel documentaries to DVDs, now you have only the dilemma of choosing which way to re-ignite the memories of your last trip.
However, as Disneyland and Walt Disney World grows older and more engrained in our pop culture, novelists and screenwriters alike have now begun to see the wealth of fictional potential in Disney’s theme parks.
Take Ridley Pearson for example. His recently published book, “The Kingdom Keepers”, not only takes place in Walt Disney World. Its entire plot hinges on the well being of the resort and incorporates such familiar faces as Sleeping Beauty’s Maleficent and even the infamous pirates of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.
The Kingdom Keepers, a young adult novel, follows Finn Whitman, an 8th grader who has gained fame as a hologram host in Walt Disney World under a new program titled Disney Host Interactive, or DHI for short. When Finn begins having dreams of walking through the park at night, he learns that Walt Disney World, and the world in general, is in danger and it’s up to him and his four DHI co-hosts to stop the darker powers of WDW from taking over the park and unleashing their evil on the world.
A well written novel, the story and narrative has some quirks, but a fan of the parks will love traveling through the park at night when all the rides are closed and the park is quiet. Pearson takes some liberties with the parks, but after a chilling encounter with Maleficent near the train track and a group of ride-car stealing pirates in Frontierland, you’ll be hooked to see where in the World Pearson takes you next. A fun ride for fans and young pre-teens and teens alike, Pearson captures the wonder of the world in his descriptions of the park and the magic that inhabits it.