Before I begin, let me confirm that this isn't "World of Disney" in the commercial sense (i.e. movies, TV, theme parks, etc.); what I'm talking about is my fan fiction series World of Disney, which I started back in early 2010. The series centers on a parallel universe compiled of Disney Animated films (think Kingdom Hearts only without the Final Fantasy undertones). In the first story, Muppets Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker invent a machine that grants access to this parallel universe, leading into an insane journey between two universes (the "real world" and the "Disneyverse") and two times (past and present). The main character of the story is Joanie Navarro (inspired by friend, artist, and cosplayer Joanie Mars), a young woman living in 1970s Orlando, Florida (the main setting of the first story). Joanie's journey through the Disneyverse leads into her becoming a powerful sorceress and protector known as "The Guardian of the Disneyverse." As the Guardian, Joanie can travel at will between the Disneyverse and the "real world," her power channeled through Yen Sid's sorcerer hat from Fantasia. The "World of Disney" series has continued through a sequel written and posted in 2012, a Christmas story posted later that same year, and a miniseries currently in development.
So how is Doctor Who played into all of this?
When I started writing the second "World of Disney" story, The Marvelous World: World of Disney 2, I'd introduced an element in character development that mirrors Doctor Who: reincarnation. My main character, Joanie, had died sometime between the events of the first and second stories. Because the Disneyverse must exist with its guardian (That's Joanie!), Joanie deploys a spell that grants her everlasting life. However, there's a catch: she must take on a new face and personality with her new body. Joanie became a woman she named "Gigi" (based on and inspired by my friend Gigi Loren) and had to adjust not only to a new body but a new world (in the sequel, the Marvel Universe replaces the Muppets one as the primary setting).
The reincarnation in "World of Disney" is a straight homage to Doctor Who's regeneration - taking the main character of the story and giving him/her a new face, turning them into a completely different character. Although this method in storytelling for Doctor Who has given the show something new each season it has ran in the past 50 years, it does something a little different and even more fun for "World of Disney." It implements a chance for half of the cast of characters to all play versions of the main character. On one hand, you have variations of the same person interacting with each other and providing interesting comedy, drama, and action, while on the other, you have characters outside this collection of "reincarnations" who bear witness to the insanity and are forced to react to it in ways that add even more comedy, drama, and action for them (think of The Day of the Doctor to the hundredth degree).
(My character Sean Ryder as he'll appear in World of Disney 3, which debuts December 12, 2014)
In the first "World of Disney" story, there is a secondary protagonist in my character, Sean Thomas (Joanie's son from the 21st century). Sean's travels in the Disneyverse have led him into meeting his mother as a young woman and reencountering classic Disney Animated films up close and personal. But due to the *SPOILER ALERT* reboot in the future timeline at the end of the first story (caused by Joanie), Sean is no longer left with the memories of his adventures. That is until his alternate self - from the rebooted timeline - dies of old age and he reincarnates (this happens because of the strong bloodline between him and Joanie). By the events of "World of Disney 2," Sean has regained a new body of his own after death - unfortunately, it is the body of a woman! It is explained in an upcoming story told in Tales of the Disneyverse that only a woman can carry the title of "Guardian of the Disneyverse," which Sean has inherited in his death.
We're introduced to Sean's first reincarnation, Sheryl (inspired by the amazing Sheryl Ann - pictured above) in her confrontation with Gaston. She has the memories of both the "Original Sean" (seen in the first story) and "New Sean" (from his rebooted timeline), which gives her the experience necessary in handling this new life as Guardian and opening her eyes to the possibilities of alternate realities or parallel worlds. As Sheryl, Sean gets his crash course in the limitless powers of the Guardian, under the tutelage of Yen Sid. A new body and a new personality adds to the challenges he faces and overcomes. Unfortunately for him, Sheryl was only the beginning of a long line of reincarnations he encounters in his life as Guardian of the Disneyverse.
What intrigued me most about Doctor Who when I first got interested in the show near the autumn of 2011 was how this one main character has taken on many different faces, many different personalities, and many different lives. It is a fun approach to storytelling that I wanted to mimic for "World of Disney." In a recent article that I read for the show, which is coming up on its next Christmas episode (Matt Smith's final one as The Doctor), Steven Moffat - the current show runner - had some things to say about the Doctor's regeneration that impressed me even more: "I was trying to think about it from the point of view of what it would be like if someone told you, 'When you wake up tomorrow morning, you’ll still be alive, but you won’t be the same. You will like different things, you will sound different, you will look different, and have a different temperament.' That would be utterly terrifying. That would feel not like death, but something quite mortifying – you would be horrified by the idea of just being rewritten like that. I think that’s what contemplating regeneration must be like for the Doctor."
That quote from Moffat is something that I've been contemplating for my character and these many lives he is forced to take on whenever the cycle of them ends - only I'm "kicking it up a notch" for dramatic effect. Because his lives are all female (the opposite of the Doctor's many male lives), he goes through an experience that's even more terrifying, since he is used to thinking and acting like a man. Through his time as Sheryl, we can see fragments of his old persona coming into play at times (some of her dialogue in the story is based mostly on my real-life speech than Sheryl's) while fragments of hers are mixed in. As he continues reincarnating into different women of various ages, ethnicities, personalities, etc., he begins to lose his old self and slowly takes on the personas of these women - each one erasing some of himself along the way. It's a constant struggle for him that will be focused on in upcoming installments of the "World of Disney" series.
Much like the Doctor's TARDIS, another common element that Doctor Who has inspired for "World of Disney" is taking a real world object and turning it into something extraordinary in fiction - in this case, The Sphere. Based on the Spaceship Earth geosphere at EPCOT, the Sphere was the power source of Bunsen and Beaker's machine. It is mentioned in the first story that the two Muppets (along with members of the DHARMA Initiative) had constructed the Sphere to contain a form of energy that enables the access necessary in traveling between worlds. Not a lot has been revealed yet on the Sphere, except that it ironically resembles Spaceship Earth and enables travel between dimensions. Near the end of the first story, when Sean discovers an alternate timeline where the Sphere is used as a Disneyland park attraction, the machine anticipates his arrival - his future self from 2037 had placed settings for a specific "realm time" for him to travel to, in order to save his family in the Disneyverse. It's not yet explained why or how Sean's future self discovered the Sphere and knew where and when to send his younger self, but this chapter from the first story has shown just one of many additional traits of the Sphere. Like the Doctor's TARDIS, it is capable of time travel and space travel (which will be seen in "World of Disney 3" next year), but it is unfortunately not bigger on the inside (even though it is a massive piece of technology both in and out). Somehow, the Sphere is connected to the Disneyverse, which in turn is connected with the Guardian. If the Sphere were to be destroyed, it is possible neither the Disneyverse or the Guardian will exist either.
("Genevieve" - Sean's 16th Reincarnation - Based On and Inspired By Actress/Model/Cosplayer Genevieve Marie Nylen)
With "Tales of the Disneyverse" returning with more mini-stories this Friday (December 20th), we can expect to see many more of Sean's reincarnations show up as a mysterious and dangerous rift opens within the Disneyverse and threatens its existence. There are a total of 17 reincarnations expected to be featured in upcoming "World of Disney" stories - one of them inspired by actress Adrienne Wilkinson, who will be the first-ever celebrity that I've written as an original character in one of my works. But the most important reincarnation is Genevieve (pictured above), who is the furthest down the long line of them. Genevieve possesses knowledge of every known universe (from the Disneyverse and beyond) and knows more than even Yen Sid himself! She is virtually the most crucial character coming into the series (so much that I have already planned to end its final story with her) and could hold the secrets to key moments of the series that have yet to be explained, such as where the energy used to power the Sphere came from, how a 2037 version of Sean knew how to operate the Sphere, and many others!
Although Doctor Who may never become a property of Disney (I hope that it doesn't - but who knows?), it has certainly impacted the progress and future of my "World of Disney" series in ways that I hope to one day pitch the idea to Disney themselves. If you look at many of the stories Disney has told over the years in their movies, you'll see how most of them are inspired by other works or figures of fiction (like Hercules and Superman, Tarzan and Tony Hawk, or Frozen's Elsa and The Snow Queen). I'm proud to have a character like "The Guardian" to have gained inspiration from "The Doctor."
No comments:
Post a Comment