The Kingdom Keepers: Disney After Dark

Awake and in their regular human form, the five kids attend Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party at the park in the evening. Hundreds of kids from Finn’s school are there. All attendees wear costumes; Philby figures Maleficent can hide openly at the party and maybe even launch an attack. Finn dresses in a black cape and Zorro mask. He meets Dillard, who’s dressed as a giant crab.

Jez, in a Cruella de Vil costume, walks up to Finn and flirts with him. She tries to get him to go with her on the Haunted Mansion ride, but Finn escapes by pointing out Charlene, dressed as Sandra Bullock in Miss Congeniality. Dillard gets drinks and brings them back. He drops one, but Jez catches it perfectly. Finn asks how she does that; Jez offers a lame excuse. Amanda, in a Catwoman outfit, walks over and addresses Finn, who ignores her. Miffed, she walks away.

Finn walks to the drink line; Amanda reappears and insists she tried to warn him that Jez was at the exit door at the One Man’s Dream museum. She’s sure Jez is bad; she mentions the evil Jezebel from the Bible. Just then, Amanda and Charlene both fall into a stupor. Dillard and Willa help Charlene while Finn gets Amanda to a bench. He sees Jez talking to someone tall and slender in a witch’s hat; Jez looks right at him and walks away. Maybeck, as Nelson Mandela, and Philby, as Einstein, show up, and Finn tells them to follow him as he pursues Jez. Amanda suddenly sits up, warns them not to go, and then slumps back into a daze. The boys leave anyway.

Finn says Jez, who’s wearing white gloves like the woman she spoke to at the car wash, must be the daughter of Maleficent. They follow Jez and the tall witch, who enter the Pirates of the Caribbean. The boys hesitate at the entrance. Maybeck warns against going up against the two women; Finn says, “They aren’t  people” (274).

The waiting crowd is lighter than during the day. Finn and the other boys follow the witches to a side hall with a staircase, where they disappear. Maybeck climbs the stairs and reports cannons; Finn opens the door to an adjoining jail set; it makes the same squeak they heard when the witches disappeared. The boys explore the jail and discover a hall of cells, each with recently repaired door hinges and shiny new padlocks.

Finn remembers his dad’s mention of the locks stolen from a police station. The cells can hold hundreds. Finn says, “Park employees.” The Overtakers are planning a takeover of the resort.

As they move deeper into the darkness, Maybeck suggests that if they encounter any of the Overtakers, they should occupy their minds with highly distracting images so the evil ones can’t control their thoughts. They walk down darkened stairs, the walls dripping with moisture, and follow the witch’s wet footprints to a large stone room held up by thick arches festooned with evil-looking gargoyles. The footprints lead to a door; the boys open it and walk down a dank tunnel to another room with pillars. This room has stairways leading in different directions; it reminds Finn of Escher’s Keep.

A voice rasps: “Valor is such a dangerous thing” (282). It’s Maleficent blocking their escape. She wants one of the pens and has drawn them here to get it. She creates a web of light that imprison the boys, then lowers it next to Maybeck and Philby and tells them to leave and that they’ll forget they were here. The two refuse; she waves a hand, and Philby collapses as if boneless. Jez appears from behind a pillar to watch. Maleficent threatens them with a ball of fire, and then a sharp wind knocks them down. Finn tells them to leave but focus on preserving their memory of the place. They hurry out.

Finn calls her the boss of the Overtakers. Maleficent laughs and says she’s merely an “errand runner” for the real leader. She demands the pens. Finn refuses. She waves a hand, and Finn’s cape flies open. The pens remain in the cape’s pocket, and Finn realizes Maleficent can’t touch them. The witch rolls balls of fire at the boy, who dodges, then places some of the pens on the floor, and Maleficent quickly extinguishes the flames. She doesn’t want to damage them.

Trying to believe that he can move through the imprisoning web of light, Finn runs at it but gets knocked back painfully. Maleficent approaches, and he shoves several pens at her face, sending her sprawling. Finn orders Jez to remove the light fence and release the girls from their stupor, or he’ll stab at Maleficent again. Jez hesitates; Maleficent begins to get back up; Finn strikes her again in the face, knocking her back. Jez relents, and the light fence vanishes.

As Finn escapes, Maleficent calls out: “We have unfinished business, you and I” (290).

Finn hurries to Wayne’s fire-station apartment and shows him the pens. Wayne realizes the team can retrieve the plans from Maleficent and capture her at the same time. The kids must do this during the day, disguised as Disney park workers. Maleficent can no longer use the Pirates dungeon as a hideout, so she’ll probably stay out in the open disguised as a cast member.

The kids meet at the Transportation and Ticket center on Sunday morning at 9:00 a.m. A bus pulls up; it’s empty save for the driver, Wayne. The teens board the vehicle and quickly don costumes: Finn is a Tom Sawyer paper boy; Charlene is dressed as a paddle-wheel boat deckhand; Willa is a restaurant server; Maybeck wears the clothing and turban of a crew member at the Aladdin carpet ride; and Philby is a Jungle Cruise captain.

Wayne stops for Amanda. She’ll stand guard as needed. Wayne drives them into the park and stops near a circular entrance that, he says, leads to a series of underground tunnels, called the Utilidor, that move cast members, supplies, and trash beneath the park. Wayne hands each team member an ID lanyard. He suggests they search the computer rooms, which are kept cold, and the cold food storage rooms, good hiding places for Maleficent. The plans she took will be nearby.

The kids must lure out Maleficent; Wayne and his associates will do the rest.

Wayne leads the girls toward the food service area; the boys head for the computer servers. The Utilidor tunnels are huge and busy, like an underground city. Cast members, many dressed as various Disney characters, walk past.

The boys find the computer rooms, row upon row of blinking machines on racks. They find a set of doors that lead to the hologram servers. One seems colder than the others. In a loud voice, Finn calls out: “It’s your favorite Disney Host Interactive […]. I’ve come to offer you a deal” (305-06). The door gets icy cold. Finn says the kids are tired of fighting her and just want to destroy the servers.

The door opens, and Maleficent appears. She looks tired, old, and weak. Finn sets the pens down on the floor. She approaches them. Just as she realizes the pens are fake, Philby strikes her from behind with the real pens. She flies across the room and slams against a rack of computers. Maybeck grabs the plans from the server room, Philby gives the real pens to Finn, and they run.

At the entrance door, they’re stopped by a large man, the office manager. Behind them, Maleficent, impaled on arcing electrical devices, revives from the burst of energy: “Aaaah! I needed that!” (309). She flies toward the kids. The office manager faints.

The boys dash down the hall as Maleficent flies through the air after them. They keep changing positions and swapping the plans. Maybeck shouts that he has them and that the others should just run. They split up; Maleficent follows Maybeck; Finn has the plans.

He exits into the park at Tomorrowland. Maybeck appears; he tells Finn that Philby has the plans. Kids swarm around Maybeck, thinking he’s Aladdin. Finn hands him a pen, and he signs autographs. Nearby, Maleficent appears, also surrounded by children. The boys keep their heads down.

Jez appears and steals the plans from Finn, but he tackles her and steals them back. Jez casts a spell that causes Finn to wobble painfully in place. He imagines himself as the pure light of his nighttime holographic self, and her next spell goes right through him and freezes a tree. Jez tries to grab him but reaches through him. A watching crowd, thinking it’s part of the entertainment, cheers for more.

Finn steps into her, She twists and turns, trying to make him leave, but he follows her every move. The crowd goes wild. Finn backs away; Jez touches her arms, surprised. Her hair color changes from black to sandy; her face changes into that of a different girl. She cries, “I’m…free!” She’s no longer under a spell cast by Maleficent.

Amanda, standing nearby, bursts into happy tears. Finn realizes she’s been trying to free Jez the whole time. Finn returns to his daytime physical self and goes to Amanda. She says Jez’s real name is Jess. Amanda is hugely grateful to Finn. Maleficent approaches Jess but can’t change her back. The witch turns to Finn and raises her hands to cast a spell at him. Amanda points to what appears to be a trash chute and tells him to jump in, and he escapes.

It is a trash chute. It carries him down into the trash-removal system, spinning and tumbling alongside trash bags. Disgusting goo quickly covers him. Maleficent, unaffected by the waste, flies toward Finn. She hurls a spell at him, but he ducks, and a nearby piece of trash transforms into a rat. Maleficent prepares another spell, but Finn throws the rat at her, distracting her.

He flies out an exit hole and into a large trash car. He jumps out and lands next to Maybeck and Philby, who also are covered in trash goo. Maleficent flies into the trash car, and Wayne and several others quickly drag a net over the car, trapping the witch.

The boys follow Wayne to the bus. He says they’ll put Maleficent into her own jail under the Pirates ride. Finn hands Wayne the plans and pens. Wayne thanks the boys and says, “We’re almost through” (321).

Amanda doesn’t show up at school on Monday. Finn wonders if he’ll see her again or if he’ll ever learn who is the evil spirit that controls Maleficent and the other Overtakers.

At night in the Castle apartment, the team opens Walt’s set of plans. Wayne has them wear their 3-D glasses. He hands Finn Walt’s old fountain pen and tells him to pull on its lever. Finn raises it above the plans and flicks the lever; a drop of ink splashes down and spreads quickly across the plans, filling them with glowing lines.

Wayne brings them to the window and removes its gel covering so they all can watch at once. The park outside glows with a light that matches the light spreading across the plans. Wayne explains: “What we are witnessing is the good driving out the bad, the creative driving out the uninspired, the villains being put back into their place. Disney’s Magic Kingdom, reborn” (324).

The light moves toward the Castle, climbs it with blinding brilliance, and erupts in a spectacular fireworks display. Wayne shakes Finn’s hand. The kids cheer and dance together in a circle. Wayne picks up the fob “and pushed the button” (325).