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The Kingdom Keepers: Disney After Dark
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Chapters 12-17Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 12 Summary
Nervously, Mrs. Whitman serves dinner to Finn and the first girl he ever brought home, Amanda. The main course is meat loaf, but Amanda is a vegetarian. Mr. Whitman is largely silent until Finn asks about a hurricane that diverted to Orlando and lost energy there; Finn’s dad says it’s common for hurricanes to do that over land.
Amanda and Finn go upstairs to study. His mom tells Finn to leave his door open. Finn and Amanda sit at his computer and launch an app that opens up an animated stone room created by Philby, with couches, chairs, and a soda machine. Finn’s avatar gets a soda. A girl avatar appears wearing hip huggers and a short yellow top. The avatar’s name is “angelface 13.” She and Finn’s avatar chat briefly; Amanda recognizes Charlene.
Willa’s avatar, “willatree,” appears in bellbottoms, followed by Philby’s “philitup” wearing red hair. Both avatars get sodas. Dillard shows up as “dilltoast,” and Finn must ask him to leave. Amanda suggests smoothing the boy’s feathers when they meet again at school. Maybeck’s avatar, “mybest,” arrives wearing an Afro that makes him look tall the way he is in real life.
Finn calls them to order. He asks about the fainting, and all agree they did so. He mentions his laser burn, which means their experiences aren’t dreams but something deadly real. Over there, they’re part human and part hologram. He says it’s important that they go to sleep at the same time so they all can meet there together. They all agree on nine o’clock that night, then sign off, leaving Finn’s avatar alone in the stone room.
Finn admits to feeling fear. Amanda says it’s a “human emotion” that all of them are probably feeling. Finn wonders again at her wisdom and how she showed up in his life just when he needed such a friend.
Finn tags along as his mom drives Amanda home. She lives in a converted church with a stained-glass depiction of a flying angel embedded in the roof. Somehow, the angel resembles her.
The kids go to sleep and meet at Central Plaza. They hear a “crashing noise” in Tomorrowland, followed by cheering. Wayne hurries them into the Cinderella Castle, then down a passageway to a huge room with doors and stairways going in all directions. Wayne calls it “Escher’s Keep” and suggests the kids look up Escher later. He climbs a set of stairs, and Finn follows, only to see Wayne up ahead, standing upside-down. Wayne says it’s all right, but the kids must memorize the path and step only on blue tiles, or they’ll get dumped into the moat. They catch up to Wayne, who says this hall is a safe place to hide, as are the teepees at the Frontierland Indian Encampment, where the holograms can’t project, and they’ll be invisible.
Finn asks how he can touch things if he’s a hologram. Wayne says atoms are mostly space, and “it all comes down to what you believe. What you think you can do” (107).
They enter a pitch-black room. The ceiling shows stars. Wayne shows them large buttons that, when pushed, cause the floor to move upward. At the top, Finn pushes against the stars, and a door opens. Beyond is a small, private apartment with a drafting table, kitchen, and bookshelves. A tall, narrow window, painted in blue gel, contains a peephole. The kids take turns looking out at Disney World from very high up in the castle. Wayne calls the place “Walt’s secret hideaway” (110).
He tells them of an ancient fable, the Stonecutter’s Quill, related to him by Walt Disney. One day, a stonecutter, working in the hot sun, wishes he were the sun itself. Instantly, he is the sun, pouring his power down on the Earth. He feels powerful until a cloud gets in the way, and the stonecutter wishes he were the cloud. Instantly, he is, and the cloud rains down upon the Earth.
The wind moves him aside, and he wishes he could be the wind. Instantly, he is the wind, pushing things around, and he enjoys the power until he confronts a mountain he cannot move. He wishes he were the mountain, and suddenly he is, mighty and unmovable. Then he feels something eroding him from below. He looks down: Chipping away at him is the stonecutter.
Wayne points out that the four things mentioned, “sun, cloud, wind, and stone” (113), repeatedly appear in the Magic Kingdom. Undoubtedly, they’re the key to the solution of how to vanquish the dark spirits who endanger the park. Walt added a hint: “I have plans for this place that should put things in perspective, Wayne” (114).
Wayne says the five youths have been selected for their smarts and abilities in athletics, the arts, and computers. He adds that the DHI computer servers went down that afternoon at about the same time the kids fainted. The human team is linked somehow to its computerized counterparts and thus is vulnerable at all hours if the Overtakers somehow manipulate the servers.
Charlene asks Wayne to explain the Overtakers’ powers. Wayne points out that, once in a while, we think of someone, and the phone rings, and it’s them, or a good mood changes suddenly to bad, or we suddenly fear the dark for no reason. He says forces larger than people move through the world.
Wayne pushes a button, and an opening appears in the floor. He drops through, and the floor closes. Finn asks if everyone is on board with the project; all raise their hands. He tells Philby and Willa to search for answers to the fable’s connection to the Magic Kingdom. Maybeck gets the job of figuring out everything he can about the DHI computers, while Finn and Charlene will research Walt Disney.
A fob with a red button lies on a table. The group gathers around the table and holds hands as Finn, his arm held by Willa, reaches down and presses the button: “The world went dark” (119).
Chapter 13 Summary
All five DHIs meet at Frontierland’s Indian Encampment. They step inside a teepee and promptly disappear: The holographic projector doesn’t broadcast into the tent. Maybeck waves a hand in the doorway, where it becomes visible.
Philby is sure that the Stonecutter story leads to a quill or pen. Maybeck has studied the DHI computer servers. He doesn’t yet know why all five kids fainted at once: “The DHI servers clearly control our holograms, but why they could affect us as humans is really weird” (123). He wants to figure out how to gain control over the servers so that no one can mess with them. The five decide to meet the next morning at the Disney sports complex, where they’ll participate in the Fall Games.
Footsteps approach, and with them, a sudden feeling of deep chill. A raspy woman’s voice says she can “feel” them. She walks past, then returns to their teepee. Her hand reaches into the tent: It’s green, the nails long, like claws. The woman bends down, and her face appears: She’s Maleficent, the evil witch from Sleeping Beauty. The ground at her feet freezes solid. She rises and walks away.
Maybeck peers out of the teepee: Maleficent is gone. Finn says, “I think we just met an Overtaker” (126).
Chapter 14 Summary
Walking into the Wide World of Sports Complex, Amanda asks Finn for an update on his latest nighttime visit to the Magic Kingdom, but Finn avoids answering, saying, “It’s complicated.” Amanda is miffed. Finn’s gaze falls on a beautiful girl with pale skin, black hair, and gray eyes. The girl stares back, and Amanda walks off in a huff.
Finn chats with the girl, whose name is Jez, short for Jezebel, a name that embarrasses her. She recognizes him from his Disney hologram: He’s her favorite. Despite himself, Finn blathers on about how his name, “Lawrence Finnegan Whitman” (129), annoys him. She invites him to a Girl Scout car wash the next day at a place called Dangerous Dan’s. Finn says, “Maybe,” and hurries off to meet with his DHI team members.
They gather in a locker room and discuss their next steps. The kids are nervous, and they argue a lot. Philby explains that the first clue involves the sun, and the biggest sun image in the park is at the It’s a Small World ride. He suggests they go there first when they sleep. Willa wants everyone in bed by 8:00 p.m. when the park closes. The kids grumble but finally agree. A sudden chill strikes all of them, and they realize that the Overtakers might be able to leave the Magic Kingdom and spy on them.
Chapter 15 Summary
Yet again, Finn tells his folks he’s going to bed early. His dad warns him against sneaking out, or he’ll be grounded “the rest of your life” and his phone taken away (133). Mr. Whitman tells Finn about recent burglaries around town, including gear stolen from a welding shop and handcuffs removed from a police locker.
Finn dresses for night work and pulls up the covers, but he can’t sleep. The doorbell rings, and his mom answers: It’s Jez. Finn throws on a bathrobe and walks downstairs. Jez compliments him on his team’s third-place showing at the games, then kids him about his bathrobe. The bell rings again; it’s Amanda. Mrs. Whitman offers them cookies, and they wander into the kitchen. Sweating in the bathrobe atop his street clothes, Finn tries to escape, feigning a possible fever. Amanda looks at the clock, remembers Finn’s purpose in sleeping, and saves him by hustling Jez back out the door. Finn nods a thank-you to Amanda.
Chapter 16 Summary
Finn arrives late to the Small World ride. The team is there, waiting for him. They walk inside the ride, and it starts up, music and all. Maybeck is suspicious, but Charlene learned from Wayne that the rides stay on at night. Still, except for emergency lights, the place is dark. Philby reminds them that the ride’s music lyrics repeat the word “sun” over and over. It must be a clue.
As the team floats, some animatronic dolls wake up, detach themselves from their stage, and begin to sneak behind the boat. Charlene sees them and screams. The group tries to paddle with their hands, but the boat is locked onto a moving track. Soon, dozens of dolls are marching toward them.
The dolls tumble into the water, then swim toward the boat. They climb aboard and bite the team members, who pull them off and throw them. One hits a wall and smashes, and the group cheers. Bruised and bleeding, the kids huddle together in a circle, facing outward. The dolls are winning.
In the Americas scene, a huge Mayan sun shines, smiling. The song lyrics say, “a smile means friendship to ev’ryone—” (148), and Finn tells the team to smile at the dolls. This works: The dolls become peaceful and turn away. The kids remove the remaining dolls from the boat. The ride’s river is soon covered in floating dolls.
In all this, though, Finn doesn’t see any clue to the Stonecutter puzzle.
Chapter 17 Summary
Finn attends the car wash late Saturday morning at Dangerous Dan’s used car lot. There are lots of suds and a few comical water fights. A rumor goes around that the Small World ride was vandalized. Jez, in a one-piece, gets thoroughly wet during a water fight, then looks over at Finn. Dillard notices and kids Finn about it.
Amanda appears. She gives Dillard some money to buy her a soda, and he does so eagerly. She then coaxes Finn into telling her what happened the previous night at the Small World ride. Finn tells her, expecting disbelief, but she listens quietly. He shows her a bite on his leg from a doll; she’s stunned.
She says he should stop the visits at once—stay up all night, if necessary. She adds that her mother tells her to get a different pair of glasses and change her perspective when she does something she shouldn't. This gets Finn thinking, but then he notices a black car pull up across the street and Jez walking toward it. The driver—a woman in heavy makeup, hair pulled back sharply and wearing white gloves in the blazing Florida heat—rolls down a window and talks to Jez, who’s sullen. Finn speculates that the gloves and cosmetics might disguise green skin.
Chapters 12-17 Analysis
In these chapters, the DHI team begins in earnest to figure out how to defeat the Overtakers. They must decode a mysterious story and use the solution to locate items that will empower them during their fight.
Escher’s Keep, in Cinderella’s Castle, contains stairways that head in all directions, sometimes upside-down. These steps, and the disorienting feel they create, evoke artwork by M.C. Escher, who created images of hands drawing themselves, monks climbing stairs that go upward but end up where they started, and fish or leaves outlined by other fishes or leaves. In these worlds, everything blends into everything else in ways the logical mind can’t fathom. The Keep serves as a reminder to the kids that they must widen their perspective and look at things in new ways to succeed at solving the challenge of the Overtaker and harkens back to the theme of Change of Perspective.
In Chapter 12, the second-longest in the book, the kids learn details about their mission, including the fable of the Stonecutter—who, by turns, becomes the sun, a cloud, the wind, and a mountain, only to realize that he’s most powerful as the Stonecutter. In classic Disney style, this tale teaches a moral lesson: people should look not to outside things for success and satisfaction but within themselves, where the real magic lies.
The things into which the Stonecutter morphs are the four parts of an ancient system that organizes the world into fire, water, air, and earth. Many classical cultures believed these types of matter make up the universe.
Though replaced by modern physics, the four-element system retains its allure, especially in fantasy fiction. For example, the successful TV series and film The Last Airbender describes a civilization divided into four realms, each of which controls the power of one of the elements. The Harry Potter stories likewise divide Hogwarts magic school students into four halls, each representing an ancient element: Gryffindor, for fire; Hufflepuff, for earth; Ravenclaw, for air; and Slytherin, for water.
Chapter 16’s encounter with the Small World’s raging animatronic puppets is a scene that recalls classic horror movies about dolls running amok. It’s a risky strategy, especially in a book that features the best of the Disney resort world, but it works mainly because it’s so absurd. The idea of all those charming, friendly dolls swimming toward the kids’ boat in an effort to kill them is so audacious that it forces the reader to take the scene on its own terms. It thus becomes both ridiculous and scary, a combination often prized in horror fiction.
The book is written almost entirely in third-person limited perspective: The reader witnesses only what Finn experiences. Now and then, however, the author breaks this perspective, as during the Small World boat ride: “Behind them, when the DHIs were no longer looking, one of the British dolls leaned forward and snapped its glued feet off the deck of the display. It took a long stride forward. Four others did the same […].” (143).
This exception to Finn’s limited point of view helps build tension as the dolls begin to follow the DHI team. It’s a type of cinematic effect where the scene switches quickly from one viewpoint to another and back again. The Kingdom Keepers books were to be reworked as scripts for a TV show for the Disney+ streaming service, but the technical demands of reproducing the series’ many effects proved too complex. As of 2022, the tales remain in book form only.
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