Cut Off The Power

SPOILER ALERT
This review is for those who have read or are familiar with the previous books, Disney After Dark, Disney At Dawn, and Disney In Shadow, or don't mind knowing major spoilers for them.
SPOILER ALERT

~Power Play~
Kingdom Keepers
Book 4
By Ridley Pearson
Amazon ~ Powell's

For the five teens who modeled as Disney Hologram Imaging hosts, life is beginning to settle down when an intriguing video arrives to Philby's computer at school. It's a call for action: the Overtakers, a group of Disney villains, seem to be plotting to attempt a rescue of two of their leaders, both of whom the Disney Imagineers have hidden away somewhere following a violent encounter in Epcot. A staged attack by new Overtakers at Downtown Disney, startles the group. One of their own, Charlene, is acting strange of late. Has she tired of her role as a Kingdom Keeper or is there something more sinister at play? When caught sneaking into Epcot as her DHI, acting strictly against the group's rules, Finn and Philby take action. Has the 'impossible' occurred? Have the Overtakers created their own holograms? Have they found a way to 'jump' from the Virtual Maintenance Network onto the Internet, and if so, what does that mean for the safety of the parks, and the spread and reach of the Overtakers? Are they recruiting an army from outside the parks? A dark cloud in the Kingdom Keeper era is unfolding, and with dissention in their own ranks, it's unclear if there's any chance of escape.

Don't know if it's because of the break between the first three and this one, or if the writing has actually improved, but I liked this book a lot more than the others. That said, I still have a bit of nit-picking to bring up.

This book heavily features Snow White's Evil Queen and Cruella de Vil. Maleficent was locked up at the end of the last book, so she doesn't feature much at all in this story. Now the Evil Queen is the head spell caster. But, when issues arise concerning spells and being cursed asleep, they assume the curse has to do with Maleficent's story/magic, rather than the Evil Queen's. Why assume spinning wheels are involved, rather than apples? I don't know, it just irked me not to incorporate any of her story into their current conundrum.

I'm also not fully sure about how these characters really look. I mean, I'd assume the human characters look more normalized, like portrayed by actors rather than Who Framed Roger Rabbit toons running around. But at the same time, how the hell do Minnie and Pluto, who show up later, look? Are there just a bunch of CG real-ish looking creatures wandering about? Or do they resemble more of their big-headed suit versions? I'd say the latter, since they can supposedly pass for cast members, but Pluto acted full-on dog when he helped, so...

I wonder mostly due to one encounter with a particular iconic villain:

Then she spotted him: a man in a red velvet dinner jacket, beneath which was a frilly white shirt and a bizarrely large black bow tie, the tails of which disappeared into the velvet. His pants were three-quarter length, tight around the calf, and puffy on his upper legs, with hook-and-eye laced brown leather boots spit-polished to gleaming. He had long curly hair—a wig perhaps—beneath an exaggerated hat like those worn by the Three Musketeers. Judge Claude Frollo from The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Uh, did I miss something? When has Frollo EVER looked like that? In my recollection of the movie (and a Google image search), he's only seen in his black robes, poofy tri-corner hat with tails, and short grey hair. I guess they tried to make him more French-looking? But then, how in the hell would ANYONE recognize him? (The bow tie reminds me more of Monsieur D'Arque from Beauty and the Beast)

But those irks aside, this really did improve on the Kingdom Keepers formula. They got rid of the asinine "can't touch the button with our hands cause it'll pass over" shtick that they made up last book, and better worked in aspects from the kids' real lives, like bullies or maligned friends. They also FINALLY addressed the good characters' noticed absence from the activities. Well, it's still not resolved, but at least they addressed it. The stakes definitely went up in this one (which makes less sense with the supposed leaders of the OT's behind bars) regarding the safety of the kids. There's nothing quite like not being in control of your own actions, or not having anyplace safe to go.

It took far longer than I hoped it would, but this series finally got a hook in me. There seem to be real stakes on the line now that the villains are reaching outside the parks, and I'm excited to see where this goes.

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

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