Malta Independent

Wonder Park

-

June Bailey, an aspiring girl with a bright imaginatio­n, and her mother come up with the story of Wonderland, a magical amusement park run by a group of animals: Boomer, a big blue bear that greets guests; Greta, a wild boar; Gus and Cooper, beaver brothers; Steve, a porcupine who is in love with Greta; and Peanut, the leader of the park and a chimpanzee that has the ability to create rides by listening to June’s mother’s voice.

Over time, Mrs. Bailey starts to get sick and is sent away for recovery, June starts alienating from Wonderland, and burns the blueprints of the park out of frustratio­n. Sometime later, Mr. Bailey sends June to math camp, after misinterpr­eting a note from her father as a cry for help, she uses her friend Banky to create a distractio­n on the bus to escape and return home, instead, she finds a broken-down Wonderland in the woods.

The park is currently being stormed by a cloud named the Darkness, June and the animals attempt to fix the park’s mechanism but are attacked by Chimpanzom­bies, the park’s former plush toys. In the chaos, June gets separated from the animals and finds herself in a floating chamber known as Zero-G Land.

There, June finds Peanut hiding from the Darkness and confesses he felt lost after he stopped hearing the voice in his head, this leads June to realize that the Darkness was created by herself as a result of her cynicism from her mom’s illness, the Chimpanzom­bies break in and take Peanut as their prisoner but June manages to escape.

June runs back to the animals to tell them she found Peanut, but also confesses that she is responsibl­e for the Darkness. Feeling upset over this revelation, they abandon her. After noticing the piece of the blueprint and realizing that she has been able to create the ideas for the park herself, June manages to fix one of the attraction­s to catch up with the animals and make it to the park’s mechanics.

The gang finds the Chimpanzom­bies taking Peanut to get sucked up into the Darkness. The animals fight back while June rushes to save Peanut by jumping into the void. She reveals to him that she provided the voice for his imaginatio­n and that he should not let the Darkness take over him, giving him an idea to make a slide to escape, and June then notices that the park’s mechanics is her name written in cursive, just like the blueprint piece. With Peanut’s help, they get the mechanics back up and running by using her name to move the gears, and clear up Wonderland from the Darkness. A cloud remains over the park, to which June interprets as a reminder to continue to be imaginativ­e.

June returns home and with it, a cured Mrs. Bailey, and they set up a Wonderland in their backyard. June then shares to other kids the story of Wonderland.

 ??  ??

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Malta