T.K. Wade -- Author

Wednesday, April 17, 2024

Fairy Tale Spotlight: Legend of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse [Video Game Review]

[This blog contains spoilers for a game nobody plays anymore.]

I grew up with a Game Gear, although I did not get a whole lot of games for it. A handful really. Even though I did like the handheld system, I never really got to fully enjoy what it had to offer. Lately, I have been digging around through its catalog, and I happened to run into a really interesting title.

"Legend of Illusion Staring Mickey Mouse" is a Game Gear game released in 1995. It is a standard side-scrolling platformer game with very few gimmicks. It was a Disney game made back when Disney was still a company worth anybody's time.

The reason this game got my attention was for the story. It is a fairy tale that really smacks of many of the old fairy tales I have read. It may even be based on one or two of them.

In the game, the kingdom is ruled by Pete who is a selfish king. He finds out that a disaster has befallen his land because something had gone wrong with the Tree of Life. His wiseman tells him that only a king can go deal with this problem or else the world will fall into darkness. Not wanting to be bothered by a dangerous quest, he ends up getting his laundry boy to do it. This laundry boy happens to be Mickey Mouse.

Hilariously, Mickey's only weapon in the game is soap. Yep. He just chucks soap at the enemies that come his way. Talk about a humble protagonist!

After Pete sends Mickey on his way, his wiseman happens to mention something I guess he forgot. Apparently whoever completes this quest will be destined to become the king himself. Now Pete is angry at Mickey even though it was him that sent the mouse on the quest to begin with. I loved this aspect of the story. Pete is a coward and then he is mad at someone else because he did something cowardly. What a hypocrite!

Along the way, Mickey ends up on a few side quests which involve saving the lives of two other kings who happen to be Goofy and Donald. These are all important things as they are testing Mickey's heart. These tests soon lead him into the Land of Illusion where the Tree of Life is at. Apparently an evil sorcerer turned himself into a beaver and stopped the Waters of Time from flowing with... like... a magical... beaver dam... or something. You have to fight the sorcerer to save the Tree of Life. It was a fun fight too!

Of course, when you come back home, Pete is waiting to have you arrested. You get to fight him too and then end up as king. Pete just ends up in a chain gang vowing to be king again someday.

This game's story is the reason to play it. It's a by-the-numbers classic fairytale but with Disney characters taking up the roles. The gameplay was fine. It's not really great, but it wasn't annoying either. Plus, I like that you are a laundry boy who uses soap as a weapon. That's cute. And yes, I do recommend the game but mainly for its fairy tale narrative. It's too bad I didn't get this one when I was a kid.

This blog was written on April 10, 2024.

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Monday, April 15, 2024

Fairy Tale Spotlight: The Oz Gazette #18 [Review]

"The Oz Gazette #17" is the Winter 2023 edition of the possibly canon mini newspaper published by the International Wizard of Oz Club. Sadly, the one I got was in a bad crumpled-up state because my dad had to hold onto it for a while, but it was all there and readable.

As it turns out, the Nome King was finally dethroned by none other than the Cowardly Lion. Apparently the Nome King had gotten himself drunk on "sparkling mercury," and the Lion snuck in there and stole the king's pants and Magic Belt. Dorothy was then able to use the Magic Belt to wish Ozma back to Oz and then save the day.

The whole edition is specifically about the Cowardly Lion of Oz which is just what I would feel would happen if the Lion had been the hero of the day. All the local newspapers would be about him actually. It even does a lot of promoting for the actual book by Ruth Plumly Thompson called "The Cowardly Lion of Oz."

At the very end of the newspaper, The Woggle-Bug writes his own article about the Cowardly Lion. It was a pretty good read and is even annotated. The best part of it though was the author's by-line which was listed as: Professor H.M. Wobble-Bug, T.E., D. Phil, D. Litt, Th. D., MSc, MA, BSc., EdD, ODd, D. Oz, TWWoO, MLoO, EMerald City Chair-insect Emeritus, Etc.

It was so long that it actually wrapped around the side of the newspaper. I loved it!

Once again, this is hard to recommend since only Ozclub members get these things, but I sure as heck enjoyed myself. I also want to mention that there was a lot of encouragement for people to write their own Oz histories in this issue. That put a smile on my face.

This blog was written on April 4, 2024.

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Wednesday, April 10, 2024

Fairy Tale Spotlight: Oz Short Stories

Last one of these, I promise. This blog is to list the Oz short stories that were not featured in numbered books. There's only three of them. Most of the canon short stories were featured in Book 47 "Little Wizard Stories of Oz" and Book 71 "The Collected Short Stories of L. Frank Baum." These were not included in any collection, so they get their own list.

- "A Murder in Oz" by Jack Snow (1958)

This story is not included in the curated list by Joe Bongiorno, however I personally consider it canon because of who wrote it. This was a short story set in Oz written by one of the mainline authors. It's also extremely good and worth the read. Anyone who does not consider this story canon is not taking Oz as seriously as I have. (No offense to Mister Bongiorno, of course, who probably did his best.)

- "Percy and the Sleeping Violet" by Rachel Cosgrove Payes (1995)

I just wanna state one last time how much I love Percy. I am so sad that I will never see him again.

- "Spots in Oz" by Rachel Cosgrove Payes (1997)

That's it! All books and short stories confirmed read. No more Oz for me!

This blog was written on March 21, 2024.

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Monday, April 8, 2024

Fairy Tale Spotlight: Spots in Oz [Short Story Review]

[This blog contains spoilers for a short story nobody reads anymore.]

I'm here. I made it. I did the work and finished the journey.

"Spots in Oz" is a short story written by Rachel Cosgrove Payes. It was published in 1997 in the third issue of Oz-story Magazine. It is the very last canon Oz story that I am required to read.

The story centers around two children named Taffy and Fudge, a girl and boy respectively. They are Winkies who live a fairly normal life with their mother. Although there is a sibling rivalry happening which causes all of the problems of the story.

Fudge wants to use some herbs to make a spot removal for his mother, but his sister plays a mean trick on him and adds a bewitched flower to his formula. Meanwhile, Spots the Leopard and the Hungry Tiger are in the area when something bad happens.

Spots is a character that only appears in books written by Rachel Cosgrove Payes. He is a leopard that can actually change his spots. It's how he expresses himself. Basically, he speaks very little, and lets his spots do most of the talking. They change into little emojis, basically. This was a concept that happened long before emojis were even a thing, and it is very cute.

Unfortunately, the bewitched spot remover made Spot's spots disappear. This hilariously made him overtalkative because he did not have his special spots to help him communicate his feelings. The two big cats end up going to the children's house in an attempt to figure out how to solve this problem.

I won't spoil anymore. Afterall, it looks like this magazine isn't too hard to come by. Sufficed to say, I liked this story, and I do recommend it. I like Spots a lot! I think it was almost as good as her other character Percy the Rat... almost. I think Percy will always win the trophy with me. Either way, the story was charming and worth the read. Rachel is very good with characterization and dialog that sounds cute and natural at the same time.

Whelp! That's it! I have read all the canon Oz books and stories. It's all done. I am ready to move on. Thank you all for putting up with all these Oz reviews. I began writing the Oz reviews at book number twenty-three (Jack Pumpkinhead of Oz) way back in December of 2020. I have doggedly reviewed each one up to this final story, and I am happy to have come this far with you guys.

It's sad, but it's finally time to say goodbye to Oz, at least the canon stories anyhow. Either way, I had a great time, and I look forward to what other fairy tales I can find here on Planet Earth. Cheers!

This blog was written on March 21, 2024. (I've only just realized that these have been saying 2023 since the beginning of the year. Oops!)

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Wednesday, April 3, 2024

Fairy Tale Spotlight: Ani-Droids [Book Review]

Many years ago, I read a short story called "Argo" by an author named Rick Griffin. This was actually before I was doing book reviews but still while I had my blog. This short story as well as the movie "A.I." inspired me to write and publish my book "The Fascinating Life of Animal Robots." I was extremely inspired. The short story was so good that I have followed this author ever since.

Rick Griffin is actually a multi-talented individual. He writes, he draws, and he has done full comic books. All of his works are independently published, and he is doing very well for himself, even more than me. I am also an independently published author. With maybe one exception, I consider his writing to be some of the best out there, which is really a huge compliment coming from me since I almost never read anything contemporary.

I do recommend you look into his books. He illustrates them himself, and his art is some of the best out there. Most of it is furry stuff, but it's all taken very seriously. He is obviously putting all of his love into the stories he makes. And when he taps into the science fiction genre, that is where he really shines.

"Ani-Droids" is a novel written by Rick Griffin. It was published in 2023, and it appears to be set in the same universe as his short story "Argo."

In this world, humans have anthropomorphic animals as robotic companions that help them with day-to-day tasks. The story revolves around Mira who works on them for a living, but her main concern is trying to circumvent something called the Behavior Code which puts all the ani-droids on a network, making them less individualistic and more of a hivemind. Mira had made friends with her otter ani-droid named Lily and wants dearly for her to be a close friend and not just some internet connected robot.

The search for this path around the Behavior Code is the main driving point of the book, and it leads to some very dark issues. As cute as the world looks in the beginning, the story gets very dark, but it is also extremely satisfying to read with a conclusion that gives you exactly what you want in a good book.

And I won't spoil anymore.

The thing is, this author is currently at the peak of his career, and I would rather people just buy his books and read them. He deserves support. He's earned it. This book is some of the best thought out science fiction writing I have ever read. It was such a satisfying read that I would happily dive into a sequel is he wanted to work on one. It's really that good.

I whole-heartedly recommend "Ani-Droids" to anyone who likes science fiction. It is filled with intrigue, action, and a whole lot of love. Also, you might also check out his other works of literature as well while your at it. Enjoy!

This blog was written on March 20, 2023.

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Monday, April 1, 2024

Fairy Tale Spotlight: Percy and the Shrinking Violet [Short Story Review]

[This blog has spoilers for a short story nobody reads anymore.]

So in the great list of Oz books I had to read, there were two little short stories that I had to obtain to wrap up the whole project. The first of these was called "Percy and the Shrinking Violet." It was written by Rachel Cosgrove Payes and it was first published in 1995. I actually own a real copy of this. It was published in the very first issue of Oz-story Magazine. It's an almost perfect copy too. I either got lucky, or there are a lot of flawless copies floating around on the internet.

Oh, and yes. The "Percy" in the title is Percy the Rat. If I have not made it clear yet, Percy is my favorite Oz character in all of history, and finishing up the books have not changed that opinion. This short story is absolutely a Percy story through and through.

The story goes that there is a horrible ruler named Violetta in the northern Gillikin Country of Oz who wants to replace Ozma as supreme ruler of Oz. She has one of her servants or slaves (depending on how you want to look at it) to bring Ozma a gift of some pretty violets. The problem is that these are actually "shrinking violets" which will make you shrink down to about a foot tall once you get a whiff of them.

Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately for Ozma) it was Percy who intercepted this plan and ended up shrinking instead of Ozma. Jellia Jamb, Ozma head maid, also sniffed it and began to shrink right along with the rat. Now everything is getting to be too big for them. Eventually Ozma shows up, she sniffs the violets, and begins to shrink also. This is bad because the plan is for Violetta to take over the throne once Ozma is too small to rule anymore. It's up to Percy the not-so-giant rat to save the day by figuring out who, when, why, and where!

I won't spoil anymore because I actually want people to read the thing.

"Percy and the Shrinking Violet" may be a short story, but it is paced flawlessly as if it was as long as a book. All the pieces to make up a strong Oz story are present. It also isn't really that short, to be honest. I actually pecked away at it over the course of an entire day. If someone was very busy, they might make it last over several days. I just had plenty of time.

The character of Percy the Rat was as well-presented as he has ever been. He was the smart, clever, and witty rat that I have always loved and adored. This one character has made me actually jealous of fictional characters, because I would rather him be my friend instead of there's. And I just know he would reprimand me for not sharing him with everyone else.

"Percy and the Shrinking Violet" is one of the all-time best Oz stories ever made. It is fun, silly, and even exciting in one part. It gets one of the highest recommendations from me. Find yourself a copy and read it!

This blog was written on March 18, 2023.

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Wednesday, March 27, 2024

Fairy Tale Spotlight: Oz Books 72-75

It's time to wrap up the list. Here are the remaining Oz books that I have read, confirming their titles and dates of publication. All the remaining books were written by Ruth Plumly Thompson.

72. "The Curious Cruise of Captain Santa" (1926)

73. "King Kojo" (1938)

This book cost me so much money. I will do what I can to digitally archive this book online. It's so regrettable that such a good book is too difficult to get ahold of.

74. "The Wizard of Way-Up and Other Wonders" (1985)

75. "Sissajig and Other Surprises" (2003)

Books 72, 74, and 75 are easily obtained through the International Wizard of Oz Club. Very affordable.

This ends the canon list of books as curated by someone named Joe Bongiorno. If you have read this far in the series you can say or even brag that you have read the entire Oz book collection. Another thing you can say is that you have read the "Supreme Seventy-Five."

This I have done and have been happy to share it all with you. There is a little bit more to the Oz canon by way of short stories. I'll review them as I finish them, but as for the books, I am done. Cheers.

This blog was written on March 18, 2023.

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