Movie Movie Podcast

I missed last week, but I decided to make my triumphant return with a title from Peter. This one isn’t very funny, like most of mine… I imagine it as a tear jerker anime, like the movie that shall not be named. Also, this FMF is far too long to read. Enjoy!

Magic in the Clouds

Joshua is a 12 year old boy living in the small town of Summerville with his mother, Anna, and grandparents. Winter comes, but never stays very long and Joshua wants to go ice skating at a small lake near their house. His mother and grandparents aren’t too keen on the idea but Joshua convinces them. After a very lovely ice skating session the ice beneath him starts to crack and as he is skating falls through the ice. Anna rushes over and dives into the lake, unlaces Joshua’s skates and pushes him up through the ice. The grandparents pull them out and rush them back to their house near a fire.

After a few days Joshua seems fine, but Anna is growing worse by the day. He spends all of his time sitting in the room with her and attending to her every need, even though the grandparents try to get him out so that he doesn’t need to see his mother in that state. Joshua talks with Anna all day about the things that they’ll do once she gets better. As she continues to get worse, she decides to tell him that she might not be able to do all these things with him and tells him about a magical city in the clouds that she’ll be going to, full of creatures big and small, and fantastical landscapes and monuments. She hands Joshua a stuffed bear/bird creature named Tristy that she’s had since she was a child and tells him that the bear came from the magic city (the one in the clouds, not Birmingham, Alabama) and that if she can’t make it to their adventures he can take Tristy with him and it’ll be like he’s there with her. Joshua says he’d rather have her come with him and they have a very emotional scene together. Joshua falls asleep with Tristy in a chair in the room with his mother.

The next morning Joshua wakes up in her room and says good morning to which he receives no reply. He pokes at her shoulder and starts rocking her back and forth, but no matter what he does she won’t come to. He starts to cry out for his grandparents who come rushing in. His grandfather pulls Joshua out of the room, kicking and screaming the whole time, as the grandmother checks for her pulse.

At Anna’s funeral only Joshua, holding Tristy, and the grandparents are there. They all go back to the house and his grandmother sits with Joshua to talk about what happened. She also tells him about the city in the clouds and that his mother is there now and is looking down on him. Joshua listens as she tells him how it’s a lovely place, and a place where magic is real and that sometimes magic makes it’s way down to earth and they can use it, and that he has magic inside of him. Joshua says he doesn’t want magic, he just wants his mother back.

Joshua and Tristy are sitting outside at night, looking at the stars when he sees a shooting star go by. Joshua holds Tristy tight and wishes that he could see his mother one more time. He goes inside and goes to sleep. That night, Tristy starts to move and bounce around, coming to life. Tristy wakes Joshua up and tells him he can grant him his wish, if Joshua helps him. Joshua thinks he is dreaming, but Tristy does some fun stuff around the house to prove that he’s alive. Tristy says that he was once the crowned  prince of the magic city (again, not Birmingham) in the clouds but a evil sorceress took control and forced him out, which is when he came to earth and lived with Anna. Only magical beings can go to the city, but he senses magic within Joshua.

Joshua, although startled and still in disbelief decides to humor Tristy and asks him how they can get to the city. Tristy tells him something about magic being all around him, takes him outside to an old tree, which Tristy is able to open up and brings him into a rocket ship where they blast off into the clouds. When they arrive there are indeed giant fantastical structures that look like big alien plants, and crazy creatures like Cheetahphants, Lenguins, and things that look like pokemon, but aren’t pokemon for legal reasons.

Tristy takes Joshua to the castle that was once his, which now has like a dark cloud looming above it and it’s raining all the time there. They head off to the castle but once they get there they are stopped by a lightning bolt which knocks them back. The evil sorceress Grimelda floats before them. Tristy shouts at her saying the castle and throne are his, and Grimelda says she took it from him because he wasn’t strong enough to rule. She raises her hand and casts down more lighting to destroy the both of them when a green bubble forms around them shielding them from the lighting. Joshua’s mother floats down and orders Grimelda to leave them alone, and Grimelda rushes off.

Tristy looks up and bows before Anna and tells Joshua to show respect to the great fairy queen. Anna tells them both to rise and they don’t need to bow before her. Joshua and his mother have a heart to heart talk, she tells him he didn’t need to come and he says he wanted to see her again and tell her how sorry he was for what happened. She tells him she wouldn’t have had it any other way, she would always protect him, and that the last few days with him sitting in her room and telling her stories about all the places they would go and things they would do were the happiest of her life. They hug and Joshua tells her that he promised Tristy he would help him get his throne back. The three of them go to the castle, but can’t get in until they get the three crystals that will bring down the barrier. They then go on their adventure through Miyazaki styled wonderlands, talking to the King of the Tradlands, who looks like a big frog, the alderman of the Reef people, who looks like a merman, and the Lady of the Sky Tower, who looks like a phoenix.

They head to the castle, open the barrier and fight their way across a barren wasteland of evil looking creatures until they reach Grimelda. There is a big battle, and Anna gets struck down by lighting and Grimelda tells Joshua Anna can’t save him this time, and that the ice breaking was her from the Cloudlands. This awakens Joshua’s power within, becoming the Grand Wizard of the Cloudlands. He captures Grimelda in a spell and splits her being into the three crystals so she will have to continue her life that way, as a captive for what she had done.

He goes to his mother who is barely breathing, and Tristy tells him she is a goner unless he give her his power. He will lose most of his magic (but not all of it so that he can come back whenever he wants). Anna wakes up and they have a tender moment. Joshua tells her he wants to stay there with her, but she says he needs to go back and be with his grandparents. She opens a portal to earth showing his grandparents constantly searching for him and crying every night. She tells him to take care of them as they have magic too and one day they will all be reunited in the Cloudlands. Tristy, who is now crying, hugs them both and asks Anna to look after the throne for him because he wants to go back to earth with Joshua because he feels they are his family now. Anna agrees and they go back.

Joshua walks into the house to find his Grandparents sleeping, he sits down in the chair next to him with Tristy and closes his eyes to go to sleep.

The End