"Have you ever really wondered about some of the things that go on in Disney movies? If the Friends On The Other Side only had Dr. Facilier as an ally, they wouldn't have killed him, so somewhere out there must be another guy with access to the forces of darkness just waiting to trap all of our souls. Why did a drop of sunlight fall in Tangled? Why is Pocahantas' grandmother a willow tree? How did a miserable old man like Captain Hook end up in Neverland?"
—Chapter 1
Lost Tales of Fantasia, and its sister story It's a Small World University, are Disney Historical AU fanfictions made by StrangePointOfView
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Set against the backdrop of World War II, the story focuses on a world where all Disney media exists, but with much darker spins and twists. Which isn't very surprising, since the first story depicts the Nazis as the main threat, with a plethora of Disney villains on their side. Lost Tales of Fantasia tells a story about the struggle for the future of the world, where Mickey Mouse is sent on a quest by Merlin himself to locate the mysterious Order of Fantasia to save the world from darkness, along the way joining forces with Peter Pan and Shego in his quest to find flowers imbued with the essence of the sun itself.
It's a Small World University has a much lighter, but perilous in itself setting focusing on Alex Russo, Penny Brown, Ingrid Third, Kim Possible and Candace Flynn as they go through college, but with a shadowy threat hanging overhead...
Fantasia first began as a satirical parody of Dark Fics, that expanded on Fridge Logic with Fridge Horror. It gradually grew into something more epic, though, as the author began to take it more seriously and give it more of a Story Arc. University was originally going to be a sequel, according to Word of God, but the author decided to write them both together, putting the stories in Anachronic Order.
Both are at the moment dead fics judging by how long it's been since a new chapter was posted, however a friend of the writer has said that he hopes to continue and expand on both stories in the future.
Fantasia can be read here and University can be read here
Compare and contrast Friends and the High Council, a Grand Unifying Guess that similarly combines everything Disney-owned into a single war narrative, with some similar ideas, but is generally less dark and is much more of a concept than a story.
Fantasia has examples of:
- Abnormal Ammo: Major Monogram fires his ship's dead mice at the enemy.
- Adaptational Badass: Plenty of examples:
- Christopher Robin, now a teenage boy capable of not only entering a war by himself, but also a crack shot with access to unusual allies and an affinity with animals that extends to even dragons.
- This Captain Hook isn't the same, bumbling buccaneer from the cartoon, turns out he'd been holding back the whole time he was on Neverland. The Nazis found out what he was really capable of the hard way.
- Alice became an unholy Devil from the bowels of hell itself...let's let that speak for itself, along with the fact she has the Headless Horseman at her beck and call.
- In The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, the Headless Horseman was heavily implied to be just Brom Bones trying to scare Ichabod Crane, and even if he wasn't, he couldn't cross bridges over running water. In the fic, he's a very real undead devil who relentlessly hunts his prey and takes their heads, and his weakness of bridges is just a myth.
- Lumiere faces the Headless Horseman himself, gets some awesome last words, and dies distracting him from hunting the royal family.
- Adaptational Heroism: Funnily enough, this happens to Mother Gothel/Snow White in addition to her Adaptational Villainy. Captain Hook and Dr. Facilier, of all people, also gain this.
- Adaptational Villainy:
- Alice, extremely so. Instead of being an innocent, curious young girl, she's a sadistic devil and emissary from Hell who only looks like a young girl.
- Ann Possible is Anna, an adolescent prodigy who works for the Nazis and enjoys conducting brain surgery on living subjects.
- Major Monogram is crueller and much less comedic about it than his animated counterpart.
- Snow White gets this treatment, of course, as she's revealed to be the same person as Mother Gothel.
- Adaptation Species Change: It is revealed that Major Monogram is a Muppet.
- Alice, rather than being a little human girl, is a powerful devil who only takes the from of a little girl.
- Adorable Abomination: Alice looks like a sweet little girl. She's anything but.
- Affably Evil: Alice, Anna, and Doctor XXX.
- All Myths Are True: All of Disney is true. And Disney has a lot of myths.
- All There in the Manual: Sometimes the author's notes reveal information you might not have gleaned from the fic itself.
- Ambiguously Jewish: Played for drama with Doctor Dementor, in chapter 10 a modified chessboard of Drakken's hints he may be Jewish, unfortunately with Dementor currently working for the Nazis he may want to keep that as much a secret as he humanly can.
- And I Must Scream: Anna enjoys experimenting on the brains of her subjects while they're still conscious.
- Angels, Devils and Squid: Gods and Stars are the good celestial beings, lower-level Devils and Demons are the usual evil beings, and the higher forces of Hell are the Eldritch Abominations.
- Anyone Can Die: The author has explicitly said as much. So far the body count includes Merlin, Captain Hook, most of Neverland, Rolf, Owl, Lumiere, Hergo, Gepetto, Ariel, at least most her sisters...and most of Atlantis too actually.
- Assimilation Plot: The Ponyos gleefully turn everyone they can into another Ponyo.
- The Assimilator: The Ponyos. They use green slime to turn any merfolk into more Ponyos, and all share a telepathic mind.
- Author Appeal: One can tell that the author really likes Kim Possible, as multiple elements from it make their way into the story.
- Ax-Crazy: Doctor XXX, Alice, and Anna.
- Back from the Dead: As of Chapter 15, Doctor Facilier is this.
- Badass Adorable: Shego might be a kid...but she can not only burn you alive with ease, but also actually hurt Alice.
- Badass Family: Team Go is one.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: The Nazi leaders, see the entry for Legion of Doom below.
- Big Good: The Gods are implied to be this.
- Black Comedy: There are instances of this, usually from Doctor XXX.
- Bloodier and Gorier: Well, it depends on which Disney franchise you want to compare it to, but it is this most of them.
- Breather Episode: The two interludes, Interlude Under the Sea and Interlude Between You and Me.
- Butt-Monkey: Doctor Dementor is the one among the villains.
- Canon Foreigner: Team Go has two other members in this story, Hergo and Himgo.
- Canon Welding / Arc Welding: Every story ever owned by Disney is put into the same world, and a lot of the elements are made to link together into the narrative.
- Cerebus Retcon: Done several times with various Disney works. Mickey Mouse is actually an orphaned Michael Banks magically turned into a mouse. Peter Pan's ears are pointy because Captain Hook and Tinkerbell (who nearly died during childbirth) are his estranged parents. The Enchantress was actually Maleficent. Spinning Tops of Doom and Embarrassment Ninjas were first created as Nazi weapons. Pete is a cruel Nazi officer. Ponyos are The Virus undead mermaids. Mama Odie's blindness and eccentricity were caused by Maleficent taking her eyes and enchanting her insane.
- Composite Character: There are several of them:
- Mickey/Michael Banks.
- Merlin is a combination of his cartoon incarnation, his live-action incarnation, and Yen Sid.
- Elliot/Mim.
- Snow White/Gothel.
- According to the author, the inhabitants of Hell/Wonderland are the characters from both Alice in Wonderland and Alice in Wonderland (2010), as well as the Friends on the Other side.
- Continuity Nod: Frequent, to anything produced by Disney.
- Cool Chair: Maleficent has a throne decorated with skulls in the Nazi headquarters.
- Crapsack World: The war is causing devastation everywhere, even among the magical folk.
- Creepy Child: Alice takes the form of one, though she's really a powerful devil.
- Crisis Crossover: How's World War II for a crisis?
- Darker and Edgier: The whole thing, start to note finish. You have Spinning Tops of Doom as Nazi weapons, Alice as a powerful, sadistic devil from Hell, Neverland being reduced to a bombed-out shell, a grown-up Christopher Robin fighting in a war, the Headless Horseman, and that's before you go into all the Cerebus Retcons...
- Dark Fic: A somewhat tongue-in-cheek example.
- Dark Is Not Evil: The Magician's Council is an example of this.
- Deconstruction Crossover: The fic takes the various Disney works and places them in a real-world context.
- Demonization: Underland and all its inhabitants are literally demonized in this fic.
- Demon Lords and Archdevils: Alice is a powerful ambassador of Hell, and can command other devils such as the Headless Horseman. The Red Queen rules Underland,a position which Alice wants for herself.
- Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: When Hook comes face-to-face with the Red Queen, she demands his mind as the price for his love of Tinkerbell. He answers with "Why don't you try and take it?"
- When Lumiere is blocking the Headless horseman from attacking the royal family, he lets him have it with a volley of bullets and shouts "You wand more!? BE MY GUEST!
- Disproportionate Retribution: A little Minnie throws a tomato at Hitler and calls him a bad man. His response is to have her parents killed and her tortured. Thankfully Christopher Robin is able to rescue her.
- In her past, before she died and became a full devil, Alice did something horrible to her tutor just because she was boring her.
- Dragged Off to Hell: This happened to Dr. Facilier before the events of the fic, and when Peter helps bring him back, this happens to Peter's shadow so Facilier can take its place.
- The Dreaded: Doctor XXX and Alice. Even Maleficent is intimidated by both of them
- Eldritch Abomination: The demonic inhabitants of Wonderland are implied to be these. Chernabog is also hinted at.
- Eldritch Location: Hell, AKA Wonderland and Underland.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Most of Doctor XXX's colleagues are disgusted and frightened of him. One of the first things they do in the fic is try to get him killed so they don't have to have him around anymore. It doesn't work.
- Evil Is Hammy: Especially if it's named Doctor XXX.
- Eye Scream / The Tooth Hurts: In the prologue, Maleficent has Diablo take Odette's eyes and teeth, seemingly For the Evulz. Thankfully, Odette doesn't seem to mind thanks Maleficent's spell.
- Fantastic Racism: The mermaids think all current humanity is evil. Granted, they've been bombed pretty hard by the Nazis.
- Fantasy Kitchen Sink: Well, what did you expect, with all of Disney in one world? So far we have fairies, wizards, mermaids, devils, demons, star-whales, dragons, Muppets, Mad Science, superheroes, Those Wacky Nazis with super-science and magic, talking animals, and Ponyos.
- University adds cyborgs and aliens to the mix.
- For Science!: Doctor XXX is a maniac and Anna is disturbing, but even though the two are morally bankrupt their devotion to science can't really be questioned. Later it's shown all the Nazi scientists aside from Doctor Dementor and Yamakoshi subscribe to this philosophy to one degree or another.
- Foregone Conclusion: Hergo and Himgo aren't in the Kim Possible cartoon, meaning that they won't be with Team Go by the present. How isn't wholly clear. Of course, Hergo's unfortunate encounter with the Headless Horseman explains just why she isn't in the present.
- Genius Loci: Bert, of Mary Poppins fame, is a personification of London and England in general, who reflects their spirit and values. The author even refers to this trope by name in his notes.
- Ghostapo: The Nazis have magical Disney villains on their side.
- Greater-Scope Villain: The forces of Hell are implied to be behind everything, but haven't actually shown up as of yet and are outside the scope of the story.
- Great Offscreen War: The current war is given much focus, but Atlantica is mentioned to have been in a few others in the past, such as the war with Atlantis and the Ponyo Wars.
- Also, the Scotland Gargoyle Decimation is mentioned.
- Grimmification: All of Disney gets this treatment, and the fairy tale adaptations are, of course, no exception.
- Guile Hero: Seems to be Mickey's bread and butter so far, I mean when you can talk Devil Alice into leaving them alone by threatening to kill Peter you definitely count.
- Half-Human Hybrid: This happens when magical creatures breed with mortals. The resulting hybrids, like Peter and the Headless Horseman, can choose either the good path and become Stars, or the evil path and become Devils.
- Hell: Is revealed to be Wonderland.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Lumiere gives his own life to buy time for his master, Steve Griswald and Christopher Robin to escape the Headless Horseman. A machine gun might not help you against the forces of hell, but it can slow them down.
- Historical Domain Character: Adolf Hitler.
- Historical Villain Upgrade: Hitler gets a subtle case of this, with various Disney villains on his side, and being somewhat more extreme than in real life.
- Humanity Ensues: Scar is turned human to help the Nazis. He offers the same to Shere Khan.
- Humanoid Abomination: Alice and the Headless Horseman.
- Intercontinuity Crossover: Combines characters and elements from Disney Animated Canon, Disney Channel, Walt Disney Pictures, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Disney's partnerships with Studio Ghibli, Toon Disney, and more.
- Lampshade Hanging: Done extensively in regards to musical numbers.
- Laughably Evil: Despicable as he is, Doctor XXX can be kinda funny.
- Legion of Doom: The Nazi leaders are one: Maleficent, Pete, Doctor XXX, Doctor Dementor and Lord Fisk, human versions of Scar and Shere Khan, Devil Manta, Anna, Dr. Frankenollie, Yamakoshi, Red Skull, the Huntsman, the Coachman, Alice, the Headless Horseman, and Adolf Hitler.
- The Legions of Hell: They're implied to be the true forces behind the evil in the story. They're also the inhabitants of Wonderland.
- Loyal Animal Companion: Several characters have these, in keep with Disney tradition.
- Mad Scientist: Most other examples pale in comparison to Doctor XXX.
- Magic A Is Magic A: Magic power can come from animals or very, very powerful objects. The different kinds of magic are:
- Flash Magic, which wizards use crocodile tongues as batteries for.
- Spirit Magic, which sorcerer's draw from spirits of the earth.
- High Magic, which magical creatures draw from the Gods.
- True Magic, which the Gods draw on themselves for. This is implied to be the most powerful kind.
- Black Magic, drawn from Hell.
- Magic Versus Science:The villains are divided between those who practice magic and those who practice science.
- Mama Bear: Maleficent may draw on the power of Hell itself, but never, ever hurt her daughter Mim. Just ask Merlin...oh wait, you can't.
- The Man Behind the Man: The powers of Underland are revealed to be behind Villain Team-Up and resulting World War II.
- Massive Multiplayer Crossover
- Merlin Sickness: The Trope Namer is a character in this fic, and his aging backwards is discussed by the Magician's Council.
- Meta Origin: The sun-flowers from Tangled are revealed to be the central power in a lot of stories. It turns out that the first spell ever cast almost destroyed the sun, which was prevented by Merlin and others, but seven drops of sunlight ended up falling to Earth and creating the flowers.
- Muppet: In this universe, Muppets are a species that lives among humans.
- Myth Arc: Applies one to all Disney properties about the world changing.
- Noodle Incident: It's never said what Alice did to her tutor before she died, but it's implied to be very gruesome.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: The Order of Fantasia's glory days of adventuring all took place before the story starts, which prompts nostalgia from the surviving members.
- Off with His Head!: The Headless Horseman's preferred method of murder.
- One-Winged Angel: Just as in her film of origin, Maleficent turns into a dragon when she attacks O.W.A.C.A.'s flying ship.
- Origins Episode: The fic is one for Shego, Mickey and Minnie, and the O.W.C.A.
- Our Demons Are Different:
- Demons are damned souls who've lived such wicked lives that Devils bring them back to serve as their empowered minions.
- Devils themselves are the children of humans and magical beings, who become Devils on the moment of their deaths should they die as evil people.
- Our Fairies Are Different: One kind of fairy is Maleficent, who looks human but has green skin and immense magical powers. Another is the Neverland type, who look like tiny human with wings that can control nature.
- Our Gargoyles Rock: For some reason, hybrids of humans and Gargoyles produce the most potent Devils.
- Our Goblins Are Different: Maleficent has an army of goblin Mooks which she refers to as her "children".
- Our Mermaids Are Different: They all come from Atlantica, even ones who live in other places such as Neverland. When they come back from the dead, well... see Our Zombies Are Different below.
- Our Zombies Are Different: Ponyo...no,
seriously. - Outside-Genre Foe: The Nazis are this to most of the Disney characters. Likewise, many of the regular Ally troops aren't expecting to fight magical beings.
- Pastiche: The story imitates the typical style of a Disney movie by excluding swearing and sex and having regular musical numbers.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: The bad guys are Nazis, what would you expect?
- Predecessor Villain: Judge Frollo is described as this to Hitler.
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: The main characters are this, as well as the O. W. A. C. A. in general.
- Reference Overdosed: Well, the fic DOES try to incorporate every single story or media Disney has ever owned or released.
- Related in the Adaptation: Peter Pan, Captain Hook and Tinkerbell are your parents. Search your feelings, you know this to be true. Same story with Maleficent and Mad Madame Mim, and also Doctor Dementor with Drakken and Motor Ed.
- Satanic Archetype:
- The Red Queen rules Hell, is identified by her red color scheme, and corrupts the souls of mortals such as Captain Hook.
- Chernabog is briefly mentioned, and is described as more powerful than most other demons or devils.
- Self-Made Orphan: Both Doctor XXX and Anna have killed their entire families.
- Shout-Out: There are of course hundreds of these to Disney works, but in the chapter "Interlude Between You and Me" Doctor Who and James Bond are referenced as fiction that embodies England's ideals, and the characters show up as physical embodiments of English culture, not as "real" characters. It's... kind of a weird chapter.
- Shown Their Work: The author has clearly done his research on Disney's more obscure properties.
- Slasher Smile: Alice frequently sports these.
- Space Whale: A pod of Star-Whales appears in the sky, being guided by Mary Poppins.
- Speaks Fluent Animal: Edmund Pevensie seems to have developed this skill.
- Stars Are Souls: To be specific, they are the souls of the children of humans and magical beings, if they were good. If they were bad, they become demons instead.
- The Starscream: Alice has designs to replace the Red Queen as ruler of Underland.
- Stupid Jetpack Hitler: Courtesy of Doctors XXX and Dementor, among others.
- Sub Story: Much of Interlude Between You and Me takes place on a Nazi sub.
- Sugar Apocalypse: The Nazis bomb Neverland to ashes. Later on, the island where both Brandy & Mr. Whiskers and TaleSpin take place meets the same fate.
- Super Team: The Order of Fantasia is one of magical Disney characters. By the time the story takes place, though, they've already disbanded.
- Surreal Horror: Anything to do with Hell/Wonderland gets into this.
- Those Wacky Nazis
- Through the Eyes of Madness: Captain Hook's Captain's Log eventually devolves into this.
- Time Abyss: Merlin.
- To Hell and Back: In Captain Hook's log, he recounts that he and other members of the Order of Fantasia fought their way through Hell. It's implied that this contributed to Hook's growing insanity.
- Took a Level in Badass: Scar was never much of a fighter as a lion, but in a human body, his animal instincts make him a great one.
- The Unfettered: Doctor XXX. The only thing he cares about is scientific experimentation, and it's stated that he has no sense of ethics or inhibitions at all.
- Viewers Are Geniuses: All... those... obscure... Disney... references...
- Villain Decay: Shere Kahn has lost most of his edge, which Scar calls him out on. Scar offers to turn Kahn human to reverse it.
- Villainous Friendship: Alice and Anna have one.
- Shere Khan and Scar also used to be friends, hunting elephants together.
- Villain Song: A few of them have these, notably Hitler. (Yes, really.)
- Villain Teamup: See the entry for Legion of Doom.
- War Is Hell: The main theme of the first arc. Just look at poor Neverland.
- Was Once a Man: The Ponyos are undead, brainwashed merfolk.
- Weird Crossover: The only thing the properties involved all have in common is ownership by Disney. This can lead to some pretty weird interactions. Highlights include Shego teaming up with characters from the Disney Animated Canon, evil Ponyo creatures invading Atlantica, and Red Skull being on the same team as Disney villains.
- Weird Historical War: It's World War II with Disney elements involved.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Poor Shego, she might have been a villain in Kim Possible, but with all the crap she goes through here it's unsurprising how she turned villainess in the future. What with losing her sister to the Headless Horseman and being gangpressed into a job she doesn't like by a potentially perverted military officer and all.
- Worldbuilding: Takes all Disney stories and links together various elements and events to form a detailed, cohesive world that is currently being ravaged and changed by an altered World War II. University takes place much later, adding to the world's timeline and history.
- World of Weirdness: With all of Disney, how could it be anything else?
- You Shall Not Pass!: Lumiere lets the royal family get away by facing off against the Headless Horseman before his death.
University has examples of:
- Adaptational Badass: Tigger, of all people. He's still goofy and somewhat absentminded, but he's a better martial artist than even Shego!
- Adaptational Species Change: Tigger's an alien, rather than a stuffed animal.
- Adaptational Villainy: Zigzagged possible example with Ron Stoppable, surprising as it may seem, if one happens to remember a certain episode of Kim Possible, the laughter in the opening prologue implies Ron may have reverted to his Zorpox the Conqueror persona.
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Alex's parents are these for her, for Penny however is the much more embarrassing Inspector Gadget.
- Cosplay: The patrons of the House of Mouse are fans of Disney's documentaries who dress up as the characters, rather than the characters themselves.
- Creepy Good: Jack Skellington is very much this here.
- Crossover Ship: In-universe: Mikey and Sharpay.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Jack Skellington and Ms. Spider.
- Fantastic Nature Reserve: The Hundred Acre Project is a sanctuary on Earth for any extra-terrestrials.
- Genre Shift: Has more of a sitcom feel to it.
- How We Got Here: The beginning has Alex Russo on the front lines of some terrible crisis, and then she begins to recall how things got to this...
- Lighter and Softer: Than Fantasia, though as the beginning shows, it ain't all roses.
- Original Generation: Alex Foix-Pevensie.
- Reference Overdosed: As with Fantasia.
- A True Story in My Universe: Walt Disney existed in this universe, and his films are historical documentaries.
- Wacky College: It's a Small World University.
- Weird Crossover: Just like its parent story. Alex Russo and Penny Brown are fast friends, and Tigger attacks Shego.
