The Marvelous World: World of Disney 2 - Chapter Nine (w/ Commentary Notes)

Chapter Nine: Realm D1999

            Gigi did her best to focus on backtracking through the jungle in search for her powerful hat; her mind was still on Sean and his declining health. She knew that he was in good hands with Archimedes Porter, but there was no way that Sean would ever make it with the early twentieth century medicine that Porter used to treat him. The only way Sean would survive injuries as extensive as his would be for her to use her magic to heal him. Every minute she spent searching for the hat felt like a minute that could have been used saving Sean’s life.

            When she arrived upon an area of the jungle that had Clayton’s hack job all over it, Gigi knew that she was on the right track. Eventually, she found a trace of blood – Sean’s blood – in a section of the grass, knowing it was where Clayton had shot him; that could only mean Gigi was very close to the hat; she could practically feel its energy in the air. Her heading established, Gigi moved much faster across the jungle to reach the spot where she last left her hat. Her rapid movements scurried away any small animals or insects that were in her path; she wanted to be careful when moving around them, but time was of the essence.

(Narrative Note: Another example of the "butterfly effect" in this scene with Gigi desiring to be cautious in stepping around small animals and, especially, insects.)

            Once she reached the particular spot where her hat should have been, she was met with disappointment to find that it was not there. In her exhausted state, she felt confused and frustrated; she just knew that she had left the hat there before rushing off to help Sean; so where could it have been? She still felt the hat’s energy surging through her, which could only have meant that it was near…close near. At that point, she realized there was one thing to do in finding it – something that she had not even considered in her rush to save Sean. She sat down on the grass in lotus position, interlocked her fingers, and closed her eyes.

            Taking slow, deep breaths, Gigi used a method that her sorcery master, Yen Sid, taught her when she was still known to her world and many others as “Joanie.” She focused on connecting her soul with the energy from her hat, amalgamating to the two together in order to sense where it was. As soon as she got a fix on its location, she opened her eyes – a faint white light glowing from her pupils – just as a figure dropped from above and landed a few feet in front of her. Gigi smiled when she saw that the figure was “The Ape Man” himself, Tarzan, and he was carrying her hat in one of his hands, although it was a little scrunched under his mighty grasp.

(Character Note: Gigi's method in relocating the hat is one instance in which the Guardian only requires her own life force to perform feats - a trait that the reincarnations of Sean Thomas develop in the course of each of their life cycles.)

            Tarzan looked at her with his intense blue-green eyes that did not quite faze Gigi as much as it would have any other being – human or animal. Of course, Gigi was not human anymore; not like how she used to be. From her perspective, Tarzan – the missing link that he was in the eyes of both his ape and human families – was the most human character she had ever come across in the Disneyverse; and, at that current point of her new life, she wished to have been as human as he was again. Slowly, she got back on her feet, keeping her gaze on Tarzan while doing so. After a brief silent moment, Gigi finally spoke to the Ape Man in a series of grunts, the only type of language that he was used to speaking at that point in his adult life.

            The intense eyes of Tarzan changed to ones of astonishment; he grunted back to Gigi, who heard his words as if they were plain English. “You speak gorilla?”

(Disney Note: In his animated feature, Tarzan is voiced by Tony Goldwyn - best known for his role as President Fitzgerald Grant III in the Disney/ABC political drama Scandal. Goldwyn provided all the grunts for the character, but Brian Blessed - the voice actor for Clayton - provided Tarzan's signature yell when Goldwyn was unable to give a satisfactory version. It was also meant for Tarzan to speak two separate accents, an American one for when he spoke gorilla and a British one for when he spoke to humans, but Goldwyn could not give a convincing British accent.)

            Gigi nodded. “Yes, I do.”

            Tarzan curiously moved in closer to her; she knelt down to be at eye level with him, knowing what he had in mind. He got in very close to her face – so close that she would have been uncomfortable for Gigi, but she did not mind one bit. Tarzan looked at her hands and took hold of one, dropping her hat to the ground as he did so; he saw that Gigi had hands just like his, pressing his hand against hers to make them perfectly align with one another. A hopeful smile emerged on his face; she knew the reason for this smile was that he finally found someone who was like him. To confirm this, Tarzan leaned in on her chest, placing his left ear over it to hear Gigi’s heartbeat. However, when the Ape Man heard beats that sounded irregular to the ones his adoptive mother taught him, he jumped back in surprise; that hopeful smile had quickly faded – and so had Gigi’s.

(Disney Note: This moment between Gigi and Tarzan strongly mirrors the first meeting between him and Jane in the film, right down to the listening for a heartbeat. Curiously enough, the characters Tarzan and Pocahontas bear similarities to each other - both don't speak and understand the English-speaking tongue but eventually come to uttering their first words when in close contact to their eventual love interests, neither of which are featured with them in their respective scenes in The Marvelous World.)

            She held up her hands to calm the terrified Ape Man. “It’s alright, Tarzan. It’s alright.” Her hand went to her chest, feeling the strange heartbeat that he heard. Gigi sighed; apparently, she only looked human on the outside; the inside was a whole different matter. “I’m sorry, Tarzan. I’m only half of what you hoped me to be.”

            Hearing her mention his name twice, Tarzan grew more suspicious of her. “How do you know my name?”

            Gigi chuckled. “You won’t believe me…well, maybe you will. But I used to be part of your ape family a long time ago. I was different from the other apes because of my name.”

            “W-What was your name?”

            “Joanie.”

(Disney Note: In Tarzan's ape family, all the names of the adults begin with the letter "K," while all of the children begin with "T," such is the case of Tarzan, who is the son of Kala and Kerchak.)

            Tarzan tried to think back to his past when he met an ape that went by such an unusual name; he looked deeply into Gigi’s eyes and experienced a sudden flashback to a time when he was just a child, having met a young female ape that saved him, Terk, and Tantor from a group of stampeding rhinos. He recalled a trick she had done that was unlike anything Tarzan had seen before that calmed the entire group of rhinos. Ever since then, Tarzan had been impressed with that young female ape and her strange name and ability to calm wild animals without excessive force. After experiencing this flashback, Tarzan still had difficulty recognizing Gigi as that ape. “It can’t be,” he said. “How could it have been you?”

            “I have…gifts…that make me capable of doing things – being anything that I want to be.” Gigi explained, even though she worried whether Tarzan understood any of it.

            “You’re…a demon?”

            Then again…maybe he slightly did.

            “Well, I wouldn’t say a ‘demon’ exactly. More along the lines of a sorceress.”

            Tarzan’s eyes squinted with confusion. “What’s a sorceress?”

            Gigi sighed from mental exhaustion; it was all really too much to explain for a man who was raised by apes in a jungle, and she did not have very much time to dedicate to it. She stood back up, grabbing her hat from the ground while doing so and placing it back on her head. Due to the rough way in which Tarzan handled the hat, it appeared lopsided on Gigi’s head; she only hoped that its rumpled state did not affect her use of magic.

(Authorial Note: The lopsided condition of the hat after Tarzan's care is a nod to its similar condition after Mickey's carelessness of his use over it in Fantasia.)

            “I promise that I’ll explain it all later once I used my powers to heal someone close to me.” Gigi assured the Ape Man.

            “Who’s that?”

            Before Gigi could have answered, the loud, terrified shriek of a woman sounded near their location. Gigi already knew that the screams belonged to Jane, but she was puzzled on why she came back into the jungle when she should have been with her father to help treat Sean’s injuries. Knowing immediately that danger was happening near, Tarzan leaped back into the trees faster than Gigi blinked. With him gone to rescue Jane, she rushed back to perform her own rescue for Sean at the campsite.

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            “I’m…I’m…sorry…sorry…I’m sorry…s-sorry…sorry…”

            Archimedes applied a cold, wet compress over Sean’s forehead, which sweated profusely from the heavy fever he was suddenly developing. After instructing Clayton to head into the jungle to find a special plant that would help the young man’s injuries while he commenced with the surgery, Archimedes expected to get some assistance from Jane; but his daughter appeared to have disappeared shortly after he sent Clayton away, leaving him to care for Sean all on his own. Neither Jane nor Clayton had returned to camp anytime soon, which made Archimedes wonder how long Sean would last. Judging from the way Sean had lost his color and sweated heavily, there was not very much time left for him.

            All of the sudden Archimedes spotted a flash of light from the corner of his eye, inciting him to turn to his left and look out of the tent to see what it was. At first he believed it to have been a flash of lightning, but he heard no boom following, even though there was a storm on the approach from the dark grey clouds forming in the sky. Suddenly he saw Gigi appear from out of nowhere in front of him, wearing an odd-looking hat that surprised and confused Archimedes. “W-What? Where have you been? What is that on your head?”

(Disney Note: Fans of Tarzan will recognize that these scenes are happening parallel with Jane's encounter with the pack of baboons that led to her first encounter with Tarzan. A couple of subtle hints to this are Jane's screams and the approaching storm that Archimedes notes in the last paragraph.)

            Gigi did not bother giving any explanations to Archimedes, due to being too focused on saving Sean’s life. Taking Archimedes’ place at his side, Gigi placed both of her hands over Sean’s gunshot wound, which caused him to wince and moan in pain. “I know it hurts, hon. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” she whispered to him before closing her eyes and focusing.

            Archimedes looked on curiously as Gigi kept her hands over Sean’s wound for a few minutes; and then the extraordinary happened. The designs on the peculiar hat that she wore started to glow. A gust of wind blew into the tent, blowing out the flame that lit the lantern near Sean. With their only light source extinguished, Gigi’s glowing hat was the one thing left illuminating the darkened atmosphere. Soon it was not just her hat that glowed but her hands as well, shining over Sean’s wound. Clearly whatever Gigi was doing to him had a great affect from the way he moaned in agony.

            Porter was nearly encouraged to interfere in the supernatural healing ritual, but he was too paralyzed with amazement to do anything but watch. After minutes of healing, the glow from Gigi’s hat and hands softly dispersed, and the flame from the lantern reignited seemingly on its own, irradiating the tent once more. Gigi opened her eyes and removed her blood-soaked hands from the right side of Sean’s torso. Archimedes was shocked to discover how Sean’s gunshot wound had completely vanished; all that remained was the very skin that was once ripped apart from Clayton’s rifle. He also noticed that the young man’s fever had disappeared as well, allowing Sean to regain his normal senses and see how Gigi was sitting beside him, looking at him with teary eyes and a big smile.

(Authorial Note: Livingston was inspired by Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade for this scene, which is almost a play-by-play reenactment of the moment Indiana Jones healed his father's gunshot wound with water from the Holy Grail.)

            “Sorry I pointed a gun at you,” he dryly said.

            His words made Gigi chuckle hysterically as she leaned over to kiss his sweat-drenched forehead and rest hers over it, relieved to see him back to his old, witty self.

(UP NEXT: More intros to the Livingston family!)