Plotting Out "Destiny's Deceit" (Disney musical)
Check out the full "Resurgence Era (Part III)" post here!
Background
While Disney has made several recent films with a male lead, they've had concerns that they weren't "masculine" enough to fully take advantage of the male/young adult market, and accept a proposal for a video game-inspired film. Unlike "Wreck-It-Ralph," which is fairly cartoon-y and self-aware that the characters are in games, "Destiny's Deceit" is made to be immersive, like watching the cutscenes of a video game strewn together perfectly. Disney takes advantage from several franchises and games, notably "Lies of P," "Dragon Age," "Baldur's Gate 3," and "Final Fantasy." Wanting to make sure the correct tone is captured, they hire Neil Gaiman to write and direct the film. They also prioritize a 3D animation style (wanting it to look as realistic as possible) that takes influence from the anime "Gankutsuo," along with taking influence from the Baroque Period and the Capital from "The Hunger Games" to build the world and character designs. The idea for making it a musical comes off as kind of a surprise, but an impassioned speech about the relationship between music and video games gets Disney to reconsider, eventually deciding to have the voice actors sing, but the characters themselves won't, with the film being referred to as a "mental musical" since the songs represent what the character's going through, and Disney recommends against having any "fun" songs to keep the atmosphere dark. Florence Welch is hired to make the songs after the success of Aurora on "Origins," [see end of post] and Darren Korb is brought on as the composer. Wanting to keep a fantasy element, the protagonist is given powers, though given the fact that he is an amnesiac fighting against darkness, a similar premise to "Kingdom Hearts II," they change his ability from light summoning and manipulation to teleportation and make him a skilled archer.
Plot
Aristotle can't remember how he got in Iliad, a mysterious city where the sun never shines. The moment he gets to the heart of the city, he is attacked by mysterious demons and wakes up on the outskirts once more. Confused about what's going on and speaking to some of the frightened locals, he decides to find the Mastermind, a mysterious figure who may hold the secret to unlocking his memories. He just has to survive the monsters, both unnatural and human, in order to find them.
Characters
(As usual, this is not a comprehensive list of characters by any stretch of the imagination, but the main players you need to know. The images below would serve as inspiration for the characters' designs and/or personalities)
Aristotle--A young man with the ability to teleport, he finds this ability rather useful when traversing the treacherous city of Iliad. He can't remember anything of his past, and the suspicious nature of the city makes him hesitant to trust others. But for better or worse, he knows he has to, and hopes the Mastermind can give him some insight.
Juniper--The de facto ruler of Iliad, and intent on keeping it that way. She's also Aristotle's mother, and the moment she finds out he's in the city, she's intent on keeping him out. She's...complicated. As soon as she realizes he has amnesia, she uses him as a pawn to help her find the Mastermind, who she plans to kill in order to cement her position as Iliad's sovereign.
Songs
Nightmare--Aristotle wakes up on the outskirts of Iliad, a large island nation that is shrouded in darkness. He quickly finds that it's inhabitants are not only shifty, but live in constant fear of the creatures of shadow that walk the streets.
Go Away--While encountering his first swarm of demons, Aristotle is astounded to learn that he can teleport. Finding a pristine bow and a few arrows, he manages to (somehow) defeat the monsters that cornered him.
Find Me--With some help, Aristotle learns of the Mastermind, a person of great knowledge who remains hidden in the city to avoid the watchful eye of Juniper, the "leader" of Iliad. It's unknown why, or whether or not they can help restore Aristotle's memory, but they're the best lead he has.
Strong Enough--While Aristotle tries to find the Mastermind, Juniper observes him via spy gadget, "talking" to him and telling him that he's not capable of finding the mysterious figure, partially because he can't even remember who he is. But she becomes increasingly enraged because she can't find the Mastermind either, so what does that say about her?
Echo--His memories slowly reforming, Aristotle turns his attention to Juniper, realizing that to regain all his memories, he needs to defeat her and get answers from her.
Lemme know what you think! As usual, I'll probably tweak this later. And if you haven't seen it already, I made a post asking about some of this era's ideas and how you'd feel about me removing/replacing some of them. Check it out! I may pause the posts since most of what I have left are the ideas I'm mulling over.
