home | menu | once upon a time | cast | characters | scott cohen chat | Simon's Korner | downloads | fan fun | links | get the magic | recommendations | feedback | guestbook | to the 11th Kingdom | bookmark
|
  On the eve of his coronation, young Prince Wendell White, grandson of Snow White, is lured into a trap laid by his wicked stepmother. The Queen had been imprisoned in Snow White Memorial prison years earlier, convicted of poisoning Wendell's mother, then marrying and murdering his father. The Queen was permitted to keep a dog with her in her cell, a golden retriever. Using dark magic, she cast a spell on the dog that when touched by Prince Wendell, the two would be transformed into each other's bodies. Upon a routine stop at the prison, Prince Wendell finds his evil stepmother escaped from her cell and the dog by her side. The evil Queen sent the dog jumping at Prince Wendell, magically transforming the two. Now trapped in the body of a dog, Prince Wendell ran and escaped through a magic traveling mirror in the prison cellar, transporting him into Central Park. Fleeing from the Queen, with the troll king's three children and a Wolf, now freed from prison by the Queen, hot on his heels, Wendell begins the adventure to regain his throne. When Virginia accidentally hits Wendell with her bicycle while riding through the park, she takes the friendly dog with her to work. The trolls discover her wallet, and are lead straight to Virginia's father Tony in the apartment they share. Virginia traps the trolls in the broken elevator of the building, and flees to her grandmother's penthouse. Wolf makes Tony an offer he can't refuse—six glorious wishes to use any way he chooses, and Tony tells Wolf where to find Virginia. However, Tony soon learns that wishes can be dangerous things, and is soon being pursued by the police as a suspected bank robber. Meanwhile, Virginia is horrified when Wolf tries to eat her grandmother, and Wolf is smitten by the charms of the young waitress and her ability to wield a broom. Tony uses one of his dragon dung bean wishes to communicate with Wendell, who insists upon referring to Tony as his "manservant" and that they must find the mirror and follow him if they are to survive. Fleeing back through the mirror to avoid both the police and the trolls, Virginia and her father become embroiled in an epic quest in the Nine Kingdoms to locate the traveling mirror and return home to New York where she believes she belongs.Tony and Wendell—whom Virginia affectionately calls 'Prince'—are trapped in the Snow White Memorial Prison. Virginia is captured by the trolls, who plan to torture her to reveal the location of the dog Prince. She is rescued by the newly empowered through therapy (and self-help books) Wolf, who has forsworn his oath to the queen, and instead is convinced that he is in love with Virginia.  Using Relish the Troll King's magic shoes, which grant the wearer invisibility (and also are highly addictive), Virginia and Wolf flee the trolls and trek through the Beanstalk forest back to the Prison, where Tony meets fellow inmates Acorn the Dwarf and Clayface the (prophetic) goblin. Acorn escapes the prison with the magic mirror, and Tony, Virginia and Wolf track the mirror. Wolf professes his love to Virginia, who continues to resist his advances. Tony gains the Midas' touch from a magic fish, but while trying to free Prince Wendell from the trolls' clutches, accidentally turns the poor dog into gold. The mirror's trail leads the adventurers through the Huntsman's forest where they meet a band of Romany poachers. When Virginia frees their caged magic talking birds, she is cursed by the Gypsy Queen with hair that grows longer by the second. Virginia is captured by the ruthless Huntsman, who is in service to Wendell's stepmother, the Evil Queen. With the aid of a grateful freed magic bird, Wolf and Tony win a magic axe capable of cutting her cursed hair, free Virginia and wound the Huntsman.  The Queen discovers that the dog in human form is far from ready to take Wendell's place at the coronation. Meanwhile, Relish the Troll King has decided to take the Fourth Kingdom by force, only to meet a grisly death at the hands of the Queen. The Queen is frustrated by her attempts to gain knowledge of whom Wolf is traveling with, but Virginia and Tony are hidden from her sight by unknown forces. Wolf insists that he will never betray Virginia, but as the full moon approaches, his control over his animal side begins to weaken. By the time the trio (and statuary) reach the Little Lamb Village where Acorn has traded the mirror, Wolf struggles to avoid his animal ‘cycle’. Virginia gives Wolf a long-eared rabbit for comfort while she and Tony go take a look around town. They find that the mirror is to be the prize in the Annual Little Lamb Village Beautiful Sheep and Shepherdess Competition. Tony enrolls Virginia in the competitions. Tony discovers that the town's magic wishing-well is dry because a local family, the famed Peeps, diverted its water to their own estate, using its magic to cheat their neighbors.  Using the magic well, Tony changes Wendell from gold to flesh once again, and with his help, Virginia wins the competition. She and Tony are prepared to go back to Manhattan, when Wolf is imprisoned for the murder of Sally Peep. Virginia insists on defending Wolf, who is to be burned at the stake. She is successful, when Tony and Prince ferret out the real killer, Sally's uncle Wilford Peep. They return triumphant to the barn, only to discover the cart, along with the mirror they left hidden in it, has been driven to Kissing Town by the son of their host. Following the mirror to Kissing Town, the most Romantic Town in all of the nine kingdoms, Virginia begins warming up to Wolf's advances. However, unbeknownst to the travelers, the wounded Huntsman is still hot on their trail. When the mirror is sold to an auction house and estimated at 5,000 gold Wendells (the coin of the realm), Virginia, Tony, Wolf and Wendell enter the ‘Lucky in Love’ casino with hopes of winning the money needed to win the mirror back.  Wolf is heartbroken at the prospect of Virginia going back to her world and leaving him behind forever if winning the mirror at the auction. But determined to do the right thing, after winning the Jack Rabbit Jackpot of 10,000 gold Wendells, he gives Virginia half of the money. However, carried away by the enchantment of the town he spends the money on an extravagant romantic evening for two and an expensive singing engagement ring. Thus, leaving him Wendell-less.  Wendell lucks out and nets half of a woman's gambling winnings—the 5,000 Wendells Tony and Virginia needs—but the Huntsman arrives at the auction at the last second and wins the mirror for 10,000 Wendells (the very amount Wolf won and spent). Virginia is briefly cheered by Wolf’s romantic carriage ride, flowers, music and dinner before finally sharing a chaste but passionate kiss. Then Virginia learns that he spent the money that she could have used to return home with.  Virginia flees in anger, a crushed Wolf flings the singing engagement ring into the river and returns to the Queen's service. Meanwhile, the Huntsman threatens to destroy the mirror if Tony doesn't give him Wendell. Tony and Wendell form a plan to steal it—Tony sneaks up to where the mirror is hidden, while Wendell lures the Huntsman away. But the plan is spoiled when Tony shatters the mirror - cursing him with seven years of phenomenally bad luck. Wendell is soon captured and returned to the Evil Queen. Virginia and Tony learn from the mirror fragments that it was made by the Dwarves of Dragon Mountain and set off in the hopes that another traveling mirror exists. They discover that the mirror has a twin—one of the five magic mirrors that belong to Snow White's evil stepmother, and are now in the possession of Wendell's stepmother, the Queen. Tony's bad luck holds, as he accidentally shatters dozens of magic mirrors in the Dragon Mountain archives and is then almost killed during their flight from the angry dwarves. Virginia has an unexpected encounter with Snow White—who walked into the snow when Wendell was a child and is now Virginia's Fairy Godmother. She heals Tony's broken body and cures him of his bad luck. She presents Virginia with a tiny hand-held mirror and a clue how to defeat the Queen—Virginia must get the poison comb that Snow White's stepmother tried to kill her with. The Queen will use poison to kill, and can be killed by poison. Virginia rescues her father from the Huntsman and exits the mountain. Virginia holds up the mirror Snow White gave her and gazes into it. Both she and Tony are shocked to discover that the Queen is none other than Tony's wife—and Virginia's mother—Christine, who abandoned them when Virginia was seven years old. Snow White's evil stepmother was made to dance at Snow White's wedding to Prince Charming in iron shoes heated over the coals of the fire. Dragging her useless feet into the swamp, the Queen became known as the Swamp Witch. Using her magic mirrors, she searched for a successor to carry out her revenge upon the house of White. She called to the mentally unstable Christine Lewis in Manhattan, who then ventured through the mirror into the Nine Kingdoms becoming the instrument of her revenge. Christine—now the Evil Queen—intends to kill all the regents, Kings and Queens attending Wendell's coronation and take control over all the Nine Kingdoms. Shaken by the discovery that Christine is alive and in the Nine Kingdoms, Tony and Virginia are separated in the magic swamp where Virginia finds the poisoned comb in the hands of the Swamp Witch's rotted corpse.  Drugged by eating magic mushrooms and drinking swamp water, both Virginia and Tony are almost killed by living vines when they are rescued by Wolf—who has ostensibly tracked them since Kissing Town. Virginia apologizes to Wolf for rejecting him, and tells him that the Queen is her mother, only to learn Wolf has known that from the moment they met. They confess their love for one another and in the woods at the edge of Prince Wendell's Palace, play Hide and Seek (among other games).
 Sneaking into Wendell's Palace, they are captured by the Huntsman and the Queen. Wolf reveals that he was an agent of the Queen, and Virginia tries to reach her mother, only to discover that her mother had tried to drown her as a child. Virginia had blocked the memory, and Tony had thought it best to let Virginia remember Christine as a caring and devoted mother. Armed with the truth, Virginia and Tony escape the dungeon (with the help of Josef and Wilhelm Grimm and some German-speaking mice).
 Meanwhile, the dog prince is reluctantly succeeding to pass himself off as Wendell during the coronation. Managing to fool even, the now over 200 year old, Cinderella.  What he does not know, however, is that the wine given to the guests for the final toast is laced with the deadliest poison in the realm. All assembled fall down—dead, and the Queen gloats as she surveys her handiwork. While Tony fights off the trolls, Virginia faces her mother. When the Huntsman prepares to fire a magic crossbow at Virginia, Wolf once again leaps to her rescue. The Huntsman is killed, and the Queen tries one last time to kill Virginia, who scratches her with the teeth of the poisoned comb. Horrified at what she has done, Virginia cradles her mother's body as she dies. Christine manages to recognize Virginia, and with her dying breath, tells her daughter that she had loved her. As Virginia weeps over her mother's body, the poisoned guests begin to awaken—Wolf reveals that he had replaced the poison with a pinch of troll dust, and had in fact had never been in the Queen's thrall.  Wendell and the dog prince resume their proper shapes, and the coronation goes ahead as planned. The travelers are rewarded, Virginia manages to forgive herself and bids her mother a final farewell, and dinner brings two surprises—Wolf's singing engagement ring is found inside her main course, and Wolf informs her that she has to accept—because the baby growing inside her will need a father.
 Virginia and Wolf return through the mirror to the 10th kingdom (Manhattan), expressing Virginia's thoughts of their journey..."I'd like to say that Wolf and I lived happily ever after, but our lives were almost immediately interrupted by another crisis in the kingdoms. That's not this story.. this story is done. And when you live every day with all your heart then you can be happy ever after.. even if it's only a short time.
My name is Virginia.. and I live on the edge of the forest. And this is the end of the first book of The 10th Kingdom." ~ Virginia |
nce upon a time, on one side of a magic traveling mirror, a mother almost killed her child and fled into a storm. On the other side of the mirror, a dark Queen found a successor.
top
