Thursday, October 23, 2008

The Whiz Kid and the Carnival Caper

Adapted from a two-part 1975 WONDERFUL WORLD OF DISNEY episode, this paperback tells the tale of the Fernald siblings, Alvin and Daffy, who with their friends help Professor Dimitrik build a monster for the Riverton Carnival. Only things get complicated, as they often do in Disney TV plots - and the kids get involved in a bank robbery, a car chase and a shoot out! Who will save the day? How about the professor's creature - the WANGDOODLE MONSTER? (I'm not making this up).I bought this book when I was in the 5th grade and I remember thinking how cool the cover was. From the great Tinker Bell Disney TV logo on the top to the realistic painting of Alvin about to get mauled by the Frankenstein-like creature. I still think the cover is pretty cool - and I'd love to see the TV-movie again just to re-live those innocent times when a teen boy detective could help a creepy professor build a man named Wangdoodle and no one would bat an eye.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I believe Jaclyn Smith was in that movie.

Anonymous said...

Just wanted to drop you a line and say that I had the exact same book when I was a kid, with the exact same cover except that the title was the extremely misleading FRANKENSTEIN AND THE WHIZ KID. Great story, as were the real Alvin Fernald books which include Alvin's Swap Shop, Alvin's Secret Code, and Alvin Fernald, Foreign Trader (I read them all). I just got a copy of the Disney TV movie on DVD-R, but have yet to watch it. It's supposed to be a good quality copy; can't wait to watch this for the first time in 30 years!!! Incidentally, the professor's name is Debney, not Dimitryk, despite what the book's back cover says.

Keep up the good work,

Jeff