Registered with WGA, This is an excerpt from The Wish Factory, an animated feature film screenplay. It is the property of The Wish Factory, Inc., an Indiana corporation, and Jana L. Shellman
INT. JR'S BEDROOM
It is late afternoon, and the winter sun can be seen streaming through the window of a nine-year-old boy's bedroom. The floor is bare save for a braided rug on which lie toy soldiers. The wallpaper is shabby and needs cleaning, but the furniture is dust-free, and the floor is clean. The bed is made, and a closet door stands open. You can see the wardrobe of a nine-year-old hanging on hangers inside. Two pairs of shoes sit on the floor of the closet, and toys spill out of boxes inside the closet. There is a toy box sitting on the floor at the end of the bed. The lid of the toy box is open. There are toys on the floor at the foot of the bed, and there are some toy soldiers on the rug.
JR (OS)
I wish you were alive, so you could be my buddy!
JR walks into his room carrying a teddy bear his mother had made of old blue jeans. The bear has a red ribbon around his neck and a red velvet heart pinned to his chest. He has a scuff on his rump, which is where the knees had worn out of the blue jeans. JR sets Threadbare Fred Bear on the end of his dresser and turns his back on him. He sits on the rug. He plays with the several toy soldiers there, and then stands up, walks over to his toy box and rummages for more toy soldiers. He is humming a tune as he carries his soldiers, and a toy tank back to the rug. He arranges his toy soldiers in a row and begins to quietly play by himself. He hums as he plays. The humming is occasionally disrupted as he makes shooting noises for the soldiers, or motor noises for the tank.
He stops moving the soldiers around and stares at them for a while. Then he gets up and goes rummaging back in his toy box. He tosses toys to one side as he rummages deeper and deeper into the toy box. He SIGHS. He stands up, puts his hands on his hips and looks into the toy box for a short space of time.
Then he turns and slowly pans his room. He stops at the window, and then walks over to the window and looks out. He gets down on his knees and puts his chin in his hands, resting his elbows on the window sill. He SIGHS again.
JR
I wish it was nice outside so I could play out there in my dirt pile. But it's going to be muddy and ugly before it gets really nice outside again.
THREADBARE FRED BEAR
If you're going to make a wish, stop unwishing it right away!
J.R. whirls around in surprise. He jumps up.He looks into the closet. Then he crosses the room and looks out into the hall. He comes back into the room and looks around. His eyes stop on the bear, and he SHAKES HIS HEAD. He walks over to the bed bends over from his waist and looks under it. Then he gets down on his hands and knees and half his body disappears under the bedspread as he looks more carefully under the bed. He crawls out from under the bed and stands up once again.
Then he walks over and picks up the bear. He turns him upside down and shakes him. Then he pokes at his back. He shakes the bear once more. He holds the bear up to his ear and shakes it again.
JR shakes his head, makes a circle around his ear, and places the bear back on the dresser. He goes back to the window and looks out. Then he goes back to the rug and sits down.
JR
I wish I had a television set in my room. But we couldn't afford to have more than one television set in the house.
THREADBARE FRED BEAR
There you go again, making a wish and immediately unwishing it! Why don't you try making a wish and giving it time to happen!
J.R. whirls around, just in time to see Fred moving! He scrambles to his feet and races over to the bear. The bear's eyes snap shut, his mouth is closed, but his arms are still moving.
He grabs Fred and shakes him. Fred's eyes snap open and look straight into J.R.'s.
JR
It was you! You are alive! But how could that happen. Toy Bears don't...
THREADBARE FRED BEAR
Stop! Don't say another word! You're going to wish the life right out of me in one more second! And stop shaking me!
J.R. stops talking as Fred burst out. He cocks his head and looks at him.
JR
What do you mean? I like you this way. I wouldn't wish for you not to be alive!
THREADBARE FRED BEAR
Yes, but you almost unwished me by saying that toy bears don't speak. Didn't you?
JR
I guess so. Boy, wait until I tell Mom!
JR heads for the hallway, dragging the bear on the floor as he goes. He bangs Fred Bear against the wall as he dashes around the corner. Fred Bear hangs onto the door, but is pulled around.
THREADBARE FRED BEAR (OS)
Wait! Stop! It won't do any good. She won't be able to hear me or see that I'm alive.
JR re-enters the room, once again bumping Fred Bear's head, as he holdshim by one arm.
THREADBARE FRED BEAR
Would you mind!? Watch where you're swinging me!
JR looks down at the bear, and carefully lifts him back under both arms. He places him back on top of the dresser. Fred Bear teeters and his eyes grow larger as he is about to fall onto the floor. JR grabs him and pats him carefully, and then pushes him back a little more so he won't fall off.
JR
Oh, Sorry. Why not? Why won't she be able to hear or see you?
THREADBARE FRED BEAR
Because grownups don't always believe that stuffed bears can talk or be alive. So they can't hear or see anything that doesn't make sense to them.
JR picks and pokes at Fred Bear as he's talking to him. Fred Bear fidgets sideways, as one would if being tickled.
THREADBARE FRED BEAR
Do you mind? That tickles.
JR looks at his hands and then at the bear, and then he puts his hand in his jeans pocket, and then takes it out of the pocket and clasps it behind his back with the other hand. He SIGHS. He walks over to the window and looks out, and then looks in the closet again. He takes a peek at the bear.
JR
Does that mean that when I'm grown up, I won't believe in you either?
Fred smiles and jumps down from the dresser. JR looks at him in surprise to see that he can walk. He has unclasped his hands, and suddenly puts his hands behind him again, and holds onto himself tightly afraid that he'll be poking and prodding at the bear again.
THREADBARE FRED BEAR
Well, sometimes children are lucky enough to grow up and remember the magical things. Most times they forget and don't believe in magic anymore at all. Lots of times they make wishes not really meaning to, and then can't understand why things have happened to them.
Other times their wishes never do come true because they haven't given them time to happen.
J.R. scratches his head and looks puzzled. He sits down on his toy chest and falls in. He pulls himself out, and then puts the lid down and sits on the toy chest once again. He shakes his head, and looks at Fred for a long time.
JR
I don't understand.
THREADBARE FRED BEAR
Maybe a trip to the Wish Factory would help you to understand. Here. Take my paw, we're going on a trip.
JR stands up and walks toward Fred Bear. Fred extends his paw toward JR. JR hesitates, and then Fred takes JR's hand in his paw, and opens the closet door and they walk in. JR looks at his clothes on hangers behind him, and at his extra shoes on the floor, and then he looks at the bear once more, still puzzled. The door closes.
INT. DARK CLOSET
There's a rosy glow in the closet that seems to be emanating from the bear. JR blinks as his eyes grow used to the darker atmosphere. Then he looks once again at the bear. Threadbare Fred Bear winks at JR.
THREADBARE FRED BEAR
Now close your eyes and count to three, 'the Wish Factory is where I want to be.’
JR closes his eyes and repeats after the bear.
JR
One, two, three The Wish Factory is where I want to be.
INT. MAGIC WISHING TUNNEL
Fred Bear and JR find themselves falling through a magical colorful tunnel-like structure. Toys whirl about inside the structure. Happy children wave at them as they fly by. Wonderful colors swirl about them. Angels and fairies fill the air around them. The colors are magical and mystical. There are stars ahead. Kittens and puppies and bunnies whirl past going in the other direction. Fluffy Teddy Bears in brown and pink are going the other direction. Diamond rings, bouquets of flowers, new cars whiz past going past Fred and JR, in the opposite direction. These are wishes that are being sent into the world. Fred and JR manage to hold onto one another and duck some of the things coming at them.
They tumble upside down as if in a free fall from a plane. Suddenly a fluffy kitten rushes into JR's hands. He is grinning as he looks at the kitten. His grin seems to be flying backward as well. His hair is flying back from his head. It looks as if he is in a tornado. He pats the kitten on the head and releases her to continue her upward trip.
Fred Bear dodges a new car as it heads rapidly towards him. He looks around for JR and grabs JR's hands once more and they dive through the upward rushing wishes and continue their free fall. They do somersault after somersault as they grow closer to the end of the tunnel. JR is laughing with glee. Below them at the end of the tunnel they see a huge brown teddy bear, wearing a blue ribbon. They fall closer and closer. They fall out of the tunnel and through the air.
EXT. GIANT TEDDY BEAR LAP IN FRONT OF WISH FACTORY
Fred Bear and JR land in the lap of a giant teddy bear. They slide off his lap onto the ground. They look up and see before them The Wish Factory.
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