Into the Unknown

Hidden References

Lion King references:

#1: The hyenas, Shenzi, Banzai and Ed, are not only characters from that very film, but they reuse a lot of their dialogue from the film, and sometimes change it up a bit to make it fit in with the story.

#2. The scenes on the boat, the rhino bumping the Ferrari, the wildebeest stampede, the bats in the cave, and the hyenas chasing Sam, Ferris, Sloane and Cameron are all reenacted moments from Timon and Pumbaa's Virtual Safari game that you find on the special edition of "The Lion King".

#3. When Banzai calls Cameron a French fry and it grows in climax until Cameron figuratively explodes, Cameron unknowingly reenacted the "Mr Pig" scene where Pumbaa gets offended for being called a pig.

#4. There's a moment where Cameron says "Hyenas. I hate hyenas". Those are the exact same words Timon says when he sees the hyenas for the first time.

#5. In his actual movie, Ferris is played by Matthew Broderick who also did the voice for Simba in the "Lion King" movie who doesn't appear in this book, but it still connects.

FROZEN references:

#1. When Sam sings her song, she's singing the exact same song that Elsa sings in FROZEN ll.

#2. When the teens are trapped under the waterfall, Ferris tells Sam he could use a bright side. That's the same line Anna says to Olaf when she finds out what the next right thing is in FROZEN ll.

#3. When Ferris and Sam pick up Cameron and Sloane, Ferris wakes Sloane up the same way young Anna wakes young Elsa in the beginning of the first FROZEN.

#4. When the teens are stuck under the waterfall, Cameron asks where they are and Sloane says "in a pit with no way out".  When Olaf asks that question in FROZEN ll, Anna says the exact same thing.

Peter Pan references

#1. Sam uses pixie dust on Ferris, Sloane and Cameron. That's exactly what Peter Pan does when the Darling children learn to fly.

#2. This is actually a reference to "Tinker Bell". In the third film of the franchise, when the fairies find a muddy road, Rosetta says "I guess we need to find a bridge". Sam says that very line when the teens first arrive at the river.

#3. When the friends fly up the waterfall, it plays out very much like the moment from Return to Never Land where Peter Pan flies Wendy's daughter Jane up a waterfall and they run their hands through a rainbow.

#4. When Ferris says that they're almost to where he needs to go, Sam says "We 're sailing now". That's the same line that Captain Hook says when he first steers the flying ship in the prequel to the Peter Pan film, "Pan".

#5. It's implied that Sam is related to Peter Pan himself considering her last name is also Pan and she constantly wears green and can fly herself. It also becomes obvious that Peter is her brother because Sam describes her brother as a good sword fighter that fights pirates. Also, Sam says she hardly ever sees her brother again and Peter almost never leaves Never Land.

Ferris Bueller's Day Off references

#1. Ferris, Sloane and Cameron are the main stars alongside Sam.

#2. Cameron introduces the Ferrari here the same way he does in the movie.

#3. In the movie, Ferris is known to be a fan of the Beatles as he quotes John, jokes about "I am the Walrus" and lip-syncs "Twist and Shout". That spirit is kept here as he tells Ringo he loves his work and loves Sam for being friends with the Beatles. 

#4. In the first scene with Sam, she's talking with Ferris's sister, Jeanie in the hallway. They have the same conversation as the one Jeanie has with the girl who says Ferris is giving his eyes to Stevie Wonder except Sam changes it to giving his eyes to John Lennon.

#5. It is revealed that the kids go to school with Ferris.

#6. The kids are known to believe that Ferris is sick but then Ferris reveals to Sam that he isn't. That keeps the movie's spirit very much alive.

Bunk'd references

#1. Calvin promises Sam that he won't tell anyone that Ferris isn't sick by saying "my lips are sealed tighter than that time Charles Wallace fell face first into a sewing machine". In "Bunk'd" Lou says the exact same thing when she promises an author to not tell anyone about her top secret basement room.

#2. Charles Wallace says to Sam that he "earned a solid reputation as a huge liar". Jorge says that when he promises to not talk about the top secret room in the same episode.

Other references

#1. after the teens fall down the waterfall, Sam says "Paul always said don't go jumping waterfalls". The line "Don't go jumping waterfalls" is actually a lyric from Paul's song Waterfalls on his solo album McCartney ll.

#2. Calvin, Meg and Charles Wallace are actually characters from the Disney film and classic novel "A Wrinkle in Time".

#3. GOOFY SCREAM! It might not have been written in, but Sam does the Goofy yell when the boat falls down the waterfall and when the Ferrari fall into the ditch.

#4. Sam says that Ferris reminds her of and looks a little bit like a producer she knows. She's referring to one of the main stars of the 2005 film "The Producers", Leo Bloom, who is also portrayed by Matthew Broderick.

#5. In the reunion scene, John and Ringo talk about the fact that Ringo is alive. They say the same lines that Slinky and Woody say when the toys reunite in Toy Story 3. 

#6. The condition that Ferris has, though entirely made up, was inspired by a line that @BrittanyMakayla used in her story "Their Best Day Off Yet". The line being "my gut is telling me something is wrong".

#7. When the teens are under the waterfall, Cameron says "I can't believe we're alive". That's the same line that Budderball says in "Snow Buddies" right after the delivery package lands in Alaska.

#8. Sam often uses slang that Goofy uses. For example, she often delivers the line "Gawrsh".

#9. The title of Chapter 9 is "Rhinos and Wildebeests and Bats! Oh my!". That's actually a parody of the "Lions and Tigers and Bears! Oh my!" scene in the Wizard of Oz movie.

#10. As was Leo Bloom mentioned, his partner, Max Bialystock was straight-up mentioned by Sam without just simply referring to him. Sam says that Bialystock, along with Bloom, produced the Beatles on Broadway. 

And that's all the references there are in this book. 

There's a ton, huh?

I hope you enjoyed this book as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Peace and love, 

Sammy