FLIGHT SCHOOL
* Synopsis *

PROLOGUE

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A ferocious forest fire is raging across a pine-covered peninsula.

 

Since time immemorial, Peaceful Peninsula has been home to Meridian’s marmels. These forest-dwelling furballs – part-marmot, part-squirrel, and usually all-smiles – are in a blind panic right now as their beloved homeland goes up in flames.

 

To escape the advancing wildfire, the marmels flee across Amity Arch, a rocky archway that connects the peninsula to Meridian’s mainland. Then, from high up on Rumble Ridge, they are witness to an aerial miracle: a water bomber aircraft has suddenly appeared through the smoke. The firefighting airplane splashes his load of sea water onto the flames, then refills his tanks on the ocean surface and continues his brave battle. Maybe the marmels' homeland can be saved after all!

 

The marmels are still watching, horrified, as the water bomber crash-lands at the local airfield as he comes in to refuel. The aircraft is damaged beyond repair, and what becomes known as the Great Fire goes on to consume every last tree on Peaceful Peninsula.

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ACT I

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6 months have passed, and today is a big day for Meridian’s littlest airplanes: it’s their very first day of Flight School!

 

As part of the welcome ceremony for the incoming class, a shiny new jet plane does a screaming low-pass overhead. “That is what success looks like!”, the intimidating PRINCIPAL PISTON barks at his awe-struck audience. ALEA couldn’t agree more, for she - like every little airplane - has a dream: to grow up to be a big jet plane.

 

The glamour and excitement of  jet plane life certainly appeal to Alea, and her father often told her that his biggest dream was for her to become a big jet plane - but her ambitions are driven by something altogether more compelling. She has no memories of her mother, and her father mysteriously disappeared during a recent unscheduled flight. By becoming a big jet plane and flying far beyond Meridian, Alea desperately hopes to find her parents… or at least find out what happened to them.

 

Deep down, Alea harbours a dream far bigger - though also far more improbable - than any: to one day see her parents reunited.

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For young airplanes, the path to success is clear - but it is far from easy. Success means doing well enough at Flight School to be accepted into the prestigious Aero Academy. It then means graduating from Aero Academy, whereupon a successful airplane will earn its jet engines, and go on to enjoy an enviable life as a globetrotting jet airliner. Those airplanes who fail to get into Aero Academy will be forever stuck with propeller engines, and will only ever be able to fly locally as humble turboprops. Alea promises herself that she will work harder than any other student airplane so that she can get into Aero Academy, and thereby make her dreams come true.

 

Flight School is located on the grounds of one of Meridian’s local airfields, which are home to it turboprops. Meridian also boasts a bustling international airport, which is home to its big jet planes. Meridian itself is a wonderworld of lush pine forest, imposing mountains, and rugged shores - a Pacific Northwest on eco-steroids sort of landscape. Peaceful Peninsula - with its once-thriving old-growth forest ecosystem that is now only charred wasteland - is a celebrated feature of Meridian’s coastline.

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The Great Fire forced the marmels to abandon their beloved peninsula and reluctantly relocate to the Foggy Forest. Their new 'home' may be the largest forest on mainland Meridian, but its trees are less majestic and its pine nuts less tasty than those on Peaceful Peninsula. More alarmingly, the Foggy Forest sits between one of Meridian's local airfields and its international airport; this is a grave problem for the marmels because noise is their worst enemy.

 

Exposure to loud noise immediately makes a marmel go stiff, lose consciousness, and topple over. The loudest of noises can even be fatal to them. Avoiding sources of noise is literally a matter of life or death for marmels. No surprise then that they're brought up to greatly fear airplanes and airports.

 

The marmels also have a dream: to go back to living on their beloved Peaceful Peninsula. But since they can only survive in abundant mature forests, they know this dream can only become a reality after the peninsula's trees have returned.

 

With school underway, kindhearted Alea makes new friends quickly. She also becomes friendly with CAPTAIN MOODY, the old water bomber who crash-landed at the local airfield while fighting the Great Fire. The damage he sustained on the underside of his fuselage put an end to his firefighting career, and he has sat idle and disgruntled in the same spot on the airfield’s grounds ever since. Captain Moody – who had been good friends with Alea’s father prior to the latter's disappearance – becomes a mentor and father-figure to young Alea, whose hard work and positive attitude at school impress him.

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One evening, a brave marmel called MARCEL approaches a visibly downcast Alea in her hangar, and the two start talking. Alea tells Marcel about ILAN, the father whom she misses so much and whose voice she would give anything to hear again. She shows Marcel a poster of her father, in his spectacular Meridian Air Cargo colours. Marcel then tells Alea about his little brother MADDOX, who's different from all other marmels in two ways: he loves all things aviation, and he’s the only deaf marmel in all of Meridian. Sadly, his quirky passion and hearing loss make him a target for bullies.

 

Learning abilities and skill levels may vary among the young airplanes, but all have now hit an important early Flight School milestone: they've earned their wings! As they continue to learn progressively more advanced skills, every little airplane at least occasionally experiences a spectacular failure on their sometimes-bumpy educational journey. Principal Piston mocks them for any such shortcomings, but Captain Moody – always watching on from the sidelines – reassures them that learning from failure is a key part of growth.

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Alea remains steadfast in her commitment to becoming a big jet plane. Thanks to her solid performance and positive attitude at school, and despite having no family or relatives to give her application a boost, she is confident that she’ll be accepted into Aero Academy. Nevertheless, it's with a profound sense of shock that she learns on Decision Day that she has not been awarded a place – unlike some of her less capable but better-connected peers.

 

Heartbroken and convinced she's a failure, Alea reluctantly begins her career as a local turboprop. Captain Moody does his best to provide comfort, but her deep disappointment lingers. A proud and determined Alea refuses to give up on her dream; she promises Captain Moody that she will somehow find a way to still become a big jet plane.

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ACT II

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The local airfield operates only during the day, so it is still and quiet after sundown. Taking advantage of this, a small group of curious marmels – led by the intrepid Marcel – starts to make regular visits to the airfield at dusk.

 

Over time, the marmels overcome their fear of airplanes and build a solid friendship with Alea and her local turboprop friends. During one evening visit to the airfield, the marmels complain that the Foggy Forest provides no suitable place for them to store their precious pine nuts. Upon hearing this, Alea has an idea: why don't they use Captain Moody's neglected water tank to store their nuts? The idea meets with unanimous approval, and the marmels immediately begin to make daily nut deposits into Captain Moody's fuselage.

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A short time later, Alea has another idea - this one to help accelerate regrowth on Peaceful Peninsula. It also garners strong support. She suggests that Captain Moody drop some of the stored nuts over the marmels’ homeland, directly through the cracks and holes in his damaged underbelly. Surely this would help new trees to grow back faster? "Operation Marmelaide" soon goes ahead, and a delighted Captain Moody finally has a reason to take to the air again.

 

The nuts dropped by Captain Moody quickly grow into healthy saplings, and the damaged old water bomber is infused with a new sense of purpose. Still, the marmels know it will be a very long time before the saplings will have grown into full-size pine trees.

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Alea, meanwhile, continues to study hard in her spare time, doing everything she can to advance her flight skills. She applies to Aero Academy again, more confident than ever of getting in - but once again, she is rejected. Her heart in pieces, she gives up on her dream of becoming a big jet plane… and of ever finding her parents.

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Way over in the foothills of Meridian’s highest mountain, Mount Malabar, Marcel is out collecting pine nuts when he spots an unusual red object bobbing at the edge of the Raging River. With no idea what it could be, the curious marmel decides to take the object with him to see if the airplanes can identify it. They certainly can: it’s a fire extinguisher. How and why it ended up in the river is anyone’s guess. Marcel keeps it in case it might come in useful one day.

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One dark and foggy night, in the midst of atrocious flying conditions, there’s an emergency in the skies above Meridian: a big jet plane is lost in the fog and is quickly running out of fuel. While the rest of Meridian's aviation community does nothing more than pray for a positive outcome, Alea surprises everyone by firing up her propellers. Ignoring rules that prohibit turboprops from flying at night, and making use of all her skills and bravery, she manages to locate the lost plane and guide it onto terra firma for a safe landing.

 

As an unexpected reward for her actions, Alea is offered a job as a big jet plane - without even needing to attend Aero Academy first! She moves to the international airport, where she is given a brand-new pair of jet engines to power her new life as a bona fide commercial big jet plane. Alea is overjoyed. Her dream has finally come true!

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In the high-brow world of big jets, an airliner is identified not by its name but by its official callsign - Alea is hence now known as “ME-236”. She has been given a role with Meridian's most well-regarded airline, which is owned by the seemingly ubiquitous AvCorp. Alea is loving everything about life as a big jet plane, and not surprisingly, she quickly makes new friends at the international airport.

 

One of Alea's new friends is a wise and kindly older jumbo jet who goes by the callsign "CA-009". CA-009 is based in a far-off land, but she makes regular flights to Meridian. She's known to be an opinionated airliner who is prone to the odd bit of cynicism. Case in point: having seen pictures of decommissioned jets resting in the sand, most airplanes believe that a cushy retirement at the beach awaits them. CA-009, on the other hand, claims the sand is actually part of a vast desert, where unwanted jets are left to die a slow death in the sun, or are ripped to shreds by the jaws of MEAN METAL MACHINES. CA-009 is to be retired soon, and she assures Alea that she’ll be going out on her own terms.

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Alea is shocked one day to learn that a second runway is going to be built at the international airport. It’s immediately clear to her that this will spell disaster for the marmels: the new runway will replace much of the Foggy Forest, and what remains of it will be uninhabitable to them due to the constant noise of overflying jets. The clock is now well and truly ticking for her friends, the marmels: they must urgently return to Peaceful Peninsula, or there will be nowhere left for them to live.

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A storm is brewing as the marmels nervously ponder their future, so they shelter deep in their burrows to avoid the potentially life-threatening noise of thunder. Once the storm has passed, it’s a different mortal danger theyare faced with: a nearby pine tree has been set ablaze by a lightning strike. The start of another devastating forest fire?! Not this time... Marcel springs into action and kills the flames with his fire extinguisher. The marmels breathe a collective sigh of relief, and all wish for the same thing: that they could somehow get their paws on more of these life-saving devices.

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Alea is enjoying life as a big jet plane. Now that much of the novelty has worn off though, she realizes just how difficult and demanding the job really is. It’s not the flying that’s difficult; that’s the easy – even boring – part actually, since so much of it is automated. Rather, it’s the long hours and the pressure and stress that are starting to get to her. It's also the lack of job security, as she's come to realize how often big jet planes are bought and sold by different airlines, not to mention mothballed or decommissioned. Alea also wishes she had more time to rest, to spend with her friends, to enjoy life. That’s just the price to pay for the glamour and excitement of international jet plane life, she reminds herself.

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Vast areas of the Foggy Forest are now being cleared by AvCorp's Mean Metal Machines to make space for the new runway. The scale of destruction send a shockwave through the marmel community. Their current home is disappearing in front of their very eyes! Where will they go if the Foggy Forest become uninhabitable before a return to Peaceful Peninsula is possible?!

 

A new idea to accelerate regrowth on Peaceful Peninsula then comes from an unexpected source. MONTY the hot air balloon - a friend of the local airplanes who’s been hired to advertise the forthcoming runway opening - suggests digging the trees out whole rather than chopping them down, then transporting them across to the peninsula to be replanted there. All agree that the idea sounds great in theory, but no one can figure out how or even if such a plan could be implemented in practice.

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After failing to find any sort of solution, the airplanes and marmels know there's only one option left: to ask Alea - the brains behind the original Operation Marmelaide - whether she can figure out a way to make it work. Alea, however, is now based at the international airport, which is a 24/7 hive of ear-splitting activity. If the local airplanes don't fly there and the noise makes it a no-go for the marmels, then how on earth can her input be sought?

 

There's only one hero for this job: Maddox! Meridian's only deaf marmel treks off to the bustling international airport in search of Alea. Locating her in amongst all the similar-looking jets proves much harder than he ever imagined though. However, after a Mission Impossible-style adventure around the airport grounds, and thanks to a small gift he himself made to Alea a long time ago, a relieved Maddox is eventually able to find her.

 

To no one's surprise, the resourceful Alea comes up with a workable solution, and "Operation Marmelaide Part 2" immediately gets underway. The marmels set about digging large holes across the length and breadth of Peaceful Peninsula, while the Now-Friendly Metal Machines go from savagely ripping down the Foggy Forest's trees to gently digging them out whole. In the next stage of the operation, DOC HOPPER the rescue chopper hauls the trees - roots and all - across to the peninsula, where Maddox awaits alone. Unphased by the noise of the chopper, the deaf marmel guides the trees one-by-one into the holes previously dug by all the marmels. Maddox's disability once again proves to be his superpower.

 

Alea's plan is carried out flawlessly, and mature trees are finally back on Peaceful Peninsula. If the transplanted trees take to their new environment, then the marmels will very soon be able to go home.

 

Over time, Alea becomes increasingly conflicted about her role as a big jet plane. It’s clear to her that the prestige of the job comes at a high cost: she barely has any time off; she’s often away from home; AvCorp's excessive focus on profits and on growth – sometimes at the expense of safety and airplane wellbeing – troubles her greatly; and her colleagues are all so serious and corporate and so… similar to each other. This isn’t what she thought success would look or feel like.

 

Alea misses her happy and diverse group of local airfield friends, she misses the marmels, and she misses the simpler, quieter life she once led at the local airfield. Worse, she’s failed to learn anything at all about her parents; wasn’t that, after all, one of the main reasons she’d worked so hard to become a big jet plane?

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Alea hits rock bottom when she learns that a piece of her father’s tailplane has been found washed up on Meridian’s coast, near the mouth of the Raging River. The conclusion is as bleak as it is inescapable: her beloved papi must have crashed in the ocean on his fateful last flight. A devastated Alea knows she will never hear his voice again.

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As she questions herself and ponders her future, Alea faces the most difficult decision of her career: should she stick it out as a big jet plane... even if that means living a life that doesn't make her happy? Or should she listen to her heart and go back to being a local turboprop… even if others might see that as an embarrassing failure? The problem: no airplane has ever gone from being a big jet plane to a turboprop before. "Why would they?!", some of Alea's jet plane peers ask mockingly.

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Alea decides to seek input for this critical decision from her wise old friend CA-009, who gives her a figurative push in a clear direction. This helps Alea to make the bold and indeed unprecedented decision to return to her former life. A big jet plane can't land on the airfield's short runway however, so a creative solution to getting back must be found. Fortunately, CA-009 is also on hand when Alea abandons her jet engines in the maintenance hanger and needs a literal push to get airborne, and to get 'home'. CA-009's actions could land her in trouble, but she's not bothered; after all, she's about to be retired. She cares a lot more that her protégée is headed back to her happy place.

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ACT III

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Alea is delighted to be sporting turboprop engines and flying locally once again. To honour her father's memory, she opts to fly as a cargo plane. She also volunteers alongside Doc Hopper in the local Search & Rescue team. Alea's career path may have been more squiggly line than straight line, but it has brought her here, and this is where her happiness is. Alea finally feels like a success.

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Captain Moody has nothing but admiration for Alea. He makes sure the other airplanes - and the marmels too - understand the her success is the result of her being courageous, learning new skills, embracing her curiosity, learning from her mistakes, working tirelessly... and following her heart. She is a role model to them all.

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The marmels are also over the moon: the trees transplanted to Peaceful Peninsula are thriving, and a healthy forest cover has returned to their homeland. Finally, they can now go home too… and with no time to spare before the new runway opens just two days later. A big storm is blowing in however, so the marmels decide to wait it out and head home the next day.

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The storm turns out to be worse than any in recorded marmel history. Its winds have blown Doc Hopper over and his rotors have snapped, while debris is strewn around the airfield's grounds and beyond. To their horror, the marmels discover that Amity Arch – the rocky archway connecting Peaceful Peninsula to Meridian’s mainland – has collapsed into the ocean. The storm has turned the peninsula into an island, and the marmels are stuck on the very wrong side of an impassable gap...

 

... and no one needs reminding that the new runway opens the very next day.

 

Even if Doc Hopper were operational, it would be impossible for him to transport the marmels due to all the noise he makes. The airfield's airplanes may still be operational, but they too make far too much noise - and anyway, there are no runways anywhere on Peaceful Peninsula. With no way of making it home, the marmels' fate looks sealed.

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The storm has also ripped Monty from his tethering, and he is nowhere to be found. With Doc Hopper out of action and the international airport’s rescue crew refusing to get involved for a mere hot air balloon, Alea flies off to search for her friend Monty. She eventually spots his colourful canopy lying torn on the snowy upper slopes of Mount Malabar, but she’s unable to rescue him alone.

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Back at the airfield, the marmels are in a blind panic. Where can they go now?! That's when Ellis - the brilliant former classmate of Alea’s - makes a sudden and unexpected visit to the airfield. ELLIS is an experimental electric airplane who flies in silence and can land and take off vertically - so she has the critical attributes needed for marmel transport!

 

The marmels' airborne repatriation - a.k.a. Operation Marmelaide Part 3 - begins without delay. It takes her a few return trips, but Ellis seamlessly flies all the marmels home... all except for Marcel and Maddox, that is. The brothers have selflessly volunteered to stay behind in order to attempt to rescue the stranded Monty; they must get home before sundown, however, as the new runway opens tomorrow morning.

 

Marcel and Maddox trek up Mount Malabar in treacherous conditions, suffering through the deep snow and high altitude. The pair eventually reach the barely-alive hot air balloon, place his damaged canopy into his basket, and hop into the basket themselves to slide down through the snow. They've accomplished their mission, and they too must now head home. 

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As they descend the mountain, Marcel and Maddox come across a strange sight: numerous fire extinguishers lie half-buried in the snow, each attached to a piece of folded fabric. Nearby, close to where the Raging River begins, they discover the wreckage of an old cargo airplane. As soon as he notices the airplane's livery, Marcel understands whose final resting place they have happened upon: Alea’s father, ILAN's.

 

Maddox retrieves Ilan’s Cockpit Voice Recorder, and the two load the precious fire extinguishers into Monty’s basket. They seek to get moving again, but realize there’s a problem: Mount Malabar’s snowfields end here, and Monty’s fully-loaded basket is too heavy for them to carry all the way down. Their only solution: to ride the basket down the Raging River.

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After their whitewater adventure and with a little help from SPLASH the seaplane for the journey’s last mile, the brothers finally make it back to the airfield. They solemnly hand the CVR over to Alea, who, against all odds, finally gets to hear her father’s voice again. In his dying message to his daughter, Ilan reveals that he crashed while on the return leg of a special mission he undertook in secret. He had been returning with a cargo of fire extinguishers for the marmels to use against the terrible fire that was consuming their homeland at the time.

 

In the same message, Ilan tells Alea about her mother, AIYANNA. He reveals the heartbreaking reason why he and Aiyanna couldn’t be together. He was a turboprop from a humble background, she was a big jet plane from an influential one, and their families - as well as the wider community in the distant land they called home at the time - refused to accept their love. When Alea came along, Aiyanna was forced to flee alone and break off contact with her family, in order to protect her daughter's life. Ilan was ostracized by his community and, refusing to remain in a land that looked down on his family, he sought refuge in a land of hope. That land was called Meridian. Ilan and Aiyanna never saw each other again.

 

As his CVR message comes to a breathless close, Ilan reminds Alea of his biggest wish: that she grow up to be a big jet plane. Alea wonders whether he'd be proud of her or not, until Ilan explains why this had always been his dream: so that Alea might one day find her mother, and that the two could finally get to know each other.

 

Alea is still processing her father's message when she suddenly realizes something extraordinary. Could it be?! The details Ilan shared about her mother, about her features and traits, make it inescapable: her mother was none other than her older jet plane friend CA-009!

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Alea finally has the answers she's been seeking for so long. However, CA-009 has already left for retirement. She will never see her mother again. Her mother will never know what became of Ilan, nor of her daughter. Alea may have answers, but this outcome brings her little joy. If only she could still have some time with her mother...

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Following their successful rescue mission, and with their precious cargo of fire extinguishers in tow, it's finally Marcel and Maddox’s turn to board Ellis and to return home. There's a big problem however: this time, the innovative electric airplane fails to get airborne. Ellis has run out of juice! And there's no recharging station anywhere in Meridian.

 

The new runway begins operations tomorrow, and the marmel brothers have no viable alternative to get home. This time, they look well and truly doomed.

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Maddox then surprises everyone when he claims to have a solution to their desperate predicament. The aviation-mad marmel gathers up some seemingly random storm-damaged items, including a few letters from the broken “MERIDIAN” airfield sign and a section of Monty’s canopy. He then approaches GIMLI the glider for some urgent advice. Gimli failed Flight School and hence had to learn how to fly without engines - and that’s exactly why his knowledge is needed right now.

 

Maddox then convinces a skeptical Marcel to follow him up to Rumble Ridge, where the two tinker through the night on the items Maddox collected. The younger marmel’s creative genius pays off, and his dream of flight is about to come true – because, by morning, the brothers are ready to launch from the ridge on a wing and a prayer... and with their very own marmel-made hang-glider.

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Takeoff goes surprisingly smoothly, but the marmels quickly face a big-jet-sized problem. The inaugural flight is on approach to the new runway... and on a direct collision course with them. Disaster looks unavoidable... until an unexpected mishap down on the international airport's new runway forces the approaching jet to abort its landing and go around for a new approach.

 

This incident on the runway buys the brothers just enough time to glide all the way across to Peaceful Peninsula, where they are finally reunited with the rest of the marmel community. Only one thing could have made their own homecoming sweeter: if they'd been able to take the fire extinguishers home with them.

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The runway opening is a big event in Meridian, and Alea and friends are following the ceremony on a giant screen at the airfield. Alea cannot believe it when the camera reveals which airplane was responsible for the runway incident: none other CA-009... or... Aiyanna, her mother! She thereby realizes that her mother hasn’t actually retired yet, and immediately flies over to the international airport for an emotional reunion. An equally shocked Aiyanna explains to Alea how the bizarre runway mishap occurred - which leads Alea to realize that, way up there on Mount Malabar, her father has just played a critical part in saving Marcel and Maddox.

 

Aiyanna says she will definitely be retiring in 6 months, and mother and daughter have a lot of catching up to do before then. But first, Alea has something to pick up back at the local airfield.

 

Later that day, a fully-loaded Alea takes off from the airfield and heads out towards the land once known as Peaceful Peninsula. She then cuts her engines and glides over the marmels' homeland. Moments later, the marmels are witness to another aerial miracle unfolding above them: fire extinguishers are sailing down from the sky, each under its own little parachute, then landing gently in the forest around them. An emotional Alea has completed her father’s final mission.

 

As a tribute to Ilan and to the ultimate sacrifice that he made for them, the marmels have renamed their homeland “Ilan Island”.

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EPILOGUE

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It’s 6 months later, and Flight School is once again welcoming a new class of little airplanes. Principal Piston has retired, and Captain Moody is the new school principal. In her spare time, Alea volunteers as a mentor to the students, who look up to her as a shining example of success.

 

Principal Moody welcomes the incoming students with a rousing speech about success, failure, and following one's dreams. His audience can’t wait for what’s coming next: the traditional first-day-of-school low pass! This year though, it’s no shiny new plane that’s been bestowed with the honour; it’s old Aiyanna, who’ll be heading off into retirement immediately following her performance.

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Alea is proudly watching on as her mother roars overhead, in a fitting end to an admirable career. But to everyone's surprise, Aiyanna doesn’t fly back for the return leg of her low pass. Instead, she heads off in a completely different direction: towards the spot on Mount Malabar where Ilan rests. The retiring jet disappears into a bank of cloud that clings to the mountain, and never reemerges.

 

Doc Hopper is readying himself for a search and rescue mission, but a smiling Alea asks him to stand down. No rescue is needed, she tells him. Her mother and father are, at long last, together again.