World is an imaginary friend who appeared as the reformed main antagonist in the Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends movie Destination Imagination. He is voiced by Max Burkholder.
Personality[]
World can be best described as happy and rather enigmatic due to his many different bodies and is a bit of a prankster, but is well-meaning most of the time. However, if upset, he becomes quite monstrous and clingy, especially when he thinks he might be abandoned (the abandonment issues come from the fact that his creator's parents took his creator away from him). This is most notable when he plays hide-and-seek with Frankie, panicking and crying when he thinks he might have lost her (Frankie was really only hiding in a bush behind him), thus establishing his moments of instability that reappear in the movie. For example, when Frankie discovers that he shrunk Mac and the others, he starts to get furious causing the world to shake, and begins to rant that Frankie is going to leave him just like "they" made "him" leave him all alone, with Frankie quickly figuring out what he means and calming him down. He even morphs into a giant monster due to the fact Mr. Herriman was telling him he was going to be alone, which was something that really shattered his heart, and made him burst into rage.
He is originally known as the "Tyrant King". World only appears to only be a pair of eyes and a mouth who has the ability to possess and control only one thing at any time he wants by latching onto it, but is actually the entire world in the toy chest and has complete control over it, even destroying it in a fit of rage. He had been living in a toy box and was causing trouble for his creator's parents and was forced to live at Foster's in the attic. Until Frankie, refusing to let an imaginary friend remain locked in a toy chest, decided to open the chained-up toy box. When Mac, Bloo, Wilt, Coco, and Eduardo discovered she was missing, they fell into the toy chest, where World took on various forms in order to get rid of them. He cannot possess anything with a face of his/her own. As an example: When Mac grabbed him as an apple, World couldn't stop possessing the apple, because Mac was alive and had a face already.
World is an extremely strong imaginary friend. In his toy box world, he is in maximum control. World also is one of the first imaginary friends to be classified as a child; his voice, the look of his face, his personality are all of a resemblance of a child. He is very emotional, such as when Frankie went to hide, he had a mental breakdown, but when Frankie showed herself, he started crying, and he has very sudden mood swings. One minute he could be sad and crying, and then next, he is happy and joyful. But it's not smart to tell him he will be alone, or else becomes extremely angered.
World (on the left) at Mac's Farewell Party in Goodbye to Bloo
World continues to live at Foster's after the events of "Destination Imagination". He is also seen at Mac's farewell party in "Goodbye to Bloo".
Appearance[]
World doesn’t have a true appearance, being just two square eyes and a mouth with a single tooth. However, he can possess faceless objects to gain a body. Below is a list of everything he has possessed:
- A purple puppy
- A superhero
- A Weeble-like policeman
- A squirrel
- A flower
- A bee
- A tree
- A leaf
- A spider
- Fire
- An ember
- Wooden animals on a totem pole
- A glass cup
- A teapot
- A plate
- An orange
- A pear
- A bunch full of bananas
- A bunch full of grapes
- An apple
- A horse
- A griffin statue
- An archer
- An arrow
- A "living" sock monkey
- Some portraits and paintings
- A guard
- A bird/robin
- A bearded wizard
- A unicorn
- A grass griffin
- A grass giraffe
- A grass mammoth
- A knight in armor statue
- A water fountain
- A castle
- A flag
- A king
- A storm of rage
- A dragon-like monster with a triceratops's upper head, a digger lower jaw, a wire neck, a gumball machine underbelly, a dragon's back and tail, a crab-like right arm with cybernetic shoulder, humanoid body, cybernetic claw-like left arm, pterodactyl wings, a dinosaur's right leg, and a monkey's left leg (after collapsing his own world due to Mr. Herriman getting him upset)
- The toy box used to access his created world
- A stuffed doll made by Frankie (his current form)
Biography[]
World was created by a boy named Michael and lived in an abstract world inside a toy chest filled with faceless bodies World could possess. However, it was implied that because World remained inside the chest without anyone else, he became possessive of Michael and tried to keep him inside. Michael's parents managed to separate the two and locked the chest up in chains so World couldn't keep Michael from them. They then sent the chest to Foster's with a note not to open the chest and release World. While Mr. Herriman followed the instruction and ordered Frankie to store the chest in the attic, Frankie objecting the cruel treatment and fed up with Herriman's treatment, defied his order, opened the chest, and fell into it. There, she met World while explore the chest and befriended him. Frankie would then regularly visit the toy chest and play with World as a way to destress from her laborious work at Foster's. Eventually, World suggested she didn't have to go back where she was overworked and underappreciated and Frankie agreed. However, Frankie's sudden absence led to Foster's falling apart and Mac and his friends discovered that she disappeared inside the chest when it snaps shut on its own. Fearing she'd been taken against her will, Mac and his friends decide to go rescue her. Despite World's attempts to keep them out, the gang manages to open the chest when they discover its ticklish. World makes several attempts to force the gang out of the chest, first by possessing a police office to chase them out, then by possessing a hero and pretending to help them by taking them through the most dangerous places in the chest. However, the gang persevered and reached the Bridge of Unadulterated Agony, a bridge made piano keys. Mac figured out the correct way to cross the bridge, but "the hero" double crossed them by intentionally pressing the wrong key, which caused the bridge to fall apart and the gang to a gorge. Inside the gorge, the gang accidentally created an army of doughy zombie doppelgangers that chased them. Just as the gang was cornered, "the hero" seemingly sacrificed themself to help them escape and in the process freed a toy puppy that wanted to help but was secretly World's next body.
"The puppy" took the gang to his home and offered them crumpets secretly laced with sleeping powder that knocked them out. When the gang woke up, "the puppy" revealed his plan to lock them up forever to keep them away from Frankie, but Mac, previously realizing the deception when "the puppy" accidentally used "the hero's" catchphrase, faked eating the crumpets and avoided capture. He freed the rest of the Gang who tie up "the puppy" only for World to leave the body and escape in a squirrel's. The gang pursue world and after forcing him to change many bodies, trap him in an apple and Mac figures out he's the only real being inside the chest. World refuses to tell where he's keeping Frankie, but the gang leaves him in a desert with sand too hot for him to move his face across. He manages to possess a passing horse and races toward the castle where Frankie is. There, to his relief, he discovers the gang hadn't found her, unaware they tricked him into bringing them too her by hiding inside the horse. After Frankie mistakes the gang's reason for rescuing her was only so she would do chores for them and storms off, World arrives in a sorcerer body and casts a spell that shrinks them, knocks them, and places them inside a miniature replica of Foster's he presents to Frankie as a gift. World then begins playing with Frankie, but when he loses track of her during a game of hide-and-seek, World has a panic attack until she comes out and assures him that she won't abandon him. However, the shrunken gang manages to get Frankie's attention and reveals what he did. World, fearing Frankie will leave him just like his did, begins throwing a tantrum, but Frankie talks him down and convinces him to turn the gang back to normal size and make peace with them.
However, Herriman suddenly bursts in and callously scolds World for keeping Frankie from her duties and tells him he will take Frankie back while he be punished by being left alone in the chest. This causes World to snap and have a massive meltdown that rips the toy chest realm apart. The gang flees the collapsing realm and finds the exit, but World, refusing to lose Frankie, chimeric form made of toy parts, tries to take her back by force. World's new form overpowers everyone, so Frankie stays behind to distract him and is seemingly eaten while the others climb up his body to the exit. Fortunately, Frankie exits the chase a moment later, but insists that they let World out of the chest, which the gang argues against fearing the harm he could cause. However, Herriman, realizing he was wrong about Frankie's judgment and worth, allows her to open the chest, finally freeing World, who simply enjoys his new freedom. Frankie explains that everything World did was just because he was afraid of being alone and wanted a real friend, so she brought him to Foster's where he can have all the friends in the world. Later, Foster's signs a new act so everyone contributes to the house chores to take the burden off Frankie while she sews World a new ragdoll body for him to inhabit. After everyone finishes their chores, almost all of Foster's rushes off to have a new adventure in the toy chest.
It can be said that World is possibly the most powerful known imaginary friend. He can possess nearly any inanimate object and take them over, and he has almost god-like reign over his box world. However, Eduardo showed to be able to match his merged form, him relying on dirty tactics, and it seems his control over the toy box world was because he became the inside of the box for so long, and was enclosed. His desperation to make sure Frankie didn't leave the confines of the box may hint that his power is far more limited outside of it.
Trivia[]
- World's monster form bears a strong resemblance to Ultimasaurus, an unreleased hybrid dinosaur toy from Jurassic Park.
- When World is in his monster form, at one point he fires a laser at Eduardo, the sound effect of which is the same as Harry Callahan's 44 Magnum handgun from the Dirty Harry movie series
- World has an uncommon yet common scenario in "Destination Imagination": he was alone for a long time, and tries to keep the one person he finds who actually understands him with him forever.
- His name was never mentioned onscreen though it was revealed in the end credits.
- World can be described as a yandere, a character who seems innocent, but becomes dangerous if someone takes the attention of his loved one.