As Dreamers Do: An American Magic Redux is a timeline on AlternateHistory.com written by OldNavy1988. It is a reboot of an earlier timeline from the same author, American Magic.
It involves many, many drastic changes to American pop culture, corporations, and politics, with the Point of Divergence being that Walt Disney quits smoking after misplacing a match, and has a son named Walt Disney, Jr.
This timeline is split into two parts, which can be read here
and here. A spin-off thread focusing on the Fox Movietoons revival can be read here.
Magical tropes include:
- Adaptational Name Change:
- Nancy Pelosi retains her maiden name, D'Alesandro.
- 20th Century Fox is still spelled with a hyphen between "Century" and "Fox", and does not become 20th Century Studios.
- Paws, Inc. is later renamed to Unicorn Comics.
- The Family Channel becomes Freeform instead of Fox/ABC Family, while Spike TV rebrands to New Line.
- The Atlanta Braves rebrand to the Atlanta Hammers in 1997.
- Avatar is renamed to Pandora.
- Butch Hartman goes by Boris Hartmanovichnote when he moves to Moscow.
- Adaptational Villainy: While John Kricfalusi and Butch Hartman are already very controversial people in real life, TTL's counterparts are outright criminals; the latter not only smashes Tara Strong's car, but also puts a laxative in Steve Marmel's coffee. Lou Scheimer, founder of Filmation, is also much more villainous.
- Allohistorical Allusion:
- Disney still buys 20th Century Fox in the 1970s, instead of 2019.
- Comcast buys Universal over 20 years before IOTL.
- There is still a chase involving a white Ford Bronco, only with the Kricfalusis instead of O. J. Simpson.
- An adaptation of Little Audrey with Audrey as a tomboy and Dot becoming black is made; specifically, a Little Audrey movie in the 1990s instead of Harvey Street Kids. Some of the side characters' names are taken from that show as well.
- Sam Raimi makes a series of superhero movies, except it's an adaptation of Batman instead of Spider-Man. Later, he would make a Spider-Man animated series, with many of the same actors from his trilogy IOTL.
- Ancestral Name: The name "Walter Elias Disney" is passed down through the generations. These include Walter Elias "Walt" Disney Sr., Walter Elias "Walt" Disney Jr., Walter Elias "Trey" Disney III, and Walter Elias "Dru" Disney IV.
- Big Damn Kiss: After the Mighty Ducks win their third Stanley Cup, Tiffany Disney and her wife Joyce Chung share a kiss.
- Canon Foreigner: Many. These include:
- Walt Disney Jr., Walt's son who takes over his father's company.
- Tiffany Disney, Walt Jr.'s daughter and owner of the Mighty Ducks hockey team, which, ITTL, is based in San Diego instead of Anaheim.
- Sir Daniel Abbott is an animator who eventually heads Disney's classic animation division.
- Raymond Spum is TTL's equivalent to OTL's John Kricfalusi, creating The Ripping Friends and getting involved in controversy; even his name is taken from The Ren & Stimpy Show episode "Nurse Stimpy", in which it was Kricfalusi's
Alan Smithee credit due to his dissatisfaction with the results.
- Call a Smeerp a "Rabbit":
- The Oaxis name is used for a rebrand of Discovery Kids, instead of Butch Hartman's infamous IOTL Christian streaming service.
- The Hub refers to the rebrand of Sky Channel America, a network co-owned by Rupert Murdoch and Harvey Weinstein.
- Buzzr refers to a replacement for GSN formed by a joint venture between The Jim Henson Company, AOL Time Warner and Saban International in 2003, instead of a diginet launched in 2015 by Fremantle.
- Limited Run is a company that releases films on VHS and HD-DVD, instead of a company that re-releases classic video games.
- Cassandra Truth: After Kricfalusi is sent to prison, Daniel Abbott notes that he tried warning people about him after his pardon, but nobody listened.
- Composite Character: Or Composite Series in this case. The George Liquor Program takes elements from many of Kricfalusi's OTL works, including The Goddamn George Liquor Program, Cans Without Labels, Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon", John K.'s Yogi Bear Shorts, and Spümcø Comic Book.
- Country Matters: The acronym for Canadians United for Normal Television is "CUNT".
- Death by Adaptation:
- John Kricfalusi is shanked to death in 1996 while in prison.
- Vince McMahon commits suicide in 2001.
- Roseanne Barr dies in 2010 of an opioid overdose.
- Vladimir Putin also dies in 2010, albeit of unknown causes.
- Decomposite Character: As Kricfalusi falls into Adaptational Villainy, original character Raymond "Ray" Spum inherits his OTL traits of being a narcissistic, controversy-ridden perfectionist; The Ripping Friends is his creation ITTL.
- Dies Differently in Adaptation:
- Walt himself lives all the way until 1993, passing away at 91.
- Marlon Brando dies two years later than IOTL.
- Saddam Hussein is killed during Ted Bundy's Iraqi war crimes in 1991.
- Different World, Different Movies:
- The Ren & Stimpy Show is created by Bob Camp instead of Kricfalusi, who instead makes an extremely controversial series focused on George Liquor called The George Liquor Program.
- The Ghost and Molly McGee is created by Daniel Abbott and co-stars Casper instead of Scratch. Thus, its title is Casper and Molly McGee instead.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic premieres on CBS in 2008, and is created by Blanche Boudreaux instead of Lauren Faust, who is still involved. Boudreaux also voices Apple Bloom on that show.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Hartman smashes Tara Strong's car because she dares to dispute his claims of creating the childhoods of "nineties kids".
- Excrement Statement: During a 2006 TNA taping, Big Poppa Pump defecates on AJ Styles, in what is now known as the "Big Poppa Poop" incident.
- Flipping the Bird: Referenced when Tiffany Disney issues a statement condemning Sean Combs (who had repeatedly been hitting on her), saying that Combs is the reason she wears her wedding ring and Stanley Cup ring on her middle finger when she's in public.
- Fun with Acronyms: Many Media Watchdog groups ITTL named their acronyms after vulgar terms (e.g. the Federation of Americans for Responsible Television, or FART).
-
Girl-Show Ghetto: The main reason why Blanche's Silent X is screwed over by Columbia-TriStar is due to her involvement in My Little Pony. - In Spite of a Nail: Despite the massive changes in the Hollywood studios, from Disney getting big early on to DC Comics being paired with CBS and Columbia Pictures, many of the same movies made in our world still exist and have little differences to them.
- Jerkass: Amy Pascal, full stop. She makes openly disparaging comments towards Blanche and vetoes her ideas, leading to Pascal's termination from Columbia-TriStar. Naturally, nobody is sad to see her go.
- Kick the Dog: After Hartman vandalizes Tara Strong's car, he coldly tells a crying Strong to "call a cab".
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: In a response to a fan letter about alternate history, Tiffany mentions seeing a timeline where Walt Sr. dies in 1966 and Michael Eisner becomes head of Disney in the 1980s.
- Old Shame: Jim Carrey becomes ashamed of the infamous transphobia in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective after revelations of the bullying Johanna Thomas faced, and even disallows transphobic gags from being used in any reboot.
- The Other Darrin: In-universe:
- Due to Tom Kenny's commitments to a reboot of The Bozo Show, the role of SpongeBob SquarePants is recast in 2011.
- After Tim Allen's transphobic tirade towards Johanna Thomas, he is replaced as Buzz Lightyear by Patrick Warburton in Toy Story 3.
- Our Presidents Are Different: TTL's US presidents are the same as OTL, until Jimmy Carter wins re-election in 1980.
- Lee Iacocca (D-MI, 1985-1989) is President Personable for his plan to introduce universal health care.
- Ted Bundy (R-WA, 1989-1993) is President Corrupt for many of his actions in office, such as rigging the 1988 election with the Soviet Union, pardoning convicted sex offenders, as well as committing various war crimes during the Gulf War and his vice president being John Gotti, an infamous mafia boss. He's also President Evil for having killed at least 40 women before taking office.
- Mario Cuomo (D-NY, 1993-2001) is also President Personable for his attempts at deflecting Republicans blaming video games for mass shootings.
- Harvey Weinstein (R-CA, 2001-2006) prevents 9/11 from happening, but is President Buffoon for his bungled response to Hurricane Katrina, which forces him to resign from the Presidency. He also becomes President Corrupt when allegations of sexual assault during his presidency surface after his resignation, as well as his indictment for high crimes.
- Nancy D'Alesandro (D-MD, 2006-2009) is President Minority for being the first female president, but doesn't manage to win her own party's nomination for re-election.
- Barack Obama (D-IL, 2009-) is also President Minority for being the first Black president, as well as President Personable.
- Papa Wolf: Walt Disney Jr. bans Kanye West from all Disney parks after West makes disparaging comments at Walt Jr.'s daughter, Tiffany.
- Richard Nixon, the Used Car Salesman:
- Lee Iacocca, Ted Bundy, and Harvey Weinstein are Presidents of the United States.
- Bundy's Vice President is none other than John Gotti.
- Norman Lear, George Lucas, Rob Reiner, and Robert Zemeckis are studio executives.
- Wayne Gretzky is commissioner of the NHL, while Jerry West fills that role in the NBA.
- Mills Lane becomes a Supreme Court justice.
- Running Gag: Whenever someone falls from grace ITTL, chances are that Miramax will pick them up immediately.
- Spared by the Adaptation:
- Judith Barsi doesn't get killed by her father, Joszef. Ennis Cosbynote and The Notorious B.I.G. also aren't murdered.
- Joe Raposo doesn't pass away from lymphoma.
- Chris Farley and Michael Jackson don't die of drug overdoses.
- Kurt Cobain doesn't kill himself.
- Jim Henson doesn't die of a lung infection.
- Take That!:
- In-universe, one George Liquor character is an obvious, mean-spirited dig at Tiffany Disney, whose autism and incontinence were revealed during production.
- Also in-universe, the Rage Against the Machine song Bayou Bitch disses Louisiana's legal system (for failing to remove the St. Pierre children from Bridgette's custody) and the American media (for playing Bridgette sympathetically and dismissing Gus as a spoiled brat).
