The Schmoranges
Status: In Development / Medium: Chapter Book + Screenplay / Category: Children’s > Adventure / Timeline: March - June 2025 / Job Board: Active
“When spherical orange aliens hypnotize humans into believing up is down in order to sell shoddy merchandise, a group of over-achieving children, immune to the alien hypnosis, must rescue the planet before humans are left to walk on their hands - while the aliens make off with the goods.”
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In the quaint town of Lincoln Grove, Florida, twelve-year-old Tinker twins Milo, a bookworm, and Penny, a champion Go player, are known for their insatiable curiosity and remarkable attention spans. While their classmates struggle to focus in class, Milo can recite the periodic table backward, and Penny has reached Grandmaster level in online Go leagues. Little do they know that their unique abilities will soon be put to the ultimate test when a peculiar spacecraft lands in their backyard.
The spaceship belongs to an alien race of orange spherical beings called the Schmoranges, who have come to Earth on an intergalactic trade mission. Every word in the alien language rhymes with Schmorange, which is un-decipherable, so the aliens use slide shows with images to communicate.
Eager to introduce their prized possession—schmorange juice—the Schmoranges are disappointed, but not surprised, as the people of Lincoln Grove are repulsed by the foul-tasting juice. Instead of packing their bags and heading home, the leader of the Schmoranges, known as Schmo-1, concocts a devious plan: he goes on TV and holds a press conference to hypnotize the non-compliant humans - by speaking in Schmorange - into buying the foul juice and other inferior products, including "Shroinges," which are worn sneakers on your hands, and “Woinges”, which are watches that are useless as they only keep time on Planet Schmorange, where time ticks much more slowly.
As the Schmoranges spread their bizarre wares across the town, speaking their hypnotic rhyming language, which is now seemingly understood by humans, they use their skills to convince everyone that up is down and night is day — because as sphere's they don't see a difference between up and down in their world, which makes wearing sneakers on your hands make more sense. And to make checking your watch more difficult, so no one really knows what time it is.
The human population, susceptible to this hypnosis due to their ever-shrinking attention spans, soon find themselves enthralled by Schmo-1 and stare blankly at their TVs, nodding, using credit cards to purchase Shroinges and Woinges, and agreeing with everything he says. And he is saying some very strange things. Mostly, “Yoinge Doinge”, which translates to “Up is down.”
Milo and Penny watch in horror as their friends, teachers, and even their parents start reciting “Yoinge Doinge”, walking on their hands, clumsily spilling schmorange juice everywhere, not knowing what time it is, and maxing out their credit cards to buy more and more unless Schmorage products. The twins realize they are the only ones unaffected by the Schmoranges' hypnotic powers, and it’s up to them to save their town from this alien fiasco.
Determined to outsmart the Schmoranges, who seem none too bright despite successfully hypnotizing humans into buying junk, Milo and Penny embark on a whirlwind adventure filled with teamwork, and clever problem-solving. Along the way, they join forces with a band of other un-hypnotized children, each with their own unique talents, from a budding magician to a future scientist. But soon the members of the group begin to succumb to the hypnotism, one by one, until only a handful remain to keep up the fight.
As they devise a plan to break the Schmoranges' spell, the twins must navigate through the Schmoranges' world of upside-down logic, useless products, and a human population held in their thrall. As the townspeople empty their wallets to hand over the earth's most valuable goods in exchange for the aliens' shoddy products, the children must confront the Schmoranges in an epic showdown of wit and will, before the Schmoranges make off with the goods.
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The Schmoranges
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