Flora Buckman is one of the titular protagonists of the 2021 Disney+ original film Flora & Ulysses.
Background[]
Flora is a ten-year old cynical girl who is interested in superhero comics which she reads - especially when she reads her father's comic book. She lives with her parents Phyllis who is a romance novel writer and George who is a comic book writer. During her life, she encountered a squirrel which she saved from her neighbor's Ulysses 2000 robot, naming the squirrel after the robot. Since then, Flora made friends with the squirrel which she named "Ulysses", being compassionate with her, and teaching him how to be a superhero like Incandesto. Over life, Flora discovers that Ulysses has super powers like what a real superhero has, which she knew about his unique ability. Despite this, Ulysses became homesick of missing his home in the woods, leading Flora and her family and her neighbor's nephew William Spiver to bring him back to the wild while dealing with animal control officer Miller. To this, Ulysses became determined enough to save her family from Miller. After Ulysses returned home in the forest where he used to go to, this inspired Flora to write a comic book about the squirrel she encountered at the forest.
Role in the film[]
While reading comics about superheroes, Flora approaches the comic book store owner, Stanlee, who tells them that her books are in mint condition. Flora plans to sell all the comics, except for a comic book about Incandesto, which was written by her father George, planning to sell them for thirty dollars. However, instead of selling the comics, Flora accidentally causes a mess in the store, much to Stanlee's worry just before Flora tells her that thirty bucks sounds good for her to sell. As she leaves, Flora narrates that some believe that life is a comic filled with wonder where miraculous things happen, also explaining that she is a cynic who knows that superheroes are only in her imagination. Flora imagines if Incandesto is talking to her just before she returns home to read an Incandesto comic book just before a soccer ball hits her. As she returns home safely, Flora narrates that the danger is not real and not that it's easy to let go of hope.
Flora then hears her mother Phyllis calling her if she read the books she bought her just as Flora reads a more literature so that she can get more inspiration from what she reads other than comics. She approaches her mother who shows finds out that she replaced her computer with a typewriter, explaining that she is writing a novel set in the 1920s, planning to write a story using this method. Flora then narrates that her mother is a romance novelist who writes stories about love and ever since the J key on her typewriter broke, she used a pen to write words with J. Later, Flora approaches her neighbor Tootie Tickham who is worried that her robot is malfunctioning. Flora attempts to stop the robot Ulysses, but it keeps malfunctioning only for it to stop when it vacuums up a squirrel inside. Flora picks up the squirrel, holding him gently and making sure he is alive, which the squirrel regains his consciousness. Happy to see him alive, Tootie finds out that she her husband spilled his Froot Loops which he thought his wife turned on the Ulysses. Flora then names the squirrel "Ulysses" after the robot that Tootie tried to stop.
After putting Ulysses in a box as a safe place for the squirrel, Flora narrates that her father drew heroes with super powers until one needed help and realized they were the only ones there like the Mighty Condor, Shobo the Homeless Warriors, and the Amazing Incandesto, who all has their own unique powers. Flora then narrates that when her father was unable to publish an Incandesto comic book, he lost it and even though her mother tried to get her husband's courage back, there was no one who could save him or his family and that cynics see what is real. Flora tells Ulysses that he must stay in the box before her mother finds out and treats him like a pest, mistaking him for a rat, like how she lost her pet hamster just before Flora approaches her mother.
Flora approaches her father at the Binders Keepers store, telling him that he helped her so much just before he goes back to work. Flora recaps that she saved a squirrel and named him Ulysses just as she shows her fathers bag of nuts for the squirrel, which he replies to her that he will purchase it for her, as since he is working at the store, employees who purchase this bag of nuts for a 3% discount just before planning to help her father finish writing the Incandesto story for him. Flora later returns home approaching Phyllis who is writing her story as her daughter tells her that her father is letting the bard go just like one of the protagonists from Electric Love just before her mother tells her daughter to point the figures of Jack and Rose from Titanic so she can get more inspiration from them. Flora approaches Ulysses who gives him a bag of nuts for him to feed just as he tells Ulysses the story of how Alfred T. Slipper gained his alter ego Incandesto, telling Ulysses that he can be inspired by a superhero in the story just before Flora heads down for dinner.
During dinner, Flora's mother tells her daughter that The Herald is doing a piece on her next book, telling Flora that she can be inspired by from what a newspaper article does in headlining her mother's book. Phyllis then suggests her daughter on going to the mall with her, telling her to make new friends just before going to bed. The next day, Flora wakes up to see a written paper which Ulysses typed on last night using her mother's typewriter just as she rushes upstairs to keep the paper rather than having her mother publish it. She then lectures to Ulysses, telling him that what the book Terrible Things Can Happen To You made it clear that hope can get in the way of action and that a true cynic has no luxury for hope and only observation. Flora then realizes that the vacuum robot inspired Ulysses to be a superhero, just as she hands him a bunch of comic books for the squirrel to be inspired by. Flora then tells Ulysses that superheroes can handle anything, explaining that Flora can by Ulysses' sidekick just like when Incandesto has a pet parakeet named "Dolores" just before Flora's father arrives.
Flora's neighbor Tootie arrives at her house where she approaches Flora and her mother, introducing her nephew William Spiver to her, explaining that William suffers from blindness when he is stressed. Seeing Ulysses on the figures of Jack and Rose, Flora warns her squirrel to be careful or her mother might drive him away with her tennis racket. At the playground, Flora goes into a conversation with William where she tells him that Flora is a superhero. Later at home, Flora shows William the words Ulysses is typing on George's computer, telling William about Ulysses' unique skills as a squirrel just before Flora's father arrives home, planning to prevent her parents from noticing that there is a squirrel inside a house, much to her mother who is unhappy that her daughter ignored her.
Later, Flora explains to her father that Ulysses has super powers like Incandesto who has unique powers, which her father tells her that life as a comic book writer is tough while trying to figure things out so that Flora's father would not be divorced with her wife just before Ulysses smells donuts from a donut shop. As she attempts to order six donuts from the restaurant, a waiter named Rita is curious to see who is in the box, which she finds Ulysses inside, frightened to see a squirrel at the restaurant, causing Flora and her father to leave, unaware of Ulysses landing on the ground like a superhero. After leaving, George tells his daughter if Ulysses could help him get a light bulb out of the apartment which he is unable to reach just before finding a place to keep Ulysses safe.
Arriving at the Blixen Arms Apartment, Flora and her father sneak past Mr. Klaus who then thinks they are intruders just before they take Ulysses to see Dr. Meescham who tells Flora that Ulysses is fine just before the three observe Ulysses' unique skills just before the three leave. Later when Flora introduces her father to William, he suggests to Flora to use an alternate route to protect Ulysses just like what the book Terrible Things taught him just before Phyllis approaches her husband and daughter, planning to keep Ulysses a secret. Flora then narrates that about Ulysses being a superhero in her midst and that the best part of having a superhero around is how one starts to feel like one. Back at home, Flora trains Ulysses to help be a superhero and practice his superhero skills privately without getting noticed by Phyllis just as Flora spends the good moments with her squirrel.
The next day at the treehouse, Flora, approaches William who gives her a book about Rilke, which his father would read books by Rilke to him and as Flora recites one of the lines, she tells Ulysses to "flare up like a flame and find his purpose", which William doesn't think Ulysses has super powers. Flora and William began riding on their way to Comic Cave while Flora herself began narrating that the universe between her and Ulysses was expanding and making room. Arriving at Comic Cave, Flora asks Stanlee if he has superhero training for squirrels, which he denies just before William tells her about a news report on television about the incident that happened at the Donut Diner, as the reporter began saying that the animal control is on a hunt for Ulysses after Rita thought he spread rabies on her, leading the animal control on a hunt to capture and quarantine the squirrel, just as Flora plans to warn her father about the news.
Flora later approaches her father who is working at Binders Keepers just before he tells his manager Chad that he quit, causing Chad to be fired from the store. Back at the apartment, Flora plans to protect Ulysses from Miller without getting noticed just as she and her father plan to escape, only for Miller to confront George who tells him to hand over the squirrel. George, William, and Flora attempt to escape from Miller who is planning to capture Ulysses to which during the chase, they were able to escape just before Flora returns for dinner. After dinner, Flora's mother became inspired by Ulysses ever since her encounter with a squirrel in her house just before she meets her father, who tells her that drawing a superhero is easy rather than acting like one just as Ulysses happily reacts.
The next day, Flora narrates that the hardest part about having hope is watching the people who are hopeless and the only thing harder is watching people who had hope. She later narrates that even in the darkest times, a true hero would risk everything to save the world he loves, just like what Ulysses is doing. Later the next day, Flora tries to find Ulysses, but all what she found is a paper saying that he must return to his natural habitat, which is linked to Ulysses himself. Flora later notices that Ulysses disappeared, alerting William for help, leading her to save Ulysses. On their way to save Ulysses, Flora and William find themselves at the remains of the Splash Rapids water park where Flora recaps to William of what her family used to do when they went to this park before it closed just before William shares his condolence about his late father.
Furthermore, Phyllis approaches her daughter who shows Ulysses who is safe and sound. She then recaps to Flora that she was going to send Ulysses back to the wild, but became compassionate to him just before she shows a paper that Ulysses wrote for her, saying that nothing would be easier without her such as cheese puffs, corks, and giant donuts, making Flora the universe for everything, forgiving her for her actions and to Ulysses, only for Miller to approach and fire a tranquilizer dart at Ulysses just as Flora protests to Miller not to take away the squirrel, which Miller denies, telling her that the only way to take care of Ulysses is to quarantine and euthanize the squirrel. Feeling hopeless, George tells his daughter about the story of Incandesto to put faith in herself, just as George drives his car with his family and William inside, planning to rescue Ulysses from the animal facility.
As they arrive, Flora, her family, and Ulysses arrive at the hazardous area where Miller and a group of doctors go after the Buckmans and while trying to find Ulysses, William sees a red button which causes the cages to open to free various animals inside, causing them to rampage inside the facility. Just as Flora arrives at the squirrel section, she finally finds Ulysses just before Miller halts Flora, her family, and William. Just as Flora tosses a bunch of M&Ms to distract the squirrels, just before George manages to rescue Ulysses from his cage and later escapes via tube. With Ulysses rescued, Flora, her family, and William escape the animal control, facility, still being confronted by Miller. However, Ulysses saves Flora's father from falling off the building as Flora narrates of how a true superhero finds his purpose in fulfilling his goal.
Having escaped from Miller, Flora, her family, and William bid a farewell to Ulysses just before they leave while Miller is humiliated when he saw a bunch of squirrels around him. Sometime later, Flora and the Buckmans began to write a comic book about Ulysses, inspired by the squirrel who saved them throughout their adventure.
Trivia[]
- This character is Matilda Lawler's first role in a Disney production.
- At one point at the beginning of the film, Stanlee gives Flora a nickname, "Flora the Explorer", a reference to the Nick Jr. animated series Dora the Explorer.
- A similar gag would later occur in the Disney Channel animated series The Owl House where the character Flora D'splora (who appears in the episode "Elsewhere and Elsewhen") is also a nod to Dora, which Flora resembles.
- One of the buttons on Flora's backpack contains an illustration of a Little Green Man from the Toy Story franchise, implying that Toy Story is her favorite movie.
- At one point, Flora says "I love you 3000", an homage to Tony Stark in Avengers: Endgame.
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