text: destination : imagination " destination : imagination " is a television special of the animated television series foster 's home for imaginary friends . the plot of the special follows frankie , who becomes trapped in a huge , mysterious world where she is treated like royalty but forced not to leave . bloo , mac , coco , eduardo , and wilt journey through the world to rescue her , facing perils and challenges along the way . written by lauren faust and tim mckeon , " destination : imagination " was directed by rob renzetti and series creator craig mccracken . the plot was conceived after the crew decided that they wanted to make an episode with adventure , featuring the characters going out on a large quest of sorts . due to the dark and serious storytelling approach used , the special came out " edgier " than most episodes of foster 's home for imaginary friends . the special originally broadcast on cartoon network on november 27 , 2008 , on thanksgiving day . it was well received and won the primetime emmy award for outstanding animated program ( for programming one hour or more ) . it was also nominated for two annie awards — one for best animated television production produced for children and another for mccracken and renzetti 's directing . plot summary during the pouring rain , a mother and father leave a heavily chained toy box at the doorstep of foster 's home for imaginary friends with instructions to not be opened . the next day , frankie has grown outraged about her job as the house caretaker ; mr. herriman has been giving her endless chores to take care day after day without thanking her for any of it . when frankie discovers the box left on the doorstep , herriman instructs her to leave it in the attic . in a fit of anger toward herriman , she intentionally ignores the instructions given in the box and peeks inside it . she falls inside , only to discover it is a vast world filled with anthropomorphic toys and delectable treats . she hears and sympathizes with a young boy 's voice ( max burkholder ) , later revealed to be the imaginary friend named world ( given the name by the crew of the show ) , who has been living alone in the toy chest since his family left the box at foster 's . frankie adores the world and goes to visit it every day , being treated like royalty by the voice . but one day , when she goes to leave , the friend refuses to allow her and locks every exit in the castle they are abiding in . bloo , mac , coco , eduardo , and wilt become curious with her sudden disappearance . they go up to the attic and enter the toy box , discovering for themselves the vast world that resides in it . they ask around a small town if anyone has seen a woman of frankie 's description but nobody responds . a group of policemen discover they have entered the world and chase after them , but the gang are saved by a heroic man . he tries to warn them that their pursuit of frankie will lead through extremely dangerous environments , but they are determined to rescue her . mr. herriman , in the meantime , is outraged by frankie 's disappearance and attempts to find a replacement for her , but to no avail . after failing to cross a musical and colorful bridge , the gang falls into a pit where sticky material becomes their zombie - like doppelgangers and moves to chase them . they escape through a super mario world - like environment and go to the house of a toy dog , where they are set up for a trap to eat crumpets with sleeping powder . mac does not eat the crumpets ( since the sleeping powder was thought to be powdered sugar , and he can 't eat sugar without temporarily losing his mind ) and is able to save the others . as they try to escape , they discover that the heroic man and several others they have met on their journey are all controlled by a single face — world — who can animate and control seemingly anything he latches onto . world is trapped on an apple and the gang leaves it at a desert ; but latches on a horse , truly the guise of mac and the gang rides by , and world is able to move once more . it gallops off to the castle , where the gang find frankie and attempt to save her . however , frankie reveals that world never kidnapped her , she was staying of her own free will and is happy to be away from the work at foster 's and mr. herriman 's constant nagging . the friends then plead with frankie to come home insisting that they need her to take care of them . she believes their pleas to be selfish and storms off as she is " sick of taking care of everyone and everything without never even receiving a word of thanks , an ounce of help , or a tiny little smidgen of respect " . they attempt to console her , but world gasses them and they fall asleep . when they awaken , they find themselves in a fake version of foster 's created by world , who shrank them into it . frankie begins to hear their tiny voices calling to her and , though world tries to distract her from it , she finally discovers her friends . world finally becomes upset and scolds frankie of planning to leave him alone in the toy box forever . she calms him down enough to befriend and the gang , but mr. herriman bursts in , having gotten into the toy box and somehow past the gang 's obstacles , and harshly scolds world before preparing to take the gang home and leave world to " think long and hard about what you 've done " . world 's world falls to pieces until it 's nothing but a white void . world becomes angry and unstable and turns into a chimera - like creature to attack them all ( made of the remaining refuse of his world ) . the gang manages to escape the toy box . frankie climbs out as well and tries to convince everyone to let world out of the box . herriman finally yields and releases world from the box , due to a realization of his long misjudgement of frankie and newfound appreciation for her during her absence . world gets happy already and shouts that he 's free and everyone is really confused , frankie 's answer is : " well , think of it this way : imagine if you were able to have anything you wanted , except one thing , but that one thing is what you wanted more than anything else . for him , that thing is a friend . that 's all he wanted ; that 's what he was trying to protect . so i brought him here . here he can have all the friends in the world ! i mean come on , isn 't friendship what foster 's is all about ? " bloo shouts , " no , it 's all about me ! " promptly herriman slaps him with a glove , to the delight of everyone else . world adapts to the new environment and lives as a stuffed rag doll in the home . herriman , having learned a valuable lesson from the experience , creates a new fair act to divide the chores between the imaginary friends and thus give frankie a well - deserved break from her job . all the imaginary friends in the house are free to travel in and out of the toy box , where they enjoy themselves ( they go to the toy box in a style similar to the show 's theme ) , with the last to enter being world and frankie , the latter of who shout out " ! " during the post credits scene , madame foster returns from her vacation only to be greeted by an empty house and wonders where everyone is . production " destination : imagination " was co - written by foster 's home for imaginary friends co - creator lauren faust along with tim mckeon . other series co - founder craig mccracken directed it along with rob renzetti . the special was conceived by the four , along with darrick bachman , edward baker , vaughn tada , and alex kirwan , as a means of creating an adventure story , to " send the gang on a fantastic quest . " the character of world was created as a means to have an imaginary friend that was an entire world instead of the usual " sentient being that you hang out with . " baker suggested that the character should be portrayed as a young child , which mccracken agreed because it brought originality to the story , and allowed him to " be more emotional , to not understand the bigger picture , to be confused and vulnerable and like a kid , to throw a fit when they don 't get their way . " the special was written with the goal of " telling the story in the most honest and sincere way . " the writers attempted to continue the tense and unpleasant relationship between frankie and mr. herriman , which they had begun developing since the series began , but approaching it in a believable and sensible fashion . with the heavy plot running through the special , the writers tried to use bloo and his companions as a means to add humor into it . they wrote bloo to be more obnoxious and demanding than previously , but did not want him to be cruel or malicious . a lot of the special was more " edgy " and dark than what had been done previously on foster 's home for imaginary friends . a major reason behind this was the peril , danger , and conflict that constructed the plot so heavily . mccracken explains , " when we start a show one of the first things we think about is tone , is this a goofy one , is it a serious one , whatever it may be we stay true to that tone . this one had some higher stakes so we let it naturally unfold that way . " reception " destination : imagination " was originally broadcast on thanksgiving day , november 27 , 2008 , on cartoon network , at 8 : 00 p.m. est . it followed an afternoon - long marathon of the animated series chowder and a my gym partner 's a monkey thanksgiving special entitled " a thanksgiving carol " . the first special for the series , entitled " good wilt hunting , " had also aired on thanksgiving , back in 2006 . at the 61st primetime emmy awards , the special won the award for " outstanding animated program ( for programming one hour or more ) " , winning over spike tv 's afro samurai : resurrection . it was nominated for two annie awards for best animated television production produced for children and directing for an animated television production or short form . the special lost both to nickelodeon 's avatar : the last airbender . " destination : imagination " received generally positive reviews from television critics . newsarama reporter steve fritz called it " one of the best and — well — most imaginative chapters , ever . " fritz praised tom kane and grey delisle 's performance as mr. herriman and frankie , calling it " stellar , " along with the dark and " edgy " undertones of the special .