Kanduu was a magician that worked alongside Franz Mahar in the late 19th century. His spirit was the former embodiment of Slappy the Dummy.
He first appeared in the SlappyWorld book: I Am Slappy's Evil Twin, and reappears in the 2023 Goosebumps series.
History[]
I Am Slappy's Evil Twin[]
As a British magician, Kanduu worked alongside Mahar, until he was discovered to be evil. He brought Mahar's collection of dummies to life using magic, so that they wouldn't feel so lonely.
Goosebumps (2023 series)[]
Kanduu, better known as Slappy the Dummy, is the main antagonist of the second half of Season 1 of the 2023 Disney+ Horror TV series, Goosebumps.
The man who would become Kanduu was once a soldier who was shot in the abdomen fighting in the trenches during an unknown war in 1879. An explosion then sends him into a concealed temple. With just enough strength to ignite his lighter to see where he is, he finds the mysterious carvings on the wall of the chamber in another language. Three words glow brightest, as if calling to him, so he recites them: "Moori Azana Kanduu." Suddenly, the blood leaking from his wound retreats back inside him, and the wound heals. After he healed, he named himself after the last word of the spell which healed him.
Six years later, Kanduu is in New York City and walks into the fairgrounds of Franz Mahar's Carnival of Wonders. He examines a tent that contains empty coffins, a woodcarver’s desk, and carings of puppets, one of which is still in progress. A man enters and introduces himself as Franz Mahar, the owner of the carnival. Kanduu introduces himself, and Mahar is already familiar with the name, calling him a magician. He corrects Mahar and tells him he is not a magician, animating the roughly carved dummy by calling out the words "Alem Nadri Meena Nari." He tells Mahar a magician is someone who tricks people for money, but that he is real, pointing out that Mahar's carnival is a failure, but promising to change that in exchange for the woodcarver building something for him, to which he agrees.
A year later, Mahar’s carnival is a success, and he’s almost completed a wooden circular tower for Kanduu. Mahar finds Kanduu and witnesses the sorcerer casting a spell on another human being using the words "Karru Marri Odonna Loma Molonu Karrano," transforming the man into a dummy. His eyes open, he realizes all of the people in his carnival have become puppets of Kanduu. He asks Kanduu why he did this, to which Kanduu replies it's for a ritual. He tells Mahar he's a maker of puppets, and he can become the puppet master. Franz immediately regrets helping Kanduu. Mahar finishes the puppet he had been working on before accepting Kanduu’s offer, the dummy that will someday be known as Slappy. On the night of the ritual, he presents Slappy to Kanduu in a storage chest. Kanduu is touched by the dummy, realizing it to be the same one he brought to life one year ago. As the magician has his back turned, Mahar reads a page he tore from Kanduu’s notebook, reciting the same spell the magician recited to turn the carnival people into puppets. Kanduu realizes what he’s doing and turns around, stabbing Mahar, who is able to finish the spell. Black smoke emerges from his body, traveling to Slappy, who comes to life with his soul inside. Kanduu's mortal body then collapses. Before his death, Mahar closes the chest, trapping the dummy inside.
In 1925, Ephraim Bratt, a struggling vaudeville magician, stopped by Madame Zelda's Magic Shop, and buys Slappy. One day, he reads the magic words (the same words Kanduu read to turn people into puppets) that revived Kanduu's spirit and brought Slappy back to life. Slappy manipulated Bratt for thirty years, making his shows a success. Ten years later, he hired grave robbers, who bring in a coffin with the magician's name on it. Slappy reminds Bratt that he alone is responsible for his success, and that now he has to repay him. Bratt reads a spell that would bring Kanduu's spirit back into his mortal body, but gets a vision of Kanduu's tower on fire, with people screaming on it. He finally realized that Slappy was using him all these years, and stops the incantation and shoves the dummy into the chest and closing it, where his spirit remains dormant for another thirty years. Two weeks later, Bratt moves to Port Lawrence.
In 1993, Bratt's relatives, Perry and Georgia Biddle, move into the house. One day, their son, Harold, finds Slappy hidden in the wall of the basement, and over the next few days, he gets manipulated by the dummy, turning him into a bad person. One night, Harold's friends plan to steal the dummy, but it resulted in Harold's death. His friends escape the house, which was on fire, and broke Slappy apart, making Kanduu's spirit dormant once again.
Thirty years later, his coffin was unearthed by Nathan Bratt, Ephraim Bratt's descendant, who found Slappy due to being on writer's block. Slappy promises to help Bratt become a successful writer, and orders him to read the same spell his ancestor failed to complete. Bratt gets the same vision his ancestor did of the flaming tower, but continues to finish the incantation. Immediately, black smoke emerges from Slappy's body and goes into the coffin. The corpse inside the coffin stands up, but new flesh wraps around the old bones, reviving Kanduu's mortal body. Suddenly, Ben Howard enters, but Kanduu recites an incantation and turns him into a dummy, leaving Bratt speechless. He then leaves the Biddle house to begin his reign of terror he failed to complete 127 years ago.
Powers[]
He is shown to have multiple powers, including: creating life, mind control, making objects appear, and mind reading.