Prologue - The Creation of Disneyville
Once upon a time, a rather long time ago, on a humble farm outside the town of Marceline, Missouri, there lived a strapping young lad by the name of Walter Elias Disney, or Walt for short. He was rather handsome for someone of his time period and born into a family of four brothers which consisted of him, Herbert, Raymond, and Roy, along with a younger sister who went by the name of Ruth. Their parents, Elias and Flora, had just moved there from Chicago, Illinois because of their uncle Robert purchasing a huge plot of land and were both members of the local town church.
But let's get back to Walt. He first developed his interest in drawing during his early childhood days after being paid to draw a horse that belonged to the retired neighbourhood doctor. When he moved to Kansas City, Walt took art classes and found work delivering the local newspaper and was introduced to the world of theatrical vaudeville by one of his boyhood friends, Walt Pfeiffer. After graduating from the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts at the age of 18, he landed a job as a commercial illustrator at the tender age of 18 and first met fellow cartoonist Ubbe Errt Iwerks, or Ub, as he was often referred to. Yes, from that moment onwards, the two of them instantly became the very best of friends as well as inseparable companions and partners. Together with Walt's older brother Roy tagging along, they both found success and failure working under Universal, especially when they were forced to quit the studio because of reductions to their payroll.
To compensate for the loss, the three of them, along with two aspiring animators known as Les Clark and Johnny Cannon, founded their own studio in Burbank, California called the Disney Bros. Cartoon Studio. Everything was fine and production went smoothly until the fateful day when Walt drew some concept designs for the studio's very first character - a sentient star with the heartful mind and naïve innocence of a small child. However, his friends were heavily against the idea suggested that he draw a mouse character with a pear shaped body, thin limbs, and an elongated nose. Walt begrudgingly obliged to the idea, but still held onto the dream that the sentient star might someday have a place within the larger scope of his potential legacy. Then, that very same night, he wished upon the brightest star in the sky to become a great success in his own right, and with the rising morning sun, he saw something amazing...
THE STAR HAD BEEN GIVEN LIFE!
You see, the cosmic stardust that had been produced the night before took notice of Walt's plea and bestowed its' magic onto the childlike star so he could act as his conscience and personal assistant behind the scenes. And assist him the star did! At first going by the simple but fitting name of Star, his first act was to sprinkle his own stardust onto Walt's mouse character and give him life before naming him Willie Mouse, at which point Walt's friends were astonished by his mere presence and what he was capable of, but warmly welcomed him into their little operation after introducing themselves.
And so, as the studio gradually evolved into The Walt Disney Company over time after the success of it's first cartoon, Steamboat Willie, hiring even more employees and creating even more characters by the day, the partnership between Walt and Star grew even stronger than ever. Star especially began to form a bond with the company's now-expansive reserve of characters, some of them having been designed for projects that would never be, and came to view them as not just creations, but lifelong friends, promising them a land where they could make their own dreams come true and live in freedom from any form of oppression. Essentially, he promised them their very own home.
Eventually, Walt came up with a brand new idea to bolster the company's influence over modern culture - an amusement park where his now-hundreds of fans could experience his brand of magic for themselves, christened Disneyland. That very amusement park formed the very basis of Star's inspiration in creating his friends' new home, and after a week of tinkering over watercolours, pencils, and the original blueprints for the project, he had finally done it. In a matter of minutes, Willie was given the signal for his animated brethren to begin their mass exodus towards the hand-drawn masterpiece, with the colonization and establishment of their society, named Disneyville, beginning shortly thereafter. Sadly, this time of prosperity was not to last for very long, because on December 15th, 1966, Walt succumbed to his death from lung cancer at the age of 65 after a lifelong addiction to smoking, emotionally devastating everyone who had known him, including Star.
However, Star knew inside his solar-powered heart that this was no time for grieving and something had to be done in alleviating the dire matter. To that end, he had no choice but to embody his fallen friend in tangible form and take Walt's name in place of his own, becoming a deity in the process. As for Willie and the original settlers of Disneyville, they had all long since passed away, but their time alive had laid the very foundations for what their town would eventually turn into. Those who came after them would pass down the story of their ancestors from generation to generation and strive to make their home a better place to live for all. They would also worship Star, or Walt, as he was now known, as the one true creator of all life and the source of all magic, praying to him nightly to ensure their continued prosperity and protection from those who would do them any harm.
Ever since then, the town of Disneyville has been standing the test of time, even in the strongest corporate shakeups.
And that is where the story of one plucky mouse and his band of friends begins...
