Anita the Animata
Concieved by Ashley Masenado
Written by Baldwin17
Chapter 1
"A Magical New Day"
It all started with a phone call. One that a young lady named Anita Imahin had been hoping for. "Hello?" she asked. "Congratulations, Miss Imahin, your application for internship at Walt Disney Studios has been accepted. Please report to the office tomorrow at 8 o'clock am so that we can conduct your interview. Have a magical day." said the voice on the other end of the phone.
The call ended, Anita dropped her phone in surprise, but that feeling of surprise turned to absolute joy with a scream of excitement. She immediately called her family and told her that her dream of working at the Walt Disney Studio, a dream she had held on to ever since she saw her first Disney movie as a child. She spent the rest of the day preparing for her forthcoming interview. 'This is my big break! I'll finally get to work at the studio where dreams can come true.' she thought as she got her things ready.
The next day, Anita arrived at the doorsteps of the House of Mouse itself, the Walt Disney Studios. She was soon greeted by a familiar face. "Hello, you must be Anita. I'm Don Hahn, and I'll be your guide around the studio." he said. "I'm familiar with you, Mr. Hahn, you helped create The Lion King, one of my favorite movies." Anita replied. "Glad to see people still love the work I've done, and I'm just as glad to see someone who wants to work in the house that Mickey Mouse helped to build." Don said.
"As you can see, this is the Roy E. Disney animation building and the front is adorned by Mickey's sorcerer hat from Fantasia, but inside the building is where the movie magic happens. Shall we go in?" he continued. "Of course, I've been waiting my whole life for this." Anita replied with a smile before she walked in with Don and saw the whole studio buzzing with activity. "You'll have to get used to the busy nature of this place, we're always working on new projects like Moana 2 and Zootopia 2." Don said. Anita just smiled, she felt like her dreams were finally coming to life.
Don showed her around the various parts of the studio, yet one door with a T on it caught her attention. "Mr. Hahn, what's in that room?" Anita asked. "That door? Oh, that's Section T. Only authorized personnel are allowed in there." Don replied. Curious, Anita simply nodded, knowing that Don wouldn't be able to tell her anymore than that.
A bit later, Anita found herself in the office of the Disney Animation Studios president, Clark Spencer. "So, Miss Imahin, I assume you've gotten the full tour of the studio?" he asked. "Yes, sir." Anita replied, though she knew if she asked about Section T, she wouldn't get any answers from him. "We noticed your work in that email you sent us, quite impressive. You're from the Philippines, right?" Clark asked. "Yes, I am. My entire family is from the Philippines." Anita answered.
"Well, if these images of the more tropical parts of the country are anything to go by, I'd say you have a knack for art." Clark said. "Even I thought so because they reminded me of the backgrounds we used for The Lion King." Don pointed out. Anita felt proud knowing her work was being compared to the backgrounds used for her favorite film. "Well, since we accepted your application for an internship here at the studio, allow me to formally welcome you to the Disney Animation Studios Family." Clark said before shaking her hand.
"Feel free to spend the day looking around the studio. But if you should come across the door to Section T, don't try to open it. Only those who are authorized can enter, and only one of the two originals can let you have access." he added. "One of the two originals?" Anita asked. "You'll know them when you see them. Now go ahead and look around the studio at your leisure. We'll have your office ready by tomorrow. Punch in time is 8 and clock out time is 5 in the afternoon. Lunch is at 12:30." Clark replied.
Anita nodded and headed out and wandered around. 'I wonder what they mean by one of the originals will let me in Section T.' she thought. After she climbed some stairs, she saw a picture of the company founder, Walter Elias Disney. 'Gee, I wish I could've met you. You're practically my movie hero. My inspiration.' she thought as she smiled. Suddenly, she saw a light floating around her head.
"What is that?" she said before she saw a vortex of wind swirl around her feet before it surrounded her. "What's going on?!" she said in a panic before the vortex vanished and she saw herself in a city. "Where am I? And what the heck am I wearing?" she said before she noticed her clothes changed to something that was from the 1910s. Anita found a newspaper on the sidewalk in front of her and noticed the name of the paper was the Kansas City Star, the month was December, the date was the 29th and the year was 1916.
'Holey gouda cheese! I traveled back in time! But, why December 29th of 1916? And why Kansas City?' she wondered. But she soon saw a bunch of boys entering the Convention Hall. "What's going on over there?" she wondered before she went to investigate. She ultimately went inside and saw all the boys were about to sit down and watch a film. Anita ultimately bumped into one of them.
"Oh, sorry." she said. "No, it was my fault, honest." replied the boy. "Oh, allow me to introduce myself. I'm Walter, Walter Elias Disney." he said before extending his hand. "Anita. Just Anita." the young lady replied, knowing just who she was talking to as she shook his hand. 'Oh, my, gumdrops! I'm shaking hands with a teenage Walt Disney!' she thought. "Hey, you want to watch the film? I promise I won't tell anyone you snuck in." Walt offered. "Sure." Anita said with a smile.
They soon sat together and the lights came down before the film began, it was Snow White. 'Wait, I guess I did travel back in time, to Walt's teenage years. This was when he saw the silent film version of Snow White starring Marguerite Clark, the film that inspired him to make Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs!' she thought as she looked at Walt's face and saw him mesmerized and transfixed by the flickering images on screen.
When the movie was over, Anita and Walt were outside the building getting to know each other. "So, where are you from?" Walt asked. "Oh, well, I just recently got here." Anita replied. "New in town, huh? Well, I was originally born in Chicago, December 1st of 1901. I was named after a pastor my parents knew and I'm the youngest of four boys. I have one sister, Ruth. My brothers are Herbert, Raymond and Roy. Roy's the oldest and Ruth is the youngest of the family, I was two when she was born. My dad, Elias, built the house I was born in with his own two hands." Walt explained.
"Apparently there was a rise in crime in Chicago, so my family and I packed up and moved to the town of Marceline where my dad bought a farm. I would often get in trouble for painting on the side of the house with tar or scribbling on the walls of the barn with a stick, so my dad figured I was the black sheep of the family. I would often go to a giant tree in the yard that I called the Dreaming Tree." he continued. "The dreaming tree?" Anita asked. "It's where I would sit and imagine things, often I sat under that tree looking for inspiration, to reflect on things and pray every Sunday." Walt explained.
"My aunt Margaret gave me a drawing tablet and art supplies when I was seven years old, I sold my first sketches to neighbors, one of them was Doc Sherwood, the town doctor. He wanted me to make a sketch of his horse, Rupert. As I grew up on that farm, my dad taught me to appreciate the value of hard work, even thought he had gotten sick with typhoid." he continued. "Your dad had typhoid?" Anita asked, shocked.
"Yeah, must've been something he ate or drank. My aunt helped me realize that there's power in art, enough to make the beholder happy, sad or even inspired. When I wasn't drawing pictures for neighbors, I would be hanging out with my uncle Mike, he was a steam engineer." Walt replied. "Steam engineer? You mean he drove a train?" Anita asked. "Yeah, I always loved trains ever since I arrived in Marceline." Walt replied.
"Eventually, my mom chose to sell the farm and move into town so that my dad could get better, because farming was no longer possible for him. As time went on, Marceline changed with the times. Automobiles and electric street lights came up, everything was changing all around us. My dad managed to recover, and we moved to this city, Kansas City, just five years ago." he continued. "So, you're a country boy at heart, huh?" Anita teased.
"Proud of it, I'm sure you'd understand." Walt replied. "So, what do you often do aside from school and drawing?" Anita asked. "Well, my dad bought a paper route when I was nine or ten years old that pays $3 a customer, with 650 customers between me and Roy across 20 square blocks." Walt answered. "You and Roy deliver all those papers? On foot?" Anita asked, surprised. "Yes, we have to get up at 3:30 in the morning before school, rain or shine. I think it was because my dad is looking to buy more shares of the O-Zell Jelly Company, at least that's what Roy says." Walt answered.
"Did you even have time to prepare for school because of this paper route?" Anita asked. "Yeah, because we had to have our papers delivered at 4:30 in the morning, so we woke up an hour ahead of time to get our papers." Walt replied. "My house is at 3028 Bellefontaine Ave." he added.
"The local barber, Mr. Hudson, would give me a free trim for every picture I made and when I didn't need a haircut, he'd pay me 15 cents and have my works framed. My dad thought it was enough to get me a formal education in art at the Kansas City Art Institute. Over time I got stage ambitions and me and a friend of mine, named Walt Pfeiffer, formed a junior vaudeville duo called The Two Walts. The Pfeiffer family would often go to vaudeville shows and the local movie house. Me and Pfeiffer would often do gags that Charlie Chaplin did." he continued.
"When I was 13 years old, I learned that the frame of a film was just a picture, one that I could draw." he added. Eventually, Walt heard a horn honking and saw that it was his dad coming to pick him up. "Oh, that's my dad. I better get going." he said before heading to his dad's car. "So long, Anita! I'll be seeing ya!" he called out as he and Anita waved goodbye to each other.
After Walt was out of sight, Anita saw the vortex forming around her feet before it engulfed her once again. She found herself back at the Walt Disney Animation studio exactly where she was standing, in front of the picture of Walt. 'What was that all about?' she wondered before looking at her watch. "Whoa! Guess time flies when you're traveling back through it. Better get down to the lunch room, I'm starving." she said before she looked Walt's picture one last time.
"I'll be seeing ya." Anita said quietly before heading off to her lunch break, knowing that working at Disney would be a lot different than she thought it would be.