Anita the Animata
Chapter 3
"New Friends"
It was a standard day at the office for Anita, she was just finishing her lunch break and doing some research in the animation library. Specifically, looking at some old Mickey Mouse animation tests. "I hope that when I first try animating a character, it'll look as seamless as this." she said before heading off to her office half an hour later.
Once she entered, she looked around at how she started decorating it of the past few days since she got hired the previous week. She looked across the hallway and thought she saw a very familiar shadow. Anita curiously looked and saw it was just an old, timey movie camera with a light shining on it to make a shadow of Mickey Mouse's head on the wall. Not too far away, she also saw a spherical jar with paint brushes in it casting a shadow in such a way that made it look like the head of a rabbit.
'Those look a bit like Mickey and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.' Anita thought. Next thing she knew, the whirlwind-like vortex appeared and engulfed her. She soon found herself outside of the old Disney studio on Hyperion Avenue. "Gosh! I always wanted to see this place! I bet Walt and Roy are inside waiting for me." she said with enthusiasm before she walked through the gate.
To her surprise, Roy Disney showed up. "Say, are you Anita?" he asked. "That's my name, and you must be Roy Disney. Walt told me about you." Anita answered. "Well, Walt was hoping to see you again, come on in." Roy said as he escorted the young lady inside the building. Immediately she felt the history she had read about coming to life, almost as if it was seeping through the walls.
Roy showed her around before they arrived at Walt's office. "Anita! Good to see you, old friend." Walt said as he and Anita shook hands. "Good to see you, too, Walt. But, how exactly did you get all this?" Anita asked, curiously. "Well, Laugh-o-Grams ended up going out of business halfway through the production of Alice's Wonderland. I decided to get on a train and head to Hollywood, so I sold my camera and off I went." Walt answered.
"Oh, dear. Well, what about Alice's Wonderland? Did you finish it?" Anita asked. "Well, when I arrived in California, I originally wanted to get into the live action feature business and leave animation behind me because it seemed that I was too late for that, so I decided to stay with my uncle Robert on Kingswell Avenue and pursue my goal of being a director. But they all turned me down, so I turned back to animation." Walt answered.
"As for Alice, I decided to send what I had over to a film distributor in New York named Margaret Winkler just four years ago. It took her no time at all to send me a telegram response." he added. "He came and convinced me to leave the sanitarium, which I did, and join him in his endeavor. I haven't had a relapse of tuberculosis since." Roy added. "At first we called the company The Disney Brothers Studio. But either way, I bought a secondhand camera and we got Virginia Davis and her family to come out to California so we could make more Alice Comedies, which is the name of the series of shorts we made following Alice's Wonderland, and our original company headquarters was on Kingswell Avenue." Walt continued.
"I eventually joined in." said a familiar voice. It was Ub Iwerks. "Ub! How are you?" Anita said before shaking his hand. "Oh, I'm fine, thanks." Ub replied. "Anyway, me and Roy moved into a house just opposite of uncle Robert's and, admittedly, we did get on each other's nerves." Walt said. "But things changed because, once I got a steady income, I proposed to my childhood sweetheart, or I should say my wife, Edna." Roy pointed out.
"Well, congratulations, Roy." Anita said as she shook the man's hand. "I eventually found a sweetheart of my own, a girl who I hired to ink and paint the celluloids, Lilian. Just a couple years ago, we got married. In fact it was three months after Roy got married." Walt added. "Looks like both of the Disney Brothers are fathers now." Anita said before shaking Walt's hand.
"Just a week before me and Lilian went on our honeymoon to Mt. Rainer, me and Roy paid the down payment for this very building. Sometime after, we learned that Margaret J. Winkler married a man named Charles Mintz, and he was a bit of a hard man to bargain with. Well, Charles wasn't all that thrilled with the Alice Comedies and even I had to admit that they ran their course, so he ordered for a series on behalf of Universal Pictures that's to be all-animated and feature a new star." Walt continued.
"Speaking of whom, Walt, here he comes now." Ub said. "Here who comes?" Anita asked before she saw, to her bafflement and surprise, a cartoon rabbit with blue shorts. "Well, well, who do we have here?" the rabbit asked. "Anita, meet Oswald. Oswald the Lucky Rabbit." Walt said. "Anita, huh? Nice to meet ya!" Oswald said as he shook hands with the girl. "Pleasure." Anita said with a smile, though inside, she was fangirling. 'Oh, my, gumdrops! I can't believe I'm shaking hands with THE Oswald the Lucky Rabbit!' she thought.
"How did he get here? How is a cartoon character able to come to life?" she asked, amazed and excited. "Well, it's because Walt simply had that spark of brilliance. And a little belief and imagination didn't hurt, either. And once he drew and painted me into visible existence and made me able to move, I came to life." Oswald explained.
"Sounds like magic, to me." Anita said. "Actually, we call it imagic. A play on the words imagination and magic." Ub said. "I'll have to keep that in mind." Anita replied. "Just like you'll keep in mind the name of our studio is and always will be Walt Disney Studios." Walt added. Soon, Anita was leaving the studio lot when the whirlwind returned. This time, it took her forward in time, as evidenced by a discarded newspaper saying the date was November of 1928.
"Whoa. This is the month, the YEAR, Disney's mascot was born!" she said in surprise before heading up to the gates and being welcomed by none other than Oswald. "Hey, Anita. No see, long time." he said. "Hi, Oswald, what's happening around the studio?" she asked. "Things have been hopping more than me! Come on, let's talk with Walt and I'll show you." Oswald answered before they headed toward Walt's office. "Walt, Oswald told me that things are jumping around here. What's going on?" Anita asked.
"Well, I better start from the beginning." Walt replied as Anita sat down. "Well, it wasn't long after Oswald here made it big in the movies that me and Roy bought adjoining lots not far from the studio and we had a very special home built. My mother-in-law, whom I've treated like a queen, lived with us along with my sister-in-law Hazel and her teenage daughter, Marjorie. I believe it was last Christmas or the one before where I gave my wife a Chow Chow puppy, she named it Sunnee." he explained.
"Well, that's just sweet." Anita said with a smile. "So, by this past February, the contract for Oswald's time in the theaters was up for renewal, so me, Lily and Oswald went to New York to strike up a new deal with Mintz. But that's when I got a shocker, Mintz tried to buy me out and hire me for a salary just like he hired away most of my staff except for Ub." Walt continued.
"Well, that's just harsh. Did Roy hear about this?" Anita asked. "He certainly did, I sent him a telegram and told him the news and Ub even confirmed it. So I promised from that day forward I'd never work for anyone else ever again. On the way back and after we got here, I was brainstorming about a new character that would be completely owned by my company. I decided to settle on a mouse and figured his name would be Mortimer." Walt replied.
"But me and Lili agreed that Mortimer wasn't that strong a name, it needed to have a ring to it. So Lili suggested the name, Mickey." Oswald added. "Well, Ub and me created Mickey in total secrecy, but we knew that Mickey's debut would have to be revolutionary, so we added something that only live action movies are just starting to put in; synchronized sound." Walt pointed out. They then heard a humming before the door opened to reveal the mouse, the myth, the legend himself, Mickey.
'Oh, my, gumdrops! Mickey Mouse! Pinch me, I'm dreaming.' Anita thought. "Hey there. I'm Mickey Mouse. Who are you?" the anthropomorphic rodent asked. "Name's Anita. Nice to meet you." she said before shaking his hand. "We just put the final touches on the editing of the film Mickey's gonna debut in. It's called Steamboat Willie, and I want you to come with me for its big debut at the Colony Theater in New York." Walt said.
"The entire Disney staff will be there." Oswald added. "Including me, Oswald, my girlfriend, Minnie Mouse, and even Oswald's own sweetheart, Ortensia." Mickey pointed out. "Well, gosh. If you want me to be there, by all means, I'll be there." Anita said with a smile. After she left the office, she headed into the ladies' room and found the whirlwind was surrounding her. This time, her clothes turned into a black Chanel Ford Dress, fancy heels, bobbed hair and a cloche hat before she found herself outside the Colony Theater, though she knew it was called the Broadway Theater in her time period.
'Wow, this is the place. This is where Walt and Mickey made history.' she thought. She soon saw herself in the reflection of a film poster encased in glass. "My clothes... I'm... I'm..." she began to say before someone came up behind her. "Gorgeous." they said. It was Lilian Disney, accompanied by her husband, brother in-law, sister-in-law and some others. "Oh, thank you, Mrs. Disney. I'm Anita, your husband invited me to the premier." Anita replied.
"Yes, and you'll have a special seat up in the box seats with Mickey, Minnie, Oswald and Ortensia." Walt said before pointing towards them and a giant cat. "Thanks, Walt. See you inside." Anita replied. "Hey, Oswald, Mickey. And you two must be Ortensia and Minnie." she said before shaking their hands. "And you are?" she asked the massive cat. "Pete's the name, sister. And don't you forget it." Pete replied, gruffly. "Sure." Anita responded, seeming wary of the big black cat. "Well, this is the place. The same theater where I made my debut last year." Oswald said with a smile. "And where Mickey is gonna make history." Minnie pointed out.
"Well, what are we standing around for? Let's go." Anita said with excitement in her voice. They entered, found their box, took their seats and the lights went down as the screen did and the projector started to flicker to life. The film started and the audience, even Anita, was amazed at what they saw. Everyone laughed at the gags, oohed and awed at the synchronized sound effects, and when the short came to an end, they all applauded.
After the film ended and everyone had left the theater, Anita found herself once again engulfed by the whirlwind before she found she was back in her office. "Well, that was quite a trip." she said before she heard a familiar voice humming. She looked down the hallway and saw Mickey and Oswald walking down the hallway together. "Hey, Anita." Mickey called. "Mickey! Oswald! It's good to see you." Anita replied before shaking their hands.
"Well, we've known you only for most of our lives." Oswald pointed out, puzzling Anita. "Oh, don't act so surprised. We know you've been traveling back in time to see how the Disney legacy started and where it went. In fact, we're happy you're learning about the history of the company." he continued. "Anyway, we have a big surprise for you. Follow us." Mickey added. "Surprise?" Anita asked before following behind the mouse and rabbit.
After walking through the hallways, she found herself outside the door to Section T. "Wait, aren't only authorized personnel supposed to go in there?" she asked. "Yeah, and that includes you. Because we managed to convince the boss that you deserve to have access to this part of the studio." Oswald replied before he opened the door that led to a long staircase. They all headed down the staircase before they entered through another door.
On the other side, was a sight that made Anita's mouth drop open; an entire, MASSIVE room that was something of a gathering room for ALL of the Disney cartoons over the years. "Oh, my, squash. Are you kidding me?" she asked. "Nope, this is the place where all of the toons throughout Disney history meet up every day. There are portals all over the place that lead to our different worlds, if we want to head home." Mickey answered.
"I definitely think I'm gonna like working at Disney now." Anita said with a big happy smile.