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Some people believe that rejection is the worst thing that can happen to an idea, and in many cases this is true. But sometimes an idea is best left to germinate a little longer, allowing its seeds to take root in the soil. When the board of directors took so favorably to Oswald's idea, Mickey responded with his characteristically exuberant "Hot dog!" even though he knew from experience that the idea would most likely be smothered before it ever produced anything.
Telling Oswald should have been the easy part. Mickey hadn't realized he was making a rookie mistake until poor Oswald completely flipped out. It took ten minutes of Minnie's intervention to calm him down and demand Mickey tell her what in the world he'd said. Verbatim, Mickey repeated the good news, "The board loved the idea and they want something up and running by the summer," followed by the three words that had caused the rabbit to panic, "of this year."
From there, the mouse and company did what they were best known for doing, pulling together as a team. Oswald and Mickey divided the responsibilities with Oswald handling the overall design and premise of the story, which was what he'd clearly wanted. This took as much pressure off the lucky rabbit as possible to give him room to figure things out. Mickey offered to deal with the casting, and considering his familiarity with the Disney lineup that should have been a smooth process.
Until it wasn't.
Late morning of the following day Mickey and Daisy were working on the official cast call announcement when Humphrey the bear happened to drop by the offices. The duck and mouse informally encouraged him to go out for a spot in the story. Then they set it aside and went to lunch. When they came back, they found over two hundred applications from Silly Symphonies performers alone. The official announcement went out as late that afternoon as they could justify. That was day one.
On day ten, in the interest of containing the chaos, the board made a command decision that there would be seven spots and they would be limited to film characters. Donald graciously offered to deliver the heartbreaking news. Later that day the announcement was amended to read 'feature length film' characters when the definition of the word 'film' was brought into question many, many times. This was further amended two days later to read 'characters with speaking roles' to trim out the background characters, which naturally lead to a bit of tension defusing for Dumbo and Dopey.
The midpoint came fast and Mickey's smile had all but vanished. Probably more had been accomplished on the project than it felt like, but the mouse was hearing the main theme of The Sorcerer's Apprentice in his head on a continuous loop. He sat in the Gideon meeting room with Minnie, Goofy, Pete, the ducks and the chipmunks, trying to determine how close they were to finalizing the lineup.
Minnie stood behind him, rubbing his ears. "So the board wants the classic fairy tale era, the renaissance, and the modern period represented," she said.
"Isn't that half the cast?" asked Daisy.
"I can probably push it from seven to ten," answered Mickey, "but it's still gonna be princess heavy."
"Well, we need to decide quickly on the renaissance," said Daisy. "Ariel and Jasmine are bout to start pulling each other's hair."
Mickey turned to Goofy. "What about Belle?"
"She says she's fine sittin' this one out."
"Okay, we'll come back to that. Let's start with the classic era."
"Y'know," said Chip and/or Dale "it doesn't have to be a princess. The period just has to be represented."
"Maleficent," interjected Pete.
Donald gave him a dismissing look. "Ah, you'll never get her."
"You gimme ten minutes, pipsqueak, and I'll have Maleficent on board wit' dis."
"Well gawrsh, Pete," said Goofy, "She hasn't even applied yet."
"Maleficent don' put in no application! Invitation only! Dat's her policy!"
Mickey put his hands down in surrender. "If you can get her, Pete." He took in a deep breath." All right, what about the modern era?"
"Anna or Elsa," said Donald.
Daisy gave him a displeased look. "You know there are two other films from that period, right?"
Donald silently absorbed the glance for a few seconds before turning back to the group again. "So Anna or Elsa?"
Oswald appeared in the doorway as unobtrusively as he could. Mickey snapped into his professional demeanor as soon as he saw him. "Hey Oswald! How's it goin' on your end?"
The rabbit shifted uncomfortably. "Designing an island is harder than I thought. Do you think the board would mind if I borrowed a map of Neverland as a template?"
"Sure. You could probably just use Neverland if you don't want to re-invent the wheel."
Oswald blinked. "Can we do that?"
"Uh-huh. You've got access to the entire company catalog. Anything Disney owns is fair game."
"So could I maybe cut and paste Pride Rock into the scenery?"
Minnie chimed in. "You can do whatever you want. Cartoons, movies, attractions. In fact the audience might even enjoy figuring out where everything is from."
"Well, that makes things a lot easier." Oswald scanned the table full of ruffled feathers and tired eyes. "I'm really sorry about all this, you guys."
Mickey's smile didn't change, but somehow the genuineness behind it had fully awakened. "Oswald, never apologize for an idea. Especially a good one."
"Yeah," chuckled Goofy, "We wouldn't all be sufferin' like this if it weren't a good idea."
"Okay, not exactly helping Goofy," said Daisy, "But the big guy's right. This is all part of the process."
"And it's worth doing'," Donald added.
Smiles around the table greeted the rabbit (except for a half-smile from Pete, which was as good as it got). "Thank you," he sighed. "I guess I just didn't realize this was going to get so out of control."
Mickey trotted over to him, giving him a friendly nudge. "Ah, ya can't control ideas. Best you can do is try to keep up with 'em."
"Well," Oswald grinned, "rabbits are pretty fast."
"And we're all right behind ya!"
The postman dropped the mail off at 43038 Termite Terrace, retrieved by its recipient shortly thereafter. The world's most famous bunny flipped through three fan letters, the water bill, and a few magazine offers before his eyes landed on a curious envelope with the unmistakable three circled insignia of the rival studio. He had only just confirmed it was correctly addressed to him when the familiar yapping of his next door neighbor's son drew his attention.
He knelt down to greet the little bulldog through the gaps in the wooden fence that was more decorative than useful. "Eh, what's up Tyke?"
The puppy barked excitedly, with his tail uncontrollably batting the grass behind him. Bugs reached through with a gloved hand and stroked the back of the dog's neck. A few moments later Spike, the dad appeared, scooping his son and resting his arm on the fence. "Sorry 'bout that Bugs. This little guy got away from me while I was dealin' with a pest control problem."
"I guess some people have to bring work home with 'em," the rabbit laughed.
Tyke gave a tiny yap and pawed at the Disney letter, drawing his dad's attention to it. "Whacha got there? You gettin' mail from the mouse house now?"
"Probably another cease and desist letter." He tore it open and scanned quickly through it. "Dear Mr. Bunny...on behalf of the studio...for all your hard work filming Roger Rabbit-" he stopped and gave a puzzled look to Spike. "I was there for a day and a half. Never even learned my lines." They both shrugged and Bugs continued reading in silence. "Really? They want to cast me in a summer program?"
"At Disney?"
"Warner Brothers is never gonna go for that." Bugs re-examined the envelope in disbelief.
"Hey, if I were you I'd go down to the studio to see if they're serious."
"You think so?" Bugs showed the letter to Tyke. "What do you think? Should I check this out?" He received an affirmative bark from the puppy. "Yeah. At the very least I could try to get you Pluto's autograph."
The little tail wagged even harder, but the sound of an explosion on the opposite side of Spike's home abruptly ended the conversation. "Excuse me, Bugs. I have to go murder a woodpecker."
"I'm here if you need me," said Bugs as they scurried off, still a little distracted by the invitation in his hand. He read it three more times, not quite comprehending the rationale behind it. Finally he just gave in.
"Eh, it's Disney. I got nothin' to lose."
Continue to Chapter Ten
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