Page 21
A N A T O M Y o f a P I T C H
What follows is only one example of what is commonly referred-to as a "pitch". A sales pitch, as in vying for the attention of someone (or some company) in a position to facilitate the production / creation of an intellectual property either owned by you or represented by you. In this particular case, it was my intention to acquire the interest of Walt Disney and company, which had produced the original Sorcerer's Apprentice segment as part of their 1939 masterpiece FANTASIA.
The exact details of how the pitch was made and who was involved are not important to this presentation. I felt it would be interesting, however, perhaps a bit educational, to provide this little piece of recent history to those who visit here. And might find this to be of value for one reason or another. Keep in mind that unsolicited pitches (new offerings not specifically asked-for) are the most difficult to sell. As always, a combination of luck and quality are essential and in this instance, one or the other was slightly off-the-mark. Which is a nice way of saying the idea simply didn't fly. In spite of dragon wings aplenty.
That said, this is a fun read, I think, and I hope you enjoy it. If you read it. Even though you didn't ask to. Well, you know what I mean. This is pretty much the full and complete original text of the presentation which was done by mail. A package that included text and newly created images rendered especially for the Apprentice Project. Subsequent the outline of the story below are the actual "pictures" which served to complement the basic concept that was proposed.
Note: The name and image of Mickey Mouse is owned by Walt Disney and except for purposes of satire and parody, no attempt is made to profit from unauthorized renderings of copyrighted material. Therefore the images displayed are for informational purposes only and are not for sale in any form.
The exact details of how the pitch was made and who was involved are not important to this presentation. I felt it would be interesting, however, perhaps a bit educational, to provide this little piece of recent history to those who visit here. And might find this to be of value for one reason or another. Keep in mind that unsolicited pitches (new offerings not specifically asked-for) are the most difficult to sell. As always, a combination of luck and quality are essential and in this instance, one or the other was slightly off-the-mark. Which is a nice way of saying the idea simply didn't fly. In spite of dragon wings aplenty.
That said, this is a fun read, I think, and I hope you enjoy it. If you read it. Even though you didn't ask to. Well, you know what I mean. This is pretty much the full and complete original text of the presentation which was done by mail. A package that included text and newly created images rendered especially for the Apprentice Project. Subsequent the outline of the story below are the actual "pictures" which served to complement the basic concept that was proposed.
Note: The name and image of Mickey Mouse is owned by Walt Disney and except for purposes of satire and parody, no attempt is made to profit from unauthorized renderings of copyrighted material. Therefore the images displayed are for informational purposes only and are not for sale in any form.
The Continuing Adventures Of
THE SORCERER'S APPRENTICE
The Lost Episodes / The Untold Stories
How the apprentice (Mickey) turned himself into a mouse/dragon hybrid, then changed other animals and even people into similar hybrids, all the result of his continued, humorous misadventures in using the magic he learned from his mentor, the Sorcerer, as imagined in the original feature film FANTASIA. And in particular, the sequence based on the musical score for The Sorcerer’s Apprentice by Paul Dukas.
In this newly adapted but unsold sequel to the original Disney classic, not to be confused with the live action film by the same name, or its live action sequel(s) starring Nicolas Cage, things soon get out of control once Mickey again dons the Sorcerer’s hat and uses his wand to perform feats of magic.
As part of an original trilogy authored by Robert Anton (DRAGONIA: Tales Of The Golden Talon) the pre-existing hybrid character illustrations submitted for consideration were, in theory, presented as conceptual guidelines designed for use in the new Sorcerer's Apprentice story presented here. The sum total of all characters, however, were also offered for use in any other story and in any other form or format as deemed suitable for future discussion and development.
The basic idea involves a fanciful take on the traditional theme of Cowboys and (versus) Indians (Amerindians) as a broad, overall backdrop to the story. Hollywood recently used this same idea when it entitled the movie, COWBOYS AND ALIENS starring Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig. In the version outlined here, the theme could be generally described as “Cowboys and Dragons” – a logical, immediately humorous redux and extension of the original Sorcerer’s Apprentice story, ideally suited for CGI animation.
This is only the first of many possible misadventures of The Sorcerer's Apprentice that take place after Mickey has left the dungeon where the original story was situated. Referred to possibly as “The Lost Episodes”, “The Untold Stories”, or simply “The Further Adventures of The Sorcerer's Apprentice”, we follow Mickey as he journeys out west to start a new life as a serious magician/sorcerer.
Here then, is an outline treatment for how Mickey and the hybrids might be presented in terms of one possible episode:
COWBOYS And DRAGONS
Starring
Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse and Pluto
As part of the original animated segment (as with all other segments) in FANTASIA, there was no dialogue or sound effects other than the classical music scores played throughout. It should be noted therefore that COWBOYS And DRAGONS could be done in either form, sans all dialogue with music only, or with music, sound effects and possible dialogue. As author of this specific narrative, I imagined music only, but with some sound effects added.
The story opens with the same Mickey from the original Sorcerer’s Apprentice standing alone in a cemetery with his head bowed and wiping a tear from one eye. In the distance, mourners have buried the Sorcerer who has died of old age. The somber ringing of Bells is heard.
Mickey returns to his room in the dungeon (with Pluto) to pack his things as he prepares to leave for parts unknown. A man knocks on the door and when Mickey answers, is handed the robe, wand, hat and book owned by the Sorcerer; he wanted Mickey to inherit the special possessions after he passed.
The scene ends with Mickey leaving the castle, knapsack over shoulder, Pluto at his side, and heading down the road where a sign reads “Go West Young Mouse.”
We see Mickey next as he comes upon some old western town. Depending on what the time period was for the original FANTASIA sequence, then the town would, of course, reflect the same time period. Could be late seventeen hundreds, eighteen hundreds, or even turn of the century. Possibly more modern.
Mickey gets a room in a hotel, but because of Pluto, has to take a flat in the basement, similar to what he had back at the castle. He’s exhausted, puts his stuff down, flops on the bed and takes a nap.
A whole new sequence opens in some imaginary land, maybe on Earth, maybe elsewhere. Giant dragons appear to be the dominant, ruling life in this otherworldly place. Rendered in as serious a manner as was the dinosaur sequence in FANTASIA, there is no indication of overt comedy as the scene first moves towards and then inside a medieval-type castle surrounded by forest and mountains. A stormy sky looms overhead with lightning flashes and the rumbling of thunder.
Inside the castle, dragons sit around in long flowing robes, hats and other garments. In a humorous reversal of roles, it is the dragons in this world who reside in great palaces and mansions. A large number of empty suits of medieval armor adorn the estate's hallways and walls. Within the castle's main room, a huge fireplace is stoked by a young vassal dragon who breathes fire into the fresh logs thrown within a gigantic hearth. As if part of the evening’s entertainment, a grim-looking dragon, himself a sorcerer and dressed accordingly, complete with hat, wand, a hefty book and even a large crystal ball, performs a variety of tricks and stunts for which he receives ample applause.
The sorcerer’s assistant (apprentice) is the same small, youthful dragon whose job it is to also keep the many fireplaces going, making sure they have fresh logs to keep the others warm. Eager to please, but clumsy, he is the dragon equivalent of Mickey in the original FANTASIA story, if the tale had included dragons. As if a repeat of the events from the original story, the inept subordinate yearns to try his hand at doing magic on his own.
Later that night, as the dragon sorcerer and the others sleep, the assistant borrows the hat and wand, then uses a spell he finds in the book to animate an empty suit of armor standing in a corner. He teaches the knight to get logs and dump them into the several fireplaces throughout the castle. Of course it isn’t long before the bodiless suit clinks and clanks about putting more and more logs on, until the hearth(s) are blazing with too much fire, threatening to burn out of control. The dragon apprentice frantically tries to stop the knight and finally takes a hatchet and chops the suit into little pieces. You guessed it. Within a matter of moments, the pieces all become reanimated full-size empty suits of armor, the same as how the broom splinters in FANTASIA turned into zombie-like full-size brooms.
As the fires threaten to engulf the castle in a huge conflagration of flames, the scene slash-cuts to Mickey thrashing about on his bed in the basement, having a nightmare as Pluto barks and tries to wake him up. Mickey finally awakens and wipes the sweat from his head.
Later that same night which is dark and stormy, full of lightning and thunder, Mickey is sipping hot soup in front of the fireplace with Pluto asleep on a rug. The book of magical spells sits on a nearby table. As a sudden gust of wind blows through an upper window, the book flips open, its pages fanned by the wind. Mickey gets up to investigate and sees that the book has stopped on a chapter about dragons, but more specifically about how to change something into a dragon, not unlike changing a broom into a living thing. Something (as we know) with which he has had previous experience.
Shrugging off the earlier nightmare as just a dream, Mickey grabs the wand and decides to experiment. Checking his movements and actions against what it says in the book, Mickey spots a cricket on the floor, says a few magic words and swings the wand about. An instant later amid a puff of smoke, the cricket has turned into a hybrid creature, half dragon, half cricket.
Delighted by the results, Mickey looks around for another “volunteer”. Yup, it's Pluto and at the flick of Mickey’s wrist, the dog suddenly changes into a half dog, half dragon creature. As the scared Pluto bolts up the stairs and runs off, Mickey sees him through the window as the dog flies away via his dragon wings. Mickey decides he better find out how to reverse the process.
While he hurriedly looks through the book, trying to discover the spell for changing things back again, Mickey glimpses himself in a full-length mirror and imagines being all dressed up in his old apprentice garb. Especially the hat! He suddenly realizes that he needs the hat if he’s ever going to fix poor Pluto.
Once the hat and shoes are donned, Mickey again looks in the mirror to check how he looks. He wraps himself in a large throw rug, pretending it's the robe he used to wear, then inadvertently recites the incantation he just learned and dips the wand toward his own reflection in the mirror. Poof! Mickey has changed himself into a dragon hybrid! His clawed hands and feet poke through the torn fabric of his gloves and shoes, and his body now has green scales instead of skin. He’s got funny little dragon horns sticking out of his cheeks, while fins and flukes poke out of other places. Not to mention a pair of leathery wings.
In a panic, he runs up the stairs, through the hotel lobby, then outside trying to get the attention of anyone who will listen. Unfortunately he's been shaking his wand the whole time and everyone he looks at or who looks at him, gets instantly changed into a hybrid. It’s like the wand and hat combo are stuck in gear, are spellbound, so to speak.
Even worse for Mickey, the storm has grown more intense and the whole town has turned out to see what all the commotion is about. Pluto can be heard howling somewhere. A flash of lightning then illuminates the crowd of townsfolk who have gathered in the street and stand staring at Mickey. When his hat slips over his eyes, he jerks the wand still in his hand as he struggles to straighten the hat amid the blowing gusts of wind.
By the time he finally can see again, Mickey has turned everyone into fire-breathing hybrids. It isn't long before the whole town runs amok with hybrids of every description, some of them starting small fires which could burn the whole place down. Where's those water-carrying brooms when Mickey needs them?
Mickey then decides it worked before so he finds a mop, gives it a bucket, brings the thing to life, then chops it up on purpose. We see a repeat, of sorts, where the mops scoop water out of the town well and douse the fires started by the hybrid dragons. The dragons are also burning up the mops as fast as Mickey can make them.
Mickey, who has wings of his own and bears other dragon characteristics, is frantically flipping through the book looking for the page which will give him the spell he needs to put everything back the way it was. When he finally finds it, he accidentally sneezes a short spurt of fire and turns the page to useless ash.
Distraught and hopeless, Mickey plops on a rock next to the well where the mops are still going back and forth, getting water and dousing fires. The rain then comes down in buckets and douses all the fires, but meanwhile the town is still filled with hybrids running around, flying, shooting fire, chasing each other with lots of roaring and the pounding of clawed feet. And since the other fires are out, the mops are now throwing water onto the hybrids themselves.
Pluto finally comes running up and lays down beside Mickey as if scared more by all the excitement and craziness than his own transformation. The situation seems out of control and beyond anyone's ability to fix it. Mickey least of all.
In another scene reminiscent of Disney’s original FANTASIA (the dinosaur segment when rain is falling and the dinos all look up as the Tyrannosaurus Rex appears) Pluto suddenly looks up at the sky, followed by a rapid sequence of others looking up as something big is descending (through the rain) into the town square.
A real dragon, not a hybrid, has appeared out of the lightning-filled clouds, seemingly out of nowhere. Huge and powerful, the dragon also wears a long robe and some kind of mystical hat or headgear. He is the same dragon sorcerer Mickey saw in his dream, but wasn't it just a dream?
Arriving from his world, a land governed by true dragons, he has obviously come to set things right. It’s as if by delving into dragon spells and magic, Mickey has aroused the interest and displeasure of the real dragons, and drawn the one out of his world into ours. The sorcerer then stares down at Mickey and gives him a stern, disapproving look.
The dragon abruptly swerves about, raises up and swipes his forelegs and claws through the air, leaving twinkling stardust in the wake of his sweeping gestures. First one thing, one animal, one person reverts back, then another and within moments all are transformed back. Even Pluto. But not Mickey who's still in hybrid form and very ashamed. The last mop falls to the muddy ground not far away, dropping its single bucket and spilling out its last cargo of water.
While steam and smoke drift off amid the wind and rain, and people and animals return to normal, it's as if they have amnesia and can't remember what happened to them. Even the giant dragon in their midst is invisible to them, to Pluto also, and can only be seen by Mickey himself.
As the frowning dragon lowers his face near Mickey's sheepishly smiling face, the dragon's tail comes around and with its very tip, knocks the hat from Mickey's head and onto the ground next to him. When he does, Mickey then returns to normal and half chokes, half laughs.
A moment later with the storm having passed, the fearsome dragon flaps its wings, lifts aloft and disappears into the moonlit, nighttime sky.
The story concludes with Mickey once again in front of the fireplace, sipping soup with Pluto on the rug. The hat, wand, and book are again sitting on the table nearby. When the book starts to shake, as if ready to flip open at any moment, Mickey grabs a heavy brick, plops it on top of the book, then pets Pluto and resumes his meal.
The scene ends with a small shadow on the wall, near a baseboard, out of sight of Mickey and Pluto. It's the cricket who's still a hybrid. He shoots a tiny burst of fire as the screen fades to black.
THE END
Other episodes could be an ongoing series of mini-stories where Mickey gets into some kind of trouble each time. The hybrids episode COWBOYS And DRAGONS is the first but not necessarily the last adventure of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice series. At least once, this seemed the obvious opportunity for a follow-up sequel to the original story as imagined in FANTASIA.
EPILOGUE
Lastly is the idea of hybridization in and of itself as a positive concept. So-called Green technologies currently used in automobiles and other industries. Add to this the philosophical implications for children that things which are different from themselves such as hybrids, represent a positive message of acceptance and tolerance. And by logical extension, people and ideas that are different from “normal” deserve equal acceptance and tolerance. Ultimately that everything is an amalgam of two or more things that came together to make the one thing better; the best single ideas draw from the qualities of two or more separate elements.
One word in particular – synergy – seems apropos for this idea, both as a concept and a proposed animation project. The term is defined as the working combination of two things to produce an effect greater than the sum of their individual parts. Thus it could be argued that generally speaking, a hybrid can be, in its own way, superior to its separate components or entities as they function solely by themselves.
In this newly adapted but unsold sequel to the original Disney classic, not to be confused with the live action film by the same name, or its live action sequel(s) starring Nicolas Cage, things soon get out of control once Mickey again dons the Sorcerer’s hat and uses his wand to perform feats of magic.
As part of an original trilogy authored by Robert Anton (DRAGONIA: Tales Of The Golden Talon) the pre-existing hybrid character illustrations submitted for consideration were, in theory, presented as conceptual guidelines designed for use in the new Sorcerer's Apprentice story presented here. The sum total of all characters, however, were also offered for use in any other story and in any other form or format as deemed suitable for future discussion and development.
The basic idea involves a fanciful take on the traditional theme of Cowboys and (versus) Indians (Amerindians) as a broad, overall backdrop to the story. Hollywood recently used this same idea when it entitled the movie, COWBOYS AND ALIENS starring Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig. In the version outlined here, the theme could be generally described as “Cowboys and Dragons” – a logical, immediately humorous redux and extension of the original Sorcerer’s Apprentice story, ideally suited for CGI animation.
This is only the first of many possible misadventures of The Sorcerer's Apprentice that take place after Mickey has left the dungeon where the original story was situated. Referred to possibly as “The Lost Episodes”, “The Untold Stories”, or simply “The Further Adventures of The Sorcerer's Apprentice”, we follow Mickey as he journeys out west to start a new life as a serious magician/sorcerer.
Here then, is an outline treatment for how Mickey and the hybrids might be presented in terms of one possible episode:
COWBOYS And DRAGONS
Starring
Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse and Pluto
As part of the original animated segment (as with all other segments) in FANTASIA, there was no dialogue or sound effects other than the classical music scores played throughout. It should be noted therefore that COWBOYS And DRAGONS could be done in either form, sans all dialogue with music only, or with music, sound effects and possible dialogue. As author of this specific narrative, I imagined music only, but with some sound effects added.
The story opens with the same Mickey from the original Sorcerer’s Apprentice standing alone in a cemetery with his head bowed and wiping a tear from one eye. In the distance, mourners have buried the Sorcerer who has died of old age. The somber ringing of Bells is heard.
Mickey returns to his room in the dungeon (with Pluto) to pack his things as he prepares to leave for parts unknown. A man knocks on the door and when Mickey answers, is handed the robe, wand, hat and book owned by the Sorcerer; he wanted Mickey to inherit the special possessions after he passed.
The scene ends with Mickey leaving the castle, knapsack over shoulder, Pluto at his side, and heading down the road where a sign reads “Go West Young Mouse.”
We see Mickey next as he comes upon some old western town. Depending on what the time period was for the original FANTASIA sequence, then the town would, of course, reflect the same time period. Could be late seventeen hundreds, eighteen hundreds, or even turn of the century. Possibly more modern.
Mickey gets a room in a hotel, but because of Pluto, has to take a flat in the basement, similar to what he had back at the castle. He’s exhausted, puts his stuff down, flops on the bed and takes a nap.
A whole new sequence opens in some imaginary land, maybe on Earth, maybe elsewhere. Giant dragons appear to be the dominant, ruling life in this otherworldly place. Rendered in as serious a manner as was the dinosaur sequence in FANTASIA, there is no indication of overt comedy as the scene first moves towards and then inside a medieval-type castle surrounded by forest and mountains. A stormy sky looms overhead with lightning flashes and the rumbling of thunder.
Inside the castle, dragons sit around in long flowing robes, hats and other garments. In a humorous reversal of roles, it is the dragons in this world who reside in great palaces and mansions. A large number of empty suits of medieval armor adorn the estate's hallways and walls. Within the castle's main room, a huge fireplace is stoked by a young vassal dragon who breathes fire into the fresh logs thrown within a gigantic hearth. As if part of the evening’s entertainment, a grim-looking dragon, himself a sorcerer and dressed accordingly, complete with hat, wand, a hefty book and even a large crystal ball, performs a variety of tricks and stunts for which he receives ample applause.
The sorcerer’s assistant (apprentice) is the same small, youthful dragon whose job it is to also keep the many fireplaces going, making sure they have fresh logs to keep the others warm. Eager to please, but clumsy, he is the dragon equivalent of Mickey in the original FANTASIA story, if the tale had included dragons. As if a repeat of the events from the original story, the inept subordinate yearns to try his hand at doing magic on his own.
Later that night, as the dragon sorcerer and the others sleep, the assistant borrows the hat and wand, then uses a spell he finds in the book to animate an empty suit of armor standing in a corner. He teaches the knight to get logs and dump them into the several fireplaces throughout the castle. Of course it isn’t long before the bodiless suit clinks and clanks about putting more and more logs on, until the hearth(s) are blazing with too much fire, threatening to burn out of control. The dragon apprentice frantically tries to stop the knight and finally takes a hatchet and chops the suit into little pieces. You guessed it. Within a matter of moments, the pieces all become reanimated full-size empty suits of armor, the same as how the broom splinters in FANTASIA turned into zombie-like full-size brooms.
As the fires threaten to engulf the castle in a huge conflagration of flames, the scene slash-cuts to Mickey thrashing about on his bed in the basement, having a nightmare as Pluto barks and tries to wake him up. Mickey finally awakens and wipes the sweat from his head.
Later that same night which is dark and stormy, full of lightning and thunder, Mickey is sipping hot soup in front of the fireplace with Pluto asleep on a rug. The book of magical spells sits on a nearby table. As a sudden gust of wind blows through an upper window, the book flips open, its pages fanned by the wind. Mickey gets up to investigate and sees that the book has stopped on a chapter about dragons, but more specifically about how to change something into a dragon, not unlike changing a broom into a living thing. Something (as we know) with which he has had previous experience.
Shrugging off the earlier nightmare as just a dream, Mickey grabs the wand and decides to experiment. Checking his movements and actions against what it says in the book, Mickey spots a cricket on the floor, says a few magic words and swings the wand about. An instant later amid a puff of smoke, the cricket has turned into a hybrid creature, half dragon, half cricket.
Delighted by the results, Mickey looks around for another “volunteer”. Yup, it's Pluto and at the flick of Mickey’s wrist, the dog suddenly changes into a half dog, half dragon creature. As the scared Pluto bolts up the stairs and runs off, Mickey sees him through the window as the dog flies away via his dragon wings. Mickey decides he better find out how to reverse the process.
While he hurriedly looks through the book, trying to discover the spell for changing things back again, Mickey glimpses himself in a full-length mirror and imagines being all dressed up in his old apprentice garb. Especially the hat! He suddenly realizes that he needs the hat if he’s ever going to fix poor Pluto.
Once the hat and shoes are donned, Mickey again looks in the mirror to check how he looks. He wraps himself in a large throw rug, pretending it's the robe he used to wear, then inadvertently recites the incantation he just learned and dips the wand toward his own reflection in the mirror. Poof! Mickey has changed himself into a dragon hybrid! His clawed hands and feet poke through the torn fabric of his gloves and shoes, and his body now has green scales instead of skin. He’s got funny little dragon horns sticking out of his cheeks, while fins and flukes poke out of other places. Not to mention a pair of leathery wings.
In a panic, he runs up the stairs, through the hotel lobby, then outside trying to get the attention of anyone who will listen. Unfortunately he's been shaking his wand the whole time and everyone he looks at or who looks at him, gets instantly changed into a hybrid. It’s like the wand and hat combo are stuck in gear, are spellbound, so to speak.
Even worse for Mickey, the storm has grown more intense and the whole town has turned out to see what all the commotion is about. Pluto can be heard howling somewhere. A flash of lightning then illuminates the crowd of townsfolk who have gathered in the street and stand staring at Mickey. When his hat slips over his eyes, he jerks the wand still in his hand as he struggles to straighten the hat amid the blowing gusts of wind.
By the time he finally can see again, Mickey has turned everyone into fire-breathing hybrids. It isn't long before the whole town runs amok with hybrids of every description, some of them starting small fires which could burn the whole place down. Where's those water-carrying brooms when Mickey needs them?
Mickey then decides it worked before so he finds a mop, gives it a bucket, brings the thing to life, then chops it up on purpose. We see a repeat, of sorts, where the mops scoop water out of the town well and douse the fires started by the hybrid dragons. The dragons are also burning up the mops as fast as Mickey can make them.
Mickey, who has wings of his own and bears other dragon characteristics, is frantically flipping through the book looking for the page which will give him the spell he needs to put everything back the way it was. When he finally finds it, he accidentally sneezes a short spurt of fire and turns the page to useless ash.
Distraught and hopeless, Mickey plops on a rock next to the well where the mops are still going back and forth, getting water and dousing fires. The rain then comes down in buckets and douses all the fires, but meanwhile the town is still filled with hybrids running around, flying, shooting fire, chasing each other with lots of roaring and the pounding of clawed feet. And since the other fires are out, the mops are now throwing water onto the hybrids themselves.
Pluto finally comes running up and lays down beside Mickey as if scared more by all the excitement and craziness than his own transformation. The situation seems out of control and beyond anyone's ability to fix it. Mickey least of all.
In another scene reminiscent of Disney’s original FANTASIA (the dinosaur segment when rain is falling and the dinos all look up as the Tyrannosaurus Rex appears) Pluto suddenly looks up at the sky, followed by a rapid sequence of others looking up as something big is descending (through the rain) into the town square.
A real dragon, not a hybrid, has appeared out of the lightning-filled clouds, seemingly out of nowhere. Huge and powerful, the dragon also wears a long robe and some kind of mystical hat or headgear. He is the same dragon sorcerer Mickey saw in his dream, but wasn't it just a dream?
Arriving from his world, a land governed by true dragons, he has obviously come to set things right. It’s as if by delving into dragon spells and magic, Mickey has aroused the interest and displeasure of the real dragons, and drawn the one out of his world into ours. The sorcerer then stares down at Mickey and gives him a stern, disapproving look.
The dragon abruptly swerves about, raises up and swipes his forelegs and claws through the air, leaving twinkling stardust in the wake of his sweeping gestures. First one thing, one animal, one person reverts back, then another and within moments all are transformed back. Even Pluto. But not Mickey who's still in hybrid form and very ashamed. The last mop falls to the muddy ground not far away, dropping its single bucket and spilling out its last cargo of water.
While steam and smoke drift off amid the wind and rain, and people and animals return to normal, it's as if they have amnesia and can't remember what happened to them. Even the giant dragon in their midst is invisible to them, to Pluto also, and can only be seen by Mickey himself.
As the frowning dragon lowers his face near Mickey's sheepishly smiling face, the dragon's tail comes around and with its very tip, knocks the hat from Mickey's head and onto the ground next to him. When he does, Mickey then returns to normal and half chokes, half laughs.
A moment later with the storm having passed, the fearsome dragon flaps its wings, lifts aloft and disappears into the moonlit, nighttime sky.
The story concludes with Mickey once again in front of the fireplace, sipping soup with Pluto on the rug. The hat, wand, and book are again sitting on the table nearby. When the book starts to shake, as if ready to flip open at any moment, Mickey grabs a heavy brick, plops it on top of the book, then pets Pluto and resumes his meal.
The scene ends with a small shadow on the wall, near a baseboard, out of sight of Mickey and Pluto. It's the cricket who's still a hybrid. He shoots a tiny burst of fire as the screen fades to black.
THE END
Other episodes could be an ongoing series of mini-stories where Mickey gets into some kind of trouble each time. The hybrids episode COWBOYS And DRAGONS is the first but not necessarily the last adventure of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice series. At least once, this seemed the obvious opportunity for a follow-up sequel to the original story as imagined in FANTASIA.
EPILOGUE
Lastly is the idea of hybridization in and of itself as a positive concept. So-called Green technologies currently used in automobiles and other industries. Add to this the philosophical implications for children that things which are different from themselves such as hybrids, represent a positive message of acceptance and tolerance. And by logical extension, people and ideas that are different from “normal” deserve equal acceptance and tolerance. Ultimately that everything is an amalgam of two or more things that came together to make the one thing better; the best single ideas draw from the qualities of two or more separate elements.
One word in particular – synergy – seems apropos for this idea, both as a concept and a proposed animation project. The term is defined as the working combination of two things to produce an effect greater than the sum of their individual parts. Thus it could be argued that generally speaking, a hybrid can be, in its own way, superior to its separate components or entities as they function solely by themselves.
* * * *
Disney's Mickey Mouse as the
Sorcerer's Hybrid Apprentice
The Continuing Adventures Of
THE SORCERER'S APPRENTICE
The Lost Episodes / The Untold Stories
Proposal for a 2013 animation project (declined)
THE SORCERER'S APPRENTICE
The Lost Episodes / The Untold Stories
Proposal for a 2013 animation project (declined)
Fig. 1. Finalized line art drawing.
|
Fig. 2. First experimental colorization.
|
Fig. 3. Green mixed with facial tones.
|
Fig. 4. Detail of face color. Teeth along upper jaw.
|
And now for a complete change of face...
A.H.L.E.C.
A Happy Little Ego Cube
I included this section with Mickey because they both represented pitches of a sort, neither of which ever saw the light of day. Though it wasn't for lack of effort. The story of AHLEC, as we affectionately called him (who could just as easily have been a her) began almost forty years ago in downtown Los Angeles, California. Specifically at the Los Altos Hotel (of William Randolf Hearst fame) where a collection of quasi-hippie types would gather and make plans for how their little group might one day change the world . . . and everyone in it. If you're gonna make plans, go ahead and make big ones; I still do.
Originally called Project Survival (nothing grandiose about that) one S. (David) Worthington was the spearhead and founder of the organization which comprised a total of about twenty people at its height during the 1980's. Known then as The Emerald Foundation, David continued to go it alone, so to speak, long after the original members had drifted apart, rarely to be seen or heard from again. Fast-forward thirty years when I reconnected with David via a mutual friend who was still in contact with him, but had not been in communication with me. When the friend and I renewed our acquaintance, she gave me David's email address, I wrote to him, and the two of us immediately resumed practically where we had left off decades earlier. A time when he wrote a series of books detailing the rationale behind our initial efforts, while I completed hundreds of acrylic paintings intended to popularize The Project.
One of the results of that reunion were an improved set of renderings of the Foundation's logo/mascot: AHLEC. David was still working with pre-computer illustrations of the AHLEC character which I had completed during our original five years together, back in the seventies. That and the nearly three-hundred original paintings still in his possession, which (as mentioned) I churned out as part of our struggle to become consequential in the world. You can see many of those paintings on this very site, listed under the main heading, ASTRONOMICON. But that's another story all its own. And one I'll tell when time allows, and include as part of the ASTRONOMICON exhibit.
As an almost humorous aside, I always enjoy telling another story about this other group with which we were in direct competition at the time, that being the early seventies in downtown Hollywood, where red-robed Hari Krishnas stood on every street corner chanting aloud and rattling their tambourines. This other small but fast-growing group of quasi-hippie types would come around and try to convince me and others as to why David was all wrong in what he was trying to do. And how they had all the answers. It became quite contentious at times. Oh, and the name of this little known but aggressive lot? They called themselves Scientologists -- members of a Church of Scientology. Oh sure, like that was ever going to amount to anything. Good luck with that. Funny, though, how different my life would have been had I thrown in with those folks at the time. When you could join for free and have fun proselytizing for them. Now that crew would have known how to use all those paintings! One of the many reasons, however, I never look back. Or as little as possible. Did I tell you how my mother fell in love with a big-shot millionaire (and he with her) when I was only nine years old? Seriously. He asked her to marry him, but she refused because of what she thought the divorce would do to me. Or so she told me years later. Then the poor guy died only a few years later from some disease. Which would have left.... Well, I guess I don't need to finish where I'm going with that one. Destiny is indeed a fickly wench.
Be that as it may, let's get back to AHLEC and all the little images I've planted on this page. David eventually boasted probably a couple hundred pages on his website at one time, not so long ago. Listed under numerous URL's, the most typical was www.ahlec.net, or ahlec.com, plus a bunch of others. After our renewed association, he even listed the DRAGONIA books on his site, with their own address of www.timtu something or other. I didn't have a site and welcomed the publicity. All three people who saw it. Thank you. Sadly, all of that is gone now. The site is no longer up. An elderly, eighty-five-year-old David and I parted ways again after about a year, and today little if anything remains of his lifetime of work. Not so different from the final scene in Blade Runner where Rutger Hauer is holding the pigeon in his hands and lamenting the loss of his rapidly ebbing life. "I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I've watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in the rain."
Thus these strange little images of AHLEC are dedicated to my old friend, David Worthington. And my other cohort in crime, the late Ralph Travis. More about him on the MOMENTUMS pages. Incredibly eccentric and among the most intelligent men I've ever had the privilege to know, David and Ralph both should have conquered the known universe. But it just wasn't meant to be. Remember that witch Destiny to whom I referred earlier? Well, her wicked sister, Fate, is just as mercurial, if not more so. I'm the last of a long legacy of people from that quaint period, who wanted to make a difference and hadn't a clue as to how to go about it. In many ways, I still don't, and may never figure things out. This website is my testament to history, to my history, that is. I don't care if not a single thing is ever sold here. I'm almost too old to care, anyway. Notice I said, almost; don't count me out just yet. Meanwhile, what the holy heck is an ego cube? And why is he so happy?
When it comes to AHLEC, I'll gladly spare everyone the long answer which is pages and pages and pages of explanation. The short answer is that the "flying" cube embodied all of the philosophical and intellectual elements that formed the basis upon which our "environmental" group was based. Before environmentalism became a dirty word in some circles. And where I have sadly been forced to take the other side. But that's another story. As a result of the imaginary machinations that AHLEC can perform, each side of him (except the face) contains intake vents and exhaust "jets" -- hence his ability to propel himself through the air. Sounds silly, I know, but it would all make a weird kind of sense if you got into it. Which you never will. Nor will I again.
The single, most clever aspect to AHLEC is his ability to smile or frown. Turn him one way, he's smiling. Flip him over and he frowns. A "healthy" AHLEC almost always smiles. When he frowns, there's trouble in paradise, so to speak. In some ways a kind of psycho-analytical version of Rubik's Cube, the intention was to use AHLEC as a tool for self-diagnosis, if you will. The idea being if your soul was frowning, so was AHLEC's. Healing yourself via the many "lessons" that AHLEC could teach would, in theory, turn you around and him as well, which would make both of you smile. Wacky, right? Hey, this was serious stuff back in the day.
Here then, is a pile of the artwork, both old and new, used to refine and further evolve the ego-cube concept. Much of this was leading towards the ultimate conversion of AHLEC from a 1970's two-dimensional model into a mid-2000 three-dimensional version. Make of it what you will.
Originally called Project Survival (nothing grandiose about that) one S. (David) Worthington was the spearhead and founder of the organization which comprised a total of about twenty people at its height during the 1980's. Known then as The Emerald Foundation, David continued to go it alone, so to speak, long after the original members had drifted apart, rarely to be seen or heard from again. Fast-forward thirty years when I reconnected with David via a mutual friend who was still in contact with him, but had not been in communication with me. When the friend and I renewed our acquaintance, she gave me David's email address, I wrote to him, and the two of us immediately resumed practically where we had left off decades earlier. A time when he wrote a series of books detailing the rationale behind our initial efforts, while I completed hundreds of acrylic paintings intended to popularize The Project.
One of the results of that reunion were an improved set of renderings of the Foundation's logo/mascot: AHLEC. David was still working with pre-computer illustrations of the AHLEC character which I had completed during our original five years together, back in the seventies. That and the nearly three-hundred original paintings still in his possession, which (as mentioned) I churned out as part of our struggle to become consequential in the world. You can see many of those paintings on this very site, listed under the main heading, ASTRONOMICON. But that's another story all its own. And one I'll tell when time allows, and include as part of the ASTRONOMICON exhibit.
As an almost humorous aside, I always enjoy telling another story about this other group with which we were in direct competition at the time, that being the early seventies in downtown Hollywood, where red-robed Hari Krishnas stood on every street corner chanting aloud and rattling their tambourines. This other small but fast-growing group of quasi-hippie types would come around and try to convince me and others as to why David was all wrong in what he was trying to do. And how they had all the answers. It became quite contentious at times. Oh, and the name of this little known but aggressive lot? They called themselves Scientologists -- members of a Church of Scientology. Oh sure, like that was ever going to amount to anything. Good luck with that. Funny, though, how different my life would have been had I thrown in with those folks at the time. When you could join for free and have fun proselytizing for them. Now that crew would have known how to use all those paintings! One of the many reasons, however, I never look back. Or as little as possible. Did I tell you how my mother fell in love with a big-shot millionaire (and he with her) when I was only nine years old? Seriously. He asked her to marry him, but she refused because of what she thought the divorce would do to me. Or so she told me years later. Then the poor guy died only a few years later from some disease. Which would have left.... Well, I guess I don't need to finish where I'm going with that one. Destiny is indeed a fickly wench.
Be that as it may, let's get back to AHLEC and all the little images I've planted on this page. David eventually boasted probably a couple hundred pages on his website at one time, not so long ago. Listed under numerous URL's, the most typical was www.ahlec.net, or ahlec.com, plus a bunch of others. After our renewed association, he even listed the DRAGONIA books on his site, with their own address of www.timtu something or other. I didn't have a site and welcomed the publicity. All three people who saw it. Thank you. Sadly, all of that is gone now. The site is no longer up. An elderly, eighty-five-year-old David and I parted ways again after about a year, and today little if anything remains of his lifetime of work. Not so different from the final scene in Blade Runner where Rutger Hauer is holding the pigeon in his hands and lamenting the loss of his rapidly ebbing life. "I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I've watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in the rain."
Thus these strange little images of AHLEC are dedicated to my old friend, David Worthington. And my other cohort in crime, the late Ralph Travis. More about him on the MOMENTUMS pages. Incredibly eccentric and among the most intelligent men I've ever had the privilege to know, David and Ralph both should have conquered the known universe. But it just wasn't meant to be. Remember that witch Destiny to whom I referred earlier? Well, her wicked sister, Fate, is just as mercurial, if not more so. I'm the last of a long legacy of people from that quaint period, who wanted to make a difference and hadn't a clue as to how to go about it. In many ways, I still don't, and may never figure things out. This website is my testament to history, to my history, that is. I don't care if not a single thing is ever sold here. I'm almost too old to care, anyway. Notice I said, almost; don't count me out just yet. Meanwhile, what the holy heck is an ego cube? And why is he so happy?
When it comes to AHLEC, I'll gladly spare everyone the long answer which is pages and pages and pages of explanation. The short answer is that the "flying" cube embodied all of the philosophical and intellectual elements that formed the basis upon which our "environmental" group was based. Before environmentalism became a dirty word in some circles. And where I have sadly been forced to take the other side. But that's another story. As a result of the imaginary machinations that AHLEC can perform, each side of him (except the face) contains intake vents and exhaust "jets" -- hence his ability to propel himself through the air. Sounds silly, I know, but it would all make a weird kind of sense if you got into it. Which you never will. Nor will I again.
The single, most clever aspect to AHLEC is his ability to smile or frown. Turn him one way, he's smiling. Flip him over and he frowns. A "healthy" AHLEC almost always smiles. When he frowns, there's trouble in paradise, so to speak. In some ways a kind of psycho-analytical version of Rubik's Cube, the intention was to use AHLEC as a tool for self-diagnosis, if you will. The idea being if your soul was frowning, so was AHLEC's. Healing yourself via the many "lessons" that AHLEC could teach would, in theory, turn you around and him as well, which would make both of you smile. Wacky, right? Hey, this was serious stuff back in the day.
Here then, is a pile of the artwork, both old and new, used to refine and further evolve the ego-cube concept. Much of this was leading towards the ultimate conversion of AHLEC from a 1970's two-dimensional model into a mid-2000 three-dimensional version. Make of it what you will.
Fig. 5. The basic logo design for The Emerald Foundation.
|
Fig. 6. The Free-Spirit collection. Location unknown.
|
Fig. 7. Early acrylic painting (with Ahlec) from 1971.
|
Fig. 8. Title: Oracle de Apathetique. 1971-72
|
Revamping (and re-venting) the AHLEC Image
AHLEC Buttons & Pins & Bows
Fig. 9. A Cumulative Imbalance
|
Fig. 10. The Golden Pentagon with rotational trapezoids in all directions
|
More Re-Working of the Final Image
AHLEC was always a work-in-progress and never finalized as a 3-D image. Barely so in 2-D. Various font styles and other notions were played-with over the years, but the project was continually hampered by both a lack of funds and David's inability to single-handedly coordinate popular support for the project. As with so many things in life, a certain amount of luck and plain good fortune is often required in order to benefit from the "best laid plans of mice and men". Which often go astray, as the saying goes. The few "breaks" that could have made all the difference just never came around, or at least never introduced themselves. As a result, David's lifetime of work, probably a million hours or more of research and literary/intellectual development, sits somewhere gathering dust. Or went out with yesterday's trash.
I hope someone salvages what there is and that the project somehow finds a sympathetic home. If so, I would consider it only a matter of time before the truths and revelations contained in David's immense body of work will be rediscovered and shared with the world. Just my opinion, but one based on a great deal of personal familiarity with something that, while I believed it was great and profound, was never more than barely able to truly grasp or appreciate.
I hope someone salvages what there is and that the project somehow finds a sympathetic home. If so, I would consider it only a matter of time before the truths and revelations contained in David's immense body of work will be rediscovered and shared with the world. Just my opinion, but one based on a great deal of personal familiarity with something that, while I believed it was great and profound, was never more than barely able to truly grasp or appreciate.
* * * *
Recycle kindness.
You're currently on page DRA21
listed under DRAGONOMICON
Click on the link below to see
near full-size line drawings in
the Kidz Korner.
near full-size line drawings in
the Kidz Korner.
Return to the Table Of Contents
for DRAGONOMICON
for DRAGONOMICON
In case you missed the other 273 links
to my page on Amazon.com, here is
yet another opportunity not to be missed.
