Johnny Briz is my oldest and possibly most loved character in my stable, and I still get to enjoy working with him over at the Disney Echo site. And coming in April, his story will finally be told in the Script Frenzy ‘09 project, which may probably best show my image of what Disney Magic would look like if allowed to be free from corporate constraints.

The story begins, strangely enough, not with him, but with a human named Amber Merichello. She’s the single daughter of a high ranking Disney Chairmember, which could mean that she’s got a shot at one of the glamor jobs in the company. Either an Animator or an Imagineer, and she’s got exceptional skills in both. Her hopes were raised a lot when Bob Iger moved into the CEO position, showing the promise of getting the company back to the glory days before Michael Eisner suffered a severe case of “Peter Principle.” However, the current economy has put a damper in everyone’s dreams, especially Amber’s.

When she wished on a star while riding a light rail train home, she didn’t even think that her wish would be answered in a fashion not seen since Walt Disney’s fateful train ride: A mouse not unlike Mickey flew into the door and right into her lap. A live and two and a half feet tall mouse she thought Mickey would have been.

Amber took the mouse into her house so he can recover from what brought him to her–and to get a clean bill of health from Amber’s veterinarian mother–she found out more about her little friend who called himself Johnny Briz, and a section of Reedy Creek’s history they didn’t tell her.

Somewhere in the environmental protected areas in the Walt Disney World resort, much like the swamp Kermit the Frog claims to be born in, there is a rodent colony founded by a group of mice and rats rumored to escape from a lab after acquiring human-like sentience through an experiment. It was Walt himself who discovered the colony–and named the Reedy Creek Improvement District after the colony’s name–and the company has even sponsored a group of scientists to monitor it, but not interfere.

Rumors state that the story was romanticized into a story, and later on a movie, by a splinter group of animators during the 1980s. It was a movie that was scoffed by the Reedy Creek denizens . . . until little Johnny came into their world, not only looking like one of the characters, but also sporting a magical amulet of his own.

The green-eyed mouse proved to be special, showing a courage streak above and beyond the others, as he dreamed of one day becoming very much like his namesake. He even picked up parkour free running and Tae Kwan Do to create a unique spin on his wishes. They would serve him well when one of the scientist set up another experiment that was a bit too close to the colony for their comfort.

It was Johnny who investigated, and it was Johnny who found out the hard way what they were doing: He was caught in the fire of a matter reduction and expansion machine, which caused him to grow to his current height. The next thing he knew, he was perused by humans he thought shrunk themselves and after that, he was sailing into a light rail train. The rest Amber knew.

And Amber found out a way to address both their wishes: She set up a series of videos of Johnny to post on the internet. It started with just Johnny out and about, but grew into actual staged shorts that eventually go viral.

It’s only a matter of time before Johnny finds out that his dreams have taken him beyond what he’d expected, not to mention more complicated. He has to deal with fame, Disney finding out about him, the Scientist catching up with him, how to get back in touch with his home, and the possibility of other mice like him cavorting about in the Human world.

. . . and then there’s someone after his stone!

You'll find out as he goes through the adventure to his first cartoon vids, as Roleplayed on the Disney Echo.

There was a litte secret project where Johnny finds some friends in some very unexpected sources. But since Hunan Greatdreams has their plate already full, I've decided to put it on the shelf for now.

But the most recent effort will take place during Script Frenzy '09, the Script version of NaNoWriMo.  Johnny's origin story will be the focus of my 100-page script.  More information will come here as the work progresses.

Also, wait til you see what mischief he's been doing over at the new Disney-themed Lol-site "I Can Have Pixie Dust" In fact, some of the Disney Characters have already gotten wise to him.  Heh heh heh.