Name:  Johnny Briz
Character Design by:  Daveykins Foxfire
Species:  Mouse
Nationality:     United States of America
Occupation:  Action Star, 'Living Cartoon Character'
Sword Knight and First Mate to Hong Mao
Sword:  Lightning

Auxiliary Notes:

• JB's Rainbow Connection
  

Johnny Briz is one of my oldest and most beloved characters.  While I named him after a character in "Secret of NIMH," he's more of a homage to Classical Disney Cartoons (Think back before color) than a take on the Don Bluth movie.  He hails from a mouse village that can claim to be founded by super-intelligent lab excapees.  Whatever or not the movie accurately depicted their founders is cause for some very spirited debate.  But then an infant child mouse arrived not only looking like the Jonathan Brisby from the movie, but he also had an amulet of his own that works pretty much the same way.  Hence his name, which he has shortened to fit his family name of Briz.

Throughout his growing up years, he has incorporated a stylized version of the image his peers thought of his namesake, developing and cleaver and sharp-witted personality with a near acrobatic combination of Free Running and Taw Kwon Do, and has been dabbling into escape stunts when an unrelated adventure took him out of his village and into a human civilization in the Central Florida region.  Once there, he used his talents to create a series of You Tube videos depicting himself as a modern day version of an old school Disney-like Cartoon Character.  These videos went viral and he's become a local celeberty.

Famous enough to be noticed by a panda named Tubby from Hong Kong to seek him out for a couple movies with his own local hero.  Nobody had the time to discuss that, however, when the Lightning Sword appeared and chose Johnny as it's owner.

Nobody expected Johnny's life to take this turn, especially Johnny himself.  Nor did he fully understand what the Legend of the Seven Swords are and what they mean, not to mention that they're now picking owners from outside of China.  But the sword chose him, and he feels a sense of duty to that sword.  That's why he followed Hong Mao back to Hong Kong as the first International Sword Knight.

Johnny combines a light heart and his constant quips to keep the team together in more or less one piece and high spirits; his motto being "We're all in this together."  He'll be known to charge in to assist a comrade in trouble, never wishing to have anyone be left behind.  He's also known to think up plans and strategy, using cunning to compliment with Hong Mao's heart and courage.

While he might be a black belt in Tae Kwon Do and is no slouch in a fight--he can roundhouse kick humans over seven feet tall by running up to them wall-style--he knows nothing of any other customs outside of his homeland and knows even less of swordplay.  But he's an advid and fast learner, and most of his early times in Hong Kong is spent being a apt pupil to the GreatDreams characters.


And then there's the issue with his amulet.  It does look different from The Stone in "Secret of NIMH," this version is more of a red crystal wrapped in a gold cage, but it acts the same way; when things are dire and sheer courage is shown, the amulet lights up and grants its wearer magical powers that can shadow Sorcerer Mickey, or even Anakin Skywalker in his prime. (Episode III, pre-loss to Obi-Wan.)  However, it doesn't last more than three minutes at first, and after that it leaves him exhaused to the point of unconsciousness.  Because of this, he doesn't use it unless in desparation.  Blue found the reason why it acts the way it does:  It's linked to Johnny's chi or spiritual energy, and while Johnny has a good amount of chi, like most Americans he shoves it all out in one push.  Fortunately Lan Tu knows how to transfer some of her excess chi into Johnny to wake him back up.

During his stay in Hong Kong, after he talks about his amulet to Lan Tu, Jumpy, and Jade Tu, he picks up the popular Chinese art of Tai Chi, and adopts some Buddhism meditations and techniques--you could say that he became a lay person of the Eastern Religion--to help control and cultivate his chi so that he can use his amulet more effectively.  It's nowhere near the "Holy Crap!" levels as before, but he can use it for longer powers and he doesn't crash afterward.  His personal path to enlightenment and nirvana becomes a vital part of the storyline, because it reveals parts of one of the villains of the Nights with a backstory that reaches back to Johnny's own ancestors, a navigator from a Viking explorer crew from Norway.

In fact, it's the spirit of that navigator bound into that amulet that causes him problems every Full Moon, where his own spirit is more in tune with the spirit in the amulet.  He isn't fully aware of it at first; he's only aware that he feels very strange under the light of a full moon.  He can hear a guiding spirit while his amulet's powers are jacked up, and sometimes that spirit seems to be loud enough and close enough that he ends up being guided, and in times out and out possessed by it.  A good example of this would be when Johnny, under a full moon has a telepathic ability that he'd never have otherwise.  In time, he discovers who that spirit is and decides whatever or not to do with it, which possibly involves making sure that this spirit is safely taken to the netherworld where it's supposed to go.

Important Notes:

Johnny has a favorite style of dress that is translated into several different outfits, including a short and long shirted version of his jumpsuit, his Tae Kwon Do gi, and even a Tai Chi outfit he'll do his moves in (or wear in colder climates.)  This is in keeping with his style as a modern day version of a classic cartoon character; the dress code makes him look closer to a black and white 'toon.

He'll be most popular in a local-owned third-tier amusement park in the Orlando area, where he films most of his videos and even has a stunt show there.  This will add some depth to the character much like what happened with the original Muppet Movie, where the Muppets has mundane jobs before their brush with stardom.  In fact, the park itself takes center stage when Johnny and Hong Mao share the same stage for the first time.  This park is the end result of another series that I am working on, which is unrelated to this brand.  (It is entitled Scarlet PI and it consists of a sentient costume and a cop partner teaming up against a corporation that bends people's minds into programmed desizens of a Disneyland run by Enron exectutives.  If anyone from GreatDreams want to work on this project after Red Cat International, please contact me about it.)