Roy Disney's Christmas Carol
"Up and at'em boy! No time for dilly-dallying now!"
Roy Disney was startled awake by a voice he was sure he hadn't heard in nearly twenty years, and one he'd not expected to hear again... at least until he was about to meet his creator that is.
I must be dreaming. He thought. Either that or those meds messed me up more than what I thought.
"Well that's just rude. I make all the effort to come down and pay a visit only to be ignored. That hurts nephew, really hurts."
Trying to burrow even more into his hospital bed, Roy tried to block the voice from his past while also trying to forget the harrowing experience from the last few weeks. Seriously, what are the odds that when he's about to meet Bruce, after months of him being delayed because of his production, that he happens to fall off the stairs, and then what should have been a regular visit to get some rest becomes a multi-week stay because an untrained orderly just happens to mix his medication with the patient next door!
Seriously! My last name is Disney! How do they confuse it with Downey!?
"It's more common than you'd think. Just be glad that they didn't mix it with 'Dinsey'. I had to reprint so many business cards that day..."
Great, now it's reading my thoughts. Way to go Roy, you really can make up some nice shit in your mind.
"Alright, that's it. No more coddling, get up, Now!"
"Whoa!" Roy yelled as he felt his bed being flipped over, the pain on his limbs distracting him from the racket the bed made. Quickly turning to face his assailant, his mind sputtered and froze when he took a look at what he originally thought to be a hallucination, then an attacker, and now revealed itself to be the splitting image of Walt Disney himself.
Well combed hair, a small mustache and well pressed suit, and a mischievous smile on his face that he remembered seeing whenever he played with him and his cousins. It was not possible; it should not be possible. Roy was even willing to entertain the idea of an impostor, a bad prank by Ron or the other Board Members even.
"U-uncle Walt?"
But above all things, Roy Disney would never forget how his uncle would look, walk, and act in a million years.
"Well it's about time Roy. You know how long it took me to arrange this entire meeting? And we are already late at that. So, come on, time is wasting and all that."
"W-wait, uncle! I have so many questions! I mean, what are- How are- Just what is goOOOAAH!" He yelled as Walt suddenly grabbed his hand and pulled him through the roof along with him, their bodies moving through the different floors as if they were not there, going ever higher as first the hospital, then the block, and soon all of LA were like ants beneath their feet.
"Ha, isn't it a sight nephew! Almost like back when we filmed Peter Pan!"
"Uncle Walt, Please!" Roy screamed, having calmed down as they flew over the city. "Just tell me what's happening! How are you here! What is going on!"
"*Sigh* Always like your father, needing the answers rather than enjoying the journey. All right, might as well tell you, we are running late as it is." Walt said as he guided them close to a familiar sight for both of them; the Disney Animation Studios lot.
"Thing is nephew, I've been looking at things, how the studio is been doing, how my family has done without me. It's been an experience all right. While things seemed to stagnate and remain as they were, those whom I trusted the company suddenly began thinking I was some sort of Idol coming from up high to create the entire medium. Heck, the mantra in Disney seemed to be "What Would I do" most of the time."
"...Uncle Walt"
"And the thing is boy... you and all should not have me as the best example on how to do things." Walt said pointing down at the studio.
Roy was a bit confused, but followed his lead and looked down, doing a double take at what he saw; this was not the new and improved studios nor the more updated ones from his time. These were the studios of Walt's era, of the Golden Age of animation, when they were still theorizing and practicing on just what it was that could be done with the drawings and scratches!
And the more he saw it, the more he felt shock.
Segregated areas and bathrooms, animators working at their desks from sunrise to sundown, slaving away for little to any wage. Labor conditions that frankly made him understand the reason why the Animators Union had seen him as the spawn of the devil when negotiating with them.
And yet... he could also see some of the magic that made it one of the most beloved studios of the time; the small parties that kept the spirits up. The meetings that Uncle Walt would pay the animators so that they could share ideas. The love that many had for the movies who would go on to become classics of their age.
For all that Uncle Walt seemed to want him to reject his past, he was making a good case to embrace it as well.
"You always find a way to find the good side don't you?" He half smiled. "I just... don't want you going the same path I did, or the ones who came after me did. Don't put me in a pedestal or look like I have all the answers. I always tried to improve when I made my movies, and looking back, I wish I'd done the same with the dealings with those around me."
"I won't" Roy said, looking at him with a sad smile. "I promise, I'll make sure to bring Disney to greatest heights. But I'll do it by keeping to the spirit you brought to the company uncle. You're right, you were not a perfect man, but I still think you were a good one."
Walt gave Roy a full smile as he put his hand on Roy's shoulder. "Look at you, becoming a great leader." Roy smiled at the compliment. "I'm glad that you proved me wrong."
"...Wait, what?"
"Welp! Time to go! Make sure to be more patient with the next one, will you?"
"Wait, uncle, what did you meeEEAAH!" He screamed as Walt pushed him in the chest, propelling him at great speed through several buildings like a ghost, right until he arrived at his bed in the hospital.
"Whuh!" Roy exhaled as he shot from his bed. The sounds from the machinery around him and the clock on the wall reassuring him that he was back on his room.
Or had he ever left it all? If one thinks about it, seeing his death Uncle and leaving for a trip through time to see the old studio seemed like one of the most craziest dreams he'd ever had.
Still not the weirdest though.
"Man, there seems to be a story there. Would love to hear it sometime."
No... he recognized that voice. Not from his childhood, but from the most recent meetings between the Entente, a voice that evoked dread, respect and outright annoyance in equal measures whenever he heard it. But just what the heck was he doing here, how the heck did he manage to enter when no visitors were allowed at this time.
Turning to the voice, he found Michael Eisner in his room...and yet not?
"Well, you were quicker in the uptake this time Roy, never thought I'd say that though."
Yes, the arrogance and imperiousness was right there alright, yet for all that was classic Eisner, he knew that the man had at least a modicum of respect for the art that Lucasfilms Unlimited and DreamWorks produced. Years working with Bruce O'Brian and George Lucas as his superiors had beaten into him the idea that not all movies had to be made only for the profit value, or cut the budget in order to "Improve efficiency" or "allow for more creativity".
This Eisner though, seemed like a perfect paper cutout of the typical greedy executives that had been becoming the norm in Hollywood nowadays.
"Nothing gets pass you, huh Roy? Alright then, might as well get on with it. Time is money and what not." He said as he snapped his fingers.
And they found themselves in the middle of the Disney Board.
"Wha-Just what?! Are you also a ghost? Eisner, did you die?!"
"So, not as bright as expected. Well, not that it matters, but here's the cliff notes; your uncle talked to you about the past, I'm here to talk to you about the what is going on and will happen in the present... well, a present, one where I would have been the president at least. Anyways, just look at what's going on."
There were so many things that Roy wanted to ask at the moment, yet from previous experience with Uncle Walt he understood that the only way that he would get his answers would be by following along with the demands put on him. Looking to the board, the interactions, the outright hostility that many of them showed each other... he could see once more what Disney had been just before he and Ron had made the alliance to take over and bring the Studio out of the stagnation that had plagued it for so long.
Only... this time it was worse.
It was like he'd gone back in time as he saw the acrimony, the small festering hatreds, the sheer inertia in acting or even trying something new be emphasized and multiplied as time went on. the animation department was being left to fallow, their movies remained as uninteresting and as lackluster as they'd been before he took over, and even the Disney Parks, though still productive, still were being kept as just places for children to go to with hardly anyone interested in seeing the happiest place on Earth.
But above all, he saw himself; quiet, unassuming Roy, just going with the flow, keeping his anger and hatreds on the inside, afraid to speak up and mess up, all the things he'd tried to overcome to become the leader that Disney needed and deserved. Was this what would happen? Or perhaps what would have happened? Irrelevant from that, he saw the personal battle between him and Ron reach a crescendo just as the company nearly went under for a buyout, how it was barely stopped and the results being... the hiring of Michael Eisner as the new president.
"Yeah, good years, good times. I saved Disney you know? Not like anyone would admit it, the ungrateful bastards. Then had to deal with people like you hounding me on every decision as I tried to bring it to the future. We made a killing on the movies, the "Disney Renaissance" they called it, and I was its architect."
Roy could see it, the moment Eisner took charge, the changes Dinsey went through, the movies and the magic that seemed to have returned to the studio, revitalizing it in a way that he'd yet to achieve despite his clear success...
But...
"It came at a cost." Roy said, Eisner's head snapping to his side. "Disney changed, but it stopped being Disney. It may look like it, act like it, and even spout the same lines... but it's no longer the place where Uncle Walt would make movies. Instead, it's just another business venture, where only the bottom line mattered when it came to making films.
I don't know what happened to you Eisner, but the Mike I know would at least understand that while he does care about Lucasfilms bottom line, he also understands the importance of keeping the artist and the dreams alive. And I think you understand that, at least a bit, considering how much you went into preserving as much of Disney as I can see here."
"...Get out of here." He said as he waved his hand in his direction, Roy suddenly beginning to fall down, the image of the Board and Eisner getting farther and farther away.
Even so, he managed to hear the final message Eisner gave to him.
"Beware the last one."
Roy awoke, not with a startle, but with expectation, finding himself once more in his hospital room. No signs of anyone being there, no signs of his previous experiences, all once more as if it'd been a dream.
This is nuts. He thought as he leaned back into his bed and tried to get his bearings. Thinking back on what he last saw he could not shake it off as easily as with Uncle Walt. Yes, he'd managed to make Disney better, improved much of what he saw as the last decades of stagnation... but overall, the signs and issues of Disney were still there, and for all that they'd stopped the downward spiral, many of the opposition could still see them as vulnerable, enough to try a takeover like his last vision showed him.
He wondered about it, should he change course? Try and be more like the Eisner he saw? Would that save Disney, a least in shape if not in spirit?
"That's the plan! Glad to know you agree to it."
By this point, Roy was not even surprised at hearing the voice, yet turning to see who it was this time, he was surprised at finding that he could not recognize the man at all. Not only that, but there was something...fake about him, something that went above and beyond of what he just saw before; Uncle Walt had radiated sincerity, Eisner, for all his unbridled arrogance, had stopped himself from outright lying to him when showing him the results of his actions.
This man however, he looked like he would sell his grandmother for a dollar, all the while professing his innocence with a smile on his face.
"Well, nice to meet you friend. Name's Bob Iger, and I'm here to show you the wonderful future of Disney."
Roy hesitated, but eventually got up and shaked the man's extended hand, before once more feeling the entire room swirl around before turning into what seemed an updated Board Room, a more elegant yet also efficient one, the decorations seeming to enhance the effect, yet also seeming somewhat superfluous to his eye.
"Now, I've got a lot to tell you, and so little time, so let's just go with the highlights of the greatest era that Disney's lived through!"
He pressed a button as a screen seemed to lower from one of the walls, with a movie soon showing what seemed to be the time of Disney under the man's leadership after Eisner... a very long time it seemed, though he was more interested in seeing just what had happened to his company in the time since Eisner had taken off.
...And it nearly made him vomit.
It was a clear attempt at gaining favoritism, the same spiel a used car salesman may use to try and con someone out of their money by buying a clearly broken down vehicle by telling them how its value would soar afterwards; the board replaced by yes-men supposedly to aid the CEO into making faster decisions, the imaginative and original stories slowly being phased out by more and more derivative works and sequels from already existing properties, the acquisition of already existing studios in order to take away competition and put the Disney logo in their ideas, squeezing ever more of their creativity through constant demands for more while making sure that no one would ever be able to use it even in parody, teams of lawyers ready to defend the company even when they were clearly in the wrong and trying to shut down independent minds and creators altogether...
And did they just tried to dismiss a lawsuit just because someone signed an unrelated contract three years ago?!
"Well, as you can see, we are still having to deal with some of the quirks in the system, but we are on the right track! And I'm sure that come the next meeting-"
"Shut the fuck up..."
"E-Excuse me?!"
"You heard me. Shut the fuck up you fucking piece of shit!" Roy yelled. He was a calm man by nature, he usually preferred to avoid confrontations, despite the many he'd had during his latest run as the Company's Chairman... yet this man had not just made a mockery out of what Disney was supposed to represent, he had tried to pass it off as just business as usual, like this is what Disney was all along.
Needless to say, Roy was fucking livid.
"This... all of this! You're actually proud of it?! You've brought the image we've tried to build for years to ruins in just a decade! You've made the Disney name synonymous with greed and corruption! The goodwill and trust with the people is ashes in their mouth and you're actually proud of this?!"
"Well, you're only looking at the kinks that need to be fixed, but we've always been committed to-"
"Oh my God, you can't even admit when you've fucked up?! What kind of messed up crap is this?!... No, no this is not right. This is not what Uncle Walt would have wanted...this not what I wanted! There's still time! I can fix this! I Will fix this!"
"Look, you're clearly a bit emotional, but if you take a deep breath-"
"SHUT. UP!!!" Roy grabbed him by the lapels of his suit "Send me back! Take me away from this nightmare! LET ME OUT!! I WANT OUT, NOW!"
"Let me out...Let me out..." Roy mumbled as a hand shook him.
"Jesus Roy, wake up."
"Wha- ha, ha, I'm, I'm here. I'm back." He said almost hysterically as he grabbed at his face and arms, making sure that everything was in place before turning to inspect his room. It was no longer night, the sun was shining through the windows, and the face of Ron Miller was looking at him with concern over his outburst.
"What's gotten into Roy? Bad dream?"
"Ughh, the worst you could imagine. It was... there's no way to describe it... wait, what year is it?"
"It's still 1984 Roy, calm down, you were not in a coma or anything. The company is in good hands."
"Yeah...yeah, Disney is in good hands..." He said as his eyes suddenly gained a determined glint. "And I'll make sure it remains as such."
A.N.: All right, here's what I came up with for the idea of Roy meeting the three Chairmen of Disney Past, present and Future. it's a bit different from how I usually write my Omakes, so I hope it's still up to par. I liked the idea that Roy, being perhaps the most optimistic of the bunch, would be able to see the good in everyone of the ghosts...except for Bob Iger that is.
