Love of Animation

Saturday was dark and raining quite hard when Diane woke up. Diane was an adorable 5year old child who is very smart and loving. She has many friends and plays lots of games with her friends but has never gone to a movie theatre or watched a movie at home. 

Her mom was in the kitchen making a pancake breakfast for the family. It was Saturday morning and her dad came into the kitchen with a big smile on his face telling Diane that he had a special surprise for her as he leaned down and gave her a kiss. When the pancakes were done her mother sat down to eat with the family and when everyone was finished her dad announced his surprise.

 He was taking the family to Radio City Music Hall to see the movie Bambi. Diane spoke out “I am so happy. I have never been to a movie.” Her dad then told Diane and her mom that they would be going to New York to see the movie at Radio City Music Hall. 

Diane couldn’t have been happier. Diane put on her new dress and wore her Mary Jane Shoes. She felt so special.

When they arrived at Radio City Music Hall her mom took Diane downstairs to see the beautiful sofas and rugs. When it was almost time to see the start of the movie her mom and dad took three seats in a row so Diane could sit in the seat in the middle and she could watch the movie easily. She just couldn’t wait to see Bambi which was the name of the movie.

The film began and Diane look at the beautiful pictures of the deep forest and she loved the movement of the young deer who was Bambi and all his friends especially Thumper the rabbit and Skunk who was named for the flowers. Diane was very sad and cried when she heard about Bambi’s mom and the big fire. She did howeve find Joy in the way the animals appeared in the movie. At the end of the movie Diane was clapping and clapping. She loved the movie and told her parents that when she grew older she wanted to make movies with moving animals but her movies, she said, “would have a happy ending.”

When she was in elementary school she learned the word animation and what it meant. She then watched every animated picture she could find whether they were on TV or in a regular movie theatre.  She wrote a short story about some animals and then made drawings of those animals and cut them out and placed them in an open and empty shoe box and pasted these animals in the box as if they were three dimensional and or animated.

By the time Diane was in high school technology was changing quickly and she used whatever technology she knew of that would help her create stories and animals that appeared very real.

Four years after high school she applied to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was accepted. Now Diane felt she could learn different technologies which would help her create animals that looked as real as they actually are. 

One evening there was a dance at MIT. A group of girls from the school attended as well as many boys. Diane met many different people both girls and boys who introduced themselves to one another. There was one boy who kept looking at Diane. He must have been feeling shy, Diane thought so she walked over to him to say hello. She Introduced herself to him and almost immediately they became friends. He introduced himself as Evan and they started a dialogue that went on for hours. Both talked about their families and what both of them are looking to accomplish as their learning is touching on situations that are so new and so wonderful that technology can’t seem to get caught up with itself. 

Evan and Diane studied together and did well on their exams. One day Diane came down with a story she wrote about animals in the wilderness. She asked Evan to read it and to tell her what he thought of it. She told him she always loved the movie Bambi and she wanted to create her own story of Bambi and his friends. He thought Diane’s story was very different from Bambi. He realized that it was well written  and that the animals all seemed happy as they frolic in the forest. Evan suggested that they start thinking about how to make the animals more realistic. They worked together for many weeks and then they made a video which their professors loved. 

Unknown to them their professors sent the video to different movie companies and one company was very interested in buying the story and video where they were thinking of developing a complete movie that would and could be worldwide.

The professors asked Eric and Diane to come into their offices so they could tell them what was happening to their story. Both Evan and Diane couldn’t believe it. They hugged one another and both laughed and cried.

They called their families and both families came to MIT to see the work their children did. When things got somewhat quieter and the family had left for home Evan and Diane spent many hours just talking and laughing and hugging. 

Time went so fast and now they were graduating. They graduated with honors. They also realized they did not want to go home alone. Their friendship had turned to love and they became engaged. They remained at MIT to get a Masters Degree. They developed another story and the technology was continuing to change in so many ways. This new story was also accepted by the movie company.

They soon were married and looking for a house near the University. They not only found the house they wanted each of them were offered a teaching job at MIT.

They taught at MIT for many years. Both Evan and Diane found life to be very happy together. They had two children who grew up near the University and entered it when they became of age.

Diane got the wish she wanted when she was five years old and watching Bambi. Bambi remained her favorite movie forever. Both Diane and Evan made  certain that all their stories and movies were going to have a happy ending and the only tears as each of their stories ended were tears of joy.