The Diplomat’s Flight
“The Diplomat’s Flight” tells the story of a family of “Scurries,” sentient squirrels who escape from a colony where mankind coexists with a wildly-intelligent species of squirrels. The film will attempt to redeem Don Bluth’s film legacy, and on that note, it will be presented in the style of past films such as “The Secret of Nyhm.” The film will utilize dark, murky colors to portray a cross between a utopian and dystopian world. With a whopping 100 million dollar budget, this is perhaps Bluth’s final chance to make a film that reaches the artistic heights of “The Land Before Time” and the commercial success of “An American Tail.” Rather than make the society of animals in this film hidden away from humans like in traditional Bluth films, the studio will opt to reinvent this phenomenon and truly explore the relationship between man and animal.
Cast of Main Characters:
Rody Cornwald: A skilled farmer, Rody is a peaceful squirrel with a hopeful disposition. While a bit of an idealist, Rody is also sly and agile. He lives only to feed his family and the rest of Wyndale in the process.
Becka Cornwald: As Rody’s wife, Becka is supportive yet cautious of her husband. She’s more concerned about keeping her family safe and together than questioning why things are the way they are.
Toofie Cornwald: Rody and Becka’s infant son. Toofie was so named for his one tooth which he uses to crack nuts open. Toofie can’t speak, but is surprisingly agile, much like his father.
Ramona Cornwald: Rody and Becka’s young daughter. Ramona aspires to be like her father, but is cautioned by her mother to be reserved and cautious so as to keep herself out of trouble.
Quinn Chatterworth: The leader of the “Peacock Company,” a society of cynical squirrels who refused to be a part of Wyndale in their distrust of the humans. Chatterworth is distrustful of everyone except his men, and only helps Rody and his family because of their shared species.
Professor Simon Peppernut: A brilliant yet slightly ‘nutty’ scientist and inventor, Peppernut is one of the most prominent members of the Peacock Company. He has a thorough understanding of medicine, which he plans to use against the humans at the request of his superiors.
Archie: The only sympathetic human character in the film. Archie is kind and, much like Rody, happens to be an idealist.
Character Concept Drawings:
Opening Narration:
Opening Narration: “Once men lived among the creatures of the land, animals of different shapes and colors. And so men hunted them and lived without ever once fearing them. But hidden in the trees were watchers, and they too were like man, and so man had at last met his match. It was then that a great famine spread across the land, killing every creature in its path; man was on the brink of starvation, but the watchers came down from their homes and fed man the nuts from the trees, saving them from certain death. These watchers, Scurries, sought only to make peace with man, to create a world where two knowing species could work together and live beside one another, and for a time, it was so. The men built great machines and the Scurries worked the land for food, and together, they traded, coexisted, and it was good. The men admired their strength in brawn, but the Scurries admired their strength in mind, and they wrote books, created music, and wrought a culture altogether, surpassing man’s own culture. And so man, with all his brawn and machines,
became the animal…and the shadow of the Scurries had finally been cast….
The Diplomat’s Flight: Act I
Sentient squirrels called “Scurries” live among humans. The Scurries trade the food they cultivate to the humans in exchange for tools and other supplies. The world in which they live is thus perfectly balanced, as the squirrels produce the food and the humans build their world with the help of their great machines. The men built houses in the trees for the Scurries to celebrate their union, and we are introduced to the great city of “Wyndale,” where the buildings are made of wood, ropes, and large stones. Our main character, Rody Cornwald, is a simple Scurry farmer who is seeking permission from the city council to build a new grain silo. The request is denied, and Rody finds himself heading home from Wyndale City Hall. On his way out, he sees a man glare at him. Rody thinks little of it at first, but is shocked to find that the man has a Scurry foot hanging from the inside of his coat pocket. Rody carefully follows the man, making sure not to be seen. He eavesdrops on a secret “Humans Only” meeting and finds that the mayor is planning to eradicate the “Rodent Menace” by plowing down their treehouse homes.
Rody appears unwilling to believe the conspiracy, but in a somewhat disturbing scene, we find that each member of the meeting has the same Scurry foot as Rody noticed before. Rody hurries home, urging his neighbors to flee the colony but they don’t believe him. One of them notes that “Humans are more civilized than you give them credit for, Cornwald!” At home, Rody warns his wife, Becka, and urges her to prepare “a month’s worth of nuts.” Rody’s son and daughter, Toofie and Ramona, help to gather the nuts. The attack comes sooner than expected, however, and to the family’s horror, the humans are destroying the treehouses with the same contraptions that they built to level the land. The family escapes by boat and travels over the “Still Sea,” leaving their home behind.
The Diplomat’s Flight: Act II
After their escape, Rody and his family row toward the unexplored regions of the land. After a little under a month at sea, Becka announces that they are quickly running out of food. Suddenly, the family’s raft is intercepted by a large submarine known as “The Peacock.” The family meets Professor Simon Peppernut, a fellow Scurry and the “proud inventor” of the submarine. Peppernut tells the family that the submarine is “like a small city,” and that its residents are “independent from Wyndale.” Before elaborating on this, he is interrupted Captain Quinn Chatterworth, a rogue Scurry who “never trusted those humans in the slightest.” Chatterworth was always suspicious of the humans, and thus decided to recruit his colleague, Simon Peppernut, to help him build the secret vessel and form the “Peacock Company.” Chatterworth declares that to keep the society’s existence a secret, Rody and his family are not permitted to leave. He does, however, offer the family room and board.
Chatterworth explains to Rody that humans are selfish and dangerous, and that the Scurries could never hope to coexist with them. Rody informs Chatterworth of the destruction on Wyndale, and Chatterworth notes that “things are as [he] feared” and that he is “not surprised” in the slightest. With that, Chatterworth alerts the company aboard the submarine of the news, and officially wages war against the humans. Rody, sickened by the destruction he’s witnessed, pleads to Chatterworth to abandon the counterstrike and seek settlement somewhere else, but Chatterworth refuses, noting that “it’s us or them at this point.” Chatterworth and Peppernut plan to attack the humans by spreading a mysterious disease into the air with one of Peppernut’s air dispenser contraptions, a disease that is “sure to give them a taste of their own medicine.” Becka, fearing the humans, urges Rody to go along with Chatterworth’s plan, but Rody is insistent on a “diplomatic approach.” Frustrated with Rody’s disposition, Chatterworth argues that if they don’t return to destroy the humans, they will eventually be found and killed.
The Diplomat’s Flight: Act III
A year goes by and the Scurries finalize the disease and ready to dispense it. Rody again insists that they try to make peace with the humans, but Chatterworth is most insistent on his own decision. Rody asks to come along with the company back to shore, promising to “scope out the landscape” and be “first in line” in his call for peace. The company agrees, and Rody leaves his family at the submarine for safekeeping in a heartfelt scene. After boarding a smaller submersible vessel, Rody and the company arrive off the coast of Wyndale, and Rody swims ashore to explore the landscape. He travels along the outskirts, at one point being chased by a rabid wild dog, which he attempts to fend off with a spear but to no avail. Rody is forced to crawl up a destroyed treehouse. A few days pass and Rody is forced to sit in what used to be the treehouse home of a fellow Scurry; the wild dog circles the treehouse endlessly in the hope of making Rody his next meal. Several days go by and Rody, unable to leave the barren treehouse, begins to starve. One day, he sees a man below fight off the wild dog with a spear of his own, sending it limping away. Rody attempts to hide but the man sees him and asks him to come down. Rody cautiously agrees and the man greets him peacefully.
The man, named Archie, explains that he left Wyndale “a long time ago” because he “knew that trouble was brewing.” Rody inquires as to what happened to the rest of the men and Archie explains that they died of starvation without the help of the Scurries. Archie notes that he was “never truly one of them,” and that the only reason he came back to Wyndale was for supplies for a long journey that would take him “somewhere a little more peaceful in the world.” He recalls his horror in finding that both species had been removed from the face of Wyndale. Rody asks Archie if the survivors of each species could ever truly coexist, but before Archie can answer, they find that the company is fast approaching. Archie bids goodbye to Rody, and hopes to see him again one day, running off into the nearby forest. Rody finds that the company is overjoyed by the extinction of the humans. They inform him that they are planning to rebuild the land as a “shining new symbol of the dominant Scurry society.” They inform Rody that his family is waiting for him at the docked submarine onshore. The company pleads Rody to stay, as he is one of the “few farmers” among them, but Rody refuses, remarking that he needs to get away from things and “find somewhere a little more peaceful in the world.”
Just realized this challenge was due today, not yesterday
