12 May 2009

The dubious honor of citizenship

What does it take to become a citizen of Mickey’s Toontown Fair?To find the answer to that question, we have to venture over to Minnie’s Country House, where she has, on prominent display, her Official Citizen Certificate. Signed by Scrooge McDuck and Mickey Mouse, that document states that citizenship is based up a “keep disregard for the laws of physics, and has shown a penchant for withstanding the impact of very large pianos and 5 ton blocks of steel.”

Like any binding contract or official document, however, citizenship in Mickey’s Toontown Fair comes with some fairly explosive legal copy. In fact, the certificate states that, “If the party of the first part (cited above), while residing in Toontown Fair, finds themselves the victim of a common toon mishap (such as an anvil falling on their head, squashing them flat as a pancake, after which a breeze wafts them over the edge of an extremely tall cliff from which they plummet screaming to the valley below, crashing into a box of dynamite which explodes, catapulting them to the moon.), then the party of the second part (the leadership of Toontown Fair) will accept absolutely no responsibility for any injuries sustained therein.”

While that may seem a bit harsh, the citizens of Mickey’s Toontown Fair are, after all, toons.

One more note on the document, the Official Toontown Seal, seen in the bottom left of the document, is none other than Salty, a seal pup that was pitted against Pluto in the 1947 short Rescue Dog. During the short Pluto is a rescue dog, complete with brandy jug, who encounters Salty. Salty wishes to play with Pluto, more specifically his brandy keg, and a back-and-forth possession of the jug ensues until Pluto falls into a frozen over lake and is unable to find his way back out. Salty retrieves Pluto and revives him with the brandy, at which time Pluto places the brandy keg around Salty’s neck, marking him as a rescue dog.

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