BACK MINI03 6' Mini-mysteries: murder of the roses EXT DAWN WIDE: CITY PARK (camera flies from high altitude down to grass-top level toward a large oak tree, slowly past a shingle sign saying "Marvin Mouse Detective Agency" and to the opening door nestled into the roots of the tree, Marvin Mouse comes through the door wearing oversized glasses and a suit and tie, smiles) QUEEN (Queen Bee enters frame from above and hovers in close-up) Marvin Mouse, I need your help! MARVIN Good! My friends here, (points to camera) can help us solve this mystery. What do you have for us? QUEEN All the roses in the rose garden are dying. MARVIN Yeah, we know. The lawn mowers cut the wires to the sprinklers. But the humans fixed that. Last time I looked, the roses were bright and beautiful. QUEEN They were. But they're not anymore. MARVIN Are you saying that all the roses wilted and died AGAIN?! QUEEN Yes. The bees in my hive need the nectar from those roses for food. Without the roses, we'll have to find some other source of nectar. MARVIN Yes, I know. The last time, when you decided to drink the Coka Cola from the picnic tables, you almost went to war against the ants. QUEEN I'm sorry about that. And it won't happen again. But can you please solve this mystery? MARVIN Yes. My friends... (points to camera) and I will solve this mystery. QUEEN (exiting frame upward) Thank you, Marvin Mouse. MARVIN (beckons camera) Let's go. (begins climbing the tree) We'll start this investigation from up above. EXT DAWN WIDE: BRANCH OF A TREE (Marvin climbs the last few steps up the tree trunk, then strolls out onto the branch) I know what you're thinking. You're thinking that the lawn mowers cut the wires to the sprinklers again. But look here. (puts binoculars up to the camera lens, pans the rose garden and shows all the sprinklers actively sprinkling the entire rose garden, voiceover) As you can see, the sprinklers are working perfectly. (zoom in on individual rose blossoms, all drooping and brown) But, in spite of all this watering, something is killing the roses. (pulls away binoculars, close-up of Marvin's face) I think it's... murder! (exiting frame toward tree trunk) Come with me. It's time to visit the crime scene. EXT DAWN WIDE: ROSE GARDEN (With the sprinklers still sweeping the entire rose garden with water, Marvin approaches the stem of a rose quickly, inspects it quickly, then notices that a spray of water is approaching, then he scrambles out of frame. This happens two more times, then...) MARVIN (nose to camera) I have inspected several of the roses here in the rose garden, but I found no damage to the roots, stems or leaves of the rose plants. I suppose it's possible that the roses have a disease. So,... (pulls out his tiny magnifying glass) I will now inspect the roses for disease. (With the sprinklers still sweeping the entire rose garden with water, Marvin approaches the stem of a rose quickly, scans it quickly with the magnifying glass, then notices that a spray of water is approaching, then he scrambles out of frame. This happens two more times) (nose to camera) I found something. Have a look. (holds the magnifying glass in front of the camera for a super-close-up of several tiny holes drilled into the stems of two roses) See these tiny holes? They're too small to be caused by the humans. (moves magnifying glass to second stem, camera follows) There seems to be tiny holes drilled into ALL of the stems. it seems to me, whoever drilled these holes is stealing the nectar directly from the stems. So, the nectar never gets up to the blossoms. That's why the blossoms are dying. (nose to camera) What do you think? (nods) You're right. There are so many holes in so many stems, it can't be just one animal doing all this damage. It has to be lots of animals doing the drilling. But we don't see any animals on these stems. I wonder why. (turns to stems, hands on hips, tilts head, pauses, turns to camera) Yes! Your right, of course. The animals who drilled those holes were scared away by the same thing that scared us away... the sprinklers! (exiting frame) Let's go to a part of the rose garden where the sprinklers finished sprinkling. EXT DAWN WIDE: ELSEWHERE IN THE ROSE GARDEN (camera follows Marvin as he climbs a stem, then looks through the magnifying lens after each step. Crawling aphids fill the lens) (to camera) See those little critters? They're the tiniest insects I've ever seen. See the needles on the end of their noses? Do you know what they call these little critters? (close-up shot of two aphids drilling into the stem and noisily slurping the nectar) (voiceover) As you can see, the reason the roses aren't getting any nectar up to the blossoms is because these tiny insects are stealing the nectar. QUEEN (descends into frame, hovers) Well, Marvin Mouse, have you solved the mystery? MARVIN Yes, we have, Your Majesty. The nectar is being stolen from the roses by thousands of tiny insects. QUEEN I don't see any insects. MARVIN These particular insects are very small. You can only see them with a magnifying glass. AND their bodies are the same color as the stem of the rose. (offers a view through the magnifying glass) See? QUEEN Oh, dear! They're so small. What kind of insects are they? MARVIN (nose to camera) Do you know what kind of insects these are? (turns to Queen) They're called Aphids. QUEEN Oh, dear! They're all over the stem! There are hundreds of them! MARVIN Yes, and they're on every stem of every rose in the garden. There might be millions of them. QUEEN Does that mean we can't get rid of them?! MARVIN No. We can get rid of them. QUEEN Will you have to get the help of the humans, as you did last time? (flashback) EXT AFTERNOON CLOSE-UP: PARK PARKING LOT, WINDSHIELD (Marvin paints with paint bucket and brush on a scrap of paper larger than his body in big letters: PLEASE FIX THE SPRINKLER WIRES) QUEEN (voiceover) You left a note for the humans to repair the wires on the sprinkler system. (zoom out to show that Marvin is standing on the hood of a maintenance truck and writing against the windshield, scampers out of frame as a big hand enters the frame and snatches the note, zoom out to show two maintenance workers) EXT DAWN WIDE: ROSE GARDEN MARVIN Yes, I did. but that won't be necessary this time. I have some insect friends who would love to help us get rid of these aphids. QUEEN Really?! Who are they? MARVIN (nose to camera) Do you know what kind of insects can help us get rid of aphids? (turns to Queen) They're called lady bugs. QUEEN I don't understand. Lady bugs are so cute and cuddly. How will they drive away the aphids? MARVIN Actually, they don't DRIVE AWAY the aphids. QUEEN How will they get rid of them then? MARVIN (nose to camera) Do you know how the lady bugs get rid of aphids? LADY BUG (descends into frame from above, hovers) Did I hear someone mention my name? MARVIN Yes. The queen, here, wants to know HOW you'll get rid of the aphids here in the rose garden? LADY BUG (smiles, wraps a napkin around her neck, pulls out a fork and a knife, sharpens the knife against the fork) Aphids?! Did you say Aphids?! I love Aphids! They're delicious! (shouts) Ladies! We're having aphids for breakfast! (as the shot widens a steady stream of lady bugs fly into the frame in formation, then, split into columns and disappear down the rows of roses) MARVIN (nose to lens) If you have a weak stomach, you may want to turn away. (shouts as he exits frame) Thanks for helping me solve this mystery! �2013 Bob Snook. Conditions for use: Do not sell any part of this script, even if you rewrite it. Pay no royalties, even if you make money from performances. You may reproduce and distribute this script freely, but all copies must contain this copyright statement. http://www.bobsnook.org email: [email protected] BACK |