Disney to destroy yet another cherished childhood memory: JOHN CARTER OF MARS

[eric_hinkle]

Well, over at the Herogames Forums, you can tell the holidays are approaching, as all the usual anti-Christian threads are being posted, buy the same people as every year (okay, it's against the board rules, but they're mods or the friends of same so the rules don't apply to them

Comments

[jordan179]

Of course, they might do a good job, but then again, this is something that's been leaked concerning a song that dejah Thoris will be singing in the movie:

"You think you own whatever planet that you land on
Mars is just a red thing you can claim
but I know every canal and creature
has a spirit, has antennae, has a name...."

You do remember that John Carter -- the character -- was based on an old Virginia family called the Carters, who were among the earliest English emigrants to the New World? It is possible that there were Carters at Jamestown around the same time that the real "Little Frisky One" visited them.

Edgar Rice Burroughs, of course, strongly implies that the "John Carter" who goes to Barsoom is the same man who emigrated to America centuries earlier. This is because John Carter is immortal

[eric_hinkle]

Edgar Rice Burroughs, of course, strongly implies that the "John Carter" who goes to Barsoom is the same man who emigrated to America centuries earlier. This is because John Carter is immortal.

I'd heard that Carter was immortal elsewhere (and ti would explain a heck of a lot about the first book's plot), but never got any further details.

I've often suspected that (H. P. Lovecraft's character) Randolph Carter is meant to be John Carter's kinsman. I wonder if the Farmerverse (Newton Wold) people ever had any fun with this concept?

Dunno about the Wold Newton gang, but in the first collected League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, we see Allan Quatermain, John Carter, and Reginald Carter all together in a written story where they meet unearthly terrors. It's pretty good.

[frost_wraith]

"You think you own whatever planet that you land on
Mars is just a red thing you can claim
but I know every canal and creature
has a spirit, has antennae, has a name...."

Ok, you do know thats just the lyrics from one of the songs of "Pocahontas" with re-written lyrics right?

[eric_hinkle]

Yeah, but it's still a reminder of the horrors that Disney is capable of. "Most accurate depiction of native pre-Columbian lifestyles ever in film..." *shudder* And it was the guy who voiced Chief Powhatan who said it, no less -- Russell Means.

[roycalbeck]

I have just one thing to say.

AAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGH!

[eric_hinkle]

I'm not as hopeful as you.

[stauros]

the good: Pixar's involved, and they know how to craft a story. If Brad Bird is watching over the project, there's reason for hope.

the bad: Who's the screenwriter? IMDB says it's the guy responsible for First Snow and partly responsible for Children of Men (very bad). Wikipedia says it's a Pixar guy who works closely with Bird.

the ugly: This project has been kicking around for years. Who knows what sort of Hollywood baggage it has accumulated.

[eric_hinkle]

Yes, it's been getting kicked around for years. For something like seventy-five years, to be exact. That's twice as long as my own lifespan!

And oddly enough, it originally was suggested as a film by the Fleischer Brothers. I think they could have done a good job of it -- but Burroughs wanted it done as a serious adventure film, while they wanted wacky comedy. I still wonder what would have happened to the American perception of animation if the first animated movie had been done as a serious SF story.

[anonymous]

Barsoom is doomed. Oh, it might be good taken by itself, but it won't be ERB. It'll be Disney and we all know what that means.

Barsoom is doomed.

Brock

[eric_hinkle]

Barsoom is not doomed! Call out the Hordes of Warhoon! We march on Anaheim tonight!