Disney's John Carter

[Zor]

Website with trailer

This is from someone who's knowledge of the book series is derived from a few minutes of Wikipedia brousing, but it looks pretty cool.

Zor

[Slacker]

I've got about the same level of knowledge base as you do, and it looks pretty cool. I guess we'll see. It's Disney, but on the other hand the new Tron was pretty good.

[Batman]

As someone who has read many of the books, I'm reserving judgement. Some of it looked good, some of it not (those horses in the cavalry charge looked like real horses, which would be lame), some of it I couldn't place at all (the glowy floor thingy I can't recall from any of the books I read), so I guess I'll have to wait and see.

[Zor]

As someone who has read many of the books, I'm reserving judgement. Some of it looked good, some of it not (those horses in the cavalry charge looked like real horses, which would be lame),

I think the scene with the actual horses is supposed to be on earth.

Zor

[Covenant]

When I first saw this guy and his funky chest clothing I thought this was He-Man Film. Is this one of those kinds of Ray Bradbury Sword-and-Planet novels?

[Simon_Jester]

This is John Carter of Mars.

That's what Ray Bradbury wanted to write when he grew up, Covenant. Look it up.

[Covenant]

This is John Carter of Mars.

That's what Ray Bradbury wanted to write when he grew up, Covenant. Look it up.

Ugh, of course, Edgar Rice Burroughs. That was a softball--I shoulda' known that. All I know of this series are the Frazetta depictions, which I hear can be considered tame next to the actual thing. Clearly they're not going to play up scantily clad Martian women, but hopefully they keep the other wacky stuff. I had heard they were doing something with these books, but I entirely forgot about it.

[Tsyroc]

I've read all the books (a long time ago) and this looks pretty good and fairly accurate.

The part with the horses is on Earth. John Carter is supposed to have been a Captain in the Confederate Army. After the war he traveled in the western US and got into some trouble with some Native Americans which ends up pushing him into a place that results with him ending up on Mars.

The stuff where he's ERB's uncle is also related to the books. The author is supposed to be the "nephew" of John Carter. A miraculously long lived John Carter who disappears for long periods only to return and tell these stories to his nephew.

Funny that someone mentioned the harness reminding him of He-Man. When I was a kid and reading these books I was initially interested in the He-Man toys specifically because they reminded me of John Carter, in a sort of roided out way. The He-Man cartoons didn't come out until after I already had a few of the toys.

I don't know if anyone remembers the toymaker Trendmasters. I think they are mostly known for making a bunch of Godzilla toys that sold in the US. They got that contract when the Jan de Bont Godzilla was still going to happen so their first batch of toys were all based on Toho stuff. They later did the majority of the toys that tied in to the Mathew Broderick Godzilla film. Anyway, at around the same time that they did their first Godzilla toys they also did a bunch of toys, many with sound, based on a lot of ERB books. There were a lot of Tarzan and John Carter figures, and possibly a Carson of Venus but I'm not sure on that one.

[Imperial Overlord]

I think the glowy floor bit might be showing John Carter the map of Mars on the floor, starting with the canals.

I'm rereading a Princess of Mars at Project Gutenberg and as an FYI almost no one wears clothes on Mars. Only metal ornaments and the occasional cape.

[Ahriman238]

I never read the books, but I do fondly remember the comic book adaptation by Marvel. That said, does the Red Planet strike anyone else as being insufficiently red?

[Stofsk]

Um... don't know if you're aware of this, but Mars actually isn't 'red' at all.

[neoolong]

Pretty sure the Martian sky isn't blue though.

[Covenant]

Pretty sure the Martian sky isn't blue though.

Well yeah, but that's because the atmosphere of Mars is woefully thin, let alone not containing much in the way of our standard Nitrogen Oxygen compound. If you intended to send John Carter to a realistic Mars he'd flop over the minute he got there and die. If we assume Mars has canals, breathable atmosphere, and humanoid life that has compatible physiology to ours... then it's probably got a blue sky and probably doesn't look nearly as red as we'd expect.

I'm rereading a Princess of Mars at Project Gutenberg and as an FYI almost no one wears clothes on Mars. Only metal ornaments and the occasional cape.

This being a Disney production I doubt we can expect that to fly on-screen.

[neoolong]

Pretty sure the Martian sky isn't blue though.

Well yeah, but that's because the atmosphere of Mars is woefully thin, let alone not containing much in the way of our standard Nitrogen Oxygen compound. If you intended to send John Carter to a realistic Mars he'd flop over the minute he got there and die. If we assume Mars has canals, breathable atmosphere, and humanoid life that has compatible physiology to ours... then it's probably got a blue sky and probably doesn't look nearly as red as we'd expect.

Yeah, but then there's no reason why it shouldn't be red if you're already not making it realistic. I'm not saying it should all be red desert, but I would have liked something more alien. Of course we only have a glimpse of the planet in a teaser, so there could be a bunch of different environments.

[Azron_Stoma]

Pretty sure the Martian sky isn't blue though.

Well yeah, but that's because the atmosphere of Mars is woefully thin, let alone not containing much in the way of our standard Nitrogen Oxygen compound. If you intended to send John Carter to a realistic Mars he'd flop over the minute he got there and die. If we assume Mars has canals, breathable atmosphere, and humanoid life that has compatible physiology to ours... then it's probably got a blue sky and probably doesn't look nearly as red as we'd expect.

I'm rereading a Princess of Mars at Project Gutenberg and as an FYI almost no one wears clothes on Mars. Only metal ornaments and the occasional cape.

This being a Disney production I doubt we can expect that to fly on-screen.

Which is why Disney are the wrong people to do this movie, Legendary pictures would be better suited imo.

[Elheru Aran]

Yeah... too many clothes. And the Green Martian is made of fail; they tried (I saw an extra set of arms) but aside from that, it didn't even look tall enough-- they're supposed to be like 10' tall! Granted, we only saw it for a moment, but nonetheless, it looked like it was meeting Dejah Thoris' eyes at her level. And the tusks were ridiculous. I much preferred Kevin O'Neill's rendition of them in LXG volume 2. Blargh.

However, if anybody had to pick this up, Disney is as good as any. They have the money and the pull to really try on something like this. No, it won't be all that accurate to Burroughs' vision-- the man was a racist, sexist product of his time with a fetish for sword-fighting and scantily clad women-- but their adaption of his work will at least look pretty, the Green Martian might not have the best design but he won't look like a cheap rubber suit or a cheap computer graphic, and Dejah Thoris might actually be more than "chick who always gets into trouble and does nothing except get rescued all the time by the stalwart hero".

Fun little fact: back in the 1930's Disney was actually looking at making a cartoon flick of John Carter of Mars. Never happened, but there's the odd little bit of test animation and such floating around... wonder if someone was going through their properties and went "oh hey, we still have the rights to this"?

[Tsyroc]

Is ERB's John Carter stuff even under copyright anymore? I thought that part of the reason Disney did the animated Tarzan movie was that the character was no longer under copyright.



The brief clip of the Green Martian looked okay to me. The artwork on the books I have depicts them as tall, thin, with large tusks. The Marvel comic tended to have them a bit more muscular than what I had imagined from the books. I think they are supposed to be well over 10ft tall. I keep thinking around 14ft but I might be misremembering.

I liked that Dejah Thoris actually looks red and not pinkish like in the Marvel Comics. I would have been okay with the color being even darker and more coppery looking but considering the previous film attempt at this book series starred Atonio Sabatto Jr. I think everything I've seen so far is a big step up from that film.

[Elheru Aran]

You may very well be correct about ERB's stuff being public domain now... it's been a long time since that came out now.

Dejah Thoris actually didn't look very red at all to me. She looked... tan. That was about it. Might just be my laptop monitor, though. For all that she's too clothed, Lynn Collins wasn't too bad of a choice to play the character, at least appearance-wise. I would've preferred someone other than Taylor Kitsch for John Carter though... or at least someone who knows how to shave. Getting tired of the trend nowadays for all the action heroes being stubbly; I blame Hugh Jackman...

Anyway, pretty much ANYTHING would've been a step up from the Antonio Sabato/Traci Lords (yes, ex-porn star Traci Lords) travesty. This is one reason why I'm more or less on Disney's side here... no, it won't be perfect, but it'll be decent and maybe even fun.

[Ahriman238]

Um... don't know if you're aware of this, but Mars actually isn't 'red' at all.

Oh, I know that. But this is a novel, from the man who wrote Tarzan, about a decade after War of the Worlds. There are guns that shoot exploding radium bullets because, as everyone knows, radium explodes on contact with sunlight. You really should not expect high levels of scientific accuracy here.

This movie is not going to take place on Mars, the actual planet, but on Barsoom, Mars as written about by ERB. That means a world where the seas have dried up to be replaced with red-sanded deserts and vast fields of lichen. Where an age of high technology is backsliding into barbarism because barbarians are simply better at fighting over the dwindling water supplies.

[Imperial Overlord]

The first books are public domain and you can read them at Project Gutenberg.

The Green Martians are tall and skinny and Red Martians are supposed to be copper skinned and as mentioned Mars isn't Mars, its Barsoom. I don't think that anyone was going to make a version where everyone was actually naked, I just mentioned it because the original source material goes well beyond scantily clad.

Also the series was more progressive on race than I first expected. The Red Martians are a product of White, Yellow, and Black Martians interbreeding and much of the Green Martians douchebaggery is attributed in the books to environmental causes. I prefer my princesses in planetary romances to be less blatantly rescue bait (see In the Court of the Crimson Kings) but I'm sure some of that is going to updated.

They've done a good job of capturing the wonder of Barsoom in the trailer. I hope the movie can keep that up.

[Elheru Aran]

One thing I should mention is that I did notice at one point John does his "leaps like a frog on crack" shtick, and that was a nice touch... always appreciated it in the book too, ERB knowing that Mars' lighter gravity would allow the Earthman Carter to jump around like he was on the Moon, almost.

[Ahriman238]

One thing I should mention is that I did notice at one point John does his "leaps like a frog on crack" shtick, and that was a nice touch... always appreciated it in the book too, ERB knowing that Mars' lighter gravity would allow the Earthman Carter to jump around like he was on the Moon, almost.
One thing I should mention is that I did notice at one point John does his "leaps like a frog on crack" shtick, and that was a nice touch... always appreciated it in the book too, ERB knowing that Mars' lighter gravity would allow the Earthman Carter to jump around like he was on the Moon, almost.

Well, the comic book tended to take 'John Carter is far stronger than any sapient Martian' a little far. At one point he was wrapped in chains and managed to break them, albeit with some effort. Lower gravity is one thing, but metal is still metal whether on Earth, Mars, or the Moon.

[Tasoth]

Someone linked this on facebook and I got excited.

-Yeah, I am completely fine with the 'we're all naked!' aspect not being present.

-That thark design is dumb and off the mark around the face.

-This Dejah makes me think of Thuvia, who was actually handy when Carter rescued her.

-I always pictured the yellow lichen being faaaaar more dense then what we get shown.

-While the airships are pretty, they're not what I imagined. Need to be rounder, more solid, like aerial steam ships.

Still amped as all hell about it, though.

[CaptainChewbacca]

I love John Carter, though I only ever read one of his books. I should see if I can get an anthology online for cheap.

Regardless, those books are the reason why there's a martian colony named 'Barsoom' in one of my scifi worlds.

[Lurks-no-More]

-This Dejah makes me think of Thuvia, who was actually handy when Carter rescued her.

It's been a long time since I read Princess of Mars but I seem to recall Dejah Thoris had her share of action in that book and that it wasn't until Gods of Mars and Warlord of Mars when she, out of plot needs, became much more traditional "damsel in distress". Agreed about Thuvia, though; she's a kick-ass woman.