# Bob Clampett does John Carter of Mars **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 12, 2008, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-clampett-does-john-carter-of-mars/445045 "2008-04-12T16:17:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![vibrotronica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/a9a28c/32.png) [@vibrotronica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vibrotronica)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2008, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-clampett-does-john-carter-of-mars/445045/1 "2008-04-12T16:17:03Z")
Check it out! [Long-lost test footage](http://blogs.amctv.com/scifi-scanner/2008/04/john-carter-mars-video.php) from [Bob Clampett](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Clampett) for a proposed series of John Carter of Mars shorts! I had no idea such a thing ever could have existed. How awesome would that have been? ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2008, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-clampett-does-john-carter-of-mars/445045/2 "2008-04-12T17:08:39Z")
Screw the Mickey Mouse hacks at Pixar, I would pay hard-earned cash to see this. I love John Carter and I love Bob Clampett. It’s a crying shame the studio cheated us out of seeing their collaboration. The oil-painted scenes look like they would’ve been amazing. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2008, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-clampett-does-john-carter-of-mars/445045/3 "2008-04-12T21:15:45Z")
Plenty more Barsoom art [here.](http://www.erbzine.com/mag13/1390.html) ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2008, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-clampett-does-john-carter-of-mars/445045/4 "2008-04-12T21:29:11Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] Plenty more Barsoom art [here.](http://www.erbzine.com/mag13/1390.html) [/QUOTE] I actually own all of those Gold Key and Marvel comics. Didn’t know Dark Horse did a series but I’m going to look for it now. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2008, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-clampett-does-john-carter-of-mars/445045/5 "2008-04-12T22:06:31Z")
[QUOTE=Cisco] Screw the Mickey Mouse hacks at Pixar, I would pay hard-earned cash to see this. I love John Carter and I love Bob Clampett. It’s a crying shame the studio cheated us out of seeing their collaboration. The oil-painted scenes look like they would’ve been amazing. [/QUOTE] While I disagree with calling the folks at Pixar hacks, I have to agree that Ted Clampett’s version no doubt would have been superior. The man was quite obviously an artistic genius, which is rare in any medium. It is too bad that he didn’t have the tools available to him that exist today, then he could have done it without a studio. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2008, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-clampett-does-john-carter-of-mars/445045/6 "2008-04-12T22:31:24Z")
[QUOTE=Tuckerfan] While I disagree with calling the folks at Pixar hacks [/QUOTE] I tried to find one film on [this list of Pixar features](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Pixar_films) that I could use as an exception to find some common ground with you and I couldn’t do it. I can only conclude that - as far as my tastes and opinions go - they suck ass as a studio and don’t belong anywhere near John Cater. In the interest of full disclosure, I loved _Boundin’_, but that was all of, what, 4 minutes? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2008, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-clampett-does-john-carter-of-mars/445045/7 "2008-04-12T22:41:21Z")
Am I the only one who first read the thread title as **Jed** Clampett? ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2008, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-clampett-does-john-carter-of-mars/445045/8 "2008-04-12T22:42:35Z")
I’m still trying to figure out who Ted Clampett is. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2008, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-clampett-does-john-carter-of-mars/445045/9 "2008-04-12T22:52:41Z")
[QUOTE=Cisco] I tried to find one film on [this list of Pixar features](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Pixar_films) that I could use as an exception to find some common ground with you and I couldn’t do it. I can only conclude that - as far as my tastes and opinions go - they suck ass as a studio and don’t belong anywhere near John Cater. In the interest of full disclosure, I loved _Boundin’_, but that was all of, what, 4 minutes? [/QUOTE] I’ll admit that Pixar’s stuff _isn’t_ high art, but it’s a damn site better than anything Michael Bay, Roland Emmerlich, and Uwe Boll put out. And J.C. of Mars is far from high art, either. Pixar’s got the skills to do a decent film, IMHO, but it’ll certainly _not_ be the gobsmacking beauty that Mr. Clampett would have done. > [@](#): > > I’m still trying to figure out who Ted Clampett is. If this ain’t a whoosh, then, IIRC, he’s the guy responsible for the art of the original Superman cartoons. Certainly the style and flow of his artwork matches that. ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2008, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-clampett-does-john-carter-of-mars/445045/10 "2008-04-13T00:12:49Z")
[QUOTE=Tuckerfan] If this ain’t a whoosh, then, IIRC, he’s the guy responsible for the art of the original Superman cartoons. Certainly the style and flow of his artwork matches that. [/QUOTE] Only if Ted Clampett is spelled “Bob Clampett” and pronounced “Max Fleischer.” Bob Clampett was a key figure in the history of Warner Bros. animation (how key is a matter of some debate) and also brought us Beany Boy and Cecil (a Bob Clam-pett car-too-oon!). Max Fleischer was responsible for a highly regarded series of Superman cartoons. Jed Clampett was a poor mountaineer who barely kept his family fed. Ted Clampett, I have no idea. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2008, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-clampett-does-john-carter-of-mars/445045/11 "2008-04-13T00:56:30Z")
I’d like to travel back in time and garotte whoever spragged the production of those cartoons. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2008, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-clampett-does-john-carter-of-mars/445045/12 "2008-04-13T01:14:28Z")
Too bad they never were produced. I grooved on ERBdom, and Carter in particular thru most of the early 70’s. And I became enamoured of Bob Clampett’s work via his masterful opus “Beanie and Cecil”. > [@](#): > > The green men came up fast so she fled upon a thoat. > John Carter told her, “Go, I’ll stay behind and be the goat.” > But when the Martians got up close, he saw they were no Tharks. > These savage goons were all Warhoons, a damn sight worse than sharks. > **[ERBzine 0002: ERB Fan Fiction](https://www.erbzine.com/mag0/0002.html)** > > Edgar Rice Burroughs, ERB, Tarzana, Tarzan, Barsoom, Mars, Venus, John Carter, Amtor, Caspak, Pellucidar, Motes and Quotes, Bill and Sue-On Hillman, imaginative fantasy adventure, science-fiction, World War Two, correspondent, fan fiction, poetry,... ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2008, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-clampett-does-john-carter-of-mars/445045/13 "2008-04-13T01:24:39Z")
[QUOTE=Qadgop the Mercotan] Too bad they never were produced. I grooved on ERBdom, and Carter in particular thru most of the early 70’s. And I became enamoured of Bob Clampett’s work via his masterful opus “Beanie and Cecil”. > **[ERBzine 0002: ERB Fan Fiction](https://www.erbzine.com/mag0/0002.html)** > > Edgar Rice Burroughs, ERB, Tarzana, Tarzan, Barsoom, Mars, Venus, John Carter, Amtor, Caspak, Pellucidar, Motes and Quotes, Bill and Sue-On Hillman, imaginative fantasy adventure, science-fiction, World War Two, correspondent, fan fiction, poetry,... [/QUOTE] I read and loved all the John Carter books when I was a young teen in the late 70’s. I never discovered “Beanie and Cecil” until a few years ago and they were great. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2008, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-clampett-does-john-carter-of-mars/445045/14 "2008-04-13T01:38:10Z")
At first, I thought this was an April Fools’ joke based on the date of the post. But then I decided to look around the Internet and this attempted project is, in fact, well-documented enough that it’s safe to say it isn’t. It seems strange that the man who directed _Porky in Wackyland_ and _The Great Piggy Bank Robbery_ would be involved in a realistic animation before those cartoons were even made! ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2008, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-clampett-does-john-carter-of-mars/445045/15 "2008-04-13T01:58:00Z")
[QUOTE=Scumpup] I’d like to travel back in time and garotte whoever spragged the production of those cartoons. [/QUOTE] Alas, such a course of action could only lead to your own destruction. Allowing Bob Clampett to complete his John Carter of Mars animated serials would result in an overwhelming demand for similar animated films, provoking a distinct pulp fantasy aesthetic which sweeps away the stereotype of animation as a purely comic, childish medium. Disney’s lock on feature animation would be broken as the studios scramble to compete for this new market, and animated features become the default medium for sci-fi and horror. Massively profitable animated film franchises are built around the works of Burroughs, Wells and Verne, as well as numerous pulp magazine properties and the popular Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers newspaper strips. However, the costly and time-consuming animation process slows Hollywood production during the critical years of WWII; while the vividly realized pulp science vistas provide enthusiastic inspiration to an altogether unexpected audience: Adolf Hitler. Soon Nazi rocketmen are descending on Moscow and New York even as Hitler’s marine assault tripods boldly stride across the English Channel. Decades of global tyranny follow under the iron heel of National Socialism, as its science overlords extend their reach ever further in their quest to conquer the uttermost limits of space and time. Yet at the last moment, one man-- the last survivor of the American Resistance-- dares to commandeer a lunar rocket to New Berlin and wrest the secret of the Time Projector from its techno-dystopian masters… plunging back, BACK! through the ages, to defeat the interplanetary techno-dystopia by altering the very fabric of History itself! And that man’s name was… _Ted Clampett._ ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2008, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-clampett-does-john-carter-of-mars/445045/16 "2008-04-13T02:06:55Z")
[QUOTE=Terrifel] Alas, such a course of action could only lead to your own destruction. Allowing Bob Clampett to complete his John Carter of Mars animated serials would result in an overwhelming demand for similar animated films, provoking a distinct pulp fantasy aesthetic which sweeps away the stereotype of animation as a purely comic, childish medium. Disney’s lock on feature animation would be broken as the studios scramble to compete for this new market, and animated features become the default medium for sci-fi and horror. Massively profitable animated film franchises are built around the works of Burroughs, Wells and Verne, as well as numerous pulp magazine properties and the popular Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers newspaper strips. However, the costly and time-consuming animation process slows Hollywood production during the critical years of WWII; while the vividly realized pulp science vistas provide enthusiastic inspiration to an altogether unexpected audience: Adolf Hitler. Soon Nazi rocketmen are descending on Moscow and New York even as Hitler’s marine assault tripods boldly stride across the English Channel. Decades of global tyranny follow under the iron heel of National Socialism, as its science overlords extend their reach ever further in their quest to conquer the uttermost limits of space and time. Yet at the last moment, one man-- the last survivor of the American Resistance-- dares to commandeer a lunar rocket to New Berlin and wrest the secret of the Time Projector from its techno-dystopian masters… plunging back, BACK! through the ages, to defeat the interplanetary techno-dystopia by altering the very fabric of History itself! And that man’s name was… _Ted Clampett._ [/QUOTE] See, I knew there was a simple and logical answer. Thank you **Terrifel**. ---
**Author:** ![vison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/e47774/32.png) [@vison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vison)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2008, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-clampett-does-john-carter-of-mars/445045/17 "2008-04-13T03:21:00Z")
I read A Princess of Mars in about 1954? Something like that. The first science fiction I ever read, and it woke an enduring passion for scifi in me. Yes, I know it was not very “good” science fiction, but it was surely entertaining and an eye-opener to a 10 year old girl. Our pathetically inadequate school “library” consisted of a long shelf of ERB’s Tarzan and Mars and Venus books along with collections of “Chatterbox”, an English boys’ magazine. I read 'em all and when I’d done, I began them all over. I used to think they’d make great movies. Not so sure, now. Changed my mind - that little animated clip was lovely. I wish the movies had been made. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2008, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-clampett-does-john-carter-of-mars/445045/18 "2008-04-13T06:02:04Z")
[QUOTE=Tuckerfan] I’ll admit that Pixar’s stuff _isn’t_ high art, but it’s a damn site better than anything Michael Bay, Roland Emmerlich, and Uwe Boll put out. [/QUOTE] Better than Uwe Boll? Are you competing for the Backhanded Compliment of the Year award? ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2008, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-clampett-does-john-carter-of-mars/445045/19 "2008-04-13T06:24:00Z")
[QUOTE=Tuckerfan] I’ll admit that Pixar’s stuff _isn’t_ high art, but it’s a damn site better than anything Michael Bay, Roland Emmerlich, and Uwe Boll put out. [/quote] Agreed about Bay and Boll. I don’t know who Roland Emmerlich is but I’ve left better stuff on toilet paper than the other two’s movies. > [@Tuckerfan](#): > > And J.C. of Mars is far from high art, either. Agreed again, but when it comes to lowbrow entertainment I get to choose my poison :D. And in all fairness, The Incredibles wasn’t _bad_, it just wasn’t what the explosive hype would lead you to believe it was. Finding Nemo was bad. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2008, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-clampett-does-john-carter-of-mars/445045/20 "2008-04-13T06:33:52Z")
[QUOTE=Cisco] Agreed about Bay and Boll. I don’t know who Roland Emmerlich is but I’ve left better stuff on toilet paper than the other two’s movies. [/QUOTE] [Roland Emmerlich.](http://imdb.com/name/nm0000386/) This is not so much a case of fighting ignorance as it is spreading the pain. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-clampett-does-john-carter-of-mars/445045.md?page=2)