Turning books into animation

[Son_of_a_Rich]

Once the stink of John Carter has wafted away, Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Barsoom series.

[Dendarii_Dame]

The Fairy’s Mistake by Gail Carson Levine. It’s a new, very funny version of an old fairy tale called “Diamonds and Toads.”

[CalMeacham]

@Son_of_a_Rich

Once the stink of John Carter has wafted away, Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Barsoom series.

Back in 1936 (two years before Disney’s Snow White was released!) animator Bob Clampett suggested doing John Carter of Mars as an animated feature. He eventually turned out some footage, some of which still exists:

John Carter of Mars Animation (Rare) Bob Clampett

This pre-dates the first commercial feature-length movies, and pre-dates the character of Superman (not to mention the Fleischer Studios animation of him). Pretty far-ahead vision Clampett had. Too bad he wasn’t able to get it “sold”.

By the way, lots of us think that the Disney John Carter didn’t stink, and certainly didn’t deserve the bad press it received.

[Inner_Stickler]

@Simplicio

Maybe it could work as a sort of trippy art-project, but as a story I think it’d leave a lot to be desired.

Mainstream appeal was not one of the criteria in the OP.

[MacSpon]

@CalMeacham

The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society has made excellent adaptations of The Cal of Cthulhu

I saw what you did there.

[mbh]

@CalMeacham

I wouldn’t mind seeing Robert E. Howard’s stories done in animation. Lord knows, nobody’s ebven tried to do a faithful adaptation of Conan for the screen – they cut out all the stuff that makes it interesting. For the immense monsters and exotic sorcerors, the Mighty-Thewed Cimmerian Giant, and the gtravity-defying voluptuous leading ladies, animation might be the best way to go. It’s be like the Frazetta/Bakshi effort Fire and Ice from thirty years ago. Onloy better, because you’;d have a real Robert E. Howard plot.

Fire and Ice (1983 film) - Wikipedia

For that matter, animation might be the best way to do H.P. Lovecraft’s stories. Imagine The Dunwich Horror done with complex, computer-aided imagery. Or The Shadow over Innsmouth, culminating in hordes of stampeding Innsmouth denizens, and a view of the undersea city.

While you’re at it, let’s do all of the classic fantasy authors: Moorcock, Zelazny, Leiber, Dunsany, Eddison, etc.

[Oakminster]

I’d give a Doc Savage series a try…

[Czarcasm]

@Oakminster

I’d give a Doc Savage series a try…

I never thought of that, but you are right. I’d be afraid of Tom Cruise getting the part in a live-action film.

[ricksummon]

@CalMeacham

But I was thinking more along the lines of computer-aided color animation adaptations of everything in the story. It could truly rock.

For that, we need a big-budget adaptation of The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath. With The White Ship as a short film preceding it.

[Lynn_Bodoni]

@Czarcasm

What books would you like to see transformed into either an animated movie or maybe an animated television series? I could see Robert Asprin’s Myth series as an Adult Swim project, and Sapir and Murphy’s Destroyer as an anime-style series. I think a lot of Heinlein’s works would work best as animated movies, but Dicksons Dorsai/Childe Cycle might take both an animated series and a movie or three.

What say you?

Phil Foglio did a couple of comic books/graphic novels of the first Myth book (Another Fine Myth), and you can read them online for free. I have the original dead tree version somewhere.

Also, let’s limit the Destroyer stories to just the ones by Sapir and Murphy. The writers who took over really didn’t understand the series, IMO.

[BigT]

I’ve often thought that the Thursday Next series would be fun to watch. It’s pretty much a cartoon in my head, anyways. (I just can’t imagine a real person acting like Thursday, especially at her age.)

[Dendarii_Dame]

Another good choice would be Copper, by Rebecca Lisle. It’s a children’s fantasy novel.