Disney's Disney animated movie, which is what really put Disney on the map. However, if John Carter (then known as A Princess of Mars) wouldn't have been canceled, the world now may be very different.
A Princess of Mars is the first novel in Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter of Mars series, which was adapted by Disney into a live-action film known as John Carter in 2012. The series follows a veteran of the Civil War named John Carter as he is transported to Mars, known instead to its inhabitants by the name of Barsoom. Starting in 1912, the series is wildly influential, having Flash Gordon. Each story follows a different quest taken by John Carter, that frequently involves interplanetary conflicts, love, and Martian politics.
Back in 1931, three years before Snow White even entered development, Looney Tunes director Bob Clampett wanted to make a movie about John Carter. He pitched a feature-length adaptation of A Princess of Mars to Burroughs, who loved the idea. Burroughs knew that, with the technology of the time, it would be nearly impossible to do John Carter in live-action. However, an animated movie would negate these issues. The only caveat is that Burroughs recommended Clampett come up with an original story for the film. The duo met with MGM, who enthusiastically agreed to release the film. So, with everything in place, Clampett got to work on the first of many failed attempts at a John Carter movie.
By 1936, Clampett had created some test footage that he showed off in some U.S. towns. The footage can be seen on Youtube, and appears genuinely groundbreaking for the time. It utilized rotoscoping for the characters and pulled off images like an eight-legged beast. However, viewers in the 1930s were not so happy with it. The main criticism was that a man on Mars is too outlandish, and audiences wouldn't understand it. By this time, plans had expanded into a series of films, based on at least five more of Burroughs' John Carter stories. Sadly, MGM decided that it was not worth the risk due to the negative response, and canceled the project.
A few years later, being ed as a failure, John Carter of Mars may be a household name. It is surreal to think how big of a difference a simple animated movie might have made, but these things may have happened if John Carter had come out before Snow White.
