WI Princess of Mars gets made

Revisiting an old concept:

Our PoD is Bob Clampett getting his animated adaptation of Princess of Mars made and released in 1938; World War II unfolds as OTL. What are some alternate films that would get released up through 1950 in this scenario? This can include animated features that are less likely to be constrained by the "child ghetto", science fiction cinema getting an earlier "golden age" (overlapping with the genre's literary counterpart), or anything else relevant you can think of. For that matter, other pop culture effects (like those in comics) are also open here, so long as the same time frame (1938-50) is applied.

A note on OTL -- the only non-Disney American animated features around this time were two works from Flescher Studios, Gulliver's Travels (1939) and Mr Bug Goes to Town (1941). I'm going to guess these would not happen TTL; anyone disagree?
 

Driftless

Donor
I'd bet that the 1938 animated version might stand up a lot better than the 2012 John Carter of Mars live action/CGI clunker....

If Clampett could have gotten Princess of Mars produced and distributed, that could have been a revolutionary development. If that film did well enough, an animated version of War of the Worlds probably gets done too. If either film is even a modest success, that would be a big boost to appreciation and acceptance of feature-length animation and science-fiction in general
 
If Clampett could have gotten Princess of Mars produced and distributed, that could have been a revolutionary development. If that film did well enough, an animated version of War of the Worlds probably gets done too. If either film is even a modest success, that would be a big boost to appreciation and acceptance of feature-length animation and science-fiction in general

Agreed. Does anyone have thoughts for animated features or science fiction films that could come about in the next decade or so as a result? I can think of at least one film that may not get made if science fiction is more popular in 1938...
 

Driftless

Donor
You might need some known touchstone to connect to help draw in more casual fans - books by well known authors....

HG Wells books that would translate well to animation
* War of the Worlds - maybe
* Shape of Things to Come - though it would have trailed the excellent 1936 film.
* Time Machine
* The Land Ironclads - that would have seemed prophetic if released in early 1939....
* The First Men in the Moon - This one had to wait till special effects advancements were in place in the 1960's to get done.

Jules Verne - oh my
* 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea - IF it could have been done in Technicolor!
* Robur the Conqueror and/or Master of the World - a flying Captain Nemo analog
* From Earth to Moon & Around the Moon
* Mysterious Island
* Off on a Comet
* Journey to the Center of the Earth

Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle
* The Lost World - needs Technicolor too.
* Professor Challenger stories in general

Edgar Rice Burroughs
* Any Tarzan
* More John Carter
* Pellucidar series
* Venus series
* Land That Time Forgot series


At bit more of a reach for the mainstream - but good candidates all the same.

EE "Doc" Smith
* Skylark of Space series

Edwin Lester Arnold
* Gulliver of Mars

Karel Capek
* R.U.R.

At some point, original material needs to step into play too: Space flight, massive dirigibles, Hollow Earth, etc, etc.
 
* War of the Worlds - maybe

I'd read Ray Harryhausen got the idea of adapting this in 1942 while he was still in the army; if the genre is getting more love around this time, he could get a chance to contribute special effects for an adaptation in the later 1940's.

* Time Machine

Would be WWII appropriate, I think, given the obvious parallels.

* 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea - IF it could have been done in Technicolor!
* Mysterious Island
* Robur the Conqueror and/or Master of the World - a flying Captain Nemo analog

* The Lost World - needs Technicolor too.
* Journey to the Center of the Earth
* Land That Time Forgot series
* Professor Challenger stories in general

I'd say any big films in Technicolor starting production after 1938 would have to wait until after WWII.

* The First Men in the Moon - This one had to wait till special effects advancements were in place in the 1960's to get done.
* From Earth to Moon & Around the Moon
* Off on a Comet

Does the bold apply to said films in general?
 

Driftless

Donor
Does the bold apply to said films in general?

True enough for the special effects needed. That's where an earlier appearance of top quality animation might have stolen a march on live action/special effects driven stories. Clampett & co could have set the bar for how those tales were to look.
 
OK, so we've got quite a few sci-fi adaptations that can come about in TTL's late 1940's (after the war) -- including War of the Worlds (with Harryhausen), 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas (in technicolor), and at least one dinosaur film (also in technicolor) -- as well as, so far, one idea for a sci-fi live action film that can be made during the war (The Time Machine).
 

raharris1973

Gone Fishin'
Donor
Monthly Donor
I'm curious about how things would work out if MGM did bet on it.

What factors would be in favor of it in the market and what would be against it.

It would be an interesting historical thingie even if not a commercial success or widely imitated. It could spawn a later cult following, or a later John Carter Sinbad style by Harryhausen in later decades even if considered too risky for most of the 1940s.
 
What factors would be in favor of it in the market and what would be against it.

It would be an interesting historical thingie even if not a commercial success or widely imitated. It could spawn a later cult following, or a later John Carter Sinbad style by Harryhausen in later decades even if considered too risky for most of the 1940s.

In favor -- it's a feature length animated film in 1938, which you'll recall worked out quite well for as Snow White though that may be less of a box office sensation TTL if she's competing with John Carter). And it's not like there wasn't a demand for adventure stories (as otl films show) or looking to the future (as World's Fair, books, etc show). Or even simpler, look at the ransoms for superheros (Superman) and spacemen (Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon).

Don't really know how to make the case against commercial success, unless you take test screening a teaser as being a solid case.
 
I'm wondering if you could get Isaac to sign off on an adaptation of "Nightfall" (1941). Or if anything of Beam Pipers could get made? (The Fuzzys {Fuzzies?} are Ewoks without cannibalism.:p)

I'm also thinking you could have Doc Smith's Lensmen books adapted.
 
I'm wondering if you could get Isaac to sign off on an adaptation of "Nightfall" (1941). Or if anything of Beam Pipers could get made? (The Fuzzys {Fuzzies?} are Ewoks without cannibalism.:p)

I'm also thinking you could have Doc Smith's Lensmen books adapted.

There was an adaptation of another Asimov story planned by Orson Welles, (or rather, Welles had the rights to that story.) Perhaps Orson Welles could spearhead a version of Nightfall.
 
Mr.E said:
There was an adaptation of another Asimov story planned by Orson Welles, (or rather, Welles had the rights to that story.) Perhaps Orson Welles could spearhead a version of Nightfall.
Of all the Hollywood people I'd want involved, Orson has to be about the top of the list.:cool: That could be epic.:cool: (Of the others, Harlan Ellison, Dorothy Fontana, & Gene Coon are the tops. {Yes, Harlan is a dick,:p but he damn well knows how to write SF for screen.})
 
Top