John Carter Almost Beat Snow White As The First Feature-Length Animated Film
Disney's John Carter was not the first attempt at a film based on the series, as an animated one was pitched all the way back in 1931, meaning it would have come out Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs - becoming the first feature-length animated movie ever. Many know that Snow White is the first 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 inspired Star Wars and one of the properties that it was based on, 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, Disney released Snow White, the first feature-length animated movie ever. Although Mickey Mouse was incredibly popular at the time, Snow White is what propelled Disney into stardom, setting off a chain of events that led to Disney becoming one of the world's biggest media companies today. If Clampett's John Carter of Mars had come out, though, things would be very different. Disney would most likely not be in the position it is today, and MGM may even have replaced them. Bob Clampett may be a household name rather than Walt Disney. Clampett might not have moved on to Looney Tunes, meaning that characters he created like Porky Pig may not exist. Most importantly, instead of John Carter being remembered 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.