Bob Clampett’s “John Carter of Mars” Project

At a time when animation was still being looked at as funny little shorts, one man tried to prove them wrong! Produced with the help of Edgar Rice Burrough’s son John Coleman, animation director Bob Clampett (Looney Tunes, Beany & Cecil) produced this short pilot to a potential theatrical cartoon series he tried to sell to MGM during his off hours from “Termite Terrace”. Unfortunately several divisions of the studio felt the project was a little too weird for the audience’s taste and suggested a rather tamed approach based on something else. Needless to say Clampett’s enthusiasm dropped very quickly and he was back to the same ‘ol grind for many years to come, but still gave us good laughs every time.