John Carter

[David Krentz <ddkrentz@charter.net>]

  THis post is not particularly about dinosaurs, but many of us consumed plenty 
of Edgar Rice Burroughs and his Prehistoric themes growing up.  For those that 
don't know what this movie is about, ERB wrote it 100 years ago and gave birth 
to Science Fantasy- Star Wars, Superman, blah blah blah have all been inspired 
by Burrough's pulpy books.  A Princess of Mars was actually his first work of 
fiction, even before Tarzan.  Hollywood has been trying to make this into a 
movie for over 70 years,

  I saw this film last night at a cast and crew screening and REALLY liked it.  
The ad campaign make it looks like another Avatar/Attack of the Clones/ 300 
story, but it is far from it.  I worked on the designs of some creatures and 
storyboarded a bunch of it, so I went in pretty critical.  About 3/4 of the way 
through I had to remind myself to judge how the final designs/animation came 
out, which was clearly a sign that the story and characters pulled me in.  
I've been on 3 versions of this film and designed a lot of creatures with a lot 
of legs.  The animators and other designers did a great job of making them 
convincing enough that it was a non-issue. 

  DK