John Carter of Mars has been in the news recently, as director Andrew Stanton has offered a few updates on the film. There is a lot of excitement in the air over the live-action film, as it is Stanton’s first directorial role after the immensely successful WALL-E. However, what is alarming is how many newspapers and blogs continue to mistakenly refer to the film as a Pixar production. For clarification purposes, I felt it was important to help clear up the confusion – John Carter of Mars is not a Disney/Pixar film, but is actually a Disney film.
Where does this confusion arise from?
- It could simply be that since Andrew Stanton (who also directed Finding Nemo) is involved, the public thinks that John Carter will also be a Pixar film
- The film has been shrouded in secrecy, so the lack of details may have caused people to make too many assumptions
- Maybe we are so excited at the prospect of a live-action Pixar film that we just started to believe that Carter was indeed coming from Pixar
- IMDB, which has Pixar listed as one of the production companies
- It could just be all of the above
Andrew Stanton had this to say in a discussion with SCI FI Wire in 2009:
Well, it’s not being done by the Pixar crew. It’s being done by Disney, and I’m sort of being loaned out. We’re sort of using any element that we need to to make the film right. We’re not being purist with Pixar, but Pixar’s a brand that you have to trust that’s for all ages. This story of John Carteris not going to be an all-ages film.
There you go. From the director’s mouth, we had confirmation that John Carter of Mars is being produced by Disney. To be honest, I, myself was a bit confused when the project was first announced. That confusion for the general public may not go away until we see a trailer. Hopefully, it will not take that long!
Now I am curious to know how many of you thought John Carter of Mars was a Disney/Pixar film. Sound off by answering the poll below.
UPDATE (2/5/11): It looks like the numbers in our statistically accurate poll are rounding out. Currently, we are sitting at at about 15% for those who did not know, which is still a substantial amount of confusion. At least that is a few more people who do know now. Progress!