{"id":19458,"date":"2011-12-15T13:37:30","date_gmt":"2011-12-15T13:37:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/?p=19458"},"modified":"2012-07-05T23:36:40","modified_gmt":"2012-07-05T22:36:40","slug":"john-carter-versus-star-wars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/cinema\/john-carter-versus-star-wars\/","title":{"rendered":"John Carter versus Star Wars"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clearly a fan of classic pulp sci-fi, George Lucas shamelessly plundered from all of his favourite sources for not only the three movies of the original Star Wars<\/em> trilogy, but the three prequels<\/a> as well, with nods to Flash Gordon<\/em>, Buck Rogers<\/em> and Edgar Rice Burroughs …Of Mars <\/em>series aplenty across the saga.<\/p>\n

With 2012 promising not just an adaptation of the first Barsoom volume, 1917’s \u00a0A Princess Of Mars<\/em> as John Carter<\/a><\/em>, but also the re-release of Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace<\/a><\/em> in glorious 3D, let’s examine the six most obvious examples of the former’s influence on the latter – from words George Lucas<\/a> just liked the sound of, to whole scenes and concepts he plundered to construct his love-letter to the golden age of adventure.<\/p>\n

Obviously this doesn’t diminish the greatness of the original Star Wars<\/em> trilogy<\/a>, but with the internet awash with people claiming John Carter<\/em> is “ripping off Star Wars<\/em>“, it’s worth reminding them that if anything, it’s the other way around…<\/p>\n

\"Star<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a> 1. That gold bikini<\/strong>
\nThis can\u2019t be anything other than a deliberate tip of the hat, Leia\u2019s gold bikini from 1981’s Return Of The Jedi<\/em> is clearly inspired by the skimpy outfits of Dejah Thoris, the Princess Of Mars herself, depicted in the Seventies Marvel comics (as above, obliging chained up for added similarity on the cover of Warlord Of Mars<\/em> issue 11, April 1978) or lurid Frank Frazetta book covers. Oh, and they’re both princesses, obviously.<\/p>\n

2. Banthas<\/strong>
\nGreat beasts of burden, Bantha are found on Tatooine in the Star Wars <\/em>universe \u2013 in Edgar Rice Burroughs\u2019 Barsoom stories, Banths are lion-like carnivores that hunt the low hills of Mars.<\/p>\n

3. The Sith<\/strong>
\nAn ancient and mysterious order of Dark Side Force Users of whom Darth Vader and Darth Maul are members, over in Barsoom the Sith are large predatory insects that have been hunted to the brink of extinction.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

4. Jabba’s sail barge<\/strong>
\nJabba The Hutt\u2019s armada of luxury flying platforms, skimming low across the surface of Tatooine wouldn\u2019t look out of place in Edgar Rice Burroughs books – the Martians use gravity-defying ‘flying boats’ to zip across the Mars’ otherworldly deserts as depicted above on the 1973 Ballantine Books edition of second book The Gods Of Mars<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"Star<\/a><\/p>\n

5. Coliseum battle<\/strong>
\n Attack Of The Clones<\/em>\u2019 Jedi versus monsters in the great red rock arena of Geonosis has clearly been cribbed directly from the battle with the white ape in\u00a0A Princess Of Mars<\/em>, even the pics from Disney\u2019s John Carter<\/em> (above) look eerily similar. Although, both scenarios were stolen from Ancient Rome so perhaps Edgar Rice Burroughs’ supporters should just let that one go.<\/p>\n

6. The Jedi<\/strong>
\nAnother noise George clearly liked to hear rattling around in his eardrum, the monarchs of Mars are called Jed (king), Jeddak (emperor) and Jeddara (empress) – it’s worth noting that in Barsoom a padwar is a low-ranking officer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

6 examples of John Carter and A Princess Of Mars’ influence on George Lucas’ Star Wars saga<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":19476,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"MSN_Categories":"Uncategorized","MSN_Publish_Option":false,"MSN_Is_Local_News":false,"MSN_Is_AIAC_Included":"Empty","MSN_Location":"[]","MSN_Add_Feature_Img_On_Top_Of_Post":false,"MSN_Has_Custom_Author":false,"MSN_Custom_Author":"","MSN_Has_Custom_Canonical_Url":false,"MSN_Custom_Canonical_Url":""},"categories":[2615],"tags":[2330,1987,372,1986,2331,2113,2332,94],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/John-Carter-versus-Star-Wars.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19458"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}