The Martian Chronicles
http://www.vimeo.com/3179117
Rocket Summer
Sounds: Monkey sounds. Rocket blast off.
At a launch site in Sri Lanka, where Arthur C. Clarke lived, and in 1968, when Stanley Kubrick's 2001 A Space Odyssey was released, a large vehicle with tank wheels is being wheeled at one mile an hour, actual speed to a launch site. This is a Top Secret Classified Mission to Mars.
As the rockets blast, the fire from the rocket thrusters turns night into day.
This 1968 ship arrives on Mars and the astronauts take a look around. No Martians are seen. They return to Earth.
Astronaut: No sign of life. Looks pretty dead. Do you see anything.
Astronaut 2: Nothing at this end. Let's just pick up a few samples and head back to Earth.
2008: The International Space station spins on its orbital axis. A team of scientists is sent to Mars to set up a few permanent scientific observation posts. During a routine expedition Martians are finally contacted. Entire Martian cities are seen, houses on hills. Glowing crystal large ampitheatres can be seen great distances away.
Narrator: There is a variety of architecture on Mars. In one part of the red planet, it is mostly domed cities. In another part of Mars, there are cities in extended architectural anomaly formations called Railtowns. The Martians resemble humans and are 6 feet tall, thin, milky white skin, blue eyes and long black hair.
In normal civies, they wear robes with a culturally adored pattern. When they are soldiers, they wear cotton soldiers clothes just like the soldiers of World War One.
2042:
Narrator: In the year 2052, the first waves of colonists are sent to Mars. Not just select scientists, large waves of immigrant poor are sent to colonize the red planet. No longer are petroleum based fuels required for jet engines and rocket ships. New fuel is made from sawdust and algae. The sawdust is brought to the processing plant in huge scows. The algae is farmed from large shallow watery pits with the whole scene resembling a salt mine.
They arrive in a sleek new silver space ship more closely resembling the ships in the STAR WARS movies.
5 years later, 2057 downtown Mars City. Sam Parkhill has a hotdog store.
Sam Parkhill: Ever since I came here from Earth three years ago, my life has been on the upswing. In fact, next month, there is going to be a new wave of immigrants as thousands of ships are bringing over a few thousand more people to Mars.
A Martian walks in the store.
Sam: We don't serve your kind in here! Just joking, that is line from an old movie from the last century. What do you want?!
The Martian telepaths to Sam: A Nuclear War has just broken out on Earth. Waves of cities are annhilated. The Earth is a glowing ball of nuclear fire visible from space. Only one ship of immigrants out of thousands managed to escape the war by leaving early and are expected to arrive in Mars today.
38 years later. 2095.
Narrator: War erupts on Mars between the humans and the Martians.
Martians in a bunker: All in position? Fire! Remember men, tomorrow morning, we storm the anthill.
More explosions. It is easier to not add sound effects. Silent mortar explosions like in the Omaha Beach sequence in Saving Private Ryan. Kind of.
Soldier: Over the top!
Narrator: The last wave of Earthlings finally arrives on Mars. They settle and start a new life on the red planet.
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Author's note: No rules. This cartoon at the outset only attempts to be one that is just loosely based on the Ray Bradbury story. This is an abridged story and a few details are made up and not at all found in the novel.
Also, there is no minimum length. Before I started the Romeo and Juliet cartoon, I aimed to make the cartoon no more than two minutes. The cartoon turned out to be almost ten minutes. I am trying to make this cartoon about a minute and a half although it will probably turn out to be more than that.
A lot of the things I depict in cartoons in reality have little or no sound, a squid swimming through the water, a squirrel slowly moving through the forest underbrush that is it it does not chirp and make a sound.
"Clouds form around small particles." Stephen King, The Running Man
When I make the cartoons, and anyone who has ever gotten involved in creating an animated fature can say this, the cartoons take on a life of their own. A few small ideas turn into alot of ideas as I get more ideas along the way.
This cartoon animated feature is dedicated to Scarlett.
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