First of all, it's probably no surprise that the people at Pixar are obsessed with Disney iconography and specifically asked Tan to incorporate it into his posters. Tan said:

A lot of the creative leads up at Pixar are huge fans of the Disneyland attraction (or ride) posters. A lot of the ones from the 60's were done in this very simple, colorful style. In fact, you always come across a few pinned up on the walls when you walk through the halls of Pixar. I've always been a big fan of those too and when it became a point of discussion during prep work for the Incredibles posters, I thought it made perfect sense. That film felt very retro as far as design aesthetic and I felt the posters evoked that and would work nicely as inspiration. Once we got to Wall-E, they brought up the same posters again! Which shows how hung up on them they are. The ad twist was something I thought would give them a point of difference from the Incredibles posters.

I was curious about whether Tan favors some historical periods over others, so I asked him if he would do something like a Terminator 4 poster in an eighteenth century style. Turns out the eighteenth century isn't on his agenda.

He replied:

I LOVE the Terminator flicks! I guess I got into graphic design and wanted to create posters of my own once I saw the work of Alphonse Mucha at the San Diego Museum of Art. His work was so gorgeous and he mixed everything I was learning in school at the time (typography, illustration, color, and design) so seamlessly. After that, I got really into film posters from Europe. They were really doing some experimental and striking stuff in the 40's and 50's. I do use these for inspiration in my own posters, but only if they make sense. An Indy poster would be based in the mid 30's western/adventure era and Ratatouille could only fit within the world of A.M. Cassandre.

Pixar is a company whose production methods are cutting edge, and their movies are often about futuristic or scifi topics. So why would they favor retro styles in their posters?

Tan mused:

I think retro advertising might work because they're based in something we're all used to seeing. There's a comfort in that. There was a defining look to past decades that immediately brings you back to those days. If our job as artists/communicators is to evoke a feeling and/or emotion out of a piece, it's a good way to instantly bring the viewer that feeling of nostalgia.

He said:

Currently, I'm working on some work for Up (the next Pixar film), a video-game inspired piece for a gallery show, and a Beastie Boys poster (I'm a HUGE fan of theirs).

I can't wait to see Tan's next retro-futurist confection.

You can see more of Eric Tan's art on his blog.

Disney/Pixar grabbed up a raft of domain names last Friday, including johncarterandthegodsofmars.com, johncarterandthewarlordofmars.com, godsofmarsmovie.com and warlordofmars-movie.com. And last August, Disney snagged johncarterofmars-movie.com and some variants, plus childrenofmars.com in November.

Jim Hill, who covers Disney in depth, says "insiders" claim Ratatouille screenwriter Mark Andrews has completed his first draft of a John Carter script. And both Disney and Pixar insiders are excited by the draft, and eager to put it into production. The movie could come out as soon as 2011 or 2012. Pixar has been saying for a while that it wants to do a live-action movie, and The Incredibles director Brad Bird will be directing 1906, about the San Francisco Earthquake, as a Disney/Pixar co-production.

Part of the urgency for a John Carter franchise comes from the fact that Disney is losing enthusiasm for the Narnia movies, and probably won't make any more after Prince Caspian and Dawn Treader, unless they massively outperform expectations. So Disney will have a Narnia-sized hole in its schedule in 2011 and beyond, which can only be filled with two-fisted sword-wrangling Martian action. [Jim Hill Media]