I remember way back when I was a little kid, like no more than five or six, Cartoon Network had this block of action cartoons that played in the afternoon called Super Adventures. It mainly consisted of Hanna-Barbera's TV cartoons from the 1960's; stuff like Space Ghost, Birdman, The Herculoids, Mightor, and The Impossibles among others (if you remember any of those cartoons, then you're pretty awesome). But, every now and then, they would also play one of these Superman cartoons and boy, did they stick out like a sore thumb against all the other cartoons. Even at such a young age, I knew that they were very different from the other cartoons that were featured in this block. Not only was there no comparison when it came to the animation or even the music (for those who don't know, the Hanna-Barbera cartoons shared a lot of musical cues), but the very fact that these cartoons featured Superman made them distinctive. Needless to say, even when I was that young, I knew who Superman was. He's one of those characters that is such a part of the culture that it's almost like you're born knowing who he is. Honestly, can anyone recall the time when they became aware of Superman? I doubt it. In any case, the very fact that these cartoons were about him gave them a certain feeling and weight that those others didn't have. Not only that but they were also shown on Cartoon Network outside of Super Adventures, typically very late at night and since I would stay up as late as I could whenever I didn't have to go to school, I would often catch them then as well.
Now, with that huge introduction out of the way, I'm going to come out and say that I wasn't the biggest, most die-hard fan of these cartoons at that age. I didn't hate them, mind you, but they weren't something I really looked forward to watching. When I was that little, all I wanted out of cartoons was comedy. I would always pray for Bugs Bunny or one of the other Looney Tunes characters whenever I would go over to Cartoon Network (which was the only channel I watched at that age) and I would be rather disappointed when I didn't get them. (I didn't really start to like the cartoons featured in Super Adventures until I got a little older.) Plus, there was a sort of stigma towards Superman amongst kids my age around that time. It's hard to explain but there was a feeling that Superman was just not something that you admitted to liking if you didn't want to get picked on. Still, that said, whenever I did watch these cartoons, I wasn't bored or anything. I was like, "Oh, that's cool." In fact, I saw some of those cartoons so many times that they did stick in my mind. But, they still remained something that I would just see in passing and not really think about that much.
Like a lot of things that I saw when I was a kid, I can safely say that I definitely respect these cartoons much more as an adult than I did back then. While they're not my favorite incarnation of Superman or, for that matter, something that I watch all that often, there's no denying that they are quite entertaining and, above everything else, are incredibly well-made for the time. Also, they're very possibly the earliest example of an action-oriented cartoon series and they helped make Superman even more popular than he already was with the comics and the radio show.
By the time they took on these cartoons, the Fleischer Brothers had already established their studio as one of the top animation studios, being bested only by Disney. They had already produced many of their iconic Popeye and Betty Boop cartoons and had recently finished their first feature, Guliver's Travels (man, I haven't seen that thing in years), when they were approached by Paramount, who had been their distributor and had recently become their owner, to make these Superman cartoons. Anybody who has read up on these cartoons knows that Max and Dave Fleischer were initially reluctant to take them on, knowing how monumentally challenging and expensive they would be to produce, and hoped to discourage Paramount from going ahead with the cartoons by telling them just how much money they would cost: around $100,000 a short. Much to their surprise, Paramount gave them $50,000 to produce the first cartoon and, with that, the Fleischers agreed to go ahead with the series. The first nine cartoons, the ones that were actually made by the Fleischers, were all directed by Dave and produced by Max, as had been the case with the other cartoons they had produced.
I was originally going to title this review The Fleischer Superman Cartoons but I nixed that when I learned that, after the first nine cartoons, Paramount took over the studio, got rid of the Fleischers, and renamed it Famous Studios. While I did notice that Dave Fleischer was no longer listed as director in the latter eight cartoons, I figured that he and Max must have still been involved with them since they retained the same level of quality as the first nine, even though the types of stories being told did change. But, nope. The brothers were out (and, from what I've read, weren't too fond of each other by this point) and the newly formed studio put different people in charge of the cartoons. I think the reason that the cartoons continued to have the same level quality as they did when the Fleischers were actually involved with them is because the guys who directed the latter cartoons, Seymour Kneitel, Izzy Sparber, and Dan Gordon, had worked as storymen on the first nine so they obviously understood the Fleischers' way of working. In any case, the series kept going on until July of 1943, when Paramount decided to end it after seventeen shorts, mainly because of how expensive they were to make (after the $50,000-budgeted first cartoon, all of the others were produced for $30,000, making this quite possibly the most expensive series of theatrical shorts at the time or perhaps even period).
The technical aspects of these cartoons are what everyone talks about and for good reason. This is a series where the money is right there on the screen. First off, the characters look like real people instead of caricatures and the reason for that is the technique they used of rotoscoping the animation over live-action footage. Granted, there are some characters who pop up every now and then who are very cartoonish but for the most part, you can believe that these people, particularly Superman/Clark Kent and Lois Lane, are real. It also helps that the animation itself is very fluid and natural and the extreme closeups of facial animation are particularly well done and realistic, most notably in the cartoon The Mechanical Monsters where the title creatures' evil inventor demands that Lois Lane tell him what happened to the jewels that one of them stole or earlier in that same cartoon where Superman uses his x-ray vision. That latter closeup is particularly intriguing because Superman's face looks like it's been drawn like the background but his eyes, eyebrows, and their muscles are animated like normal, creating a very cool effect when he uses the vision. They even managed to make Superman look very realistic when he's doing stuff like flying, lifting enormous objects, tearing through walls, etc., which they couldn't rotoscope in any way. That's proof of a really good working relationship between the animators and their assistants, whose job it was to keep the character models consistent. Going back to the two main characters, not only are they believable in their designs but, if you look at the way they were being drawn in the comics at that time, you will notice that they look pretty much the same in these cartoons. That leads me to my next point: these cartoons feel like living, breathing, moving comic strips. Again, just look at those old Superman comics and then look at these cartoons and I think you'll see what I mean. It really looks like the Fleischers actually found a way to bring the comics to life! It's just remarkable.
The effects work and camera movements in these cartoons are so great that it's ridiculous. Whenever something is getting destroyed or Superman is fighting his enemies, not only is there a lot of movement going on with the camera but there's also so much going in any given shot that you could mess a lot of it. In the very first cartoon, when the mad scientist begins attacking Metropolis, he's blowing apart bridges, causes a building to topple over and we see the inside of said building where everything is shaking and stuff is falling left and right and Superman has to quickly fly in and push the building back into place. An even better example would be Electric Earthquake. When the villain in that episodes begins the earthquake, we get a very fast tracking shot of the electric current going through the power cables that are wired into the bottom of the harbor, two ships being blown up one after the other, people running while the ground shakes and an overpass that has a car on it collapses onto another one on the street below, a shot of a large crack going up the side of the Daily Planet building, and two cars crashing into each other when one stops to keep from dropping into a large crack that opens up in the street. That is as exciting as any disaster movie and you have to wonder what the animators had to go through in order to create all of that stuff, which you see in the span of just a few seconds. The lava that you see in the episode Volcano is especially impressive (in fact, so is that whole eruption in general) and when the animation on it is combined with bubbling sound effects, it creates a very real effect. The stuff that I mentioned is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the incredible animation, effects, and camerawork that occur in the action scenes in these cartoons and they help to make them not only exciting but downright spectacular as well.
The very look of these cartoons is quite impressive as well. They're extremely rich and colorful, for one thing. The blues and reds of Clark Kent's business suits as well as Superman's outfit just pop, as do the colors of just about everything else like the sky, the ocean, the trees, and even the ground. The colors are especially breathtaking whenever fire, lava, or molten steel is involved. Besides their rich colors, the cartoons are also designed to look quite atmospheric. The backgrounds are as amazing and detailed as any painting and there are plenty of shadows and shading on the characters as well as the environments to create a mood. It's obvious that these cartoons took their inspiration from the pulp magazines of the time and there are instances where the shadows are so deep and dark or there is so much fog in a scene that it looks downright film noirish. Heck, there are even times where the environments are so dark that the characters only have their faces lit or are represented by nothing more than silhouettes, which was very rare at that time in animation. What it all comes down to is the fact that these cartoons are a real feast for the eyes because they're so well made.
Normally when I do reviews, I talk about the plots and the characters first and then move on to the technical aspects of whatever it is that I'm talking about. Those of you who've been reading my blog for a long time would know that that is basically my structure and so, you might have been a little surprised to see me talk about the technical side of things first here. Well, the reason for that is simple: these cartoons are all about the visuals, whereas everything else is pretty basic. The stories are as simple as you can get, with Superman having to save Metropolis or some other locale from various threats that range from common thugs to mad scientists and giant monsters. They're not much more complex than that but, since these were first and foremost meant to be nothing more than nine or ten minutes of pure entertainment that played before what people had actually come to the theater to see, they didn't need to be (although, to be fair, these cartoons did become as popular as actual movies, perhaps even more so than some of the films that followed them during a given theatrical program). The characters are not that complex either. While I will talk about them in more detail shortly, they mainly boil down to this: Superman fights for truth and justice while leading a double life as reporter Clark Kent, Lois Lane is a brash woman who will do anything to get a story, and the bad guys simply want money or power. Not much more to it than that. In fact, there's not even that much dialogue in these shorts, making the visuals all the more essential. Now, you may think that I'm criticizing these cartoons for not having that much depth but I'm not. These were made during a much simpler time, when morals and the concepts of right and wrong, justice and injustice were much more clear cut. Good guys wore white (or, in this case, red and blue) and bad guys wore black. That's how it was. It wasn't until decades later when things would get much more complex and you would have gray much more than you would black and white. While Superman and the other comic book heroes would most definitely become much more multifaceted through the years, which, believe me, was great and would give comics a lot more respect than they originally did, there's nothing wrong with some old-fashioned fun and escapism that's just meant to entertain and these cartoons fit that bill very well.
Going back to the stories for a bit, even though they were never really that complex, you do notice a shift in the types that were being told when the Fleischers left and Famous Studios began making the cartoons. The Fleischers' cartoons were much more science fiction-oriented, with Superman mainly battling mad scientists, mechanical monsters, dinosaurs, natural disasters, and the like. There were a couple that had him dealing with normal crooks, although one set of criminals did have a very advanced and destructive vehicle that they used to commit their crimes, but for the most part, the first nine cartoons were very fantastical. Once Famous Studios stepped in, though, they started doing cartoons that had more to do with what was going on in the world at the time i.e. World War II. Not all of the shorts that Famous Studios produced dealt with the war but a few of them did and involved stories of Superman battling the Japanese and the Nazis. Heck, their very first cartoon involved Superman foiling some Japanese agents' attempt to hijack a newly completed bomber plane and another had Supes becoming a saboteur over in Japan where he, as Clark Kent, and Lois are being held prisoner. There was even one cartoon that ended with a shot of Adolf Hitler angrily switching radio channels when he becomes enraged to hear that Superman has foiled a Nazi plot in Africa (I think it was Africa). Since these cartoons were meant to be propaganda, it's needless to say that, nowadays, some of them are a little cringe-inducing, particularly the ones involving the Japanese who are drawn and speak in a rather racist, insulting fashion. But, it was the 1940's and we were at war with them so, naturally, we demonized. It may not be politically correct nowadays but what can you do? And I'm not saying that these cartoons are bad because they're propaganda pieces. I'm just noting that you can most definitely see a change in the stories being told when you go from the first set of cartoons to the other.
Bud Collyer had played Superman on the radio and he reprised the role for these cartoons and when he does speak, he's great. He's the guy who invented the idea of making the character's transition from Clark Kent to Superman audible, deepening his voice in the middle of his saying that legendary line, "This looks like a job FOR SUPERMAN." Nobody could do that the way he could and it still sounds bad-ass to this day. That said, though, his voice does change quite a bit as the cartoons progress. In the very first one, his voice as Clark Kent is rather high, basically like a tenor, and was no doubt meant to make it sound as different from his Superman voice as possible. However, he dropped that almost immediately and made his voice as Clark just a few notches higher than the one he used for Superman but the difference between the two does become quite apparent when he says that line. Later on in the series, his voice changed again, becoming deeper and there actually was even less of a difference between the two. I guess since he rarely spoke as Superman it didn't matter but it's like, "Man, you're not doing much to differentiate the identities now." In any case, Collyer managed to make a distinction between the two not only through the sound of his voice but also through the personalities he was able to project. He talked a lot more as Clark for one thing and for another, while he was serious about what ever story or situation he was caught up in, Clark had a much more down to earth quality to him as well as a sense of humor. One funny line that comes to mind right away is in The Arctic Giant. When Lois is about head down to the museum to the frozen dinosaur, Clark asks her if she wants him to come along. She tells him that he'd better not, saying he might faint if he saw the monster since he "scares so easily." After she leaves, Clark leans back in his chair and says, "Maybe she's right but Superman hasn't fainted yet." As I said earlier, Collyer barely ever spoke as Superman but when he did, he was able to project a feeling of commanding strength and power with that deep voice. But, for the most part, though, Superman remained the strong silent type, making him all the more bad-ass and intimidating. The way he would stand with that hard look on his face as well as how he would almost always remain just as composed whenever he was doing something amazing got across the idea that this was simply someone that you didn't want to screw with. Along with everything else you can say about these cartoons, you also can't deny the fact that they made Superman look and sound very cool.
The signature moments of these cartoons was whenever Clark would realize that he was needed and he would go into a closet or a phonebooth or something similar and you would see his silhouette as he takes off his business suit and becomes Superman. It was also punctuated by the music building up to the change and then hitting you with his recognizable theme when he steps back out as Superman. Those are some really good moments and must have gotten the kiddies back then all excited when they realized that they were about to see their hero. As the cartoons progressed, they tended to play around with the audience's expectations of seeing him change. There was one cartoon that had Clark in disguise as an elderly security guard at a plant when he gets buried underneath a bunch of heavy machinery parts and later on, climbs out as Superman. You don't hear his theme music when he appears either, which is a very rare instance. There was another cartoon where he gets thrown into an Egyptian sarcophagus as Clark and soon afterward, bursts out as Superman. Again, you don't hear his theme music. One of the best moments of screwing with expectations was in Electric Earthquake where, during the earthquake, he starts to make the change by running to a secluded spot and opening his shirt to reveal the upper part of his suit when suddenly, a bunch of rubble falls on top of him. They even start playing his theme music but it stops dead when he's covered, only to come back triumphantly he gets out from underneath the rubble. I thought that was a rather clever way to mess around with the audience myself. But, regardless of how they're pulled off, these transitions from Clark to Superman are arguably the most iconic parts of these cartoons and are definitely highlights as well.
Speaking of Clark's transitions into Superman, I'm now going to do some fun little nitpicking on them... not criticisms, not saying that they're stupid, just having fun with them. This first one applies not just to these cartoons but to many other incarnations of Superman as well: does he always wear his suit underneath his regular clothes? In these cartoons, you can clearly tell from his silhouette that he's simply taking his business suit off and not putting anything on and, like I said above, there's an instance where you see him open his shirt to reveal the torso section of his costume. I guess if he's needed, he wouldn't have time to his clothes off and then put his suit on but still, I would have to think he'd be pretty hot and rather uncomfortable wearing all that stuff underneath his regular clothes. There's one cartoon where he's at an opera with Lois and is wearing a tuxedo. Later on, he becomes Superman and although we don't see his silhouette in this instance, we see him start to take off the tuxedo, suggesting that he did indeed have his suit on underneath it. Yikes, no wonder Clark was squirming so much when he was sitting in the balcony with Lois! Also, where does he keep his cape? Does that thing just fold up really well or does he keep it somewhere else and then put it on after revealing his suit? Moreover, there was one cartoon that ended with Superman saving the day and Lois giving him a kiss in the dark, only for him to turn on the light and reveal that it's Clark. Where was he keeping his business suit? Did he just pull it out of thin air? And finally, as we know, Clark always goes into a secluded spot where he become Superman without anyone catching on. The thing is, though, it's usually some closet inside the Daily Planet building or, famously, a phone-booth out on the street corner. Clark must have the greatest luck because there's never anyone around to see this. You'd think someone would get wise if they saw Clark Kent go in and Superman come out. Moreover, there are plenty of times where, after becoming Superman, he flies right out of the Daily Planet. There was even one cartoon where a few people actually saw him fly right out the front door. Wouldn't someone ask, "Huh, why was Superman coming out of the Daily Planet?" And doesn't any of Clark's co-workers, including editor Perry White, notice that he always disappears whenever Superman shows up? Obviously, there's the whole controversy of why nobody can see who he is simply because of his glasses but, actually, I can buy that since he also acts completely different as Clark. However, he's so reckless with coming out of the place where he works as Superman that you'd think someone would get wise. But, nope. After he saves the day, Superman vanishes and nobody knows where he went. Comic book logic, I guess. (Again, just having some fun so hold off on your critical comments.)
Superman doesn't have that much of a diversity of powers in these cartoons. His most notable power is his super-strength, which he uses all the time. Not only do we get to see him lifting heavy objects and tearing things apart but we also get to see how virtually invincible he is whenever someone tries to shoot him, be it with a normal gun or more outlandish weapons like the giant laser in the very first cartoon. His super-speed also comes into play quite a bit when he has to save someone or stop something from happening in a very short amount of time. Interestingly enough, it's because of these cartoons that Superman can fly. Before that, he could simply jump very high and used that to get around, hence the line, "Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound." But, when they actually animated him leaping around and saw it in motion for the first time, they thought it looked silly (I never thought it looked that bad, personally) and asked Detective Comics if it was okay to have him fly instead. Not only did they say yes but they also decided to make that a part of the character overall and Superman has flown ever since. But here's the thing: in the first few cartoons, Superman does fly. It's only in The Arctic Giant that he leaps around and that was the fourth cartoon released. So, was The Arctic Giant the first one they actually produced with the $100,000 budget and after it was finished, they decided to make and release some that featured Superman flying first? That would have to have been the way it went down, unless they did that first cartoon with him leaping but then went back and redid it with him flying. I doubt that was the case because, one, these cartoons were expensive enough already and two, if that were the case, why would they have him jumping around in the one episode? In any case, the only other power that Superman uses in these cartoons is his X-ray vision and he only use that once in the entire series. Interestingly, he has no laser eye beams or super-breath in these cartoons, which are two very popular powers. I don't know if they hadn't been established in the comics at this point or if they just never came up with an instance where he could use them but, whatever the case, they're nowhere to be found here. However, even without those powers, Superman is still pretty damn awesome in these cartoons.
These cartoons not only acknowledged much of the mythos that had been established in the comics but also added a little bit to them as well. For instance, a few of the cartoons begin with a recounting of Superman's origin, talking about the destruction of Krypton and how Superman (they don't call him Kal-El here) was the lone survivor, having been sent to Earth in a rocketship right before the planet exploded. The only difference here is that it's said that the child was found by a passing motorist and taken to an orphanage, instead of being found and adopted by the Kents. In any case, we're told that he discovered his amazing powers as he grew up and then we're given the famous lines, "Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound." Those lines were created specifically for these cartoons and have since become much identified with the character. The recounting concludes with us being told that, "The child of Krypton is now the Man of Steel: Superman! To best be in a position to use his amazing powers in a never-ending battle for truth and justice, Superman has assumed the disguise of Clark Kent, mild-mannered reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper." Every cartoon began with a version of this recap, although it was eventually shortened for timing purposes and some of the lines changed to others such as, "Able to soar higher than any plane!" or, in a completely reworked opening, "Faster than a streak of lightning, more powerful than the pounding surf, mightier than a roaring hurricane!" None of these lines caught on as the classic ones did. And in every cartoon, the very first thing you heard was the immortal, "Up in the sky, look! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's Superman!" during the opening title sequence, with Superman's theme playing very loudly and triumphantly. A lot of people think these cartoons originated that saying too but that was actually from the radio show. All in all, save for some minor tweaking, these cartoons did acknowledge the basic elements of the Superman mythos, save for the sole exception of Kryptonite. Again, I don't know if it had been introduced around this time but I do know for sure that it was part of the radio show. That probably either came after the cartoons had ended or, like the laser eyes and super-breath, they just never came up with a way for it to be introduced in the cartoons. Not a big deal, though.
Okay, enough about Superman. Let's talk about the other principal character in these cartoons, Lois Lane (voiced by Joan Alexander, who was another carry-over from the radio show). Now, I'm just going to come right out and say that I think Lois is a pain in the rear in these cartoons. In fact, during this first period when the comics were starting to become very popular, I feel that she's one of the worst examples of a damsel in distress. Oh, sure, she's a real go-getter and will do anything to get a story, including tricking Clark out of one, but she's always doing stupid stuff in these cartoons that puts her in danger and forces Superman to have to save her. In the very first cartoon, after the Daily Planet receives a threatening letter from the mad scientist, she gets in a plane and flies to the guy's hideout, actually hoping to interview him! And guess what happens? She gets tied to a chair and gagged. What did she think was going to happen? Did she think the scientist would grant her the interview and say, "Why, yes, I have been sending threatening letters and do plan to attack Metropolis with my giant laser." (Speaking of that first cartoon, watch that again and look how ugly she is there! Fortunately, they gave her a much more appealing for the rest of the cartoons but, damn, her look in the first one... woof!) Or how about in The Arctic Giant where she snaps a picture of the title monster when his enormous head is right next to her and he proceeds to try to eat her?! Did she think that it was a good idea to shoot a flash right in the giant dinosaur's face? And that's only a couple. I can name many, many other instances of her stupidly putting herself in danger and has to be saved by Superman. There's determination and then there's just plain stupidity. Now, given all my ranting, you probably think that I hate Lois in all of her various incarnations but that's actually not true. I rather like her in the Christopher Reeve movies and especially the 90's animated series, which is quite possibly my favorite version of her. So you may be asking why I don't care for her that much in these cartoons. After thinking about it, I think the reason is that we actually get to know her in the movies and the animated series and in both instances, she has a rather likable personality all things considered. Here, with only ten minutes a cartoon, which doesn't allow for much in the way of characterization, all we get is her doing stupidly risky things, which leads to her having to be saved by Superman. It feels like that's her only purpose in these cartoons. Plus, I hate the way she treats Clark here. Now, of course, Lois has always acted rather competitive, teasing, and in some versions, downright dismissive towards Clark while being in love with Superman but, they've been balanced by instances where it becomes obvious that she does care about Clark as well. In these cartoons, though, there are many times where she basically just leaves Clark behind when the shit starts hitting the fan. There was one cartoon where she got in her car and drove off without Clark, many where things get crazy and she doesn't at all wonder what happened to Clark, and worst of all, in the episode where she and Clark are being held captive in Japan, after she gets back to America, she's asked what happened to Clark. She says, "He's still over there but don't worry. Superman said he'd watch out for him." Granted, there is that latter part but still, the lack of any real concern about Clark in this instance kind of gets me. To sum up, I may like other, more fleshed out versions of the character but in these cartoons, I think that Lois Lane is a royal pain!
As far as the supporting cast of the Superman mythology goes, the only other character that pops up in these cartoons is Perry White, the editor of the Daily Planet. At first, he's not given a name, seeing as how the radio show was where the character made his first appearance whereas in the comics at this time, Clark and Lois worked for an editor named George Taylor and, in fact, the newspaper wasn't even called the Daily Planet yet. However, in one of the later cartoons, it's made clear that this character is indeed Perry White. In any case, while his appearance remains pretty much the same, several different alternating voice actors played him: Jackson Beck, Julian Noa (who voiced him on the radio show), and Jack Mercer. While his appearances in these cartoons are rather limited, Perry is basically everything that you would expect him to be: always on the hunt for a good story, will take any opportunity to get one that presents itself, and always sends his two top reporters, Lois and Clark, for the really big scoops. While he doesn't say stuff like, "Great Caesar's ghost!" or any of the lines commonly associated with him and he's not quite as fast-talking or irascible as he's often depicted but there is a moment in one cartoon where, as he's sending Lois and Clark on an assignment he says, "For Pete's sake, see if you two can work together for a change!" (Needless to say, they don't.) He also clearly cares about the safety of his reporters as well, being reluctant to let Lois go on that dangerous assignment in the original cartoon by herself as well as telling Clark in one cartoon to go see if Lois is alright when stuff starts going down. All in all, while he's not all that developed here, Perry White still has the basics that have made him a fan favorite over the years.
The only instance in these cartoons that can be called an appearance by Jimmy Olsen is in the cartoon Showdown, where this young squirt of a reporter with a silly, stereotypical voice and a gap between his front teeth informs Lois and Clark that they have to cover the opera that night. While he's never actually referred to as Jimmy Olsen, he fits the classic description of him so much that it more than likely is him. However, there is another character who appears in one cartoon that's kind of like him, although his name is revealed to be Louis and he gives Clark an amusing earful for calling him Lois (Clark didn't notice that Lois was no longer standing beside him and that this guy was). Other than that, no other popular supporting characters from Superman's universe appear here. Not even his most famous enemy, Lex Luthor, is the antagonist in any of these cartoons, which is odd because he had been created in the comics by this point (I guess he hadn't yet been established as Superman's greatest foe, though). You could make the argument that the mad scientists that Supes deals with in a few of these cartoons, including one who is actually bald (although, to be fair, he wasn't really evil but just arrogant and misguided), are stand-ins for Luthor but none of them are ever referred to as such. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, mind you, just making an observation.
Even though I am a fan of films made around this time for the most part, I can't say I feel the same way about the music that you often hear in them. Back then, music, particularly those that were composed for cartoons, employed a technique called Mickey-Mousing, which basically means that the music is matched to and mimics what ever the action is on the screen. I understand that it was simply the way of doing things back then, especially when it came to cartoon music, but today, I feel that it really dates these movies and when something is trying to be serious, even if it is a cartoon in this case, it's difficult to get into it when you have some silly music playing throughout most of it. That is one of my real beefs with these Superman cartoons. I really don't like hearing some silly little piece of music that accompanies the mad scientist in the first cartoon as he walks down a flight of stairs or when Superman is struggling to accomplish a task. To me, it takes away from the seriousness of what's going on and reminds you that you're watching a cartoon, something that was typically meant for laughs back then. Now, that's not to say that I don't like any of the music that Sammy Timberg, the Fleischers' frequent music composer, created for these cartoons. In fact, I really like the main theme for Superman that you hear during the opening credits as well as constantly throughout these cartoons whenever Supes appears or does something awesome. It's as dynamic, strong, heroic, and catchy as you'd want a musical theme meant for him to be and, as John Williams' legendary theme would decades later, you can just hear it say, "Superman!" over and over again. It's very fitting and it's always great to hear it in these cartoons when Superman does something great like in the first cartoon when he pushes a falling building back into place or when he's punching the mad scientist's gigantic laser back. Another piece of music that I like is during the retelling of the origin that begins a few of the shorts, which sounds very fairy tale-like and mysterious, appropriate for the camera shot that tracks back into the far reaches of space to the planet Krypton. I also don't really mind the music that plays during the action scenes in these cartoons, even if it is very old-fashioned and, again, often has a lot of Mickey-Mousing present. Now, some of you may feel that I'm being too harsh on this music because of its time period but I'm often lenient on old films in other aspects so I think it's only far that I spotlight a common trait that these films have that I don't particularly like. I'm sorry but this type of music composition really makes me cringe for the most part.
Now it's time to talk about the cartoons that stand out for me and they're all going to be ones that I remember vividly from my childhood. And no, the very first cartoon isn't one of them. I certainly don't think that it's bad or anything and I do remember watching it as a kid but I just like these others more (plus, I've mentioned various aspects of it throughout my overview of the series so I don't know if there's anything else of substance that I could say about it).
The Mechanical Monsters: This is one of the most popular of the series and one that I remember a lot from my childhood. I always remembered the weird way the monsters looked, with their big, rectangular bodies attached to rather thin legs, the herky-jerky way they walked, and the way they seemed to have frowning faces, even though more than likely that's just a by-product of your psyche when you look at them. (I know that they influenced Hayao Miyazaki quite a bit and he designed the robots in his film Castle in the Sky to look very similar to them.) I feel that the villain is in this cartoon is a pretty classic archetype, with his tuxedo, black hair and pencil-thin moustache, and the typical-type of deathtrap that he puts Lois in. Also, this is one instance where I feel that the Mickey-Mousing type of music works, as Lois is gradually lowered towards the vat of molten metal. I always remembered the scene where Superman breaks into this dungeon and the bad guy puts a knife to the rope attached to the platform, warning him, "Take one more step and she's doomed." That's always come across to me as genuinely threatening, particularly for a 1940's cartoon. And, as I described earlier, the animation in this one is particularly good when Superman uses his X-ray vision and when you see the closeup of the bad guy's face when he demands that Lois tell him what happened to the jewels the monster that was carrying her was supposed to have stolen. All in all, I do think that this cartoon is a classic of its time and genre.
Billion Dollar Limited: This one is memorable to me for a couple of reasons. For one, it's one of the few cartoons where Superman battles ordinary criminals instead of monsters, mad scientists and their weapons, or the Japanese and Nazis in wartime propaganda cartoons. Second, there's a lot of great stuff in this one and, while all of these cartoons move very quickly, this one in particular, since the plot is established so quickly at the beginning, really does seem to move at a mile a minute and never stop. Some of the highlights include when the criminals first take control of the train carrying the billion dollars in gold to the US mint and Lois, who actually had a legitimate reason for being caught up in this situation, gets into a gunfight with them (yeah, Lois actually picks up a gun and shoots back at them!); Superman having to move the train tracks so it doesn't crash into a boxcar full of dynamite; Superman having to quickly fly the train back onto the track when the bad guys blow up a bridge; and when Superman is unable to stop a bomb from falling into the train's boiler bomb and quickly gets Lois off the train before it explodes. But the scene that always stuck in my mind from when I was a kid was the moment after he gets Lois off the train where he catches the car that's carrying the gold when it starts rolling back down the hill and drags it back up. The bad guys, in another attempt to stop him, throw tear gas bombs at him and he actually starts coughing and gagging from it and even momentarily falls and almost loses the train car. I always remembered that because it was so rare to see Superman in such a helpless state and also because his coughing didn't sound like Bud Collyer at all (it probably was someone else in fact, seeing as how the radio show used Kryptonite in order to give Collyer some time off while someone else actually provided the pained moaning). That part just stuck out to me so much and plus, after Superman regains his composure and begins pulling the car up the hill again, the criminals shoot at him and we see the bullets bouncing of his chest. Yeah, bullets don't do anything but tear gas, now that messes him up! In any case, this is an enjoyable entry in the series, as fast-paced, entertaining and similar to any adventure serial produced at the time.
The Arctic Giant: This was always the one that I wanted to see as a kid since it's basically Superman vs. Godzilla. Even though the title monster is given a plaque in the museum that refers to it as a Tyrannosaurus Rex, it looks very much like Godzilla. Obviously it's not, though, seeing as how this was over a decade before Godzilla was actually created. But, being such a huge Godzilla fan as a kid, I, as well as my friends, always referred to the monster as such. It's really awesome to see him break free from his ice in the museum, tear his way out of it, and then rampage through Metropolis, with Superman doing everything he can to repair the damage and stop him. It's a shame that the monster isn't designed better, though. He looks rather silly with that big pooching belly that's separated into segments by small black lines and his head isn't all that threatening either. I don't even think he roars once during the entire cartoon. I thought he did at the beginning after he breaks out of the ice but I'm starting to think that sound was the creaking of the metal that was holding the ice in place as he destroys it. The monster and Superman don't have a real fight, either. All it consists of is Supes lassoing his legs with a cable from a suspension bridge, tying him up, and having to rescue Lois' dumb ass from being eaten by him. Also, at one point earlier than that when the monster is wading through a river, why are the fireboats spraying their hoses at him? Do they think that he's related to the Wicked Witch and that he'll melt? And what's really funny is that at the end of the cartoon, you see that the monster is being held at the Metropolis zoo. Hope they can handle him better than the museum! In any case, even though I can see a lot of flaws with this one, I can't help but enjoy it due to the idea of Superman fighting a monster that resembles Godzilla.
The Magnetic Telescope: This is one instance where the scientist that causes the trouble in the cartoon isn't actually evil, just really misguided. However, he does say that he is willing to risk the lives of the people of Metropolis to continue his experiments of using the magnetic telescope to bring comets down from space, which is a sign that it's possible that he's not quite right in the head. In any case, this is another that I saw quite a bit as a kid and even then, I remember thinking that those policemen who are ordered to stop the professor from continuing his experiments after his first one goes horribly wrong are the ones who end up making things worse. When the scientist refuses to stop his experiments and then actually goes into the telescope room to begin them again, the policemen damage his machine, causing him to lose control of the comet which begins hurtling towards Metropolis. We get some nice city destruction as shards of the comet are flung towards Metropolis as well as some other exciting moments like when Superman attempts to fly into the comet to send it back into space but only manages to delay the inevitable and quickly tries to repair the damage to the telescope. This is one cartoon where Lois manages to actually help Superman by reversing the controls of the telescope while he holds two ends of a cut wire, completing the severed circuit necessary to run the telescope. Another pretty exciting and fun cartoon overall.
The Electric Earthquake: Earlier in the review, I talked about one of the reasons why this cartoon is so awesome. The sequence where the mad scientist uses his machine to create the earthquake that wreaks havoc upon Metropolis (or Manhattan, as it's actually referred to here) is very well done, with some impressive animation that shows a lot going on as the city is rocked by the quake. On top of that, you have the moment where Superman tries to stop the earthquake by pulling apart the wires that the villain has attached to the bedrock of the city but one blows up in his face and he ends up getting buried with bedrock as well as getting tangled in the other wires. At one point, he rises to the surface in order to get some air but one wire ends up tangling around his throat and dragging him back down, which is weird because he seemed to have no trouble holding his breath for a long time (plus, I always figured Superman could breathe in space) but, regardless, it's still a nicely suspenseful moment. And, of course, we have the ending where Superman has to save Lois as well as catch the villain himself but, naturally, he does this quite easily. All in all, this is another great entry in the series, even if some might not be comfortable with the idea of the villain being a Native American who intends to destroy Manhattan Island (making it clear that Metropolis and New York are one in the same) because he feels that it belongs to his people. Again, just remember that it was the 1940's.
Volcano: I've heard some say that they feel that this is the best of all these cartoons and I will agree that it's definitely up there. What makes it unique is the fact that there's no villain except for Mother Nature. It's simply Superman battling a natural disaster, not something that was created by a mad scientist or something of the like. In any case, this is another where, when things start popping, they don't stop. As with The Electric Earthquake, the scenes of the actual disaster are very well done, involving a lot of exciting shots and cuts that involve the cable car that runs up the volcano being put out of commission, the men trying to blast the top of the volcano in order to divert the flow of lava but they're unable to because one of the cables connected to the blasting switch is severed by a falling rock in the eruption, and Lois getting stranded on the side of the mountain. These shots are intermixed with glimpses of the actual eruption at the crater as well as lava pouring out of it, making it all the more enthralling. Once Clark becomes Superman, he has his work cut out for him, having to keep a big lava-covered rock from crashing down onto the village below, saving Lois from being burned alive when she tries in vain to escape the lava by making her way to the cable car, and ultimately saving the village by managing to blow up the side of the crater and divert the flow of the lava to the ocean. And along with all everything else, as usual with these cartoons, the animation, particularly on the lava, is a knockout. It all makes for a very entertaining seven and a half minutes.
In conclusion, while they're not my absolute favorite incarnation of Superman, there's no doubt that these cartoons are much deserving of the acclaim that they get. What they lack in story and character development they more than make up for in terms of action and spectacle, moving at a very quick and fun pace and showing off a plethora of amazing animation that not only rivaled what Disney was doing at the time but also puts a lot of today's animation, especially the type created by computers, to shame. And even though I said that these cartoons are lacking when it comes to story and character, that wasn't meant to be an insult. They work well for what they're meant to be, which is simply little seven-to-ten minutes slices of comic book adventure and escapism. I would highly advise you to check them out but since they're public domain, it's likely that you've no doubt seen them at one point or another in your lifetime so saying that would be rather pointless. Regardless, though, these cartoons are still incredibly well made and impressive and are a very worthy part of the legacy of the Man of Steel.
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