Superman

One day, I was on YouTube trying to find these old Superman shorts that had been my childhood (we borrowed then from the library and watched them on VCR). And they were so fascinating I watched the entire Youtube series in a sitting. Here are my thoughts:

Highs: Animation is gorgeous. I guess the budget was higher in he 40s, because actual effort was put into every scene. Compare this to something like the 60s Spiderman or some of today's kids shows and you will see a gigantic difference. The stories are exciting and easy to follow. Lois is an intrepid character and really is the Lois we know and love today. Superman is unchanged from today, other than his lack of heat vision. The shorts are exciting throughout.

Lows: There is propaganda against the Japanese, but it was 1941! What do you expect?

Verdict: One of the best animated cartoons ever made. Do yourself a favor and try to find these.

Several months after Captain Marvel was the first comic book superhero depicted on the silver screen, Superman became the second but the first to be animated as opposed to the live action of the previous one. The voices of the leading character and female co-star Lois Lane were the same from the radio series that had already started beforehand: Bud Collyer and Joan Alexander. Collyer, especially, established how different the personalities of Clark and Supes could be by simply changing his voice when he changed to his costume. The story, about a mad scientist bent on destroying the world, is a bit cliché for today but the Max and Dave Fleischer animation is still impressive even now with the way the thing can build excitement especially when The Man of Steel tries to punch that disintegrating ray back to its source. So on that note, this first epi of the Superman cartoon series was off to a good start. P.S. You know this was an early version of Jerome Siegel & Joe Shuster's creation when Supes' origin tale says he was raised in an orphanage instead of the farm of Jonathan and Martha Kent!

This is the first of what would turn out to be 17 Superman cartoons produced by the Fleischer brothers for Paramount Studios. This cartoon was released on September 26, 1941. The plot is as follows: An evil mad scientist threatens to attack the city at midnight. Lois Lane hops in her airplane and flies to the scientists hide out. The scientist captures her, and then procedes to attack Gotham. Blowing up a bridge, and attempting to topple the Empire State Building, until Superman arrives and saves the day.

The New York Times said of this cartoon " {this cartoon} is among the brothers' less successful efforts. The Fleischers show so little aptitude for -or interest in-realistic animation styles. Superman and Lois Lane are at their most wooden. So is the story's villain, a mad scientist. But the scientist's raven is wildly alive, like any real Fleischer creation, and the film sneaks in as many raven's-eye glimpses as possible. Heroic human figures have little to do with the grim, witty hallmarks of the Fleischers' imagination."

I must disagree with the Times' opinion. If one was to look at Superman comic strips from this point of time, one would see that the Superman of the comic books and the Superman of the cartoons, looks essentially the same. Yes, the raven is the most "cartoon" like character in the cartoon, but the film is still enjoyable, and is a snapshot of what cartoons were like right before the start of WWII.

A few notes on the historical importance of the Fleischer Superman cartoons.

1. The Superman cartoons formed the first action/adventure/sci-fi cartoon series ever, thus setting the stage for all anime, Saturday morning TV action 'toons, video games and such to come.

2. The Superman series quietly helped disseminate art-deco and other modernist design styles into popular culture.

3. "The Arctic Giant" episode predates the 'giant dinosaur' film cycle by some ten years; the design of the Arctic giant itself was clearly an inspiration for Toho's Godzilla design.

4. The drawing style for the Superman comic books was rather rough, as with most action comics of the type of that era. The Superman cartoons, on the other hand, present a smooth-line style, using dark shadows for modeling. This style was to have a great impact on the "illustrated novel" comic book style that developed in the late '70s - roughly about the time the series was rediscovered by comics/cartoon fans.

5. Fleischer studios apparently simply ignored the Superman live-action serials of the time. Thus rather than pursing convoluted plots only resolved by dialog, they chose a compressed narrative style, with hardly any dialog, which emphasizes the plot as realizable only through action.

6. Because of this compressed narrative style, the Fleischer story writers were the first to be confronted with the perennial Superman dilemma - namely, how to actually threaten a character who is all-powerful and invincible at least to the extent of creating a plot-motivating conflict. They are not always successful - the episode about the escaped circus gorilla is especially unconvincing - but the effort is fascinating, especially since the comic book Superman writers would not really confront the problem until the 1970s (having used the kryptonite ploy to evade the issue for 20 years).

7. Interestingly, the Fleischer Superman series, with its stronger violence and deeper themes, and its commitment to a kind of visual realism, is clearly intended for a more mature audience than the comic books or the live-action serials - despite the fact that it appeared just as major studio cartoon workshops began resigning themselves to entertaining younger audiences.

8. "The Eleventh Hour" episode, with Superman acting as saboteur in a personal war against Japan, was released nearly 3 weeks BEFORE Pearl Harbor. The Fleischers thus had Superman join the fight against Fascism world-wide before the US was finally drawn into the battle.

9. It is true that the cartoon series defines its character and history differently than the comic book version; but this was when the Superman mythos was still in development, and the Fleischers pursued possibilities for the character the comic book writers had not yet considered (for instance, his ability to fly, his invulnerability, the curiously playful relationship between Clark and Lois - which in the cartoons has a real edge of adult romantic attraction that was unavailable to the comic book writers).

It is easy to see why the Superman series did not salvage the Fleischer studios from their ultimate dissolution - they are dark, violent snippets of science fiction drama at a time when audiences were coming to expect cartoon animals playing gags on each other. But it is more difficult to figure out why it lasted for as many episodes as it did. My guess is that the Fleischers realized they were breaking new ground, and were willing to give it as much a chance for success as possible. Unfortunately, they were literally decades ahead of their time. As a particular animated cartoon style, we would not see its like again until the Warner Bros. Batman television series of the 1990s - and by then the idiom was simply accepted as one of many available to animators and cartoon artists.

That Arguably All-American Genre of the Super Hero was still a new and still growing staple in the Comic Books publishing field in 1941. Coincidental to the looming and rapidly gathering clouds of War. The numbers of super hero features their proliferation continued as sort of psychological protective response to the Axis threat.

Admittedly, their roots go much deeper into literary figures and the Great Depression gave them the first propagating stimulus; but it was still World War II that stimulated the colorful Magazines or Periodicals (Comic "Book" being an obvious malapropism.).

As an example, typical comics' covers of 1941-45 would feature war related illustrations that weren't related to any of the internal stories' content, except in the broadest, most general sense. Heavily symbolic illustrations on Action Comics with Superman saving a Tank crew, Detective Comics with Batman & Robin presenting a G.I. with a new rifle, USA Comics with Captain America kicking Hitler in the nuts, Whiz Comics with Captain Marvel airlifting Refugee Kids to Freedom and Marvel Mystery featuring Sub-Mariner sinking a U Boat while The Human Torch burns the wing off of a Messerschmitt.

There is little wonder that the Super-Hero would soon move off of the comics page to the daily newspaper strip, Radio Programs, Movie Serials and the Animated Cartoon Short. (Television was still off in the not too distant future.) And leading the parade was that Strange Visitor from another Planet, the Man of Steel (Himself), Superman! The first roll on the Monopoly Board landed Superman on Mutual Radio's Network in 1940. This gave the World The Adventures of Superman 15 minute daily serialized program. The cast featured Bud Collyer's multi-ranged vocals voicing both the mild mannered, high pitched Clark Kent as well as the richer, deeper and powerful Superman. Miss Joan Alexander did Lois Lane with Announcer ("….The Adventures of Syue-Puhr-Man!") Jackson Beck did Perry White. (As for Cub Reporter, Jimmy Olsen, he didn't appear until later in the decade, originating on the Radio, not in the comics, as Jimmy, the Office Boy.)

When the deal was struck between Superman's copyright owner, DC Comics/National Comics Publications and the Fleischer Brothers Animation Studios, tendering the rights to produce the first Superman animated series, the decision was made to retain the services of Mr. Collyer, Miss Alexander and Mr. Beck to reprise their voice characterizations.

So the first cartoon was on the drawing board. Not surprisingly, it would contain the obligatory origin sequence. But in dealing with this in a rapid, sort of re-cap style; Max & Dave and company avoided using-up a whole cartoon; thus allowing the story of 'The Mad Scientist' (alternate & possibly working title). As for this story it is sort of typical, but gained in status by being the first with Superman (or any other Super Hero, for that matter).

OUR STORY (at last)………………..The Editorial Offices of THE METROPOLIS DAILY PLANET are inundated with reports of wanton destruction of bridges, buildings and urban infrastructure of the City. The Editor (called oddly enough, "Chief" wants Clark Kent to investigate, but spunky Lois Lane, Girl Reporter, is determined to scoop Kent, only to be taken hostage by the Evil, Mad Scientist. (Is there any other kind?) Superman shows up, saves Lois from being consumed in molten metal and apprehends the villainous (Is there any other kind?) renegade genius. Lois gets scoop and by line. Clark establishes a series long custom of winking at the audience as ironic conversation about the adventure fills the Planet's Editorial Office.

WE feel obligated to two neat, little touches that made for a much better first episode. First is the use of the Mad Doctor's pet anthropomorphic cuddly vulture. Secondly we salute the eerie, hauntingly bizarre voice of the MAD SCIENTIST; which we just discovered was provided by Mr. Jack Mercer, famous for Popeye's gravely voice.

The series hasn't a real klunker in the whole bunch; though naturally, some individual cartoons will be found to be better than others. We noticed that the shorts produced at the Fleischer Studios auspices seem superior to those made after that notorious coup-de-tat that transformed the animation house into Paramount's Famous Studios.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Warning! Achtung! Cuidado! When you get your Tape or Whole DVD Set, do not attempt to view multiple shorts, one after another. Doing your watching in this manner tends to render them seemingly repetitive, monotonous and boring even; kinda like attempting a 3 Stooges marathon of shorts featuring Joe Besser. Try instead to do your viewings interspersed with other features.

After all, this is truly "…..Truth, Justice and the American Way!"