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Released by: VCI Entertainment
Released on: 5/30/2006
Director: Max Fleischer, Dave Fleischer
Cast: Bud Collyer, Joan Alexander
Years: 1941 - 1943
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The Series:
Between 1941 and 1943, long before Warner Brothers owned everything DC Comics related, Paramount Studios had the rights to the Superman franchise and so they hired Max Fleischer's studio to pump out a series of seventeen cartoons for them that would be shown before feature films in the theaters of the day. Nine of these cartoons were made with the involvement of the Fleischers and the later eight were made after Paramount bought out the studio and it's interesting to note that the first nine are the better episodes - once Paramount bought out Fleischer Studios the quality went down hill!
At any rate, we're all familiar with Superman, sent to Earth from his home planet of Krypton before it blew up to be raised by Ma and Pa Kent out in rural America only to grow up and move to the city were, as Clark Kent, he took a job as a reporter at the Daily Planet in Metropolis. His alien genetics gave him powers far beyond those of mortal men, making him faster than a speeding bullet and more powerful than a locomotive. Thankfully he opted to use his powers for the good of mankind, to protect humanity and fight evil.
The character was first introduced in the first issue of Action Comics in 1938 and was an immediate success, soon spinning off into a second series entitled simply Superman. From there he hit the airwaves and proved to be a popular radio commodity before the eventual jump to animation, then to live action serials, and then to live action films. The cartoons, more so than the live action films or the radio show, however, truly capture the spirit of the early comic book adventures and Fleischer and company really did a fantastic job of nailing the look and the feel of the four color adventures to the point where the cartoons really do still feel like a moving, talking comic book.
The Superman cartoons were, quite simply, ahead of their time. The colors were more complex than what had come before, the characters moved more fluidly and more realistically, and the animators were able to portray action in a much more dynamic way than cartoons that came before it.
Another really strong aspect of the cartoons was the voice work performed by Bud Collyer, who was Clark Kent and Superman, and Joan Alexander, who was Lois Lane, his co-worker and sometimes romantic interest. Collyer in particular brought a fantastic larger than life nobility to the character and in these cartoons he sounds just like Superman should sound - strong, brave and honest. Alexander, on the other hand, makes Lois Lane smart and sassy, complimenting the characteristics that made her a fun character in the comics that inspired the material.
The complete list of cartoons that appear in this set is as follows:
Superman (a.k.a. The Mad Scientist)
The Mechanical Monsters
Billion Dollar Limited
The Arctic Giant
The Bulleteers
The Magnetic Telescope
Electric Earthquake
Volcano
Terror on the Midway
The Japoteurs
Showdown
Eleventh Hour
Destruction, Inc.
The Mummy Strikes
Jungle Drums
The Underground World
Secret Agent
Some episodes work better than others and the first nine are definitely more 'fantastic' in that they deal with science fiction elements more than the later episodes which tended to place Superman in situations where rather than battle monsters or robots he would instead catch spies. Thankfully even the lesser episodes are still worth watching, though the animation isn't quite as polished as the earlier ones it still looks quite good and the material is entertaining even now, sixty some odd years after they were made.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Sadly, the video doesn't fare so well on this set and most of this material was taken from 16mm sources. Because of the different sources, there's quite a bit of variation in the quality of this set from one cartoon to the next. Some of the cartoons are in decent shape, but most of them are very soft looking. At least the disc authoring remains pretty consistent - there aren't any serious edge enhancement or mpeg compression issues here, but the liner notes state they were remastered from propoer prints, which makes you wonder a bit. The majority of the material in the set is watchable, but very little of it is on par with modern animation releases for perfectly understandable reasons. That being said, the Image release of this material is definitely of better quality. Each of the cartoons is presented in its original 1.33.1 fullframe aspect ratio.
The English language Dolby Digital Mono sound mixes vary in much the same way that the video quality does in that it changes from cartoon to cartoon. Some of them have some hiss and some popping audible throughout, others are nice and clean sounding. Either way, again, they're serviceable, just not much better than that.
This is where the disc excels, in that it includes a really interesting audio interview (roughly twenty minutes in length) with Joan Alexander who did the voice of Lois Lane on the show in which she talks about her work on this series and other voice work that she did. She's pretty upbeat and happy about her work on Superman and it's nice to hear her reminisce about the series.
Additionally, the Snapuferman parody cartoon that has been included on other releases is also here, as is a trailer for an old Superman serial movie and some nice liner notes that give us a decent run down of the history of the show. There are also some text biographies for the main performers and a synopsis for each episode with some 'fun facts' also noted about the specifics.
The Final Word:
While not the best audio/video presentation of this material currently available, VCI has made these cartoons available with some interesting extras and at a good price point, which makes this worth a look for fans of vintage animation.