When Superman was first introduced to us, it was in Action Comics #1 back in 1938 from the writer Jerry Siegel and the artist Joe Shuster. Since then the character has become a cultural phenomenon that’s been featured in just about every form of media from radio shows, TV shows, cartoons, movies, and everything else in between. The character has evolved quite a bit since those early comic book days, and one of the characters biggest evolutions came with the Max Fleischer cartoon series. It was 17 animated short films that played in theaters before the feature film began, but these short films would draw in audiences that wanted to see this caped hero and his amazing adventures.
The collection contains 17 animated shorts.
Superman Japoteurs
The Mechanical Monsters Showdown
Billion Dollar Limited Eleventh Hour
The Arctic Giant Destruction, Inc.
The Bulleteers The Mummy Strikes
The Magnetic Telescope Jungle Drums
Electric Earthquake The Underground World
Volcano Secret Agent
Terror on the Midway
The first thing that may jump out at someone watching these is how different the character is from what we are used to seeing in the comics and TV and film. Clark is still relatively the same, the do-good reporter who just never seems to be around when Superman is performing his great heroics. But Superman is a little more simple. We do eventually see him fly, but a good majority of the time he’s simply making giant leaps. His strength is another major thing that seems to be different, along with his ability to be injured a bit more easily. These things may not seem like much, but it helps keep this character a bit more grounded, and it also adds a layer of suspense, since we know this character can be harmed, and maybe (just maybe) the villain may be able to get the upper hand on the Man of Steel.
One of the most impressive things about these shorts is how good the animation is. Before this Max Fleischer was best known for Betty Boop and his Popeye cartoons, but what he created with Superman was not just a time capsule of the period to which these were made, but it set the standard for cartoons and comics decades later. Batman: The Animated Series (1992-1995) owes a lot of its style to these original Superman cartoons, everything from the design of the city to the look of the characters. To be fair, I feel Batman: The Animated Series is hands down the best animated series of all time, but it does make me appreciate these little Superman shorts all the more because of their influence. The imagery is stunning at times. When you consider the time and effort put in to animating each shot, it is no surprise that these shorts hold up so well along with some of the long sequences with the foreground and background animation. The detail in these shorts puts modern animation to shame.
The Lois Lane character is a bit frustrating after you’ve seen a couple of these shorts. Sure, she was a trendsetter and a go-getter, but geez, she causes plenty of trouble for poor Superman. You kind of expect him to finally just snap and say she can save herself since she can’t seem to learn her lesson when it comes to looking for trouble. Because these are all relatively short cartoons we don’t get much in the way of story, so most of the interactions are just between Superman/ Clark and Lois, and the repetitive nature of their relationship does grow boring and stale, but when these were made, the cartoons weren’t meant to be seen back to back.
The biggest issue I have with these shorts is how generic they are and how they follow a very simple formula. Most of these shorts clock in at under 10 minutes, so there isn’t much time to establish characters or create much of a story arc. They are fine for what they are, but they are definitely a simple blueprint for what the character and his stories would eventually become. Now, with that in mind, many of these shorts are a product of their time, and some of the character depictions can be considered offensive to modern audiences. There are a few shorts about Superman helping in the fight against the enemy during WW2, so the Japanese characters have a rather offensive and stereotypical look to them. At the same time I felt these were some of the better stories in the collection where we see Superman fighting saboteurs or him being the saboteur himself against the Japanese military. Then we have Superman fighting against mad scientists and their creations. I enjoyed seeing him fighting off the giant robots. The design of the robots was perfect for the time period and did a good job at setting up the character in the decades to come.
Video
Max Fleischer’s Superman is presented in 1.37:1 aspect ratio and averages around 15 mbps. This is one of those instances where remastering and compression hurt the product. This came from a 35 mm film print, but most of the grain has been smoothed away, all the dust and unique artifacts have been removed, and it just makes the presentation of these shorts seem too sterile. While the color does have a nice pop, there are times where the image, or at least portions of the image, seem to have a smear to them. Does this make it unwatchable? Not at all, but it isn’t quite what I expected for this kind of release.
Audio
The DTS HD Master Audio 2.0 track is pretty clean and clear, and the score sounds pretty good when considering this is a 2.0 presentation. Considering the age of the materials being sourced, I’m impressed that it sounds as good as it does.
Special Features
Max Fleischer’s Superman: Speeding Towards Tomorrow: (15:20) A look at how Fleischer and his family innovated the character and the direction of cartoons.
First Flight: The Fleischer Series: (12:55) Discusses the influence of the shorts.
The Man, The Myth, Superman: (13:37) About the origin of the character and his history.
Final Thoughts
This is definitely one for those who are either big fans of Superman or the history of animation. I appreciate the charm and nostalgia, and I adore the look of these animated shorts, but they get a bit repetitive fast. I know some hardcore fans may hate me for this, but these would be better as a bonus on a larger collection like many of them were with the big Superman collection of films that came out not long after Superman Returns was released.
