Superman (1940s animated film series)

The Fleischer Superman cartoons are a series of seventeen American animated superhero short films released in Technicolor by Paramount Pictures and based upon the comic book character Superman, making them his first animated appearance.

They were originally produced by Fleischer Studios, which completed the initial short and eight further cartoons in 1941 and 1942. Production was resumed in May 1942 by Famous Studios, the successor company to Fleischer, which produced eight more cartoons in 1942–1943. Superman was the final animated series initiated by Fleischer Studios before Famous Studios officially took over production.

Although all entries are in the public domain in the United States, ancillary rights, such as merchandising contract rights, as well as the original 35 mm master elements, are owned today by Warner Bros., which has also owned Superman's publisher, DC Comics, since 1969. In 2023, Warner Bros. released a Blu-ray set containing the 17 cartoons, taken from high-definition restorations of the original 35mm source elements.

History

Development and initial entries

Only the first nine cartoons were produced by Fleischer Studios; nonetheless, all seventeen shorts are collectively known as "the Fleischer Superman cartoons". In 1942, Fleischer Studios was dissolved and reorganized as Famous Studios, which produced the final eight shorts. These cartoons are seen as some of the finest quality and most lavishly budgeted animated cartoons produced during The Golden Age of American animation. In 1994, the first entry in the series was voted #33 on a list of The 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field.

By mid-1941, brothers Max and Dave Fleischer were running their own animation studio in Miami, Florida, and had recently finished their first animated feature film, Gulliver's Travels. The Fleischers were also well into production on their second, Mr. Bug Goes to Town. They were reluctant to commit themselves to another major project at the time when they were approached by their studio's distributor and majority owner since May 1941, Paramount Pictures. Paramount was interested in financially exploiting the phenomenal popularity of the new Superman comic books by producing a series of theatrical cartoons based upon the character. Dave Fleischer had misgivings about Superman as a subject, recognizing the greater technical difficulties and costs that would come with properly animating the characters as compared to the more unrealistic, traditionally cartoony characters that Fleischer Studios were experienced with. Instead of withdrawing its request, Paramount entered into negotiations with them, and got the per-episode budget lowered to $50,000 (or $ per short as of ). However, only the first short was actually done for $50,000; the rest of the series were produced at $30,000 per short.

Recognizing that the Fleischer Studios staff were inexperienced in animating characters like Superman, Max Fleischer hosted a sketch class for the animators and assistant animators. in "The Adventure of Superman" radio show and in the comics due to an artist and editorial error in Superman #10. The flight power was adopted into the Superman comic books in 1943. Dissatisfied with the situation, Paramount executives put a financial squeeze on Max and Dave Fleischer, effectively forcing them to resign from Fleischer Studios.

The Fleischer Superman cartoons became a staple of local TV shows during the 1950s, broadcast in black-and-white since television stations had not yet upgraded to color broadcasting. The series strongly influenced the creation of the acclaimed animated television series Batman: The Animated Series, as well as the similar-looking Superman: The Animated Series. Comic book artist Alex Ross has also listed the shorts among the inspiration for his take on Superman's look.

This animated version of Superman was planned to be made as a cameo in the original final scene from the 1988 film Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

The robot robbery scene from The Mechanical Monsters has been echoed by several later works. In 1980, Japanese animated film writer and director Hayao Miyazaki created an identical robbery with a similarly functioning robot in the last episode of the TV series Lupin the Third Part II, a robot design he used again in his feature film Castle in the Sky.

The elements of the scene were borrowed again in 1994 for "The Tick vs. Brainchild" (Season 1, Episode 9 of The Tick), with the robbery committed by Skippy, a cyborg dog.

The Mechanical Monsters was featured as part of Fantastic Animation Festival.

A 1988 music video for the song "Spy in the House of Love" by Was (Not Was) borrowed footage extensively from Famous' Secret Agent short.

Arrowverse

In the Crisis on Infinite Earths tie-in comic, the world of those cartoons takes place on Earth-F before being destroyed by the Anti-Monitor.

Home media

The first official home video releases of the Paramount Superman cartoons were by Warner Home Video in 1987 and 1988, in a series of VHS and LaserDisc packages called TV's Best Adventures of Superman. Four volumes were released, each containing two episodes of the 1950s TV series Adventures of Superman (one black-and-white episode and one color episode) and one Max Fleischer Superman short (marking the first official release of such as Warner holds the original film elements).

A 1991 VHS set produced by Bosko Video, the somewhat incorrectly titled The Complete Superman Collection: Golden Anniversary Edition – The Paramount Cartoon Classics of Max & Dave Fleischer, was released as two VHS volumes which featured high-quality transfers from 35 mm prints. The Bosko Video set was issued on DVD by Image Entertainment as The Complete Superman Collection: Diamond Anniversary Edition in 2000. The Bosko Video release was not associated with DC Comics or their parent company Warner Bros.

Another DVD was Superman: The Ultimate Max Fleischer Cartoon Collection from VCI Entertainment, released on May 30, 2006, a month prior to the release of the film Superman Returns. DVD features included: all 17 animated shorts digitally restored in Dolby Digital 2.0 audio; Snafuperman, a 1944 Warner Bros. wartime parody of the Fleischer cartoons, featuring Private Snafu and produced for the U.S. Army; "Behind the Cape" synopses and fun facts with each cartoon; a fold-out booklet with notes on the series; bios of the voice actors, producer Max Fleischer, and Superman; a trailer for the 1948 Superman serial with Kirk Alyn; and a recorded audio phone interview with Joan Alexander (the voice of Lois Lane). This release, like the Bosko Video release, was not associated with DC Comics or their parent company Warner Bros.

Restored and remastered original vault elements were released on DVD on November 28, 2006, as part of Warner Home Video's re-releases of the Superman cartoons. The first nine cartoons were released as part of the four-disc special edition Superman: The Movie set, and the eight remaining cartoons were included on the two-disc special edition Superman II set. The entire collected Fleischer / Famous cartoons were included in the box sets The Christopher Reeve Superman Collection and Superman Ultimate Collector's Edition, where both sets also included a 13-minute documentary on the cartoons, entitled First Flight: The Fleischer Superman Series. This documentary (which was included on the Superman II two-disc special edition DVD) features interviews with surviving members, relatives and biographers of the animation and production team, and contemporary animators such as Bruce Timm, Paul Dini and Dan Riba (Superman: The Animated Series), who detail the influence these cartoons have had on their own works.

In 2005, a two-disc DVD set was released by Platinum disc corporation with digitally enhanced audio 5.1.

In December 2004, Toonami Digital Arsenal made the shorts available for free download in MP4 format on its website. They posted one episode per day with the final episode, "Secret Agent", going live on New Year's Day 2005.

On July 1, 2008, Warner Bros. released the shorts on iTunes via their DC Comics sections.

On April 7, 2009, a collection of all the cartoons released by Warner Home Video was released as the first authorized collection from the original masters, titled Max Fleischer's Superman: 1941–1942; the set included "The Man, The Myth, Superman" featurette, along with an old special feature seen in the Superman II 2006 DVD release, "First Flight: The Fleischer Superman Series".

The 8-disc Blu-ray boxset The Superman Motion Picture Anthology, released in June 2011, includes all the Max Fleischer cartoons in SD as bonuses on the discs for the two versions of Superman II. The nine Fleischer Studios cartoons plus the 13-minute feature First Flight: The Fleischer Superman Series are on the Superman II – Original 1980/81 Theatrical Release disc and the eight Famous Studios cartoons are on the Superman II – The 2006 Richard Donner Cut disc.

A Blu-ray set containing all the cartoons, called Max Fleischer's Superman: Collector's Edition was released on October 30, 2012, by the Gaiam studio. According to a Blu-Ray.com review, it was upscaled from standard definition to HD, and the set's video quality and audio quality were criticized.

The shorts were available for the first time in true HD on WarnerMedia's DC Universe streaming service. After the service went down in early 2021, they were no longer available. As of 2023, they have yet to reappear on Warner Bros.'s flagship streaming service HBO Max.

A Blu-ray set from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment was released on May 16, 2023. All of the cartoons are presented in 1080p resolution based on a 4K scan of the original 35 mm successive exposure negative.

List of films

Fleischer Studios

{| class="wikitable"

! Nº

! Title

! Original release date

| 1.

| Superman

| September 26, 1941

| 2.

| The Mechanical Monsters

| November 28, 1941

| 3.

| Billion Dollar Limited

| January 9, 1942

| 4.

| The Arctic Giant

| February 27, 1942

| 5.

| The Bulleteers

| March 27, 1942

| 6.

| The Magnetic Telescope

| April 24, 1942

| 7.

| Electric Earthquake

| May 15, 1942

| 8.

| Volcano

| July 10, 1942

| 9.

| Terror on the Midway

| August 30, 1942

Famous Studios

{| class="wikitable"

! Nº

! Title

! Original release date

| 10.

| Japoteurs

| September 18, 1942

| 11.

| Showdown

| October 16, 1942

| 12.

| Eleventh Hour

| November 20, 1942

| 13.

| Destruction, Inc.

| December 25, 1942

| 14.

| The Mummy Strikes

| February 19, 1943

| 15.

| Jungle Drums

| March 26, 1943

| 16.

| The Underground World

| June 18, 1943

| 17.

| Secret Agent

| July 30, 1943