Whether you look at Henry Cavill’s 2013 depiction, Brandon Routh’s crack at the character from 2006, or Christopher Reeves’ four movies from the 1980s, these big-screenstories show Supermanon solo adventures, far and away from any sort of team-up. While these were all entertaining in their own right, there is certainly something magical about the almost-forgotten theatricalFleischer Supermancartoons from almost a century ago.
Dubbed as some of the finest shorts of the Golden Age of Animation (this moniker was actually agreed upon by 1000 different animators in Jerry Beck’s bookThe 50 Greatest Cartoons), 17 Superman cartoons were produced between 1941 and 1943. The first nine were produced by Fleischer Studios, while the next eight were made by Famous Studios (the latter being a corporate spin-off to the first). This was the Man of Steel’s first animated appearance in illustrious and beautiful Technicolor. These are not silent either, with popular game show host Bud Collyer voicing the DC hero along with other voice cast members. The very first short was even nominated for an Academy Award!
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For those who want to see Superman insome fantastical adventures, you’re in for a real treat here. From September 1941 to August 1942, the first nine shorts (developed by the Fleischer Brothers) showcased a classical but colorful version of the DC superhero. He takes on an army of robot burglars, a gang that uses a bullet-shaped rocket car to fly through the skies, and also has run-ins with both Godzilla and King Kong.
Well, the King of the Monsters is renamed the Arctic Giant, and the Eighth Wonder of the World is a giant circus gorilla named Gigantic, but the resemblance is uncanny and predates theMonsterverseby over 70 years. As with allclassic cartoon productions, there’s also a mad scientist story tossed in for good measure. It seemed like Max and Dave Fleischer were really trying to cover all the bases with the storytelling.
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Even though Fleischer Studios was fully assimilated by Paramount Pictures in the early 1940s, theSupermanshorts rolled on, but now under the Famous Studios banner (a powerful film company that was once one half of Paramount Pictures). While these next 10 animations had a variety of villains that would surprise you, like an impostor Superman (bossed around by the mob), mummies, and an armada of hawkmen,Famous Studios leaned into the biggest real-world issue at the time for some of its shorts,which was World War II.
“Japotuers”saw Superman fighting Japanese spies who were trying to hijack a huge, new American bombing plane and“Jungle Drums”would have the iconic DC Comics character fight against indigenous warriors who were being unknowingly led by a Nazi commander. Whether the subject matter was focused on things not of this world or more close-to-home matters,these 17 adventures have certainly left a legacy that rivals anything Superman-related that has come after it.
Besides being recognized by film academies and named in animation history books,DC Comics themselves immortalized Fleischer Studios in their 1985 one-shot publication,Fifty Who Made DC Great. The brothers certainly deserve it. Never mind leaping buildings in a single bound, finally seeing the Man of Steel jumpfrom print to moving picturemust have been astonishing for moviegoers at the time.
Max and Dave actually used their own patented rotoscoping technique (which was the act of tracing over reel-by-reel motion picture footage) to create a semblance of highly realistic movements for Superman. This elaborate animation approach certainly helped audiences become mesmerized by the story. When our hero was escaping from rubble or landing on an airplane in mid-flight, there were seemingly no exceptions made. The Fleischer brothers had you there, at the moment, adventuring along with both great sight and sound.
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Warner Brothers obviously owns the original films for the cartoons — that was never a question on anybody’s mind. They wouldn’t let such a historical piece slip away. But National Comics (DC’s precursor) made such a mistake. Unable to find the right documentation in time that would prove they were the rightful owners, the pre-DC publishing company failed to renew the copyrights.
All the nine-minute cartoons ended up landing rightin the public domain, and the everyman ended up reaping the benefits. In this case, DC’s greatest hero had a rather anticlimactic ending, but no matter, the action-packed stories therein easily hold up even today.If you want to see theFleischer Supermancartoons yourself, they are available to watch on archive.org, YouTube, or through numerous DVD and Blu-ray releases.
