Superman: The Mad Scientist

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.

Sixty one years have elapsed since this first Superman cartoon was shown and it still remains as timeless as ever.

I had first seen this decades back (not in 1941 because it would be a good several years until I was born) and recently I picked up a copy from a car boot sale. I watched it and enjoyed it throughly.

The story is perfectly simple. A mad scientist has some kind of ray aimed at Metropolis and he also kidnaps Lois Lane. Superman of course comes to the rescue. There is no complex plot, just plenty of action.

Lois and Clark are not quite equals in this adventure. Nowadays in the Superman comics I think Lois and Clark are married but Lois sort of looked down on Clark in these adventures-she doesn't even let him come out on assignment with her.

Another thing I liked was the way Clark changed into Superman. He would always say, "This is a job for Superman," before heading into a storeroom and changing. Magic!

For fans of Superman (particularly younger fans), I recommend they check this out if they can get a copy.

A SUPERMAN Cartoon.

A mad scientist turns his death ray on Metropolis to begin destroying bridges & buildings. Intrepid reporter Lois Lane crashes her plane directly in the madman’s front yard. With Lois a prisoner & the death ray once again in operation, it looks like a job for SUPERMAN!

This was the first in a series of excellent cartoons Max Fleischer produced for Paramount Studio. They feature great animation and taut, fast-moving plots. Meant to be shown in movie theaters, they are miles ahead of their Saturday Morning counterparts.

I have no idea why Superman's logo looks the way it does, (probably something to do with one of Joe Shuster's original drawings) but this is still excellent. There is very little dialogue in these films, and the little dialogue that is played is almost inaudible. These shorts are more for the action fan. In the beginning, Superman can only leap (leap tall buildings in a single bound as it were) but before long, the narrator reveals that flight is also one of his attributes (soar higher than any plane!). During the course of these film-noir cartoons, we see Superman battle robot jewel thieves, a dinosaur, the Japanese, and even some Nazis (Hitler himself appeared at the end of that episode)! This probably might not appeal to fans of the modern day Superman, because the guy we see here is the tough, take no prisoners hero of the golden age. Nevertheless, a great series of cartoons, and as a Superman fan, I must say, I enjoyed them.

I just bought the 2 disc set of the Fleisher cartoons and Lost Episodes. They were perhaps restored but they are not sharp at all. They look about as good as a VHS Tape at EP. The opening menu is very sharp like a DVD should be but the cartoons are very soft in focus. These cartoons were on Nikolodeon some time ago and comparing my EP tapes recorded then and the DVD that I just bought, I have to say my EP tape looks MUCH better. There must have been something wrong with the dubbing process as I was expecting to be dazzled not disappointed.