I love the Fleischer Superman cartoons. The animation is smooth and fluid with vivid colors. The distinct art-deco style, vintage science fiction imagery, and use of noirish shadows gave them a look unlike any other cartoons. The music and voice work is superb. They're fun, accessible, enduring animation classics. While this is a cartoon from Fleischer Studios' successor, Famous Studios, it still tries to maintain the Fleischer style.
Twelfth short in the Superman series is another WW2 story. This one sees Lois & Clark prisoners in wartime Japan. Every night at eleven o'clock Clark changes into Superman and commits acts of sabotage. The Japanese take Lois and threaten to execute her if Superman doesn't stop. The story is very simple and seems to be a point of contention for many, judging by other comments and reviews. I'm not sure why the Superman cartoons are held to a stricter standard than other cartoons from the period. Naysayers seem to expect more well-developed plots for shorts that are under ten minutes. Perhaps because they involve humans instead of animals, people seem to expect more realism? It bears pointing out that an "alien from another planet with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men" is not more realistic than a wisecracking rabbit or a cat & mouse that beat the hell out of each other with household appliances.
Mini-rant aside, this is an enjoyable short. The sabotage scenes are beautifully animated and there's some creative use of color throughout. One last thing I would point out is that Superman, in addition to being a wartime saboteur, does kill in this cartoon. Another reviewer said he did not. However, one of the acts of sabotage he commits was to blow up a bridge that had Japanese military vehicles moving across it at the time. I seriously doubt all of those soldiers survived.
