The Return of Superman (to coin a phrase)
Okay, okay. We already had our Superman film festival this summer — just thought we’d pull the plug on our Science Friction Week with one more starring the Kid from Krypton. And this is the first one! The famous one! The one that got nominated for an Academy Award!
Hard to imagine the impact of Max Fleischer’s pilot film, “Superman” in 1941. Nothing like it had ever been seen on movie screens! Realistic (more or less) animated figures, spectacular special effects, a straight faced (more or less) science fictiony story — all wrapped up in sleek, streamlined trimmings. The Man of Steel does battle with a death ray and a crazy scientist who’s lookin’ a lot like a chorus boy from a production of “The Mikado.” What a kick!
And the most amazing thing is this is, objectively, perhaps the weakest of the original Fleischer Superman cartoons! Narrative techniques would be sharpened, character designs (particularly Lois Lane’s) would become more attractive and the animation would actually improve. Still this initial episode has a special little orbit around the hearts of many a old cartoon buff!
ReFrederator is in a family way starting Monday, kicking off Relatively Speaking Week. Come visit all our shirt tale cousins!
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On July 30th, 2006 at 12:00 am
A couple of things I noticed now that I hadn’t when watching the cartoon before:
1) The lip-synch when Superman says “This looks like a job for Superman”. He’s within earshot of the other newspaper staff, so Popeye-style under-the-breath dialogue would actually have made more sense here.
2) When Superman rescues Lois Lane, he takes the time to untie her from the chair before getting her out of the hideout at the last moment. He could have easily carried her and the chair outside the hideout (it’s just an ordinary chair and the doorways have more than enough room) and then untied her once they’re out of the danger zone.
3) Superman breaks the fourth wall at the end.
On July 31st, 2006 at 12:00 am
If you’re talking about that little Oliver Hardy moment when Clark gives the look to the audience, yeah, cool — I hadn’t thought about that. I’ll have to take a closer peek at the other Superman toons, and see if there are other camera looks!
On July 31st, 2006 at 12:00 am
The wink-to-camera thing is an established Superman trait — still current in the comics in the 1960s at the very least, and it shows up as a nostalgia item even today.
On August 10th, 2006 at 12:00 am
These vintage Superman cartoons are fantastic. They just don’t make ‘em like this anymore. That it sometimes seems a bit outdated is just part of the charm for me, and so is the naiveté.