Foreverisacastironmess123 Review of Superman: The Mad Scientist

Superman: The Mad Scientist (1941)

Take that, you big stupid city-scorching laser you! And that! Bang, zoom, pow, right in the kisser!!!

[8/10 · 14 March 2017]

Wow, when I first ever saw a couple of these vintage animated Superman shorts on late night public domain TV years ago I was so struck by the rich visual design and structure of them, and I can see why this first one in particular seems to have struck a chord with a lot of people over the years. The story is a little basic, but it's a fun little scenario that serves its purpose as a kind of pilot for this seventeen episode series. There's something simple yet profoundly appealing and beautiful about the way the animation looks and moves, it's so dynamic and bright and vivid, the shadows, angles and images are so sharp and well thought out, it's like the old comics of the 40s come to life, and is a marvellous little work of art and animation. You can almost feel the love and sweat that must have been painstakingly put into it, and it was all by hand back in 1941, no computers for a long time to come. The Fleischer Studios must have had a lot depending on them making a strong impression with this first episode of a specially commissioned series and I think they put the vastly increased budget that they had to develop these shorts to excellent use, as it's some of the most fluid and clean animation I've ever seen, and not just by the standards of the time. For what it is, it's pretty flawless. It's a world apart from the trademark bizarre surrealism of a lot of the earlier Betty Boop toon shorts. I'm fascinated by all the small details that are put into every frame of it, like all the dials and lenses that are on the mad scientist's giant laser cannon. My favourite part is when Superman pushes back the laser beam and wrecks the weapon, it really spectacularly demonstrates his strength and determination. How noble of Mr Superman to also save the bad guy along with Lois at the last second as his observatory lair is exploding. Too bad about the scientist's pet crow though, after the blast it doesn't show him again, I think he may have crowed his last kaw! Some of the short is a little silly, like when the headstrong Lois Lane knocks right on the villain's front door and is promptly swept up and taken hostage, and it made me laugh how daintily Clarke Kent sneaks into the closet with the window on the door to change into Superman right in front of everybody, and sneaks back out and politely closes the door behind him! The music is nice and charming to hear in an old fashioned saving-the-day kind of way, I had no idea that the reason Superman flies is due to an idea by Max Fleischer who felt that it would be more practical and easier to animate a flying Superman instead of him leaping around like a flea everywhere, and thus a new iconic superpower was born! Nice going Max, but when you look at how natural it looks when Superman is flying, it makes you wonder why they didn't have him doing it from the very beginning.. Still pretty dang great stuff, there remains something quite special about these classics, they have a timeless sort of quality, and this short is positively a must-see for fans of the early days of animation or admirers of the Superman character, and 1941 or not, he never looked better.