I owned a dvd with most of these cartoons on it when i was 6 years old. I saw them, and as a kid i didn't like them. But now as a young adult, i appreciate them alot more. However i would be lying if i said these Superman shorts are timeless. If you were to compare them to later action cartoons like Batman: The Animated Series, Justice League, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Teen Titans, Avatar, or even the later Superman: The Animated Series with they're longer running time and much more developed characters, then compare the Superman shorts to the cartoons i just mentioned, then the shorts are inferior nowadays. There was even one critic on IMDB who didn't like the short running time, and lack of character development, in these cartoons. But the thing is that no one had made a real action or superhero cartoon, and the Fleischers were probably only experimenting with how action cartoons could be done. And these shorts could probably be considered an experiment of action cartoons. And no one had made action cartoons before this, so the result is pretty impressive for the time. And yeah the designs are kinda 40s, but this was popular back then. Why this didn't win the Academy Award for Best Animated Short, is beyond me. I mean the Pluto film was cute and all, but did you see this? This was far superior, and much more ahead of it's time. Anyways onto the cartoon.
The cartoon starts with the opening credits. Then an introduction to Superman and his origins with narration is showed. You know, he came from Krypton and the way he came to Earth and discovered his powers. It's the only cartoon in the series to have this narration tell his origins.
The story is very simple, it's about this evil scientist who tries to destroy cities around the world with his death ray, because people didn't take his warnings seriously. The Superhero fighting a mad scientist cliche is one that has been done to death ever since, so much that it even has been parodied. However at the time it was something new. Lois Lane wants to get the story, then flies to his hideout with her private plane, then the scientist's pet bird spots her. Btw the bird is like the only cartoony character in this cartoon, which is kinda funny. Then Lois gets captured, the death ray destroys Tower Bridge, and tries to destroy buildings in New York, and it's up to Superman to save the day.
So what do i and don't i like about this cartoon. Well the only thing i don't like is that, again, it isn't timeless, and it's dated by today's standards. But actually, that's pretty much it.
So what do i like about this cartoon?? The animation is as everyone else say, great. The rotoscoping is amazing, and the death ray is animated very detailed and beautiful. The music is also great. In fact it's my favorite Superman theme of all time. And the voice acting is top notch, even having Jack Mercer (The voice of Popeye) as the Mad Scientist. And the fact that it's the first action cartoon was pretty groundbreaking for the time.
This cartoon isn't timeless, but was groundbreaking for it's time. 10/10
The cartoon starts with the opening credits. Then an introduction to Superman and his origins with narration is showed. You know, he came from Krypton and the way he came to Earth and discovered his powers. It's the only cartoon in the series to have this narration tell his origins.
The story is very simple, it's about this evil scientist who tries to destroy cities around the world with his death ray, because people didn't take his warnings seriously. The Superhero fighting a mad scientist cliche is one that has been done to death ever since, so much that it even has been parodied. However at the time it was something new. Lois Lane wants to get the story, then flies to his hideout with her private plane, then the scientist's pet bird spots her. Btw the bird is like the only cartoony character in this cartoon, which is kinda funny. Then Lois gets captured, the death ray destroys Tower Bridge, and tries to destroy buildings in New York, and it's up to Superman to save the day.
So what do i and don't i like about this cartoon. Well the only thing i don't like is that, again, it isn't timeless, and it's dated by today's standards. But actually, that's pretty much it.
So what do i like about this cartoon?? The animation is as everyone else say, great. The rotoscoping is amazing, and the death ray is animated very detailed and beautiful. The music is also great. In fact it's my favorite Superman theme of all time. And the voice acting is top notch, even having Jack Mercer (The voice of Popeye) as the Mad Scientist. And the fact that it's the first action cartoon was pretty groundbreaking for the time.
This cartoon isn't timeless, but was groundbreaking for it's time. 10/10