the animated SUPERMAN series were produced by the FLEISCHER studios in florida, 17 shorts, from sept.1941 until july 1943. they are unusually well done, really well developed stories for mini-8min-features. some of the animation is not bad, some of the backgrounds as well. but what I like the most about them is their staging, the editing. very nice character compositions and camera- angles. a very well translated comic strip series into animation. and we all know how difficult that is! the above recreated beautiful pan is from the 1942 short BILLION DOLLAR LIMITED.
you can see in these few scenes from the first 4 SUPERMAN shorts how well planned they were. camera angles borrowed from live-action films, dramatic staging supported by the right light and dark values, as well as a tasteful choice of color, all that created interesting short adventures. these films are so well timed, the stories edited so well that you forgive the not top standard animation. it is good entertainment and compared to most of the crap my eyes are suffering from today – pure gold!
© paramount
my name is hans bacher, – I work as production designer in the animation film industry. for the last 40 years I lived and worked in duesseldorf, london, paris, los angeles, manila and tokyo. now I am professor for film-design at the nanyang techn. university in singapore.
I love the SUPERMAN cartoons, but there are some interesting continuity errors in some of the earlier films…it was as if the Fleischer people had to get used to working in the new style. They did a great job though. The direction is solid and the action well-timed, which is remarkable since they really were winging it–there was nothing comparable being done anywhere else. Lois Lane is still one of the best ‘realistic human’ animated characters, even if they used the rotoscope…she’s very well caricatured, especially the facial expressions.