About Superman (1941) (1941)
The story behind the film
In 1941 Paramount Pictures asked Fleischer Studios — the animation house behind Betty Boop and Popeye — to bring the newly popular comic-book hero from Action Comics to the screen. According to studio lore, Dave Fleischer didn't want the job and tried to scare Paramount off by quoting a budget of $100,000 per cartoon, about four times the cost of a normal short. Paramount negotiated it down to $50,000 for the first episode and agreed, so the Fleischers had to deliver.
The result, released on September 26, 1941, was the first of seventeen Technicolor Superman cartoons (nine by Fleischer, the rest by its successor, Famous Studios). This first entry is often called The Mad Scientist: a villain with an "electrothanasia ray" threatens the city from his mountaintop lair, and reporter Lois Lane flies off to get the story — leaving Clark Kent to change into Superman and save her.
Cast & crew
- Produced by Max Fleischer; directed by Dave Fleischer
- Bud Collyer as Clark Kent / Superman (Collyer also voiced the hero on radio)
- Joan Alexander as Lois Lane
- Jackson Beck as Perry White; Jack Mercer as the Mad Scientist
- Produced by Fleischer Studios and released by Paramount Pictures
Why it's worth watching
These shorts look like nothing else from the period. Instead of the round, rubbery style of most 1940s cartoons, the Fleischer team used realistic human proportions, dramatic lighting, deep shadows and art deco cityscapes. Some movement was traced from live-action reference with the rotoscope (a Max Fleischer invention), while other scenes were drawn from posed models. The result is closer to film noir than to Saturday-morning cartoons, and its influence can be seen in later work such as Batman: The Animated Series.
This first episode is a compact ten-minute adventure: a ray-gun attack, a race against time, and Superman punching his way through a beam of pure energy.
Fun facts
- Superman (1941) was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Subject.
- In a 1994 poll of animation professionals for the book The 50 Greatest Cartoons, it ranked 33rd.
- The Mad Scientist is voiced by Jack Mercer, better known as the voice of Popeye in the Fleischer cartoons, and Jackson Beck voices editor Perry White.
Public-domain status
This Fleischer cartoon is listed among US public-domain films (its copyright was not renewed). Superman as a character and the Superman name and logo remain trademarks of DC Comics; Starlite TV is not affiliated with or endorsed by DC. See "Rights & source" below.