I saw that my theater was going to have the Fleischer Studios Superman animated shorts and it was an opportunity I couldn’t pass. To see them the way they were originally meant to be seen. I had originally seen them as a kid on Cartoon Network in the 90s and despite knowing that they felt old they somehow felt timeless. Some consider them the best Superman cartoon or adaptation and while perhaps a bit overrated it does deserve all the praise it gets. There’s just something about these shorts that just get the character right.
Now I am not an expert on the history of Fleischer Studios and then Famous studios, but I can understand the first 9 shorts were made by the former and then some staff changes happened for the other 8. I also know the copyright status or lack of lead to these being seen by many more over the years had the copyright not existed even if some of the remasters might have some copyright. I’m also guessing what I saw on the theater were not actual film reels since I guess movie Cinemas don’t use them anymore. But it’s still the theater experience I got to watch for the most part.
It was only the 9 Fleischer shorts though I did watch the remaining 8 Famous Studios that same night at home. I have to admit I do like the original 9 more, the stories are generally better, more sci-fi heavy and simpler. The Famous Studios ones are intersting in that some deal with magic and others with world war but they seem a bit odd because of that and more of a time capsule. Regardless they’re all great, but I do tend to think the original run was better.
Now while most are between 8 and 10 minutes which isn’t much and makes them very easy to watch. They really weren’t meant to be binged one after the other as it can get a bit repetitious. They all have a simple easy to follow plot, not much dialog and lots of action. The music moves the scenes rather well and the plots work whith the amount of time they’re given.
The quality of the shorts is a bit weird, some of them looked like they were cleaned up way too much and look odd, there’s also some cases where some face features are just gone similar to the Daft Punk HD remaster. This shouldn’t happen if it’s on film. Also some of the shorts are way too cleaned up and they just look wrong, the ones that retain some or more of the dust/grain look so much better.
This cartoon cements that superheroes do work better in the time they were created, Superman just makes more sense existing in the 1940s than at any other time in history. The fact that most of his stories lean on science fiction has helped it feel ok in other decades as technology progressed but the core parts of the character work better in the past, even Superman in the 90s was already pushing it.
The stories work great as “early Superman”, he’s just there to save the day from other human threats for the most part, he’s Super while still being able to be in danger. Having no super villains makes him more of a hero you can relate to and see as a saviour. That’s the best aspect. I do think an older more experienced Superman would need a rouges gallery but slowly and he should never forget who he is saving just the little folk.