Superman
“Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound!”
About Superman
Perry White reads the Daily Planet a note from a figure the paper calls the Mad Scientist: his Electrothanasia-Ray will strike at midnight. Lois Lane flies a plane to the mountain laboratory. He ties her up and makes her watch a television screen as the ray smashes Tower Bridge. The beam then hits the Planet building. Clark Kent changes to Superman, holds the tower up, and stands in the ray. On the mountain he knots the cannon. The lab explodes. He flies Lois and the scientist clear.
Cast & crew
More about Superman
Dave Fleischer did not want the series. He told Paramount each short would cost $100,000, about four times a usual cartoon, hoping they would drop it. Paramount set $50,000 for this first film and $30,000 for the ones after. Max Fleischer produced it. Seymour Kneitel and Isadore Sparber wrote it. Steve Muffatti supervised the animation. Paramount released the Technicolor short on 26 September 1941, with a larger campaign than it gave other cartoons, including trailers.
Themes
In film history
In the 1994 poll of 1,000 animation professionals it ranked 33rd among fifty cartoons.
Making
Fleischer's asking price was a bluff. Paramount called it and still paid double the usual short for this opener. Muffatti ran the animation while Dave Fleischer took the producer-style credit then used at the studio.
Technique
The flight and the impacts were planned with rotoscope so the bodies would carry weight. It was shot in Technicolor.
Music
Sammy Timberg wrote the score. The short opens on the radio narration: faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound.
Preservation
The Technicolor short survives. It was nominated in 1942 and remains in circulation with the other Fleischer Superman cartoons.
Notes
- Bud Collyer speaks Clark Kent and Superman, as he did on the radio. Joan Alexander is Lois Lane. Julian Noa is Perry White. Jack Mercer and Jackson Beck are also credited.
- The villain is not named Lex Luthor on screen. The paper calls him the Mad Scientist.
- Sammy Timberg wrote the music.
- It was nominated for the 1942 Academy Award for Best Short Subject (Cartoons) and lost to the Mickey Mouse short Lend a Paw.
- A 1994 poll of 1,000 animation professionals, published as The 50 Greatest Cartoons, placed it at number 33.
- Seventeen Superman shorts followed, the later ones from Famous Studios after Paramount took over Fleischer.
Scenes
- Lois, bound in the mountain lab, watches the ray drop Tower Bridge on a television screen.
- Superman plants himself in the beam while the Daily Planet building tips.
- He ties the ray's cannon in a knot and carries Lois and the scientist out before the lab blows.
Influenced by
- Superman comic strip and radio show
Also available
- Internet Archive (superman_1941)
Quotes
Beware - you fools! My Electrothanasia-Ray strikes tonight at 12.
Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound!
