 |
|
| Home · Reviews · Interviews · Contests · Blog · Forums · Follow Us On Twitter |
|
by R.J. Carter Published: April 6, 2009
It only takes a few seconds for a viewer to appreciate the talent of the artists and animators of Superman. The realistic artwork, the fantastic backgrounds, the complicated animation of crowd scenes and the exquisite touches like the motion of hair and musculature. This is a Superman who doesn't move planets -- he exerts himself to lift things, and it shows in his facial expressions. He doesn't fly all the time, and a good hit from a death ray can knock him right out of the air, and he has to leap from the ground once again. Halfway through the shorts, I had a half-thought -- "Gee, I'd love to have seen how Batman would have looked in this style." -- when it hit me: This is the style that did influence Bruce Timm and crew when first introducing us to Batman: The Animated Series, a fact that is backed up by Timm himself in the bonus feature interviews. Still, there's a mood and tone that even the modern masters didn't quite capture. You can see the essence of it, but when you go back to the source material, there's something special -- that lightning that couldn't be caught in a bottle -- that makes the Superman adventures stand out from most animation, even today. One thing that is unique about the Superman shorts is the seamless mix of the realistic and the cartoonish. In the short, "Mad Scientist," the titular mad scientist who fires his death ray into the city has a pet raven who mimics his moves. Buildings that start to fall have a sort of rubbery structure, curving without cracking as Superman tries to set them back in place. And a thawed dinosaur that starts to go on the attack is out of place for more reasons than his being out of time. But despite this, the mood of the story isn't broken: these are adventure/action cartoons, introduced into a world where cartoons were always comedies. That alone was something that got animators thinking about the different kinds of stories that could be told. The shorts also give viewers a glimpse into the real world of the time. This was a world at war, after all, and Americans were inundated by cartoons that included quite a bit of propaganda. In "The Japoteurs," Superman and Lois fight off Japanese spies as they try to steal the world's largest bomber plane. To Fleischer's credit, they did not lapse into the caricaturish representation of Japanese seen in other cartoons, although the dialogue is certainly indicative of the mood of the country. "Japs are stealing the bomber," Lois calls into the radio mic, and the leader of the spies catches her, then monologues, "Well placed bomb will stop pursuit," as he drops a missile over the city. In "The Eleventh Hour," Lois Lane (voiced by Joan Alexander) and Clark Kent are imprisoned in Japan, each in separate apartments. At 11:00 each night, Clark peels back the bars of his window and goes out to commit acts of sabotage against the Japanese war machine as Superman. When the Japanese military learns of this, they threaten Lois with execution if Superman (Bud Collyer) performs another act -- something he doesn't learn about until he sees the flyers after his next act of sabotage! Slightly more indicative of the racial undercurrents that plagued America at the time is "Jungle Drums." While still a story about fighting the Nazis, the representation of African natives -- cannibals who wear a bone in their nose -- was certainly a fearful image. The natives bow down to a masked god, actually a Nazi soldier using the remote location as an outpost for attacking American planes flying over. When Superman puts the kibosh on the plan, we close the episode with a very upset Adolf Hitler hearing about the victory on his radio, angrily switching the station to one that's playing "Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition." This is likely why Warner prints the disclaimer on the box, stating that this collection "is for the Adult Collector and is Not Suitable for Children." Well, it's okay for my kids -- your mileage may vary. Of course, it wasn't all about taking on the armies of the Axis. In "Showdown," a Superman imposter who robs people has people wondering if Superman has turned to the dark side. "The Bulleteers" finds a group of criminals with a fantastic bullet car giving Superman a run for his money. And "Volcano" is a fantastically lush piece that has Superman taking on a force of nature, saving a town from fiery destruction. This two disc set includes a pair of excellent mini-documentaries. "The Man, The Myth" is thirteen minutes of interviews with historians and comic book experts like Phil Cousineau and Christopher Knowles (Our Gods Wear Spandex) talking about the archetype of the superhero in ancient myth, touching on Gilgamesh, Beowulf, and Hercules. Mike Carlin, Christopher Vogler, and Thomas Andrae join in, as the talk turns toward the mythology of the Nietzsche Übermensch, and the spiritual and moral compass that would be required to be such a creature without becoming a monster; also touched on is the irony that two Jewish kids took the idea of the Nazi Übermensch and turned it into an antidote as well as sparking a new dimension in American mythology. "First Flight" is another thirteen minute feature which includes interview clips with Fleischer's son, Richard, as well as animation experts like Jerry Beck, Leslie Cabarga, and Myron Waldman. There is talk about the rotoscope, a process which involved shooting scenes in live action and then tracing over that by hand to create the animated effect. In fact, Superman presented such a huge challenge to the Fleischers that they didn't want to do it, and returned a huge cost number to Paramount to discourage them. But Paramount didn't flinch, and the rest is history. Bruce Timm and Paul Dini finish the set out by talking of the influence of the series on Batman: The Animated Series. Even if you're not a comic book fan, Max Fleischer's Superman: 1941-1942 is a joy to watch, and an educational experience. Despite the fact that these shorts have been reproduced on DVD a number of times on the cheap, this collection -- reshot from original masters -- is highly recommended. Previews on this set include "Saturday Morning Cartoons 1960s" Volume 1, "Saturday Morning Cartoons 1970s" Volume 1, "The Real Adventures of Johnny Quest" Season 1 Volume 1, "Wonder Woman, and "The Zeta Project" Season One.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Copyright © 1997-2010 Burlee LLC. All rights reserved. | Reprints | Privacy Policy | Disclosure | About Us/Contact Us | RSS Feed |