Superman (animated short)

Infobox Hollywood cartoon
cartoon_name = Superman
series = Superman


caption = Title card from "Superman"
director = Dave Fleischer
story_artist = Seymour Kneitel
I. Sparber
animator = Steve Muffati
Frank Endres
voice_actor = Bud Collyer
Joan Alexander
Julian Noa
musician = Sammy Timberg
producer = Max Fleischer
studio = Fleischer Studios
distributor = Paramount Pictures
release_date = September 26, 1941 (USA)
color_process = Technicolor
runtime = 10 min. (one reel)
preceded_by =
followed_by = "The Mechanical Monsters" (1941)
movie_language = English
imdb_id = 0034247

"Superman" is the first of the seventeen animated Technicolor short films based upon the DC Comics character Superman. Also known as "The Mad Scientist", "Superman" was produced by Fleischer Studios and released to theaters by Paramount Pictures on September 26, 1941. "Superman" ranked number 33 in a list of the fifty greatest cartoons of all time sourced from a 1994 poll of 1000 animation professionals, [Beck, Jerry (ed.) (1994). "The 50 Greatest Cartoons". Atlanta: Turner Publishing. ISBN# 1-878685-49-X] and was nominated for the 1942 Academy Award for Best Short Subject (Cartoons). [ [http://www.flixens.com/the_real_heroes_of_superman_part_3 Flixens | The Real Heroes of Superman, Part 3 ] ]

Plot outline

The short's prologue sums up the origins of Superman, and are as follows:

"In the endless reaches of the universe, there once existed a planet known as Krypton, a planet that burned like a green star in the distant heavens. There, civilization was far advanced, and it brought forth a race of supermen, whose mental and physical powers were developed to the absolute peak of human perfection. But there came a day when giant quakes threatened to destroy Krypton forever. One of the planet's leading scientists, sensing the approach of doom, placed his infant son in a small rocket ship and sent it hurtling in the direction of Earth, just as Krypton exploded. The rocket sped through star-studded space, landing on Earth with its precious burden: Krypton's sole survivor. A passing motorist found the uninjured child and took it to an orphanage. As the years went by and the child grew to maturity, he found himself possessed of amazing physical powers. Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, the infant of Krypton is now the Man of Steel: SUPERMAN! To best be in a position to use his powers in a never-ending battle for truth and justice, Superman has assumed the guise of Clark Kent, mild-mannered reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper."The story cuts to the Daily Planet, where editor Perry White reveals to his two best field reporters Clark Kent and Lois Lane that an anonymous figure has been mailing death threats to the "Planet", should he not be paid in one million dollars to stop his rampage. About the only clue given is the alias "The Mad Scientist". He may be an early precussor to Lex Luthor. White assigns Kent to handle the story, but Lois, portrayed here as a strong-willed woman, insists that she investigate as well, much to the supposed chagrin of Kent. She then takes off in a private plane to an undisclosed location, where the main villain is preparing to fire his death ray machine, spotting Lois' plane in the process. Upon her arrival, Lois finds herself kidnapped, bound, and gagged, while the villain boasts to her about the success of his plan. He turns on the machine and starts destroying bridges and buildings. While listening to the radio, Clark and the other journalists learn of the coming disaster by the military, who warns everyone to stay inside. Instinctively, Clark steps into a storage room and changes into Superman before flying away.

The Mad Scientist (voiced by Jack Mercer ,who also voiced Popeye) turns his attention to destroy a skyscraper, but upon turning the laser full blast, Superman swoops down and prevents the structure from crashing to the ground. Then, he flies after the laser beam, but only gets struck down by its full force. Determined to fight it, he launches himself upwards, pounding off the energy beams toward the lair. When he sees Superman has found a way to fight back, the horrified Mad Scientist increases power, which Superman uses against him by twisting the cannon into a knot. By now, the machine starts to collapse, and the building is starting to buckle under the pressure. Superman finally arrives to rescue Lois and captures the villain as he attempts to escape. As the lair explodes around them, he flies them to safety, and the scene dissolves back to the Daily Planet where Clark Kent and Lois report back to Perry White. She has gotten a scoop on the story of the Mad Scientist, who is now in prison, and Perry commends her on doing it. Seeing she hasn't suspected a thing, Clark looks at the camera, winks, and nods to the audience, and the story ends.

History

Production

In early 1941, Paramount Pictures acquired the film rights to DC Comics' Superman property, created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. Maltin, Leonard (1980, rev. 1987). "Of Mice and Magic." New York: Plume. Pg. 120 - 122] Paramount pitched the idea of producing a "Superman" series to its animation producer, Fleischer Studios. Co-owner Dave Fleischer did not want to take on the task of producing such a demanding series, and informed Paramount that a "Superman" series would require a budget of $100,000 per cartoon - six times the cost of the Fleischers' black-and-white "Popeye the Sailor" cartoons. Paramount agreed to a production cost of $50,000 per short Barrier, Michael (1999). "Hollywood Cartoons". London: Oxford Press. Pg. 304.] , and Max and Dave Fleischer began work on the first short in the series, "Superman."

Steve Muffati was placed in charge of the "Superman" cartoons (at Fleischer and later Famous, the credited director actually served the roles typically ascribed to a film producer or supervising director, while the credited animators were the actual animation directors). "Superman" was produced with the same care and attention to detail the Fleischer staff had given to their first feature film, "Gulliver's Travels" (1939) . While some of the scenes in the cartoon made use of the rotoscope , a Max Fleischer invention which allowed animation drawings to be traced from live action, others were done by relying upon poses sketched from live reference models instead of traced footage. Most of the lead character animators at Fleischer were used to animating caricatured humans and animals, and the assistant animators were tasked with maintaining the figures' realistic proportions. Character shadows, elaborate special effects animation, and detailed animation layouts contributed to the attention to detail evident in "Superman" and its follow ups.

Paramount promoted "Superman" with a campaign highly unusual for an animated short, which was usually treated as a throwaway bonus on a movie theater's bill. The short was a notable success, and was nominated for the 1942 Academy Award for Best Short Subject (Cartoons), which it lost to the "Pluto" cartoon "Lend a Paw". [ [http://www.flixens.com/the_real_heroes_of_superman_part_3 Flixens | The Real Heroes of Superman, Part 3 ] ]

Influence

Animation creator Bruce Timm also was influenced to use "Superman's"vintage color scheme and film noir approach to the successful Warner Bros. television programs ' and '. In both of these 1990s series, many of the character and background designs are based on the Fleischer Superman shorts. The scene where Superman disrupts the generator and causes the villain's lair to explode was used to some extent in the episode "Heart of Steel", where Batman attempts to thwart a plan by HARDAC to murder and replace humans with androids. A scene in which the background characters are shown as black silhouettes while Clark listens to the radio was similarly used in "Almost Got 'Im". "The Iron Giant" also references this short by playing the familiar motif at the mention of Superman.

Public domain

"Superman" and the other sixteen shorts in the Superman series were sold to Motion Pictures for Television, producers of the 1950s "Adventures of Superman" TV series. The cartoons fell into the public domain after Motion Pictures for Television (or their successors) did not renew their copyrights during the early 1970s.

References

External links

*imdb title|id=0034247|title=Superman
* [http://cinemaniacal.com/video/superman-the-mad-scientist Superman] at [http://cinemaniacal.com Cinemaniacal.com] - In Flash, TV, and iPod formats.