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Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Hayden Kane There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Scarlet The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

betina-18954 I owned a dvd with most of these cartoons on it when i was 6 years old. I saw them, and as a kid i didn't like them. But now as a young adult, i appreciate them alot more. However i would be lying if i said these Superman shorts are timeless. If you were to compare them to later action cartoons like Batman: The Animated Series, Justice League, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Teen Titans, Avatar, or even the later Superman: The Animated Series with they're longer running time and much more developed characters, then compare the Superman shorts to the cartoons i just mentioned, then the shorts are inferior nowadays. There was even one critic on IMDB who didn't like the short running time, and lack of character development, in these cartoons. But the thing is that no one had made a real action or superhero cartoon, and the Fleischers were probably only experimenting with how action cartoons could be done. And these shorts could probably be considered an experiment of action cartoons. And no one had made action cartoons before this, so the result is pretty impressive for the time. And yeah the designs are kinda 40s, but this was popular back then. Why this didn't win the Academy Award for Best Animated Short, is beyond me. I mean the Pluto film was cute and all, but did you see this? This was far superior, and much more ahead of it's time. Anyways onto the cartoon.The cartoon starts with the opening credits. Then an introduction to Superman and his origins with narration is showed. You know, he came from Krypton and the way he came to Earth and discovered his powers. It's the only cartoon in the series to have this narration tell his origins.The story is very simple, it's about this evil scientist who tries to destroy cities around the world with his death ray, because people didn't take his warnings seriously. The Superhero fighting a mad scientist cliche is one that has been done to death ever since, so much that it even has been parodied. However at the time it was something new. Lois Lane wants to get the story, then flies to his hideout with her private plane, then the scientist's pet bird spots her. Btw the bird is like the only cartoony character in this cartoon, which is kinda funny. Then Lois gets captured, the death ray destroys Tower Bridge, and tries to destroy buildings in New York, and it's up to Superman to save the day.So what do i and don't i like about this cartoon. Well the only thing i don't like is that, again, it isn't timeless, and it's dated by today's standards. But actually, that's pretty much it.So what do i like about this cartoon?? The animation is as everyone else say, great. The rotoscoping is amazing, and the death ray is animated very detailed and beautiful. The music is also great. In fact it's my favorite Superman theme of all time. And the voice acting is top notch, even having Jack Mercer (The voice of Popeye) as the Mad Scientist. And the fact that it's the first action cartoon was pretty groundbreaking for the time.This cartoon isn't timeless, but was groundbreaking for it's time. 10/10

Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de) Animation was really at a high during the times of World War II. Disney delivered some of their finest and most relevant pieces back then and here and there, occasionally, even some other companies managed good works. One of them is Fleischer Studios who started its Superman franchise back in 1941 with this one, sometimes also known as "The Mad Scientist".However, I believe it's definitely inferior to Disney at that point also not on the same level quality-wise with some of the later Superman cartoons by Fleischer, even if the "Lane gets caught. Superman comes to the rescue."-story-line is pretty repetitive in almost all the films. The villain was fine, but Superman fighting the destructive beam for a large part of the film just wasn't interesting enough and it almost felt like the story did not warrant a running time of 10 minutes. However, I did like Kent's winking near the end, definitely an interesting way of breaking the fourth wall. As a whole, this one is only worth a watch for big animation fans and nostalgics.

Michael_Elliott Superman (1941) ** 1/2 (out of 4) The first of seventeen shorts produced by Max Fleischer for Paramount. This one has Lois Lane investigating the story of a mad scientist who is going to use a deadly ray to cause havoc all over the city. Soon Lois is taken hostage and it's up to Superman to save the day. This was the first film in the series that I had ever seen and I'm going to watch them in order but so far I really wasn't too impressed. That's not to say this is a poor film because it certainly isn't but I was expecting a lot more from the Fleischer boys. I read at IMDb that this was the most expensive cartoon made at the time and I find that hard to believe because part of the problem I had with the film was its look, which I thought was rather cheap. I also didn't care to much for the vocal work but it didn't bother me too much. The story itself was pretty simple and straight-forward, which was another thing that could have been improved. The film does fly by pretty fast and while nothing is above average, the entire thing does stay average and mildly entertaining.

preppy-3 A mad scientist threatens Metropolis with a destruction ray. The Daily Planet is sent a letter telling them he will destroy Metropolis at midnight.Lois Lane (somehow) knows where he is and flies there in her plane(!!). He captures her and starts destroying Metropolis. Superman comes to the rescue!The animation is superb--very fluid movements and some truly spectacular shots. In the restored DVD the colors are bright and the sound has been tweaked into stereo with good effect. The story line is simple--but it IS a cartoon! The action sequences are swift and (for 1941) pretty violent. Basically an excellent animated short. Don't miss this one! A 10 all the way.