Superman in the 1940's

[kybearfuzz]

Last night, I was struggling to find something to watch on TV. Odd, I know, considering there are a lot of new shows out that are good. I still have yet to watch "Marvel's Agents of Shield," but I have them recorded and just had not had a chance to sit down and go through them. So I settled on last week's episode of "The Walking Dead," which was awesome, followed by a spin through Netflix.

Netflix recently added a "Superman" cartoon series to the line-up. These are the Fleischer Studio Superman cartoons from the 1940's. I adore them. For its time, the animation is IMPRESSIVE, with the action moving so smoothly and the artwork being almost flawless. I imagine at the time, it garnered a lot of "oooh's" and "aaah's." They were very expensive to make, at $10K to $30K each in 1940. I watched several of them last night, as they are relatively short.

Some of them are politically themed, especially with WWII going on, with Superman fighting the Nazis and the Japanese. And Superman in the earlier cartoons could only leap from building to building at the time, just like in the comics. The cartoons actually are the ones that got Superman flying, according to the Wikipedia article, because the animated leaping looked a little silly.

All of these cartoons are in the public domain now. If you want to watch them, I'm sure a Google search will find online downloads (and I think even the Wikipedia entry has links for that).

Comments

[mort-83.livejournal.com]

The pics at the Wiki entry look really cool. I'll have to find some to watch.

Reminds me of the Superman convention I attended back in Cleveland in the 80's. There were a series of conventions going on-Star Trek, Superman, D & D. A Nerd Trifecta! We went to the first two. The Superman convention had a fund raising thing to build a statue of Superman,, which I think they finally built, but not downtown-I think it's at the airport. Anyways, the thing that I recall is that they had one of the costumes that George Reeves wore in the serial version. It was shades of brown. At first I thought-"Gee, they used crappy dyes back then", but the display noted that the costume was originally done in shades of brown. The blue and red costume didn't look right in B & W, and so they went with shades of brown, which worked better.

[kybearfuzz.livejournal.com]

I had no idea the George Reeve's costume was in shades of brown, but since the show was filmed in black & white, it didn't matter. I'll have to see it online. :)

[dendren.livejournal.com]

wow... totally cool info on the brown costume. I had no idea. What a great bit of trivia!

[maxauburn.livejournal.com]

Those old & awesome Superman cartoons are on YouTube; I was kinda bored & depressed late one night a few years ago, found them, and watched a bunch of them.

They're great for their time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4oKK7qzKcA

[kybearfuzz.livejournal.com]

There is something about the way the characters move in those cartoons that I just love, they're so fluid and realistic in a way.

[mort-83.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link. Those are great cartoons! Love the look.

[mrdreamjeans.livejournal.com]

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D is the one new series I've latched on to. I enjoy it immensely! Try out! :)

[kybearfuzz.livejournal.com]

I've got them recorded. I'm going to try to watch them this weekend. :)

[champdaddy.livejournal.com]

I stumbled onto a dvd of those old Superman cartoons in a bargain bin for a buck. Great fun and surprisingly well done.

[kybearfuzz.livejournal.com]

I did the same thing a few years ago. With them being in the public domain, you can get them really inexpensive on DVD. I'll probably download them too so I can pop them on my iPad for travel. :)

[dendren.livejournal.com]

I'm enjoying S.H.I.E.L.D. but I think it will need some retooling over the next year if it is going to survive. It's good now but I think a few character tweaks or addition/deletes would help it be great.

One thing I keep coming up against with it as someone who has read Marvel for a lifetime, I keep expecting more Marvel connections. I keep waiting for the bad guys to be A.I.M., HYDRA or one of the other big bad organizations in the Marvel U. Characters that show up I go "oh, that is going to be so and so" and then it isn't. Perfect example was an Asian man who wielded fire... I was like "oh, cool, Sunfire" but they went a totally different route and it left me wanting more of a Marvel connection. But... when I let all that go it's a bit more enjoyable to me :)