Max Fleischer's SUPERMAN "The Mad Scientist" (1941), the greatest VISUAL animated short in history?

Yes, this is an amazing animated short....

 

I love those Fleischer Superman shorts.

 

Arguably the greatest animated short ever, the Flesichser/Famous studios Superman is to me still the definitive rendition of the character.

Now if only we could get a corrected HD release...because of errors in the WB restoration you have to stick with the old Bosko DVD.

 

That is a wonderful piece of film and I would love to see the whole series restored and released as a bluray. Wonder if that will ever happen? Steve, you are doing the "younger readers" a service by showing this and some of the other films you occasionally comment on. I'm not sure how deep your interest in animation goes but there have been some great things upgraded and made available in the past couple years. You and your children might enjoy the 2 Betty Boop blurays released recently, here's a link:

http://www.amazon.com/Betty-Boop-Es...qid=1389553026&sr=1-2&keywords=betty+boop+blu

I have enjoyed these as much as about anything in the last couple months. The picture quality is much better than available before, including the laserdiscs. Enjoy.

 

Warmers never spent the money to restore these ,like the Looney Tunes ,because of them being PD

"because of errors in the WB restoration you have to stick with the old Bosko DVD." I don't agree ,the bosko dvds are ok but way too windowboxed

 

Excellent work, but I prefer this one - it's all a matter of taste, after all...

 

I don't know, Steve. Lois Lane was pretty horrible too. I partially blame Superman/Clark for putting up with her constant crap.

 

I'm a bigger fan of "Mechanical Monsters," but I'm not sure if I could say either one was the best short ever made:



This basic idea has been used in a hundred movies made after this Superman cartoon.

One secret to the Fleischer shorts is that some of them are heavily rotoscoped, where they shoot the human actors and then trace them onto animation cells over time. This accounts for the uncanny realism in the characters' faces. But they had a great sense of balance, beautiful design, and color, and their animation seriously rivaled the best of Disney's artists at the time.

 

I love the Fleischer stuff. Such an incredible sense of design. Beautiful.

Their animation rivaled the Hollywood big boys, but I wonder if they had to cut costs on the musical side of things. Playing isn't nearly as full and tight as on Disney, WB and MGM shorts.

dan c

 

Two things I wonder after watching these shorts. Why did Metropolis have such a stronghold on the mad scientist market, and why did the Daily Planet seem to employ just two reporters yet own that massive skyscraper. I'm sure it's been converted to condos by now....and I bet they actually only have two reporters (who also take photos and video and blog and Tweet).

dan c

 

What is the recommended version of these on DVD? I have a 2 year old son, and I need these in my collection immediately.

Thanks

 

This one is the best I've seen and you can't beat the price, $8.99. I think they are uncut and in order of release.

http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Supe...&sr=1-2&keywords=complete+superman+collection

 

WB has an official Studio release, and it doesn't get better than that.

 

Here is an Amazon reviewer with possible issues:

"The source materials Warner Bros. used on this set are in really rough shape. There are scratches throughout these films. Also, Warner expressed a real lack of quality control as the intros to most of these films have been altered. During the prologue of the first Superman short, there is an audio glitch. The line "Superman fights a never ending battle for truth and justice" is heard as "Superman fights a never ending battle for truth-justice". There are two cartoons that have the wrong prologue placed at the beginning. The cartoons "Eleventh Hour" and "Jungle Drums" borrow their prologue from the first Superman cartoon. Strangely, the audio glitch is not present in the prologue used for "Eleventh Hour" while it is present in the prologue to "Jungle Drums". The rest of the cartoons on this set have their correct prologues, but there are other audio issues. Many of the cartoons on this set have the incorrect Superman theme music playing over the opening credits, most notably on all of the Famous Studios shorts. "Japoteurs" borrows its opening credits music from "Electric Earthquake", you just have to listen as the title of the cartoon appears, you can hear the same sound effects heard over the title screen for "Electric Earthquake". The cartoons "The Magnetic Telescope", "Showdown", "Destruction, Inc", "The Mummy Strikes", "The Underground World" and "Secret Agent" have truncated music playing over the opening credits; basically by cutting the theme music short as the credits end before the entire piece of music accompanying it. As a result, the sound effects originally heard during the title screens for "The Magnetic Telescope" (an electrifying sound) and "Destruction, Inc" (an explosion) are gone. Lastly, only 3 cartoons have their original Paramount end logo, being "Superman", "The Arctic Giant" and "Electric Earthquake". However, there is a cut in the audio at the end of "Superman" as it fades to the Paramount end logo. Also, the other 14 cartoons on this set seem to have the end logo from "Superman" tacked onto them."

I also read in a review they edited out Clark saying, "Isn't that a dangerous job for a woman?"

On the Warner's it says, "Isn't that a dangerous job?"

If that is true or not..I do not know.

 

Popeye must have been out to sea for a long, LONG time .

 

What part of Popeye will never rust?

 

Here's where the quote above came from: http://www.goldenagecartoons.com/reviews/2009/superman-01/

The Warner set does have goofy things going on with the soundtracks. I don't know if the elements they used had problems, or folks just dropped the ball and goofed. My impression is that Warner didn't spend a fortune to restore them because they're in the PD. That said, these are the best looking versions of these I've watched - they're not washed out, the cartoons themselves haven't been cut up (Terror on the Midway typically is missing action from the beginning of the short, but it's intact here).

Here's a nice extra from the Superman set Warner Bros put out:

A thorough rundown of the Superman Fleischer shorts is located here: http://www.supermanhomepage.com/movies/movies.php?topic=m-fleis2

Another in-depth look at the Fleischer's masterwork: http://animatedviews.com/2009/max-fleischers-superman-1941-1942-dvd/

 

"Oooh, this is embarrasskin'..."

 

I was gonna say, the sound quality is all mids -- no highs, no lows. Even in the 1940s, the state of the art of optical sound should be better than that.