Look up the sky, it's a bird, it's a plane, it's SUPERMAN was the legendary call in these classic cartoons of the amazing stranger from the planet Krypton between 1941 and 1943. 3 years after he debuted and became immediate sensation in Action Comics # 1 in 1938. Although the Man of Steel has conquered, TV,movies and serials as he became the most popular superhero of all time and a pop culture icon, these cartoon's are timeless. Action packed heroic battles for truth,justice and the American Way. From monsters to villians, to earthly disasters, Superman gets his man,saves Lois and saves the day. They're must have super adventures for any Man of Steel fan. Featuring Daily Planet reporter and Superman's love Lois Lane, Editor and Cheif Perry White and of course milled mannered reporter Clark Kent and the protector of Metropolis. "This looks like a job for SUPERMAN" "Thanks to SUPERMAN"

Plain and simple, this disc is the classic Max and Dave Flescher rending of Superman. Forget the Fortress of Solitude, the Phantom Zone, Brainiac, and Bizzaro. This is rough and tumble, rough cut, and "unplugged" Superman. The plots are simple, the violence is limited, and the moral fiber is all there. Thank goodness these shorts have been preserved for posterity.

The most refreshing thing about these cartoons is that they are not anime. The odd angles, weird facial features, and mysterious blue and green hair are missing. The edges are rounded, the lines curved and the colors subdues. Personally, it is easier on my eye to look at this. And the 1940's backdrops make me laugh--just compare the curved and lumbering Studebakers and De Sotos to the harsh and razor-edges lines of the more recent super-autos, and you see my point.

These classic toons not only retain the early moral fiber, but the charm of the a far more innocent day. I wonder if, in the intervening half-century we have gotten any better.

The AWESOME set of the great Fleischer Superman Cartoons of the 40's is the ONLY set to own. These are out there on so many lousy public domain versions for a few bucks, but spend the extra money and get this set. The Popeye cartoons and Betty Boop notwithstanding, this IS the Fleischer's best work. All 17 Superman cartoons have been fully restored and are simply some of the best animation ever.

I've seen these so many times over the year and never get tired of seeing the brilliant, movie-like animation. The fluidity, the colors is simply dazzling. This is why I love animation. It does not get any better.

This was the classic Superman of the early 1940's, battling mad scientists, saboteurs, giant robots, and all kinds of criminal elements. Here are my favorite episodes:

"The Mechanical Monsters" A mad scientist is using a collection of giant robots to steal money and precious items around Metropolis. The Mad Inventor sends his robots to a jewelry store to steal a large collection of gems. During the chaos, Lois Lane tries to stop the robots, but is trapped inside the hull of one of the gigantic mechanical monsters. Quickly, Clark Kent heads into a phone booth and changes to Superman. He follows the fleet of giant robotic crooks, but is stopped when he becomes tangled in a power line. Lois is found by The Scientist and is tied to a chair, and is about to be placed under a kettle of molten metal. Superman escapes the power lines and flies to the mountain hideout of the renegade inventor. He not only saves Lois Lane, but he destroys the robots and captures their crazed creator.

"The Mummy Strikes" - An Egyptologist is found dead in the tomb of an ancient Egyptian king, and his assistant is mistakenly convicted of the crime. Clark Kent is summoned by one of the dead professor's colleagues to try to find the truth of the matter. Clark discovers what really killed the professor, but, in so doing, accidentally awakens the ancient, giant mummies who guard the tomb. Lois and Clark are trapped with the reanimated mummies. Clark has to become Superman in order to save Lois and the professor.

"The Underground World" Underground caverns and the promise of an exclusive story for the Daily Planet make this an exciting adventure for Lois Lane and Clark Kent. Clark, Lois and a professor journey to a lost underground cavern. There, they find a lost race of birdmen! The excitement turns to danger when Lois is captured by the giant bird people. Lois and the professor are to be sacrificed and Superman has to save the day.

"Jungle Drums" - Lois Lane's plane goes down in Nazi-controlled territory in Africa while she is in possession of top-secret military intelligence documents. She is captured and taken to a secret Nazi base in the jungle. It's up to Superman to save Lois from death at the hands of natives (with bones in their noses) who are controlled by a Nazi dressed as a jungle god.

"Superman" The very first superman toon! In this, the first Superman cartoon, we see how The Man Of Steel first came to Earth. After Krypton's tragic destruction, he was found by the side of the road in rural Kansas and spent most of his childhood in an orphanage. An adult Clark Kent becomes a reporter for The Daily Planet. Perry White assigns Clark and Lois Lane to get information about a mad scientist who is threatening to destroy the city with a new super ray gun. But Lois wants to cover the story alone. Lois flies to the mad scientist's lab and is captured by the renegade inventor. Watching helplessly, Lois witnesses the super ray gun destroying many of the city's landmarks, including the Daily Planet building. Clark Kent changes into Superman and flies to the scientist mountaintop lab where he destroys the ray gun, saves Lois and brings the mad inventor to justice.

This set really has it all...Sci-Fi, Fantasty, Horror, monsters, Robots, Nazis...truly a dream collection. Highest recommendation possible!

Having seen a number of the early Superman cartoons on other "public domain" compilations, I can say with confidence, DON'T BUY THE OTHERS!!! Bosko Video has a reputation for putting out high quality products and this collection is nothing less than fantastic. The images are superbly clear and the audio is nearly flawless (no, there are NO new or altered sound effects added).

As much as I love the continuing modern adventures of super heros like Superman, Batman, and Spiderman, the earlier stories and artwork for each hero have always been my favorites. The Fleischer cartoons capture the early art-deco look and feel of the original Superman / Action Comics era. The artwork is great and the stories are timeless. This is the series that spawned the well know lines: "Faster than a speeding bullet...... More powerful than a locomative....able to leap tall buildings in a single bound.....Superman" These cartoons are the epitome of early American comic book heros.

The only complaints I have (and really, this is nothing) is that each episode starts with an added supscript "Originally Released October 1942" for a few seconds. Having this appear before the cartoon starts at all would have been better instead of inserting over the actual film itself. It would have been better suited to a booklet, which leads to my other complaint. There is no booklet. They do make up for it with a nice video intro regarding Superman and the cartoon series however.

This set is a real steal for the price, and it contains all of the early episodes, complete and fully restored. I would suggest this set for fans who prefer the early look of comic book heros, art deco animation, and Superman in general. Fans of period-look films like The Iron Giant or Sky Captain & The World of Tomorrow will also love this (especially when Superman fights robots). Fleisher cartoons have always been great, but all too often the are butchered in the public domain. This is a rare example of Fleisher's work presented in such quality.

"Superman", the Max and Dave Fleischer animated version, just might be the closest thing there is to seeing the world's greatest superhero at his birth. These cartoons were the very first Superman on screen, made when the comic books were only four years old. You'll be very impressed- I know I was- with the animation art, including faithful character sketches and amazing deco-noir Manhattan settings. This DVD includes all 17 of the Fleischer/Famous episodes, made from 1941-43, complete with the nifty- and catchy- WWII military march-style theme music that, for those of a certain age, will definitely conjure up vintage wartime newsreels. Did you know there was also an alternate intro? I didn't, and it's a great bit of Super-trivia ("Faster than a bolt of lightning!"). You'll also get a kick out of the things Superman fights off: a giant Siberian dinosaur that thaws out of his iceberg ("Arctic Giant"), Egyptian mummies that come to life ("The Mummy Strikes"), and a sabotaged train full of gold bars ("Billion Dollar Limited"). But no matter what obstacles await, Superman always rescues Lois Lane, drags in the villains and returns to his mild-mannered city desk- just like the '50s TV show we all remember. The dialogue is very sparse, but we see the genesis of feisty, witty Lois whenever she speaks.
These cartoons are, wisely, presented uncut and unadorned, with no extras- though the edition I saw included a crude "Private Snafu" take. (That was Warner Bros.' wartime cartoon series, in bare-bones black and white.) The second half of the series, with the "Famous Studios" credit (the Fleischers sold the business in '42), is a bit formulaic but, thankfully, the animation quality didn't suffer and there are even glints of sassy New York humor, probably courtesy of "Betty Boop" alum Izzy Sparber.
So if your Super-memories are a bit hazy, like mine, and want to see how it all began on screen, check out this set and you, too, will not only be humming the theme music, but saying "Look- up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's..." ah, you know the rest!