Customer Reviews

Max Fleischer's Superman [VHS]

5 star:		(72)
4 star:		(26)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Produced during 1941-42, the classic Superman cartoons of Max and Dave Fleischer remain among the finest works in animation history. Unfortunately, their public-domain status has resulted in several DVD compilations of variable quality. Bosko's "Diamond Anniversary Edition" is the best Superman disc available. All 17 cartoons are uncut and presented in the order of their original theatrical release. However, it should be noted that the Fleischers were responsible for the first 10 Superman cartoons (including "Japoteurs"), with the remaining shorts produced by Famous Studios during 1942-43. Despite a few memorable efforts, such as "Jungle Drums" and "The Underground World," the Famous animators were unable to duplicate the Fleischer magic. Since the cartoons were expensive to produce, it was no surprise that Paramount and DC Comics agreed to end the series after two years. Still, the best Superman shorts - "The Mechanical Monsters" (1941) and "The Bulleteers" (1942) - are mini-masterpieces that evoke the comic-book spirit better than any live-action film. The print quality of Bosko's Superman disc is excellent, even though a first-generation master of "Terror on the Midway" has yet to surface.

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 Ultimate Max Fleischer Cartoon Collection. Hitting the DVD battlefield to conquer your pocketbook is yet another version of the 17 cartoons produced by Fleischer/Paramount studios from 1941-43. Up to now the only version worth having was the Bosko video release called The Complete Superman Cartoons - Diamond Anniversary Edition My only complaint about that DVD was the inclusion of the date of each cartoons release super-imposed over the opening of each cartoon. Now about VCI's new release Superman - The Ultimate Max Fleischer Cartoon Collection. Using the word "Ultimate" is dangerous. It raises ones expectations to see the best possible release of these wonderful cartoons. VCI slightly misses the mark. The majority of the cartoons are indeed great to look at, but I find it strange that the music at the end of almost every cartoon is the same. That would not be annoying if it were not for the fact that each of the cartoons originally had different and uniquely individual fade out music. The most annoying part of the presentation are the two cartoons TERROR ON THE MIDWAY and THE MUMMY STRIKES. I was awed to see that the opening of TERROR ON THE MIDWAY looked far inferior visually to the version seen on Boskos release. VCIs attempt to cover the defects in the very opening of the cartoon, (Emulsion scratches etc. since no other pre-print has popped up) the VCI editors chose to freeze frame a series of shots that were originally seen in a slow pan. This is not only startling to see but destroys the artistic integrity of the short. MUMMY STRIKES suffers the same quality drop visually. The remainder look excellent. The extras are very enjoyable. The audio interview with Joan Alexander (The voice of Lois Lane on the radio and in the great 1966 Superman Animated series as well) gives some very enjoyable memories of her career. There is a Kirk Alyn Superman Serial trailer from 1948 that looks o.k. And the inclusion of the "Bonis" cartoon SNAFUPERMAN is o.k. but it looks like it was lifted from a previous Laserdisc release. All in all for a retail of $9.99 (With a pre-order from Amazon of $6.99, it is worth the price.....but not Ultimate. The Ultimate Max Fleischer Cartoon Collection is available May 30th.

These cartoons have to be the best example of American animation and by far the best superhero cartoon series ever. I grew up reading Superman comics and even though these cartoons are over 50 years old, they look like they could have been made yesterday due to the excellent restoration. This cartoon series was the inspiration for the art of the current Batman cartoon series on FOX. The resoration of these cartoons is amazing and so is the sound. There were added sound effects to the original sound track, so some of the effects may stand out from the original restored sound, but if you listen to this with a Dolby 5.1 receiver and set the sound on the DVD to Dolby, you will not notice a difference. The resoration demo on the disk actually shows how well cartoons like this were restored. The original aspect ratio is close enough to the full screen mode, so nothing is missed from the original. There is an informative history that describes the background behind the production of these cartoons as well as a description for each cartoon in the series. There is also an added cartoon for the "feel the sound" sound restoration process. There are adds for their "Cartoon Crazies" series too, I liked these because I was interested in that series, but wasn't sure of the content. The fact that these adds were an option to watch was also appealing. Overall this DVD has more content than I expected and a higher quality of visual and audio restoration. An excellent buy for someone who is a Superman or animation fan.

I wish that the armchair animation historians would shut up and stop moaning about these animated shorts not being ‘widescreen’ – they were created in FULL SCREEN which, at the time, was slightly bigger than the picture we see on TV nowadays. This SLIGHT difference in size caters for those who insist the picture has been ‘butchered’ – it’s slight cropping to fit to TV! And by ‘slight’ I mean….so little that if it were returned, the ‘toon would be nothing more. This DVD is great – the shorts are well restored and the sound is fine. The slightly awkward arrangement of the episodes does not detract from the beauty of this title, which is part of animation history. AVOID other versions of the Superman shorts – the sound on those others has been converted to 5.1, which means someone with a [bad] sound effects CD has added out-of-synch inappropriate modern effect. Fine if you’re 3 years old – a nightmare if you want quality! Next, buy the only decent CARTOON CRAZYS DVD – Banned & Censored! Fantastic!

I can't praise this collection by Bosko Video enough. The picture quality is amazing- before I bought this DVD I actually thought that these cartoons were inherently murky, dark, and fuzzy. It amazed me to find that the original prints were sharp, detailed, and bright. Plus, the DVD menu makes it quick and easy to skip around and find exactly the title that you want. This is a quality production and not some slapped together compilation of public domain material. Plus you get ALL the cartoons from both Fleischer and Famous studios.

I remember back before the mid 60's when there was NO animated super-hero material available. Then a relative told me that she remembered Superman cartoons from WW2. I thought that she must have been kidding me. I simply couldn't believe that if such films existed that they would not be on television. Yet that was the case- no one saw these cartoons for over 30 years. I wish they had been available because they would have been my hands down favorites. Super-hero animation of this high of quality didn't appear again until the '90's. The quality of the artwork is amazing. The colors, shading, and shadows are magnificent. And the overall art deco/ film noir look is pure class.

There is something more about these cartoons. I personally believe that they were some of the best propaganda to come out of the WW2 era (the first two were actually made BEFORE Pearl Harbor.) I mean, a lot of youngsters must have seen these films before going off to war. The Axis was spewing all sorts of propaganda about "supermen." They were claiming that superior beings had a natural right to enslave and rule the world. Well, here was a superior being whose only reason to BE was to help those who needed his help. He defended the weak and helpless. He fought for truth and justice. That must have been a powerful example for young men who were about to go off and do the very same thing.....

If you are a fan of Superman or comic books in general, get this DVD. The shorts in this DVD are good old-fashioned serial movies, animated brilliantly by the Fleischer brothers. Yes, the material is dated, and sometimes unintentionally hilarious.

In one episode, Clark Kent ducks into the broom closet of the Daily Planet, turns on the light so everyone can see him, and changes into Superman. (We see him taking off his pants.) Then he apparently walks out of the broom closet, presumably leaving his clothes behind, gets into the elevator in his Superman costume and takes it down to the lobby, where he then flies out the front door on his way to fight crime. Great stuff.

But it is interesting to see the movie studio's first treatment of Superman. He is more of a "man", or in other words, more mortal. His super powers are flying, being bulletproof or superstrength. That's it. He uses X-ray vision in exactly one of the episodes. He is more easily knocked unconscious, or magically loses his power to fly after being knocked from a perch. Lifting a plane or dragging a giant train is a real chore for him, but nonetheless a truly "superhuman" accomplishment.

Also, in these cartoons there is no heat vision, no Fortress of Solitude, no Kryptonite. No Lex Luthor or Bizarro, either. The villains here are nameless mad scientists who have constructed wires that cause earthquakes in Manhattan, or mechanical monsters who are bank robbers, or evil men who wear hoods and drive around in a "bullet car" that destroys civic buildings.

And finally, Lois Lane! She is a piece of work. She works to sabotage Clark Kent's journalism career at every turn while hogging all the scoops and glory for herself. Not only that, she is shooting machine guns while driving an out-of-control train, tailing bad guys by jumping into their motorboat or evil mechanical monster in order to gain access to their secret lairs. It's terrific.

Finally, the colors and shadow work in these movies is nothing short of masterful. This is a must for any fan of Superman and particularly of animation.

Amazon seems to be quite regularly passing reviews from one release of something onto other releases. They used to tell you this, but now they don't. There are 2 sets of this - one Winstar (older version, with re-dubbed sound effects and really bad Pan & Scan) and THIS ONE, which is the Bosko Diamond edition.

I haven't seen either, and now I certainly won't be using Amazon's reviews to get a feel for what the release is like, as I can't trust them to keep one edition separate from another.

These are some of the best cartoons ever made, hands down. I'd like to point out something to a reviewer from earlier. These cartoons aren't presented in widescreen, because they weren't done in that format. They were only slightly larger than the picture that you see. All of the shorts, be they Disney, Warner Bros, even The Three Stooges(not animated but they were shorts) were done in a box/standard format. Hence the reason for some slight clipping when they are formated for television. It wasn't until the features that the widescreen format was used for cartoons. Example: Lady And The Tramp

The Superman portion of this DVD is everything I wanted it to be. The sound is great, the picture is great, and I love the convenience. Two VHS tapes become one disk, and it is very nice to be able to select the episode you want to watch. These cartoons are amazing, and they are possible the finest example of American animation. Very history making. The use of shadows and color is beautiful.

My only complaint is the bonus features, which are not really features but adds for other tapes in the collection. The nice thing about it is you don't have to watch them. I am very happy with this DVD.