Superman Review

Superman is a 1941 animated short film from Fleischer Studios. It is a phenomenal movie.

This is the first movie in Fleischer’s Superman series and it’s a fantastic start to the series. The beginning is obviously rushed where we get the exposition of his origins, but at least we all know it by now so that was okay overall. Some scenes such as the office one felt silly, but overall the movie is superb with great storytelling and a very interesting, fun, cartoony villain. I really liked his castle and weaponry and the action is terrific here with the laser fight being so memorable.

Clark Kent is well portrayed himself and Lois Lane is also pretty good, though underused here. But the reason why this movie works so well all these years afterwards lies in its animation in particular. This is simply some gorgeous animation at display, even rivaling Disney’s feature output from this period and that says a lot of course. They had a big budget and some great animators and the result is meticulous in detail, smooth in colors and highly memorable in imagery film with a terrific aesthetic to it. The score is also iconic by now and the narration is very good.

1941’s Superman remains one of the finest films to deal with its titular character, even counting the feature films. It’s a deserved Oscar nominee and simply one of the greats.