Superman (animated short)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Superman is the first of the seventeen animated Technicolor short films based upon the DC Comics character of Superman, originally created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. This animated short was created by the Fleischer Studios Also known as The Mad Scientist, it aired on September 26, 1941.

[edit] Plot Outline

The short's prologue sums up the origins of Superman, and are as follows:

"In the endless reaches of the universe, there once existed a planet known as Krypton, a planet that burned like a green star in the distant heavens. There, civilization was far advanced, and it brought forth a race of supermen, whose mental and physical powers were developed to the absolute peak of human perfection. But there came a day when giant quakes threatened to destroy Krypton forever. One of the planet's leading scientists, sensing the approach of doom, placed his infant son in a small rocket ship and sent it hurtling in the direction of Earth, just as Krypton exploded. The rocket speed through star-studded space, landing on Earth with its precious burden: Krypton's sole survivor. A passing motorist found the uninjured child and took it to an orphanedge. As the years went by and the child grew to maturity, he found himself possessed of amazing physical powers. Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, the infant of Krypton is now the Man of Steel: SUPERMAN! To best be in a position to use his powers in a never-ending battle for truth and justice, Superman has assumed the guise of Clark Kent, mild-mannered reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper."

The story cuts to the Daily Planet, where editor Perry White reveals to his two best field reporters Clark Kent and Lois Lane that an anonymous figure has been mailing death threats to the Planet, should he not be paid in one million dollars to stop his rampage. About the only clue given is the alias The Mad Scientist. White assigns Kent to handle the story, but Lois, portrayed here as a strong-willed woman, insists that she investigate as well, much to the supposed chagrin of Kent. She then takes off in a private plane to an undisclosed location, where the main villain is preparing to fire his death ray machine, spotting Lois' plane in the process. Upon her arrival, Lois finds herself kidnapped and bound, while the villain boasts to her about the success of his plan. He turns on the machine and starts destroying bridges and buildings. While listening to the radio, Clark and the other journalists learn of the coming disaster by the military, who warns everyone to stay inside. Instinctively, Clark steps into a storage room and changes into Superman before flying away.

The Mad Scientist turns his attention to destroy the Daily Planet building, but upon turning the laser full blast, Superman swoops down and prevents the structure from crashing to the ground. He uses his heat vision to reseal and harden the base framework and straightens it into place. Then, he flies after the laser beam, but only gets struck down by its full force. Determined to fight it, he launches himself upwards, pounding off the energy beams toward the lair. When he sees Superman has found a way to fight back, the horrified Mad Scientist increases power, which Superman uses against him by twisting the cannon into a knot. By now, the machine starts to collapse, and the building is starting to buckle under the pressure. Superman finally arrives to rescue Lois and captures the villain as he attempts to escape. As the lair explodes around them, he flies them to safety, and the scene dissolves back to the Daily Planet where Clark Kent and Lois report back to Perry White. She has gotten a scoop on the story of the Mad Scientist, who is now in prison, and Perry commends her on doing it. Seeing she hasn't suspected a thing, Clark looks at the camera, winks, and nods to the audience, and the story ends.

[edit] Influence

One major scene in which Superman must save the Daily Planet headquarters from crashing was given homage to in director Bryan Singer's 2006 film Superman Returns, which pays homage to the cartoons, the George Reeves television series, the Christopher Reeve films, and the Superman comics after the Crisis on Infinite Earths reboot, as well. However, in the film, Superman (Brandon Routh) only saves the globe statuette from crashing down upon the public. Animation creator Bruce Timm also was influenced to use the animation's vintage color scheme and film noir approach to the hit Batman: The Animated Series and Superman: The Animated Series, in which a lot of background is based on the Fleischer Superman shorts. The scene where Superman disrupts the generator and causes the villain's lair to explode was used to some extent in the episode Heart and Steel, where Batman attempts to thwart a plan by HARDAC to murder and replace humans with androids. A scene in which the background characters are shown as black silhouettes while Clark listens to the radio was similarly used in Almost Got 'Im. The Iron Giant also references this short by playing the familar motif at the mention of Superman.

[edit] Ownership Rights

Superman and the remaining 16 shorts fell into the public domain