The Fleischer cartoons were also responsible for giving Superman perhaps his most singular superpower: flight. In these cases, the Fleischers' lead animators-many of whom lacked training in figure drawing-animated "roughly" and depended upon their assistants (usually inexperienced animators but established draftsmen) to keep Superman "on model" during his action sequences. Many of Superman's actions, however, could not be rotoscoped (such as flying, lifting very large objects, etc.). Rotoscoping, the process of tracing animation drawings from live-action footage, was used minimally to lend realism to the character's bodily movements. Music for the series was composed by Sammy Timberg, the Fleischers' long-time musical collaborator. Joan Alexander was the voice of Lois Lane, a role she also portrayed on radio alongside Collyer. The voice of Superman for the series was initially provided by Bud Collyer, who also performed the lead character's voice during The Adventures of Superman radio series. It lost to Lend a Paw, a Pluto cartoon from Walt Disney Productions and RKO Pictures. The Mad Scientist), was released on September 26, 1941, and was nominated for the 1941 Academy Award for Best Short Subject: Cartoons. The first cartoon in the series, simply titled Superman (a.k.a. (or $717,394 per short as of 2021 ) Now the Fleischers were committed to a project they never wanted to do-with more financial and marketing support than they had ever received for the projects they had done thus far. To the Fleischers' shock, instead of withdrawing its request, Paramount entered into negotiations with them, and got the per-episode budget lowered to $50,000. They told Paramount that producing such a conceptually and technically complex series of cartoons would cost about $100,000 per short (or $1.43 million per short as of 2021 ) this was about four times the typical budget of a six-minute episode of the Fleischers' popular Popeye the Sailor cartoons of that period. The Fleischers, looking for a way to reject the project without appearing uncooperative, agreed to do the series-but only at an (intentionally inflated) per-episode-budget number so exorbitantly high that Paramount would have to reject them, instead. Paramount was interested in financially exploiting the phenomenal popularity of the then-new Superman comic books, by producing a series of theatrical cartoons based upon the character. Not wanting to risk becoming overworked (which could compromise the quality of each project), the Fleischers were strongly (but quietly) opposed to the idea of committing themselves to another major project when they were approached by their studio's distributor and majority owner since May 1941, Paramount Pictures. The Fleischers were also well into production on their second, Mr. īy mid-1941, brothers Max and Dave Fleischer were running their own animation studio in Miami, Florida, and had recently finished their first animated feature film, Gulliver's Travels. In 1994, the first entry in the series was voted #33 on a list of The 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field. These cartoons are seen as some of the finest quality (and certainly, the most lavishly budgeted) animated cartoons produced during The Golden Age of American animation. In 1942, Fleischer Studios was dissolved and reorganized as Famous Studios, which produced the final eight shorts. ![]() Only the first nine cartoons were produced by Fleischer Studios nonetheless, all 17 episodes are collectively known as "the Fleischer Superman cartoons". released a Blu-ray set containing the 17 cartoons, taken from high-definition restorations of the original camera negatives. Īlthough all entries are in the public domain, ancillary rights, such as merchandising contract rights, as well as the original 35mm master elements, are owned today by Warner Bros., which has also owned Superman's publisher, DC Comics, since 1969. Superman was the final animated series initiated by Fleischer Studios, before Famous Studios officially took over production. ![]() Production was resumed in May 1942 by Famous Studios, a successor company to Fleischer, which produced eight more cartoons in 1942–1943. They were originally produced by Fleischer Studios, which completed the initial short and eight further cartoons in 19. The Fleischer Superman cartoons are a series of 17 animated short films released in Technicolor by Paramount Pictures and based upon the comic book character Superman, making them his first animated appearance.
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