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The 40s series is the reason you think of faster than a speeding bullet!
The Fleischer Studiosproduced shorts quickly established a fun formula.
Inevitably, a headline from Lois Lane announces an imminent threat.
Theyre also masterful on a technical level.
Despite their myriad pleasures, two big caveats come with watching the 40sSupermantoday.
First, like many cartoons of its era, it indulges in racist caricature and propaganda.
exists on stolen land.
Hes deemed a crank by Perry White, not long before kidnapping Lois.
Installments from Famous Studios go further, with the wartime propaganda of Japoteurs and Eleventh Hour.
As an immigrant allegory himself, xenophobia feels incredibly strange on Superman.
One review declares that the scans wereaggressively scrubbed, robbing Max Fleischers Superman of its original texture.
This concern spurred yetanotherrestorationsupervised by Max Fleischers granddaughter, Jane Fleischer Reid.
The project isnt limited to Superman, either.
My grandfather made just short of 700 cartoons, Fleischer Reid says.
While the second half of the shorts feel like relics, the first nine set a new animation standard.
