It's no surprise that Superman is one of the most well known figures in pop culture, being first in comics then of course, movies, animation, TV, and theme park attractions all over the world. For this series of cartoons, not only was it the first animated series for Superman, but the first on screen series for a superhero franchise period. And as far as content is concerned, this is superior. Some of the greatest cartoons ever made. They were as if they were feature films themselves. Using the actors from the radio show Superman, these films still hold a strong standard as to making a good superhero cartoon only somewhat matched by Batman The Animated Series in the 90s.
It's hard to believe that these were made by the same studio that brought us Popeye, Betty Boop, and others, but it is, and for Flesicher, it's one of their bests. Contrary to popular belief, Max Fleischer was gung ho with making these cartoons. He was a visionary with special effects being an inventor himself such as the rotoscope and 3D backgrounds in a 2D cartoon. Unfortunately by that time it was too late. Paramount would have already ousted the Fleischers and run the studio themselves. While the series continued under Paramount's Famous Studios and in the same quality, eventually they would end the series and would replace it with Noveltoons and Little Lulu. Paramount continued to have films rights to Superman however until the late 40's using the brand in one of George Pal's Puppetoons, a Little Lulu cartoon, and who could forget the infamous Popeye cartoon, She Sick Sailor, where Popeye faces off against "Superman".
However, because of the unknown as to who truly owned the films, Paramount or DC (it ended up being DC), all of them ended up in the public domain. A few TV airings happened in syndication, but no where near as widespread as other Paramount cartoons. There were many VHS releases from various companies over the years. An Image laserdisc release is said to be the best one which would be re-released on DVD. Warner Bros. who would own the master material when merging with DC did do a restoration in the mid 2000's which was in HD, but there were still some issues when released on DVD.
Starting in 2018, Warner Bros. begun restoring stuff in 4K starting with some Dr. Seuss specials but quickly went to the theatrical cartoons. Superman would be part of this program. How is it? Well, I'm mixed. On the one hand, the cartoons are the most pristine they've ever been. No signs of dirt or damage to the film. On the other hand, the picture looks to be DNR'd somewhat and some of the color choices are meh. It's not in the same level that Disney would restore the cartoons, but it still feels pretty close. None of the audio has been restored; that to me is the biggest gripe. As for the bonus features, all were rehashed from previous releases, and only the 2006 featurette is worth something. The newest featurette is pretty much people from DC Comics talking about how great these are whereas the 2006 featurette contains historians and experts on Superman/Fleischer Studios talking about who the Fleischers were and how Superman got made.
If you are a fan of DC Comics, you may love this Blu-ray. It is nice to have a compilation of these historic toons on Blu-ray. Just don't get your hopes up too much, and make sure you have back up releases before you purchase this set.
