Cheap The Complete Superman Cartoons - Diamond Anniversary Edition (DVD) (Complete Superman Collection, Max & Dave Fleischer) Price

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Customer Reviews of The Complete Superman Cartoons - Diamond Anniversary Edition

I remember back before the mid 60's when there was NO animated super-hero material available. Then a relative told me that she remembered Superman cartoons from WW2. I thought that she must have been kidding me. I simply couldn't believe that if such films existed that they would not be on television. Yet that was the case- no one saw these cartoons for over 30 years. I wish they had been available because they would have been my hands-down favorites. Super-hero animation of this high of quality didn't appear again until the '90's. The quality of the artwork is amazing. The colors, shading, and shadows are magnificent. And the overall art deco/ film noir look is pure class.

There is something more about these cartoons. I personally believe that they were some of the best propaganda to come out of the WW2 era (the first two were actually made BEFORE Pearl Harbor.) I mean, a lot of youngsters must have seen these films before going off to war. The fascists were spewing all sorts of propaganda about Aryan "supermen." They were claiming that "superior beings" had a natural right to enslave and rule the world. Well, here was a superior being whose only reason to BE was to help those who needed his help. He defended the weak and helpless. He fought for truth and justice. That must have been a powerful example for young men who were about to go off and do the very same thing.....

Truth and Justice- the best sort of WW2 propaganda
I can't praise this collection by Bosko Video enough. The picture quality is amazing- before I bought this DVD I actually thought that these cartoons were inherently murky, dark, and fuzzy. It amazed me to find that the original prints were sharp, detailed, and bright. Plus, the DVD menu makes it quick and easy to skip around and find exactly the title that you want. This is a quality production and not some slapped together compilation of public domain material. Plus you get ALL the cartoons from both Fleischer and Famous studios.

I remember back before the mid 60's when there was NO animated super-hero material available. Then a relative told me that she remembered Superman cartoons from WW2. I thought that she must have been kidding me. I simply couldn't believe that if such films existed that they would not be on television. Yet that was the case- no one saw these cartoons for over 30 years. I wish they had been available because they would have been my hands down favorites. Super-hero animation of this high of quality didn't appear again until the '90's. The quality of the artwork is amazing. The colors, shading, and shadows are magnificent. And the overall art deco/ film noir look is pure class.

There is something more about these cartoons. I personally believe that they were some of the best propaganda to come out of the WW2 era (the first two were actually made BEFORE Pearl Harbor.) I mean, a lot of youngsters must have seen these films before going off to war. The Axis was spewing all sorts of propaganda about "supermen." They were claiming that superior beings had a natural right to enslave and rule the world. Well, here was a superior being whose only reason to BE was to help those who needed his help. He defended the weak and helpless. He fought for truth and justice. That must have been a powerful example for young men who were about to go off and do the very same thing.....

Superman with Style!
Nostalgia buffs, "Superfans,"students of quality animation, and lovers of classic comics will enjoy these 17 cartoons produced between 1941 and 1943 by Paramount Studios. In these little gems, the Man of Steel battles an assortment of monsters, mobsters, mad scientists, and malefactors bent on wreaking havoc in Metropolis and sabotaging America's war effort. Despite the rather formulaic plots, what makes this collection worth having is the outstanding attention to detail in the animation and backgrounds, especially in the first nine 'toons produced by Max Fleischer and directed by his brother Dave. The skyscrapers have a distinctive Art Deco look that gives Superman's world a real personality, a real sense of time and place. Lois Lane shows plenty of spunk long before anyone ever heard the phrase "women's liberation." She bluntly calls Clark Kent a fool, packs her portable typewriter (a 1940s laptop) almost anywhere, wields a machine gun to foil train robbers, and flies off solo, Amelia Earhart-style, to interview a mad scientist.

As noted by other reviewers, the quality of the animation and storytelling drop off noticeably in the remaining eight shorts, produced after the Fleischers left Paramount. Overall, however, the series maintains a fairly high standard throughout, probably because associates of the Fleischers also worked on the later entries in the series. Even the lesser quality animation of the later 'toons, to my eyes, looks better than much of the drivel produced for the Saturday morning shows. Modern day viewers may be uncomfortable with the portrayals of Germans and Japanese, but, after all, these cartoons were produced during World War II, when Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan were our mortal enemies. I daresay that if someone were to produce a cartoon adventure of Superman vs. Al-Quaeda today, Osama bin Laden and his ilk wouldn't be portrayed very favorably. All things considered, the Last Son of Krypton has seldom looked better than he does in these cartoons.