Fleischer Studios Blog

Superman Soars in New York Times review of DC Universe

9/24/2018

The original Fleischer Superman films feature prominently in a recent New York Times review of DC Universe, DC Entertainment's new streaming service.

According to the New York Times, the "service runs deep with more obscure and retro offerings," noting that the Fleischers' Superman shorts were "notable for their use of rotoscoping, an animation technique that allows animators to trace over live-action footage in order to produce more realistic action. The design also served as a big influence on later DC animation, including “Batman: The Animated Series” and “Superman: The Animated Series.”

Read the entire review HERE.
Find out more about DC Universe's new streaming service HERE.

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Superman leaps onto the big screen in Oakland April 7th

3/29/2018

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Fans in Northern California, don't miss The New Parkway Theater's "first ever" Animation Week starting on April 6th. This weeklong festival will feature a screening of Fleischer films from the 1940's Superman series on Saturday, April 7th at 2:55 PM.

The films featured in the screening include: Superman (aka The Mad Scientist), The Mechanical Monsters, Billion Dollar Limited, The Arctic Giant, The Bulleteers, The Magnetic Telescope, Electric Earthquake, Volcano and Terror on the Midway.

This is a great opportunity to see these spectacular films as they were intended to be viewed, on the big screen!

More information on The New Parkway Theater site.

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Celebrating Superman's Leap to the Silver Screen!

9/26/2015

On this day in 1941, Fleischer Studios released what would be the first of nine Superman cartoons (another eight were made by the Studio's successor, Famous Studios). Considered by many to be some of the finest animated short films from the Golden Age of Animation, the first film in this series, "Superman" (a.k.a "The Mad Scientist") took the 33rd spot in Jerry Beck's 1994 book "The 50 Greatest Cartoons: As Selected by 1,000 Animation Professionals."

In celebration of this very special day we're sharing a few fascinating facts about these captivating and lavishly animated cartoons, and the impact they - and the Fleischers themselves - had on the American myth that is Superman.

Like Popeye before him, Superman was one of the few characters that the Fleischers did not create, but rather brought to animated life from comics. And just like Popeye before him (to whom the Fleischers gave a predilection for - and super strength from - spinach), Superman found some of most of his identifiable traits at the hands of Fleischer animators.

In the original comic books Superman could leap, but did you know that he couldn't fly? It was his ability to jump about 1/8 of a mile, that enabled him "to leap tall buildings in a single bound." But the Fleischers found all that, when animated, all that leaping was kind of... silly looking. So it was the Fleischers that granted Superman with the super power of flight. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Another one of the Fleischer's contributions to Superman: the phone booth.

In the comic books, Clark Kent had to make his quick changes in a variety of places (including dark alleys, store rooms and perhaps the occasional phone booth), but it was the Fleischers who ensured that there was always a phone booth handy and it wasn't long before the image of Clark Kent dashing into a phone booth and emerging heroically and dramatically transformed into a superhero became an iconic and lasting part of the Superman myth.

We hope you'll join us in celebrating this landmark day in the history of a Great American Superhero by watching that first "Superman" film on our YouTube Channel, where you can now find all the Fleischer's Superman films.

Superman Soars in New York Times review of DC Universe

Superman leaps onto the big screen in Oakland April 7th

Celebrating Superman's Leap to the Silver Screen!

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