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What A Cartoon! - Superman "The Mechanical Monsters" & "The Arctic Giant" (Patreon)

Published:
2023-02-17 07:25:39.829000
Imported:
2023-02

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We're up, up, and away with this pair of Superman classics chosen by premium patron Devin! Yes, we are going all the way back to the golden age of animation to discuss our first Fleischer Studios series on the podcast, so we go deep into the history of those creators as well as the creators of Superman. Then we take a look at two of the best action cartoons of all time (which are also in the public domain), and we reflect on how influential these Kryptonian shorts still are, so look up in the sky and listen now!

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Comments

Blake R.

doing the delighted Bart Simpson "he's such a bitch!" cackle at Bob dunking on Gal Gadot's acting skills

Seth

Growing up in the 90’s I had one of the VHS tapes of Fleisher Superman cartoons. The one I had included “The Mad Scientist”, it was the episode mentioned where Superman punches a laser beam. Also in that episode, Lois has a personal plane that she flies to the villains secret mountain lair. The mad scientist has a pet vulture as a sidekick, don’t worry the bird does not get hurt in the episode.

Harry Thornton

As a fellow Superman nerd, something else that's special about The Mechanical Monsters: According to Superman historians, it's the earliest known depiction of Superman changing in a phone booth, which rarely (if ever) happened in the comics. The whole pop culture idea that "Superman changes in a phone booth" seems to come from this short. There was a famous "prehistoric creature on the rampage in a modern city" scene that predated King Kong, where a Brontosaurus runs around London during the climax of the 1925 silent version of The Lost World. It was also animated by Willis O'Brien, and essentially set him on the path that'd lead to him bringing Merian C. Cooper's King Kong to life through stop-motion. That scene where the giant walks through the bridge and it wobbles and bends as it's torn apart... first, I saw that clip as a kid thanks to a '90s documentary on dinosaurs (as part of the "DK Eyewitness" series) using it, among other public-domain clips, and it took me years to find out it came from a Superman short. Second, I wonder if the animators were looking at the 1940 collapse of the Tacoma Bridge for reference, because they do look very similar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XggxeuFDaDU

Robert Denby

There was a good restoration effort done a couple years ago called 'The Mild Mannered Edition' that joins the video from the Warner restoration to better audio, and corrects some missing audio. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLydQRjWSfL5cXxt6hgOvUyxLvWn5R3fNx

Jonathon

As a kid, I ended up being far more into Batman, but Superman was definitely the first superhero I knew about and loved thanks to a cruddy VHS of several of the Superman shorts. The Mechanical Monsters, in particular, always stood out to me as absolutely stunning. I can only imagine how annoyed my parents were with me getting up first thing in the morning on weekends to watch that tape over and over again. It's probably the reason I became so enamored with animation, which, thankfully, continues to this day.

Anonymous

I was glad that tv fun houses wonderman got a shout out

Andrew O.

Growing up, Cartoon Network and Disney were premium channels. The only old cartoons I saw regularly were Popeye, Looney Tunes, and Tom & Jerry. This stood out so much by comparison. Imagine how animation would've changed if it was seen as more than children's entertainment back then. Also, Henry pokes fun at the dinosaur. Maybe in the future, the media will accurately portray dinosaurs with feathers, and WE will seem foolish!

Adam Esat

There definitely were a lot of cartoons where women would be tied up… you’re definitely right about it unlocking things at a young age that’s for sure.

Ben

“Pearl Harbor really screws over ‘Mr. Bug Goes to Town’.” You’re a beautiful man, Henry. I love this line.

Joe Hodgson

Like probably a lot of 80s kids, I had a public domain VHS of this old cartoon. I don't know what happened to it, but I recall a sequence where Superman is underwater hauling up an anchor. I've never bothered to try and find that cartoon as an adult, though I should since I do enjoy it. The MeTV show Toon in With Me recently added the Fleischer shorts to their catalog of toons, but they haven't shown many of them so I'm curious if they only have access to a few of them. As a kid, it would bother me when I watched that tape that Superman seemingly could not fly. He was always jumping, granted quite high, but that isn't as good as flying! It's funny you brought up Goku, who is obviously influenced by Superman, but he too mostly just jumped around for the majority of Dragon Ball save for the one time he flew with his tail or upon the Flying Nimbus. And he kind of just learns to fly offscreen like it's not a big deal as I don't think he flies until the final battle of Dragon Ball with Piccolo Jr. And then when Z starts, I don't think he flies again until after his training with King Kai. I haven't watched it in forever, but I don't think he even attempts to fly to escape Hell ( or HFIL, if you prefer) after falling off of Snake Way. I guess that's just another example of how "Holy shit! Tien can fly!" just turned into "Yeah, that guy can fly, no big deal."

Dylan (batmanboy11) Freitag

As with other commenters, I watched a bunch of these on VHS as a kid, and knew they had inspired the direction the crew took on Batman the Animated Series, but I had never revisited them. The most recent WB DVD collection of them from ~2010 had been sitting in my amazon cart for a year or more, so once you guys announced you were covering the show, I finally purchased it, and goddamn if these aren't fun as hell and still one of the better adaptations of Superman to another medium (though admittedly, his cartoons ALWAYS blow the live-action out of the water).

Devin Hoffarth

BTW I may as well mention. That video I talked about making at the end of the podcast? It's done and uploaded! You can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRD51ugb7aM

Mike Mariano

Commenting over a week late but learning that the radio cast played Clark and Lois made so much sense. There’s so much shorthand that they bring across their characters in just a few lines to make way for the action. They’re great!

Anonymous

Late as well, loved watching thesee on Toonami bac in the day. I remember struggling with the the idea "It's old....but so good? How did we go from this to Superfriends?" Also nice to hear a shout out to the Superman Radio serial from Henry. Back in the late 90s (early 00s?) I had a cassette set from the Smithsonian that collected the Superman/Batman teamup serial. I absolutely loved it and was fascinated that it included the KELLOGGS PEP! ads in-between.