Whoa. That 1940s animation is gorgeous.

So you're telling me that the 40s Superman cartoon introduced Superman's flight, allowed cartoons to be used for more than comedy, invented rotoscoping, and provided an inspiration for Godzilla? These seem like the most important cartoons ever made.

"he's just a dude from Kansas doing the right thing." a better understanding of the character than most directors have had. not just Snyder. like almost ever incarnation of him is always just centered around Lois Lane, as his one attachment to earth, Superman cares about more than just one woman, Superman loves earth because it's home to him. he enjoys everything from the things he can see because he's got all these powers and the ability to go places others can't, to the very simple things everyone's seen a hundred times. His parents, the Kents, raised him so that he'd appreciate and value those things, because they keep Clark grounded and with his mind in reality. they help make him a good person.

"Somewhere in our darkest night, we made up the story of a man who will never let us down." - Grant Morrison.

"This is a job for Superman"

"He's not an alien. He's not a god. He's just a dude from Kansas doing the right thing."

These cartoons are still incredible. Even CG couldn't make those robots coming to life in that line look more amazing. To be fair to 66Superman's cartoon, the 40s theatrical shorts had an INSANE record-breaking budget because of how much faith the studio had in the property. I'd honestly tell anyone who asks that these shorts put Disney's feature films from the same era to shame, animation-wise... Fleischer was a genius, & deserves as much credit to Superman as Seigel & Schuster, IMO.

For the forties that was some fucking smooth animation

I love how this version of Superman shows that it takes him effort to do things. Yeah, he can lift unlimited weight, but it seems to be solely through willpower. It definitely takes a toll on him.

Holy shit! That animation looked like it's alive. I never saw that kind of work. Genius.

You are wrong on one point: this being made for children. Animation in general was not really meant for children in this era, but was shown before theatrical films, something that would have been seen by more adults than kids at that point in time. Only when TV was introduced and became massively popular did animation get the reputation of being "just for kids" (even though it arguably still isn't) due to its easy accessibility for everyone, including children.

Max Fleisher is the most underrated God animator of all time! Everyone needs to watch these cartooons.

Sad that this animation looks so much better than The Killing Joke