Rob Morley wrote to ask…
I love the Superman cartoons that were produced by the Max Fleischer Studios (and later by Famous Studios) in the 1940s. I see a number of different DVDs and Blu-rays of them for sale and don't know which one to buy. Which one do you recommend?
Rob Morley is only one of many who have sent me this question and my answer is that I don't recommend any of them. I was going to get around to writing an explanation of why but I noticed that my pal Jerry Beck just wrote about this on Facebook. Jerry knows more about this kind of thing than I do, probably more than anyone. Here's what he had to say…
These films have never been properly restored — period. Some of the boneheaded decisions made by who ever has been in charge of remastering these for home video sale — not to defend them, but to help explain them — have been to "scotch tape" previous edits and screw ups instead of doing a proper search for master film elements.
It seems that when whoever syndicated them to television back in the 50s and 60s (apparently Motion Pictures For Television, Inc — the company that had the syndication rights for the George Reeves Superman TV show) cut the beginnings and ends (mainly to remove the Paramount logo) and replaced them with the origin (from the first cartoon) at the beginning, and the Famous ("mightier than a roaring hurricane," etc.) descriptor at the end. In doing so — they lopped off the sound track elements as well… so "whoever" at Warners simply replaced the silence with a "one size fits all" Paramount tag. George Feltenstein is dying to do the Superman cartoons — hopefully he'll get the chance soon…
George Feltenstein is a historian and producer for the Warner Archives and a gent with a stellar reputation among those who demand that classic films be properly restored and preserved. So I guess my recommendation is to wait until The Powers That Are permit George to produce a definitive set of those fine cartoons. I'm not sure if purchasing the flawed sets now makes that more likely or less likely. Whoever can commit the funds for someone like Mr. Feltenstein to work his magic might say, "Let's do it! There's obviously a lot of interest in these cartoons" or they might say, "There's no point in us doing that now. Everyone who cares about them has already bought them!"
They really are great cartoons, made back in the day when Superman was unique; when he was really the only hero in contemporary popular fiction who could fly, lift Chryslers, burst through brick walls, repel alien invaders, etc. Just in the world of DC Comics today — never mind Marvel and other outfits — there are now thousands of characters who can do all that. Once upon a time, he was special.
