Warner Home Video Finally Collects Superman Cartoons
Warner Home Video is finally releasing their own version of the Superman cartoons produced by Max & Dave Fleischer. The seventeen classics have been in the public domain and collected repeatedly over the last 20 years. Come April 7, though, the first authorized collection will be released.
In addition to the Paramount cartoons, released in 1941 and 1942, the two-disc set will include two extras: “The Man, The Myth, Superman” and “First Flight: The Fleischer Superman Series”. The set will retail for $26.99 and if you have never seen these cartoons, they are well worth it
Okay – i assume that this will include the "offensive" two, Japoteurs and Jungle Drums. The pic up there looks as if they must have been struck from high-quality elements, and possibly significantly cleaned up and possibly recoloured.I was rather amused at what i'm sure was a fairly-subtle (for Lucas and Spielberg, anyway) nod to these cartoons as we see Indy putting on his hat in shadow/silhouette as his theme plays at the beginning of Crystal Skull…
Well, this is a bit odd, as all they're doing is taking the remasters and documentaries that were on the 4-disc release of Superman: the Movie and the 2-disc release of Superman II (the former had the nine Fleischers, the latter had the eight Famous Studios cartoons that were done when the Fleischers were booted.) The remasters are certainly major improvements in terms of picture and sound, but I don't see why anyone would buy this is they have the current releases of Superman and Superman II, or the Superman Ultimate Collection. The 4-disc Superman also includes Superman vs The Mole Men….
It's true that IF one already has the aforementioned deluxe sets, this would be a superfluous purchase. On the other hand, if, like myself, you'd be more likely to purchase GIGLI and WIN A DATE WITH TAD HAMILTON! than said deluxe sets, this announcement is the answer to ones prayers.
A few things…The image used above is a redo of a shot from "Magnetic Telescope" that was done by one of the original animators and sold at the WB store or some similar venue. Second, while the prints are pretty good, they are missing the differing intros after the credit sequence. They reuse the one from the first cartoon. I caught this when watching "The Mechanical Monsters". The "empowered with x-ray vision" bit is missing from the intro. I was not a happy camper. It would be nice to think that they would fix that for this release but I'll believe it when someone else reports on it.
But what about a BluRay version?