Terror on the Midway

While Clark and Lois are at an amusement park, the parks main attraction Gigantic the gorilla escapes and wrecks havoc. This a job for Superman! Superman helps the police round up the escaped animals and saves Lois from the clutches of Gigantic the gorilla.

Sort of "Superman vs King Kong" except the giant ape doesn't fall in love with Lois and take her atop the tallest building in Metropolis. What can be said about this entry in the Superman cartoon series can be said about the series as a whole; superb animation and art work, fast pace and action, and beautiful vivid technicolor. These forties Superman cartoons are highly recommended to those enjoy good cartoon animation.

Lois Lane and Clark Kent are sent to cover a circus (for some reason). They separate to cover more ground. While Lois is watching a show in the Big Top a HUGE (and very fierce-looking) gorilla (or ape) is accidentally let loose.

He proceeds to wreak havoc and, in the mayhem, other animals escape from their cages. Lois saves a little girl from the huge gorilla (or ape) but then it goes after her? Can Superman save her and the circus?

Very strange Superman cartoon. For once he isn't battling mad scientists or creatures--just animals. Also it seems kind of strange that he has trouble beating a large gorilla (even though it IS huge). And he doesn't even show up until 6 minutes in (this is only 8 minutes long). Still, it's pretty good.

It is Superman versus Kong in this atypical Fleischer Brothers cartoon. It looks rather dark and murky.

A trip to the circus sees the animals run amok. Lois Lane gets into trouble as she goes to save a child.

It is a job for Superman. The first thing to do is to take on the black panther. The fight is not a marvel.

Then the big gorilla gets testy as it starts to go up a ladder which can strangely supports its weight.

Somehow Superman struggles with Donkey Kong but does manage to save Lois as a fire rages.

I love the Fleischer Superman cartoons. The animation is smooth and fluid with vivid colors. The distinct art-deco style, vintage science fiction imagery, and use of noirish shadows gave them a look unlike any other cartoons. The music and voice work is superb. They're fun, accessible, enduring animation classics.

The ninth in the series (and last for Fleischer) is a very simple story about Lois and Clark on assignment covering a circus when things go haywire and a large gorilla named Gigantic escapes and begins to attack people. Clark takes his sweet time about it but eventually changes into Superman, where he battles the gorilla, as well as other animals, to restore order to the circus.

I have mixed feelings on this one. There is a certain laziness about the story and, for a nine minute cartoon, it does seem to inexplicably have some padding. Still, the sequences with the animals are well-animated and exciting. It's entertaining, as the whole series is, but clearly something is missing. This would be the last Superman cartoon to be done by Fleischer Studios. Paramount would seize control of the studio, fire Dave and Max Fleischer, and rename it Famous Studios. Many of the same artists and animators would carry over, as would the voice talent. But the Fleischers would no longer be making Superman cartoons.

This has always been one of my all-time favorites of the original SUPERMAN series, but also one of the most puzzling to me.

It is very different in tone, feel, design and execution from all the rest of the series. Most particularly because of its "darkness." I mean this both literally and figuratively.

While all the others are, for the most part, bright and cartoonish in their color design, TERROR is dark, gloomy, murky and downright sinister -even in the opening scenes of what should be a bright, cheerful circus setting.

The opening shots of the circus posters and scenes appear to me more to be still-frames, rather than intended snapshots, as though the original footage has been replaced with these artificial still shots. I am strongly tempted to believe that these particular shots were modern substitutions for the original footage.

Later, when the gorilla makes his appearance, it is plainly evident (from the excessive graininess) that the original image has been photographically enlarged to produce the close-ups of Lois Lane and the gorilla.

The unusual (and uncharacteristic) lack of detail in the close-up of Lois, combined with the strange quality of the speed at which she moves suggests that the close-up was manipulated from a much longer shot and perhaps slowed down somewhat.

The initial close-up of the gorilla is even more extreme (and highly effective as a terror shot) and suffers more from darkness and lack of detail.

A later shot of Superman wrestling with the ape also shows signs of tampering, like the poorly framed shot of Superman and the ape which, because of the clumsy re-framing of the image, results in an awkward and lengthy close-up of Superman's backside. Surely this was NOT the original intent of the film-makers.

Can anyone provide any insight?