Superman

Superman: The Animated Series shows once again that lightning can strike twice. Great animation, stories, and voice-over performances prove that Superman can survive 60 years and still find audiences in this sarcastic television era.

There was a cartoon Superman series in the early 1940's which is in a class of it's own. However, since then there have been a few Superman cartoons and then there was Superman on the Superfriends show. This was indeed Superman's best cartoon. Excluding the 1940's series, the other Superman cartoons look dated and cheezy if you were to watch them now. The same can be said for the Batman cartoons. This Superman series is brilliant, on par with Batman:The Animated Series.

How did people make this series work? Simple. They did exactly what they did with Batman:The Animated Series and did it with this cartoon. Superman is an intelligent cartoon for adults and children with great plots, humour and plenty of action. Let's not forget artistic license either-don't you just love Superman's big jaw and Clark's big jaw as well (big giveaway there to anyone wanting to find out Supe's secret identity). It has been ten years since Batman:The Animated Series made it's debut and it has not aged at all; the same can be said for Superman.

I strongly recommend this movie and also, the Batman/Superman team up movie from 1998. Absolute magic!

...and also in one of the best adaptations of Superman, either in film or television. Maybe I'm biased, as I've always liked Superman and also that this was one of my favourite shows when I was a kid, but I still love this show. The animation is very handsome and detailed, with intriguing character designs(Clark/Superman's big jaw is quite unique). Perhaps it is not as atmospheric as Batman: The Animated Series, but that is enough of that still. The music is also wonderful, the incidental music has a hauntingly rousing undercurrent and the intro is very cool. The writing is tense and intelligent with nicely judged bits of humour as well, while the story lines are always compelling with a dark atmosphere without it being overly so. The characters are wonderful, Superman is a charismatic hero, Supergirl is a great addition, Lois avoids being stereotypical and Lex Luthor and Braniac are great villains. The voice acting is superb, Tim Daly is on par with George Newbern and voices with authority and intensity of lines. Dana Delaney is spot on as Lois, while Clancy Brown's Lex Luthor is wonderfully calculating and Corey Burton brings the right amount of menace to Braniac. All in all, the best cartoon of the Man of Steel. 10/10 Bethany Cox

After the success of "Batman: The Animated Series", Superman, who'd been out of the lime light for a while except for "Lois & Clark", finally got a shot at his own series again. This show recapped Superman's origin, established his relationships and pit him against a variety of characters - including a memorable brawl between him and Lobo, voiced by Brad Garrett (who also voiced another character, but I forget his name).

Superman was voiced by Tim Daly, and he did a damn fine job of it too. It's a shame that he wasn't available for "Justice League", as he was definitely superior to his successor, George Newbern (sorry George). Dana Delany was what Margot Kidder's Lois Lane SHOULD have been but never was. Same goes for Clancy Brown as Lex Luther. M*A*S*H alum Mike Farrell provided the voice of Superman's Earth dad.

Storylines were generally good and voice acting solid (as mentioned above), but the only thing that really marred this show was the animation. While not bad, the characters, particularly the male characters, were too blocky looking. Superman himself looked as though he'd been carved out of rock. This animation isn't bad but it's not on par with the animation in "Batman: The Animated Series". Sadly, this look has been retained for "Justice League".

Batman has made guest appearances on Superman from time to time, even did a "movie" with him, which brought their relationship up to date.

So all in all, a 9 1/2 out of 10.

So far for the most part any movie featuring the man of steel have missed the mark. If one were to gather their knowledge of Superman from these movies they will deduce that Superman's main villains were Lex Luther, Zod, Nuclear Man and Richard Pryor. One also gets the sense that he is kind of a dweeb and the type of guy who when he gets a female pregnant he bolts the planet. Well this animated series was great as it featured a vast assortment of villains, great voice work by Tim Daly, and had interesting stories. I enjoyed watching this incarnation of Superman as he was actually Superman without being indestructible unbeatable man like he has been portrayed at times. So what you are not going to see in this film is a lot of time spent back in Smallville growing up, a crusade to stop nuclear missiles, strange comedy, and yet another scheme by Lex involving real estate. No here you will see him lose a good friend to the cold Darkseid, help the Green Lantern take on the villainous Sinistro, and battle schemes by Lex involving him creating a cyborg man with kryptonite in his chest named Metallo. So suffice to say this series was a lot of fun and a lot better than nearly everything in the movies. The best thing the movies did was introducing Zod.