Superman: El último momento

The Superman theatrical shorts faced a noticeable dip in quality after the Fleischers were fired in 1942; the shorts became more overtly political and racist corresponding to America's then anti-Japanese sentiment following the attack on Pearl Harbor. And this short was the victim of that 'politicization' that many cartoons were going through at the time. They couldn't just be straight-up entertainment neutral to cultural ideologies; these shorts were propaganda showcases to fight against the Axis Powers during World War Two. And of course the animation wasn't as sharp without Dave Fleischer directing the films. And this short clearly shows these shortcomings: there's recycled shots of Superman from pre-existing shorts and Lois doesn't look nearly as refined as she does in 'The Mechanical Monsters'; production corners were cut because the Fleischers were too expensive to keep hiring for the job, but that's no excuse in the fudging of supposed cinematic art.

This short: Superman fights the Japanese; a little racist but Supes still kicks some ass like he ought to. The film hasn't aged all that well, but it's still got some nice little touches here and there.

This isn't much of an episode. For starters, Lois and Clark are reporters in Japan in the middle of the war. Every night at 11:00, Clark changes into his Superman costume and sabotages some Japanese hardware. Sometimes it's a ship; sometimes it's a significant building or structure. Lois looks out a window and watches some of this happen. The Japanese are those big toothed guys with the weird shaped heads, looking like they are smiling. Anyway, the Japanese decide to kidnap Lois (that's why she came to dissuade Superman from continuing), threatening to kill her if he didn't stop. If he knew what was good for him, he would let them. However, he was not around when the threat was made and almost finds out too late. Everything about this episode is sketchy.

"Eleventh Hour" is a very strange Superman cartoon from the Fleischer Brothers. It even begins strangely--with an odd variation from the usual 'Faster than a speeding bullet' introduction. What also is strange is that Lois and Clark are correspondents in Japan DURING the war! This is a nutty premise--especially because Clark/Superman spends his nights destroying the Japanese military machine. In fact, it makes you wonder why it took so long to end the war! But the story is so illogical that you just need to sit back and accept it for what it is--mindless WWII era propaganda. Enjoyable and well animated but also pretty silly. Not surprisingly, you don't see this one of TV any more though if you are curious, you can download it for free at archive.org.

A SUPERMAN Cartoon.

Every night at the ELEVENTH HOUR, Superman engages in another act of sabotage against the Imperial Japanese Navy in Yokohama. But now the enemy has kidnapped intrepid girl reporter Lois Lane & will execute her the very next time the Man of Steel strikes...

This was another in the series of excellent cartoons initially created by Max Fleischer for Paramount Studio. They feature great animation and taut, fast-moving plots. Meant to be shown in movie theaters, they are miles ahead of their Saturday Morning counterparts. Bud Collyer is the voice of Superman; Joan Alexander does the honors for Lois Lane.

Eleventh Hour (1942)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Number twelve in the Paramount/Superman series this time takes place in Japan during WW2. Lois and Clark are there doing something but at night Superman is out becoming a saboteur. This was a minor improvement over a few of the previous shorts but this still isn't a complete winner due to a rather bland and straight-forward story. The story is just way too simple to be overly exciting or even that entertaining because not much happens. The one thing I really enjoyed about the film was the animation and more importantly the colors. I really loved the red tints that were used to show off evil and used when bombs were being dropped. I thought the design of this was very well done and one of the most memorable things in the series so far.