El Ataque de las Momias

A SUPERMAN Cartoon.

`He who disturbs the eternal peace of King Tush shall perish!' This ancient Egyptian curse comes true when THE MUMMY STRIKES, trapping Lois Lane & Clark Kent in a museum with Tush's reanimated giant guards...

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.

An archaeologist is dead and it is thought that it is because of the curse of King Tush (really!). Superman is enlisted because he is apparently able to fight creatures that are otherworldly. What happens are a series of events that show that there is more than meets the eye. Also, there is a clear and present danger to others who are interested in Egyptology. There is something that doesn't quite fly here and I can't put my finger on it. Lois, of course, is in danger. That's not it. I have a feeling that the studio was having a little trouble finding adversaries for Superman and this is what they came up with. Still, the animation is good and it is presented in bright colors that would have lit up the screen.

Mummy Strikes, The (1942)

** (out of 4)

A woman is convicted of murdering a scientist in Egypt but Clark is called over to go over some clues, which might point the finger at a mummy. Lois tags along and gets herself kidnapped, which means Superman must do some fighting. There aren't actually any mummies in this thing but that's not what makes it so boring. What kills this film is that it runs under eight-minutes and the action doesn't start until close to the six and a half minute mark. We get a lot of dialogue telling us what the doctor was doing in Egypt yet we get very little action and Superman doesn't even appear until the very end and it's only for a matter of seconds. The animation looks very good but the budget was apparently too tight for a good script.

A Superman cartoon from the 1940s--and one of the worst if not THE worst! Dr. Jordan (who studies Egyptian mummies) is found murdered and his assistant Jane Hogan is unjustly accused of it. Clark Kent gets a call from a colleague of Dr. Jordan who is convinced Jordan was killed for violating a mummy's grave by opening it. He goes to the museum to check this out (with Lois secretly following him) and finds out the truth. But (through circumstances too ridiculous to tell) he revives THREE mummies who all attack the professor, Lois and Clark. A good thing Clark is Superman.

Really dumb cartoon. The animation is great with some spooky mummies but the story is preposterous, there's a LONG story about the ancient Egyptian king that drags and his name is King Tush--that had me speechless! The fights are dull and it ends on a "joke" that had me groaning aloud. Real bad. A 3.

The main complaint about these older Superman cartoons is that they are too short to generate enough interest with regard to the otherwise interesting plots and attractive titles, especially since the history and build-up is too long with regard to the actual Superman elements that come later on.

This one is odd in that it really begs "King Tut" but we get "King Tush" instead. By the way, the "u" is short, not long, or it would be even more amusing.

Not much in the line of original action sequences. Animation is very good as usual, but it should have been about a minute or two longer and without the mummy/mother joke which they just couldn't resist, could they? (Sigh.)

4/10.