The Mummy Strikes

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.

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.

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.

For once, Clark Kent is told of a story and tries to hide it from Lois Lane, who follows him anyway. What would a Superman cartoon be without having to rescue her?

An Egyptologist is found dead, believed to be murdered - his young assistant is arrested and convicted of his murder. Another archaeologist believes that his colleague was killed by the mummy's curse - the Curse of King Tush (pronounced like the ZZ Top song, but this isn't what they were looking for).

As Clark is shown around the museum (and Lois sneaking around in the shadows), Clark presses something on the mummy's coffin, ejecting a poisoned needle and opening the sarcophagus. A medallion on the mummy starts to glow and opens the sarcophagi of the giant guards.

They start destroying the museum, which, for reasons unknown has a large fire for lighting. Can Superman save the day or does the supernatural win out?

This is another in the Fleischer/Famous series of Superman cartoons. For once, Clark Kent scoops Lois Lane on a story when he receives a call from someone about the murder of an archaeologist that would clear his female assistant of the crime. It's at Egypt (or a similar country) that we learn about the history of King Tush (though it's pronounced differently than from its spelling, I still laughed a bit whenever that name was mentioned) and the curse that revolved around him. Of course, this being a Superman cartoon, Lois manages to sneak around and gets in danger so guess who comes to the rescue? Pretty exciting entry with a nice change of characterization though The Mummy Strikes is a bit too short to really entertain. And that last line based on a then-popular song was a pretty lame joke ending. Still, worth a look for any Superman completists out there.