The Mechanical Monsters

This is the only Superman short in which I have seen this X-Ray Vision method used, and I must say if it can put wonder and amazement in the heart of a 20 year old black kid from New York in the year 2003, imagine what it did for people in 1942 !! This is a truly priceless and classic peice of American animation.

Wow, the first thing that hits you about every one of these vintage Superman animations is just the sheer quality of the animation, it's so astonishingly intricate in detail and gorgeous, and the character designs and the fluidity of their movements have such an eye-catching style to them that it's almost as if one of those old time Action Comics has come to life! If that was what the Fleischer Studios were going for when they were constructing this series of shorts than bravo guys, because you really nailed it. It was amazing just what the Fleischers were really capable of with a huge budget behind them and you can see every last penny on the screen, there's always a new detail that you can notice that you might not have the first time around. I love the design of the inexorably marching and transforming robots, something about the way they all stand to attention in unison and the classic Frankenstein march does make them a little strangely unnerving! They're so spot on the perfect image of what any imaginative young kid would think of if he were to think "evil robot" and I just love them! In my opinion though what's the most dated about this short is the dialogue and slight lack of logic in some of the story.. I mean for instance the Hitler knock-off can afford to build a squadron of sophisticated, semi-autonomous powerful robots that he could probably get militarised for a vast fortune but he uses them merely to commit petty larcenies? That must be where the mad part of scientist comes in.. The shorts are beautiful works of art visually but looking for depth is like diving into a kiddie pool, you're only gonna hurt yourself! I enjoy them for that thrilling and fascinating animation, when Superman is pummelling those surrounding robots into flaming scrap metal you can feel the superpowered strength of his blows! I love how there's no doom and gloom to this Superman, he's the real Man of Steel and is the purest of heroes and saves the day in an endless march of victory and I like that idea and image, it's simplistic, some might even say dated, but it's just good old fashioned heroics and is all so upbeat and "innocent", and there's value in that kind of hero and this short animation has its own kind of appeal. Old but still a great fun little watch and a real gem of an animation. X

BEING the second entry into the Fleischer Brothers Studios' line of SUPERMAN Cartoons, 'The Mechanical Monsters (Fleischer Studios/Paramount Pictures Corporation, 1941) was released for theatrical exhibition to the movie going public in November of 1941. This gave it the distinction of being on the theatre screens when the Sunday morning sneak-attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th.

CLEARLY this would mark an abrupt change of direction that the series would be taking as the Fleischer animation operation would join in with the rest of Hollywood in the War Effort. The story lines from hence forth would be as populated with Nazi Soldiers, Imperial Japanese Agents and 5th Column Saboteurs as the were with all of those Mad Scientists.

MUCH in the same manner as the other entries into the SUPERMAN Series, there is no wasting of time. The trouble with the giant, metal creatures are in progress of wreaking their brand of havoc on the Good Folks of Metropolis when the Cartoon Short opens. They are in the middle of an in-progress menace. Much of the necessary exposition is put into place by means of headlines in the Daily Planet. (A clever use of the visual medium; as the inclusion of any Title Cards would be considered strictly passé and a throwback to the days of the Silent Movies.) FOR all of the magnificent scientific marvels that were embodied in the invention of the giant metal robots, the Mad Scientist is concerned only in looting bank vaults, pillaging jewelry establishments and repelling attacks from Tommy Gun wielding Uniformed Coppers. Perhaps this is due to poor pay, working conditions and lack of employment opportunities for brilliant, albeit Mad Scientists that they are forced to supplement their meager incomes through such unlawful means.

FURTHERMORE no one ever has truly explained just what makes these eggheads so 'Mad', anyhow! ALL kidding aside, the short is fast moving, well plotted and rendered in such a manner as to be an animated equivalent of a museum quality painting from one of the Dutch Masters. (No, Schultz; I didn't mean the Cigars!) 'MECHANICAL MONSTERS' comes complete with all the accoutrements that are needed in a series entry. First of all, the above mentioned renegade scientist is there for starters; along with some spectacular method of exacting the plunder on an otherwise helpless Metropolis. The regular Daily Planet gang gets involved in the natural manner; coming to the danger with hopes of getting "a Scoop!" MISS LOIS LANE, in order to have a chance to "Scoop the other Scoopers" gets a little too close and is abducted unwittingly by the baddies; having slipped and fallen into the iron giant's convenient and cavernous trunk space. (What's an Editor to do? She seems to get caught up in similar fashion time and time again! SPEAKING of recurring patterns, Superman manages to save the day, saving Miss Lane and her headline story. All's well that ends well, especially in Metropolis; as the episode closes out with a wink from Clark Kent to the audience.

WE suppose that we could brand the Superman Cartoons as being formula and even clichéd, but that may not be fair, either; for after all, the Fleischer/Famous Studios' productions were essentially blazing new trails in the field of the animated movie. Whereas here to for, virtually all of the animated cartoon out put was done using highly caricatured human characters, anthropomorphic talking animal's characters or both. The idea of writing an action-adventure story featuring realistically rendered human characters in fantastic, albeit serious short subjects hadn't been done before, unless it would be highly obscure.* THE Fleischer SUPERMAN Series changed all of that by paving the way for so many of those adventure cartoons that we have enjoyed over the years on Saturday morn. Like most of the rest of this series, we rate it very high on the scale.

NOTE * We can think of Walt Disney's FANTASIA (Walt Disney Productions/RKO Radio PUctures/1940) as being an exception; several of the segments having been done in a realistic style. Are there any others? POODLE SWCHNITZ!!

Another mad scientist has constructed a bunch of giant robots to rob banks and jewelry for him. They also can transform themselves into planes and fly to their targets (!!!). Lois Lane hitches a ride on one of the robots. The scientist discovers her and is ready to boil her alive in lava. Superman has to rescue her but he's attacked by the scientists' multiple robots...

Another great animated short. I was surprised by the violence (you see a large bunch of policeman shooting at the giant and Superman takes quite a beating from the robots) but it's still perfect for kids. Also they show Superman using his X-Ray vision--that sequence alone was just unbelievable!

Fast, fun, full of action. Just great! A 10.

Sometimes you don't realize how drab something is until you see it juxtaposed against something really bright. And so it is with this old Fleischer Superman short.

Acting as the "bright", it illustrates just how "drab" the modern world, and by extension its pop culture, has become.

The animation here is just incredible. That it was done over 80 years ago makes it even more so. Can you imagine seeing this on a big screen in 1941? They must've been scraping the audience's Jaws off of the floor.

Completely free from the ironic, relativistic and naval-gazing zeitgeist of the 21st century, this "Oh, boy!"/"Gee whiz!" little serial is a breath of fresh air.