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I love the Fleischer Superman cartoons. The animation is smooth and fluid with vivid colors. The distinct art-deco style, vintage science fiction imagery, and use of noirish shadows gave them a look unlike any other cartoons. The music and voice work is superb. They're fun, accessible, enduring animation classics.

The third in the series is about a train carrying a gold shipment to the mint that's hijacked by well-armed masked robbers. Also on board the train is Lois Lane, who at one point picks up a machine gun and attempts to fight the robbers off herself! Superman flies to save Lois and deliver the gold shipment, but the robbers don't make it easy for him. Gotta admire their tenacity. They see Superman show up and they not only don't run away, they start throwing cans of tear gas at him. Talk about doubling down on stupid.

This is another exciting Superman cartoon with non-stop action and fun. I love train stories so that was an added bonus for me. Like many of the Fleischer cartoons, this features very little dialogue. It's driven by the action and the exciting music.

If you enjoyed the numerous other "Superman" short animated stories from the 1940s, then you will definitely also like "Billion Dollar Limited".

Writers Seymour Kneitel and Izzy Sparber put together an enjoyable and entertaining script here, despite the fact that "Billion Dollar Limited" is only running at 9 minutes. It is a well-rounded script and story, and I definitely found it to be enjoyable, and very much in the spirit of "Superman".

The art and animation style in "Billion Dollar Limited" is similar to that in most of the other 1940s animated short "Superman" stories, for better or worse.

My rating of the 1942 animated short story "Billion Dollar Limited" lands on a six out of ten stars.

Billion Dollar Limited (1942)

** (out of 4)

The third Superman cartoon from Paramount has robbers trying to cash in on the government sending a billion dollars in gold on a train. Lois of course finds herself on the train as Superman must come to her rescue. This is without question the weakest of the first three shorts and I'm really amazed at how poorly written some of it is. The criminals in this short are without question some of the dumbest I've seen since DUMB AND DUMBER because nothing they do here makes any sense. The thieves want the gold yet they are constantly doing things that could destroy the gold like sending the train into explosives. There's another sequence where they blow up a bridge to send the train off a cliff and again I have to wonder what type of idiots these guys are. Both Lois and Superman are pretty bland here without too much to do. Seeing Superman carry the train was pretty neat but that's about it.

Millions in gold is traveling by train to the US treasury. Traveling along is Lois Lane to report on it. Along the way the train is attacked by masked thieves. They detach the car with the armed guards in it and attack the remaining ones. This leads to a vicious fight between the remaining guards and the thieves. The thieves overpower them but then Lois Lane jumps in. She beats the thieves off the train (at one point using a gun) but the train starts to careen out of control. Lois can't stop it and the thieves will stop at nothing to get the gold. Good thing Superman is on the way!

Fast, exciting, non-stop action. Probably one of the best of all the cartoons. Just great.

While all of the Fleischer/Famous Studios "Superman" cartoons are excellent, "Billion Dollar Limited," the third in the series, is probably the best of the lot in terms of overall animation, plot, and pacing. Why it wasn't even nominated for an Oscar as Best Animated Short for 1942 (Incredibly enough, only the first one was) in inexplicable.

Here, Lois Lane is assigned to cover the transfer of one billion dollars in gold to the U.S. Mint. Masked gangsters in their super-powered (for 1942) car take off after the train, determined to get that gold. Without giving too much away, what ensues is a thrill ride for both the characters and the audience, with truth, justice, and Superman triumphant at the end.

As they did in all the Fleischer/Famous Superman cartoons, Clayton "Bud" Collyer and Joan Alexander, who played Clark Kent/Superman and Lois Lane on radio, have the voice work honors here, and Fleischer perennial Jack Mercer gets a little to do as one of the bad guys, as well.