Anthony Bergamini
This week celebrates the Man of Steel himself, Superman, commemorating April 18th, 2025 as Superman Day for all of those who would like to celebrate. This comes with exclusive comic covers, reprints, and special events going on all across the United States, as Warner Brothers looks to kick off their “Summer of Superman” as a marketing initiative for James Gunn’s new Superman film coming out on July 11th, 2025. While much of this celebration will be around the storied comic book history of the character, and rightfully so, it is important to also look at the character’s impact on multimedia, such as Radio, Television, and Film. Thus, I looked back at my own history with the Man of Steel, looking beyond the pieces everyone will be talking about and singling in on one of the most important parts of Superman’s history, the Fleischer animated series.
A little personal backstory on this: I went to school at San Francisco State University where I received a degree in Film Studies. One of the courses I took to receive this degree was a history in Animated film. Though I was twenty years old at the time and had been exposed to all sorts of Superman media, this was the first time I had ever heard of the Fleischers and their Superman cartoon. To my surprise, this cartoon was coming out at the same time as some early Walt Disney cartoons, even going up against (and unfortunately losing to) Lend a Paw, a Pluto cartoon, in the 1941 academy awards. This cartoon has reached the public domain and is widely available today, even on YouTube, and really should be watched by everyone. For a cartoon almost one-hundred years old, the animation is still top tier, and even better than some of the animation in widely released films today.
One of the more notable aspects of this cartoon was how it capitalized on the popular Superman radio series by hiring voice actors Bud Collyer and Joan Alexander to play Clark and Lois. This not only helped bridge the gap from the two mediums together, but it also created some sort of consistency for the fans at the time. In modern days, this is equivalent to how the late Kevin Conroy served as the voice of Bruce Wayne and Batman across so many different DC projects, from Television, Film, and Video Games. While Collyer and Alexander are not household names today, their significance at the time made this project all the more enticing.
One notable aspect of this cartoon is that it fundamentally changed some core aspects of Superman to make him closer to who the character we know today. A very specific instance of this is Superman’s ability to fly, which is often credited to this series of cartoons. Originally, Superman just used his immense strength to jump really far. This is why one of his main attributes is contextualized as “can leap tall buildings in a single bound.” Nowadays, Superman flying is synonymous with the character, but in 1941, seeing it in these animated cartoons changed the character forever, and also added a degree of spectacle to the animation, leaning into the strengths of the medium that would not have been possible in the live action filmmaking of the era.
Jumping into the animation of the project, this cartoon was very forward thinking and still looks beautiful today. The Fleischers used rotoscoping to make the character’s motions feel more fluid and humanlike. This juxtaposes the technical detail put into the animation of the action sequences, which could not use the same technique. In many ways, the way Superman flies and punches in this cartoon went on to be the foundation for how this would look in almost any other superhero property that was transformed into animation.
When looking back at any older media, you have to view it from the lens of the time. Unfortunately, racism and sexism are often featured in prevalence the further you go back; although, the Fleischer Superman is a rare example of a product of the time that actually was very forward thinking in its portrayal of women, namely Lois Lane. In the first cartoon, Lois ignores the directive of Perry White, the Dailey Planet editor, and pursues the story of the mad scientist that was supposed to go to Clark. Lois going off and doing her own thing, defying orders, and acting as a forward thinker are core tenants of her character, and ones that are captured perfectly in this series.
Fleischer’s Superman was groundbreaking for the time and still holds its own within the cultural zeitgeist of today as one of the most important Superman properties of all time. James Gunn has cited this as one of his inspirations for his upcoming Superman film and it is easy to see why. While the show doesn’t get into the weeds of continuity or character development, its portrayal of Superman in animation is a gold standard for what is possible with this character.
