DVD : The Complete Superman Cartoons - Diamond Anniversary Edition

In association with Amazon.com

Rating:

- "The King of B-Westerns & Serials...VCI Entertainment ~ Superman (1941)"
VCI Entertainment and Paramount Pictures present "Superman - The Ultimate Max Fleischer Cartoon Collection" (1941) (Dolby digitally remastered) --- In the endless reaches of the universe, there once existed a planet known as Krypton, a planet that burned like a green star in the distant heavens --- their civilization was far advanced and it brought forth a race of "supermen," whose mental and physical powers were developed to the absolute peak of human perfection --- but there came a day when giant quakes threatened to destroy Krypton forever --- one of the planet's leading scientists, sensing the approach of doom, placed his infant son in a small rocket ship and sent it hurtling in the direction of the Earth just as Krypton exploded --- the rocket sped through star-studded space, landing safely on Earth with its precious burden: Krypton's sole survivor --- a passing motorist found the uninjured child and took it to an orphanage --- as the years went by and the child grew to maturity, he found himself possessed of amazing physical powers --- Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound... the infant of Krypton is now the Man of Steel, SUPERMAN --- to best be in a position to use his amazing powers in a never-ending battle for truth and justice, Superman has assumed the disguise of Clark Kent, mild-mannered reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper.

Special footnote Bud Collyer stepped up and put his best foot forward in his most famous radio role in 1940, the title character in "The Adventures of Superman", he used different voices for Superman and Clark Kent, while making famous those well known quotes 'This is a job for Superman!' and 'Up, up, and away!', Collyer continued as Superman until 1949, also take note that one year before the series ended, portrayed that same character in the animated shorts by Max Fleisher, Collyer was never seen by the audience in the role of the Man of Steel.....second footnote Joan Alexander portrayed Lois Lane for most of the run of Mutual Radio's (and on ABC Radio from 1949 to 1951) "The Adventures of Superman" (1940-1951).

EXTRAS:
TRAILERS/BONUS VIDEOS:
1. VCI Animation Promo
2. Snafuperman - 1944 Parody
3. Superman Serial Trailer:

SPECIAL FEATURES:
BIOS:
1. Bud Collyer (aka: Clayton Johnson Heermance Jr).
Birth Date: 6/18/1908 - New York, New York
Died: 9/08/1969 - Greenwich, Connecticut
2. Joan Alexander - (still living)
3. Max Fleischer (aka: Essie Goldstein)
Birth Date: 7/19/1883 - Krakau, Galicia, Austria-Hungary (now Krakow, Poland)
Died: 9/11/1972 - Los Angeles, California
4. Superman (aka: Clark Kent)
Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster the creators of the comic book character Superman, made his debut on June 1st, 1938 in Action Comics No. 1 and heralded in the 'Golden Age of Comics'. The original issue only cost 10 cents then --- Max Fleischer film series is where Superman "learned" to fly, prior to this he was only able to "leap tall buildings in a single bound". It was deemed that leaping would not look right on film --- and even when superman flies it looks as if he needs to make a jumping start rather than just taking off.

BEHIND THE CAPE:
A synopsis and fun facts of each cartoon

PHONE INTERVIEW:
With voice of Lois Lane is Joan Alexander

CHRISTOPHER REEVE FOUNDATION
Spinal Cord Injury Research - for more info (800) 225 0292 or
www.christopherreeve.org.

Features: DVD booklet - The Super Guide to the Max Fleischer Superman Cartoons;
Behind the Cape: a synopsis of each cartoon with fun facts;
Bonus cartoon - Snafuperman (1944 - Warner Bros. wartime parody of the Fleischer cartoons);
Bios of the voice actors, Max Fleischer and Superman;
Bonus Superman trailer for the Superman serials (1948) starring Kirk Alyn and Noel Neill
Recorded phone interview with the voice of Lois Lane, Joan Alexander

Great job by VCI Entertainment for releasing "Superman - The Ultimate Max Fleischer Cartoon Collection" (1941), the digital transfere with a clean, clear and crisp print --- looking forward to more high quality releases from the vintage serial era of the '20s, '30s & '40s and B-Westerns --- order your copy now from Amazon or VCI Entertainment where there are plenty of copies available on DVD --- stay tuned once again for top notch action mixed with deadly adventure from the "King of Serials" VCI...just the way we like 'em

Total Time: 150 min on DVD ~ VCI Entertainment #8451 ~ (5/30/2006)

Rating:

- this is the best transfer of these cartoons i have ever seen
this set has the best prints of these oldie but goodie cartoon series from the 40's. my boys love these and watch them in our dvd player in the van on trips. well worth the price

Rating:

- Not quite Ultimate, but Close
Superman - The Ultimate Max Fleischer Cartoon Collection. Hitting the DVD battlefield to conquer your pocketbook is yet another version of the 17 cartoons produced by Fleischer/Paramount studios from 1941-43. Up to now the only version worth having was the Bosko video release called The Complete Superman Cartoons - Diamond Anniversary Edition My only complaint about that DVD was the inclusion of the date of each cartoons release super-imposed over the opening of each cartoon. Now about VCI's new release Superman - The Ultimate Max Fleischer Cartoon Collection. Using the word "Ultimate" is dangerous. It raises ones expectations to see the best possible release of these wonderful cartoons. VCI slightly misses the mark. The majority of the cartoons are indeed great to look at, but I find it strange that the music at the end of almost every cartoon is the same. That would not be annoying if it were not for the fact that each of the cartoons originally had different and uniquely individual fade out music. The most annoying part of the presentation are the two cartoons TERROR ON THE MIDWAY and THE MUMMY STRIKES. I was awed to see that the opening of TERROR ON THE MIDWAY looked far inferior visually to the version seen on Boskos release. VCIs attempt to cover the defects in the very opening of the cartoon, (Emulsion scratches etc. since no other pre-print has popped up) the VCI editors chose to freeze frame a series of shots that were originally seen in a slow pan. This is not only startling to see but destroys the artistic integrity of the short. MUMMY STRIKES suffers the same quality drop visually. The remainder look excellent. The extras are very enjoyable. The audio interview with Joan Alexander (The voice of Lois Lane on the radio and in the great 1966 Superman Animated series as well) gives some very enjoyable memories of her career. There is a Kirk Alyn Superman Serial trailer from 1948 that looks o.k. And the inclusion of the "Bonis" cartoon SNAFUPERMAN is o.k. but it looks like it was lifted from a previous Laserdisc release. All in all for a retail of $9.99 (With a pre-order from Amazon of $6.99, it is worth the price.....but not Ultimate. The Ultimate Max Fleischer Cartoon Collection is available May 30th.

Rating:

- Everyone Superman Geek's Dream
I have been a major fan of the Max Fleicher Superman Cartoons for years now! I read about this and had to review! I can't wait to get this DVD. I have seen the cartoons and I am hooked! I am wanting this DVD for the features. Of all the Superman Fleichers cartoons out there on DVD, nobody has done these cartoons justice like VCI is about to! I am in awe of how much VCI has put into this! I can't wait to get a copy of this. Heck I think I will bye some for other geek friends of mine. With the new Superman movie coming out a month after this is released...This is a DVD to get! Thank you VCI...THANK YOU!!

Rating:

- BEWARE - Most Reviews are for another release
Amazon seems to be quite regularly passing reviews from one release of something onto other releases. They used to tell you this, but now they don't. There are 2 sets of this - one Winstar (older version, with re-dubbed sound effects and really bad Pan & Scan) and THIS ONE, which is the Bosko Diamond edition.

I haven't seen either, and now I certainly won't be using Amazon's reviews to get a feel for what the release is like, as I can't trust them to keep one edition separate from another.

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