DVD : Look, Up in the Sky - The Amazing Story of Superman

In association with Amazon.com

Rating:

- IT IS WONDERFUL!!!!!!
This DVD was put together by Bryan Singer, who also directed Superman Returns. Watching Singer on this DVD, you see that he "gets" the character. My optimisim for Superman Returns is increased even more! But the DVD also offers a truly loving retrospective on Superman from the '30's to the present, with great clips of movies, tv, and beautiful comic art. My only regret is that more comic pros were not interviewed, although the interviews contributed by Paul Levitz and Mark Waid were nice. If you love Superman, you must have this DVD.

Rating:

- A great documentry
I'm not really a big Superman fan. But I am excited to see Superman Returns when it comes out in theaters soon. Like some people I was able to get a look at Look, Up in the sky on A&E not that long ago. I really enjoyed the documentry and the story of how Superman became not only the biggest name in comics but an Icon as well. Superman has had a big influence in the comic book industry. Without him where will alot of comics be today. And you Marvel fanboys(not that I'm against Marvel) have to admit that Marvel wouldn't exsist if Superman didn't exist. In this documentry you get the whole of how Superman was created, getting his own comic start, got his own radio show, to being on TV as a cartoon, a TV show,and the Superman films including peviews of Superman Returns. You get the big times of Superman, and you get the bad times of Superman. It tells the story of how Superman has had an impact on America,like the Great depression, from WWII to other tragidies in America. It talks to people that have grew up as Superman fans. A truely great Superman documentry and at a great price. Oh and Michael E. Murphy there is somewhat of a Batman story but it's on the 2 disc special edition of Tim Burton's Batman. It tells the story of Batman and his times in films. But the documentry dosn't go into much detail. Maybe when the sequal to Batman Begins comes out DC will release a DVD like this. So anyway if your a big Superman fan, a comic book fan or a movie fan and like the Superman films the you definatly need to get this DVD.

Rating:

- A must for any fan
I have been a fan of the Man of Steel since the old George Reeves series of the 50s. Superman is even from my home town of Cleveland, Ohio. Something my parents had no idea about.
Anyways this is a great documentary that traces the early history of the character from the comics, to TV and to movies!! Along the way, how Superman changed with the times. This DVD is a must for any Superman fan.
I'm sure there were a lot of things that Kevin Burns and Bryan Singer did not include in their film. I thought there were a couple of major ones that should have been used.
The DVD featured a couple of clips from the Filmation series of the late 60s, pre-SuperFriends. Bud Collyer, the voice of Superman in the Fleischer cartoons and the radio program, was also the voice in this show. CBS was forced to cancel the series after three years. At this point, the show had become the Superman/Batman Hour and was cancelled due to the violence. No mention was given to the show and the impact it had on its audience.
Another Superman cartoon premiered on Saturday mornings in 1987. This show produced by the team of Ruby/Spears borrowed from the Donner film and even had a slightly sanitized version of John Williams theme as it's theme. This show was family friendly as at the end of each major story, there was a feature called Superman's Family Album. This 5 min piece featured a pre-Superman Clark Kent as he was growing up on the farm in Smallville. The show lasted only one season on CBS. After this show, then came the debacle that is Superman IV: The Quest for Peace.
Neither the Filmation or Ruby/Spears Superman cartoons are available on DVD and I hope that one day they will be soon.

This beautifully made documentary was made with love by fans of the character and I am estactic someone took the time to introduce to many of us the real story of the Man of Steel. I watched the show on A&E when it premeired a couple of weeks ago and knew that it would be in my collection soon after. If you are a fan, do yourself a favor and purchase Look Up in the Sky!!!

Rating:

- Simply Amazing
I've been a huge Superman fan since as long as I can remember. I grew up watching reruns of the George Reeves television series with my father, who was a child when the show first came on the air. My first initial exposure to the comic was in 1991 at the age of 6 with Superman: The Man of Steel #1. Since then I've been hooked.

Now, I won't go back and say what's already been said. This is an AMAZING documentary, and definitely a must own for any diehard Superman fan. While I had known about the whole "Superpup" fiasco, I had no idea about Superman the Musical. It was interesting to get a glimpse of the George Reeves days and I loved going back to the Superman movies. While I wasn't a fan of the third or fourth film, it was interesting to note that the third film did draw over $100 million at the box office. Who knew.

So why only 4 out of 5 stars. Well, once they hit on Smallville, it's pretty much Smallville, Superman and 9/11 and then Superman Returns and that's it. After the whole Death of Superman story arc and his return with the four imposters, they pretty much drop the comic altogether. They fail to mention the terrible idea which was "Electrical Superman" where he lost his powers and gained the new power of electricity. At the time, I remember numerous stories appearing throughout the newspapers and media about how he was going to be redesigned and what would this redesign entail. Granted it was not one of Superman's shining moments, it still would've been worth touching on. I also wished they had gone on to interview Jeph Loeb, since as of late he has been quite influential on the Superman mythos. He helped put Lex Luthor in office as the President of the United States in the comics, he jumpstarted the Superman/Batman comic line, and he helped with keeping the Smallville universe in line with the Superman mythos by working as a Creative Consultant for the show and introducing such things as Red Kryptonite. It also fails to cover the tragedy that plagued the Superman franchise in full detail. While it does briefly mention that Tim Burton was set to direct with Nicolas Cage playing the Man of Steel, it doesn't mention either of the scripts, one written by Kevin Smith and the other by J.J. Abrams. But those gripes aside, this is definitely worth the price, which is fairly cheap for almost 2 hours of knowledge and nostaglia. Hopefully one will come out about the Batman fanchise soon.

Rating:

- In a word: SUPER!
While it's true this excellent documentary would probably not have been made if there was no SUPERMAN RETURNS, it doesn't matter. Seventy years of Superman history PRIOR to the new movie certainly warrants this much attention.

Virtually no stone is left unturned in this feature-length exploration of Superman's history. From his first comic book appearance through all the t.v. and movie incarnations, this is the definitive visual guide to the Man of Steel. Even die-hard fans are likely to learn a few new things about their favorite hero. For example, did you know there was an attempt at a live-action kids' series in the late 50's called "Superpup"? The never-aired clip from the pilot episode has to be seen to be believed. There was also a never-seen live-action Superboy pilot, as well as a painfully bad musical version in the 70's. You'll marvel with disbelief as the Last Son of Krypton SINGS to bad guys as he's smacking them around, complete with 60's-era Batman-style "Pow!"'s, etc.

Of course, there's plenty of coverage of the successful screen variations, including the still-unsurpassed George Reeves series, some (but not quite all) the animated series, and Smallville. Director Kevin Burns enlists everyone he could find from those shows, as well as celebrity fans like Mark Hamill and Gene Simmons.

I think even a casual Superman fan will enjoy this lengthy, but thoroughly engaging documentary. I expect it is a show I will return to view many times in years to come.

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