These 1941 Superman cartoons were directed by Dave Fleischer and produced by Paramount Pictures.
The Superman animated cartoons, commonly known as the "Fleischer Superman cartoons" were a series of seventeen animated Technicolor short films, released by Paramount Pictures between 1941 and 1943, based upon the comic book character Superman.
The first nine cartoons were produced by Fleischer Studios (the name by which the cartoons are commonly known). In 1942, Fleischer Studios was dissolved and reorganized as Famous Studios, which produced the final eight shorts. These cartoons are seen as some of the finest, and certainly the most lavishly budgeted, animated cartoons produced during The Golden Age of American animation. In 1994, the series was voted #33 of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field.
Cartoons Produced By Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
Vintage MGM produced Cartoons and animation featuring - Happy Harmonies, Tex Avery and Tom & Jerry.
From the end of the silent film era through World War II, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was the most prominent motion picture studio in Hollywood, with the greatest output of all of the studios: at its height, it released an average of one feature film a week, along with many short subjects and serials.
From the end of the silent film era through World War II, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was the most prominent motion picture studio in Hollywood, with the greatest output of all of the studios: at its height, it released an average of one feature film a week, along with many short subjects and serials.
Animation And Cartoons By Ub Iwerks
Ub Iwerks worked as a commercial artist in Kansas City in 1919 when he met Walt Disney who was in the same profession. When Disney decided to form an animation company, Ub Iwerks was the first employee he had due to his skill at fast drawing as well as being a personal friend.
When Charles Mintz raided Disney's animation studio and stole the rights to their character Oswald the Rabbit, Ub was the only associate to remain with Disney. He served as the principle animator for the first Mickey Mouse shorts and Silly Symphonies. Iwerks was so prominent in the production of these shorts that it was speculated that Ub was the dominate force behind the success of Disney Productions. The combination of Iwerks' rising ambitions, occasional differences with Walt and a tempting deal with Pat Powers to finance his own studio prompted him to break away in 1930. His studio was never a tenth of the artistic or financial success that Disney was. He simply did not have the creative talents of his partner and his characters, Flip the Frog and Willy Whopper were rather dull failures. His studio was closed in 1936 when Powers withdrew his support. He worked for Columbia starting in 1938 and worked for two years until he decided to return to Disney. The two men never commented on their renewed relationship but the reunion was mutually beneficial. Iwerks was able to abandon animation and concentrate on technical development which helped create many of the special effects that the Disney company excelled in for decades, especially concerning the live action animation combination sequences in Song of the South (1946) and Mary Poppins (1964).
Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies Cartoons
Merrie Melodies is the name of a series of animated cartoons distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures between 1931 and 1969. The series was produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions until 1944, when Schlesinger sold his studio to the Warners.
Looney Tunes is a Warner Brothers animated cartoon series which ran in many movie theatres from 1930 to 1969. It preceded the Merrie Melodies series, and is both Warner Bros. Animation's first animated theatrical series and the second longest continuous animated series in any medium. The regular Warner Bros. animation cast also became known as the "Looney Tunes."
Popeye The Sailor Cartoons
Popeye made his film debut in Popeye the Sailor, a 1933 Betty Boop cartoon (Betty only makes a brief appearance, repeating her hula dance from Betty Boop's Bamboo Isle). It was for this short that Sammy Lerner's famous "I'm Popeye the Sailor Man" song was written. I Yam What I Yam became the first entry in the regular Popeye the Sailor series.
In most appearances to date (except during the World War II era), Popeye is a middle-aged independent sailor (or "sailor man," as he puts it) with a unique way of speaking, muscular forearms with two (sometimes one) anchor tattoos, thinning red hair, and an ever-present corncob pipe (which he toots like a steamship's whistle at times). Despite some mistaken characterizations over the years, Popeye is generally depicted as having only one blue eye, his left. It has never been revealed specifically how Popeye lost his right eye, though he claims it was in "the mos' arful battle" of his life.
Popeye's strange, comedic, and often supernatural adventures take him all over the world, and place him in conflict with enemies such as the Sea Hag and Bluto. His main base of operations is the fictional town of Sweet Haven. Popeye's father is the degenerate Poopdeck Pappy, who does not share his son's moral righteousness and is represented as having abandoned Popeye in some sources. Popeye's sweetheart (and in some sources, wife) for over seventy-seven years has been Olive Oyl, alhough the two characters often bickered, especially at the beginning of Popeye's appearances. Popeye is the adoptive father of Swee'Pea, an infant foundling left on his doorstep.
Walt Disney Animation Shorts
Walt Disney began the move into features in 1934, pulling selected animators away from the short subjects division that had previously been the whole of Walt Disney Productions. The result was the first animated feature in English and Technicolor, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Snow White became an unprecedented success when it was released to theatres in February 1938, and it and many of the subsequent feature productions became film classics. These first features were presented as being made in "multiplane technicolor", since both the multiplane camera and technicolor were still something new in the area of animation. Following the successes of these features, Disney expanded his company's operations, moving into live-action features, television, and theme parks. Beside successes like Snow White, Dumbo, and Cinderella, Disney also directed the Feature Animation staff create experimental and stylized films such as Fantasia and Sleeping Beauty which sustained losses and did not recoup their costs until decades after their original releases.
Mighty Mouse And Other Terrytoons
Mighty Mouse, The Mighty Heroes, Heckle and Jeckle , Dinky Duck and Deputy Dawg are featured in this round of Terrytoons.
Mighty Mouse is an animated superhero mouse character created by the Terrytoons studio for 20th Century Fox. He was created by storyman Izzy Klein as a super-powered housefly named "Superfly," but studio head Paul Terry changed the character into a toon mouse instead. Originally created as a parody of Superman, he first appeared in 1942 in a theatrical animated short entitled The Mouse of Tomorrow. The original name of the character was Super Mouse, but it was soon changed to Mighty Mouse when Paul Terry learned that another character with the same name was being published in comic books. Super Mouse appeared briefly in the Marvel comic book interpretation of the character, and was nicknamed "Terry the First", as he was the first version of the character.
Mighty Mouse originally had a blue costume with a red cape, like Superman; but over time this changed to a yellow costume with a red cape. As with other imitations of Superman, Mighty Mouse's super powers allow him to fly, and make him incredibly strong and invulnerable. He has demonstrated the use of "X-ray vision" in at least one cartoon, while during several cartoons he used a form of super-hypnosis that even allowed him to command inanimate objects and turn back time.
Mighty Mouse is an animated superhero mouse character created by the Terrytoons studio for 20th Century Fox. He was created by storyman Izzy Klein as a super-powered housefly named "Superfly," but studio head Paul Terry changed the character into a toon mouse instead. Originally created as a parody of Superman, he first appeared in 1942 in a theatrical animated short entitled The Mouse of Tomorrow. The original name of the character was Super Mouse, but it was soon changed to Mighty Mouse when Paul Terry learned that another character with the same name was being published in comic books. Super Mouse appeared briefly in the Marvel comic book interpretation of the character, and was nicknamed "Terry the First", as he was the first version of the character.
Mighty Mouse originally had a blue costume with a red cape, like Superman; but over time this changed to a yellow costume with a red cape. As with other imitations of Superman, Mighty Mouse's super powers allow him to fly, and make him incredibly strong and invulnerable. He has demonstrated the use of "X-ray vision" in at least one cartoon, while during several cartoons he used a form of super-hypnosis that even allowed him to command inanimate objects and turn back time.
Woody Woodpecker And Friends
Woody Woodpecker is an animated cartoon character, an anthropomorphic woodpecker (modeled after the Pileated species) who appeared in theatrical short films produced by the Walter Lantz animation studio and distributed by Universal Pictures. Though not the first of the "screwball" characters that became popular in the 1940s, Woody is perhaps the most indicative of the type.
Woody was created in 1940 by storyboard artist Ben "Bugs" Hardaway, who had previously laid the groundwork for two other "screwball" characters, Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, at the Schlesinger/Warner Bros. studio in the late 1930s. Woody's character and design would evolve over the years, from an insane bird with an unusually garish design to a more refined looking and acting character in the vein of the later Chuck Jones version of Bugs Bunny. Woody was originally voiced by Mel Blanc, the voice actor who voiced Bugs Bunny and most of the other Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies characters. Blanc was succeeded as Woody's voice by Ben Hardaway and later by Grace Stafford, wife of Walter Lantz.
Betty Boop Cartoons
Here we have some of the vintage Talkartoons featuring Betty Boop and her friends, Pudgy, Bimbo, Grampy, Max and Little Jimmy.
Betty Boop is an animated cartoon character appearing in the Talkartoon and Betty Boop series of films produced by Max Fleischer and released by Paramount Pictures. With her overt sexuality, Betty was a hit with theater-goers, and despite having been toned down in the mid-1930s, she remains popular today for this portrayal of sexuality.
Betty Boop made her first appearance on August 9, 1930 in the cartoon Dizzy Dishes, the sixth installment in Fleischer's Talkartoon series. She was little like her soon-to-be-famous self, however. Grim Natwick, a veteran animator of both Walt Disney's and Ub Iwerks' studios, was largely responsible for creating the character, which he modeled on Helen Kane, a singer and contract player at Paramount Pictures, the studio that distributed Fleischer's cartoons. In keeping with common practice, Natwick made his new character an animal, in this case, a French poodle. Beginning with this cartoon, the character's voice was performed by several different voice actresses until Mae Questel got the role, in 1931, and kept it for the rest of the series.
Betty Boop is an animated cartoon character appearing in the Talkartoon and Betty Boop series of films produced by Max Fleischer and released by Paramount Pictures. With her overt sexuality, Betty was a hit with theater-goers, and despite having been toned down in the mid-1930s, she remains popular today for this portrayal of sexuality.
Betty Boop made her first appearance on August 9, 1930 in the cartoon Dizzy Dishes, the sixth installment in Fleischer's Talkartoon series. She was little like her soon-to-be-famous self, however. Grim Natwick, a veteran animator of both Walt Disney's and Ub Iwerks' studios, was largely responsible for creating the character, which he modeled on Helen Kane, a singer and contract player at Paramount Pictures, the studio that distributed Fleischer's cartoons. In keeping with common practice, Natwick made his new character an animal, in this case, a French poodle. Beginning with this cartoon, the character's voice was performed by several different voice actresses until Mae Questel got the role, in 1931, and kept it for the rest of the series.
Casper The Friendly Ghost And Friends
Here are some Harveytoons, Noveltoons and other cartoons produced by Famous Studios. Most are known to be in the public domain. Casper's friends include... Baby Huey, Wendy Witch, Little Audrey and Little Lulu.
Given that Casper is depicted as a ghostly little boy, an ongoing issue with the series regards the question of whether or not he is, in fact, a dead child. Early Casper cartoons seemed to suggest this, as they portrayed him "living" beside a gravestone. Specifically, the short There's Good Boos To-Night featured a fox befriended by Casper coming back from the dead as a ghost.
This rather macabre premise was later abandoned in favor of the idea that ghosts were merely a type of creature, similar to ghouls, goblins, etc. He was thereafter portrayed with feet and shown to have ghostly parents. In the 1960s and 1970s, the stock answer provided by Harvey Comics in response to those wondering how Casper died was that he was a ghost simply because his parents were already ghosts when they were married.[1]
Casper the Friendly Ghost is the protagonist of the Famous Studios theatrical animated cartoon series of the same name. As his name indicates, he is a ghost, but is quite personable.
The 1995 feature film Casper, however, revived the concept that Casper was a deceased human and a portion of the plot dealt with him trying to remember his life and had him rediscovering the circumstance of his own death. The first direct-to-video film to follow the feature, Casper: A Spirited Beginning, showed Casper's early days as a ghost, not showing how he died (although implying he did) and ignoring the story provided in the previous film. All films to follow A Spirited Beginning avoided the issue altogether.
Given that Casper is depicted as a ghostly little boy, an ongoing issue with the series regards the question of whether or not he is, in fact, a dead child. Early Casper cartoons seemed to suggest this, as they portrayed him "living" beside a gravestone. Specifically, the short There's Good Boos To-Night featured a fox befriended by Casper coming back from the dead as a ghost.
This rather macabre premise was later abandoned in favor of the idea that ghosts were merely a type of creature, similar to ghouls, goblins, etc. He was thereafter portrayed with feet and shown to have ghostly parents. In the 1960s and 1970s, the stock answer provided by Harvey Comics in response to those wondering how Casper died was that he was a ghost simply because his parents were already ghosts when they were married.[1]
Casper the Friendly Ghost is the protagonist of the Famous Studios theatrical animated cartoon series of the same name. As his name indicates, he is a ghost, but is quite personable.
The 1995 feature film Casper, however, revived the concept that Casper was a deceased human and a portion of the plot dealt with him trying to remember his life and had him rediscovering the circumstance of his own death. The first direct-to-video film to follow the feature, Casper: A Spirited Beginning, showed Casper's early days as a ghost, not showing how he died (although implying he did) and ignoring the story provided in the previous film. All films to follow A Spirited Beginning avoided the issue altogether.
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