TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

SeeQuant Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

Abegail Noëlle While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Allissa .Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

tavm Several months after Captain Marvel was the first comic book superhero depicted on the silver screen, Superman became the second but the first to be animated as opposed to the live action of the previous one. The voices of the leading character and female co-star Lois Lane were the same from the radio series that had already started beforehand: Bud Collyer and Joan Alexander. Collyer, especially, established how different the personalities of Clark and Supes could be by simply changing his voice when he changed to his costume. The story, about a mad scientist bent on destroying the world, is a bit cliché for today but the Max and Dave Fleischer animation is still impressive even now with the way the thing can build excitement especially when The Man of Steel tries to punch that disintegrating ray back to its source. So on that note, this first epi of the Superman cartoon series was off to a good start. P.S. You know this was an early version of Jerome Siegel & Joe Shuster's creation when Supes' origin tale says he was raised in an orphanage instead of the farm of Jonathan and Martha Kent!

Neil Welch The Mad Scientist is the first of the cartoons the Fleischer brothers animation studio made for Paramount. Released in 1941, this film has a very strong look of Shuster's art in the early strips - not surprising, as work started on the film less than two years after Superman's first appearance in Action Comics.The film kicks off with a brief reprise of Superman's origin before introducing us to Clark Kent and Lois Lane being briefed by newspaper editor Mr White - a threatening letter (complete with inkblots!) has been received from a mad scientist - if his demands are not met by midnight, he will unleash his worst! Sniffing a scoop, Lois commandeers the story for herself and flies off (in an aeroplane! she is an accomplished pilot) to accost the scientist.The scientist is sitting in his observatory/laboratory, his comedy crow on his shoulder, waiting for midnight to arrive, when Lois arrives. Her surreptitious sneaking into the lab is rather spoiled by the noise of her aeroplane landing and the scientist rapidly overpowers her and ties her up so that she can observe him unleashing his deadly ray on the city, where it destroys a road bridge.It is at this point that Clark realises that "This is a job for Superman!" in the first film presentation of a well-loved cliché which is still in use today. The scientist's ray is undermining a skyscraper, but Superman saves it from toppling it over by pushing it back upright. It starts to topple the other way, but Superman pulls it back to equilibrium by heaving on the flagpole(!).The scientist turns up the ray and it smashes Superman to the ground. He recovers himself and starts to fly up the beam, punching it out of the way with a succession of left-rights. The scientist turns up the beam even more, flooring Superman once more, but the Man of Steel again recovers himself and pursues the beam back to the barrel from which it issues, which he ties in a knot. This causes the ray gun to back up, and tremendous pressures start to blow the scientist's machinery - and the observatory - to pieces. The scientist flees, Superman unties Lois and escapes with her in the nick of time, pausing only to pick up the scientist and dump him in jail. The next edition of the Daily Planet features the scoop under Lois' byline, and Clark delivers his first ever trademark wink to camera.Some points to note: Superman's chest insignia features a red "S" on a black background with a yellow outline for the shield. Although the opening title/origin sequence shows Superman leaping a building at a single bound, he undoubtedly flies during the body of the film (except for the transit from the observatory back to the city, which is a leap). In the opening sequence, Superman stands for Truth and Justice, but not yet The American Way. Sammy Timberg's score is somewhat dated, but still highly enjoyable, and his Superman theme is the first of a number of memorable stirring themes. Bud Collyer's vocal performance delivers its trademark drop in level during the "This is a job for Superman" speech. The effects animation is absolutely gorgeous. The comedy crow is, perhaps, a misjudgement. The Fleischers had been producing Popeye and Betty Boop cartoons for some years, and perhaps old habits died hard. Apart from this one touch, this cartoon - like all the others - is pretty straight-faced all the way through. The newspaper is the Daily Planet - the Star has already gone by now.The fairly recent restoration makes this attractive cartoon something which bears up well to modern viewers.

sbibb1 This is the first of what would turn out to be 17 Superman cartoons produced by the Fleischer brothers for Paramount Studios. This cartoon was released on September 26, 1941. The plot is as follows: An evil mad scientist threatens to attack the city at midnight. Lois Lane hops in her airplane and flies to the scientists hide out. The scientist captures her, and then procedes to attack Gotham. Blowing up a bridge, and attempting to topple the Empire State Building, until Superman arrives and saves the day.The New York Times said of this cartoon " {this cartoon} is among the brothers' less successful efforts. The Fleischers show so little aptitude for -or interest in-realistic animation styles. Superman and Lois Lane are at their most wooden. So is the story's villain, a mad scientist. But the scientist's raven is wildly alive, like any real Fleischer creation, and the film sneaks in as many raven's-eye glimpses as possible. Heroic human figures have little to do with the grim, witty hallmarks of the Fleischers' imagination."I must disagree with the Times' opinion. If one was to look at Superman comic strips from this point of time, one would see that the Superman of the comic books and the Superman of the cartoons, looks essentially the same. Yes, the raven is the most "cartoon" like character in the cartoon, but the film is still enjoyable, and is a snapshot of what cartoons were like right before the start of WWII.

Big Movie Fan Sixty one years have elapsed since this first Superman cartoon was shown and it still remains as timeless as ever.I had first seen this decades back (not in 1941 because it would be a good several years until I was born) and recently I picked up a copy from a car boot sale. I watched it and enjoyed it throughly.The story is perfectly simple. A mad scientist has some kind of ray aimed at Metropolis and he also kidnaps Lois Lane. Superman of course comes to the rescue. There is no complex plot, just plenty of action.Lois and Clark are not quite equals in this adventure. Nowadays in the Superman comics I think Lois and Clark are married but Lois sort of looked down on Clark in these adventures-she doesn't even let him come out on assignment with her.Another thing I liked was the way Clark changed into Superman. He would always say, "This is a job for Superman," before heading into a storeroom and changing. Magic!For fans of Superman (particularly younger fans), I recommend they check this out if they can get a copy.