Superman

[GeorgeC]

Is the Superman cartoon (not Justice League, but the original one from the '90's) any good??

Yes, I think it's the best Superman animated series aired on TV apart from the better-animated Fleischer theatrical shorts.

Storywise, Superman:TAS (1996) was weaker in Season 1 but got progressively better as team-ups with other superheroes occurred on the show (The Flash team-up was EXCELLENT) and elements of Jack Kirby's Fourth World/New Gods were introduced on the show. Superman:TAS also made Supergirl a viable character again and perhaps more popular than she had been in the first 40 years of her existence!

I think Superman:TAS was inferior (storywise) to Batman:TAS (1992) but better than Batman Beyond and Season One of Justice League.

I don't yet have the first volume of Superman:TAS, but I'm definitely making a point of picking up the entire series from Volume Two onward (as well as picking up Volume One eventually).

[Ben]

I love the Fleischer shorts.

[ShyViolet]

How about the "crossover" B:TAS/S:TAS films like "The Superman Movie"?

Can't wait for B:TAS volume 4 to come out in a month!

[GeorgeC]

The latest from TheDigitalBits.com as of 1/27/2006:

"(EARLY UPDATE - 1/27/06 - 11 AM PST)

Yes... looks like it's true. We've known for a while now that Warner Home Video was working on new DVD special editions of the Superman films to tie in with the release of Bryan Singer's Superman Returns later this year (in theaters 6/30), but now we have the first actual confirmation... from Ilya Salkind, who co-produced the first three Superman films! Salkind has acknowledged that he's working with Warner on the new DVDs, and that all of the films in the series are being restored and given deluxe new special edition treatment, a-la last year's Batman Anthology collection. By far the best news in all this, is that it seems that Warner is FINALLY allowing Richard Donner to create his original director's cut of Superman II! How damn cool is that?! As many of you know, Donner directed Superman: The Movie and most of Superman II back to back, but was eventually fired from the sequel. Director Richard Lester was hired to replace him, and it's Lester's cut of the film that we've seen all these years. What's cool is that Lester's theatrical cut of the film is being given special edition treatment as well, so you'll be able to fully explore BOTH versions of Superman II on DVD this summer. Lester MAY even do an interview for the DVD - something he's been reluctant to do over the years given the controversy. This information comes from Salkind via The Superman Homepage fan site, which expects to publish a full interview with Salkind in the coming weeks. Very cool news indeed (though keep in mind that until Warner announces this set, it's all still unofficial). Thanks to Bits reader Matt K. for the heads-up on this."

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Guess I'll wait that much longer to get the original theatrical cut of Superman II IN ADDITION to the new Director's Cut.

The only Superman live-action film worth getting now is the 1978 film.

At least the first Superman serial should be arriving around the same time as the new film later this year. My guess is that the second Superman serial (1950) will be out on video (at the latest) around the time of Superman: The Animated Series Volume Four...

[GeorgeC]

Wow. What a year to be a Superman fan!

The Digital Bits, Friday 10 March 2006 ==>


http://www.thedigitalbits.com/#mytwocents

"Finally, the BIG Warner news (or should I say... "super" news?). The studio has officially unveiled its complete Superman DVD release plans for the rest of 2006. In the 2nd Qtr, look for Look Up in the Sky!: The Amazing Story of Superman documentary (street date TBA), along with the newly (and/or recently) announced Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman - Season Three, Adventures of Superman: The Complete Third and Fourth Seasons, The Adventures of Superboy: The Complete First Season, Krypto: The Superdog, Volume One - Cosmic Canine, Superman: Brainiac Attacks (an original animated movie), Justice League of America: Season Two and Superman: The Animated Series - Volume 3, all currently expected for release on 6/20. In the 3rd Qtr, look for Smallville: The Complete Fifth Season (street date TBA). Then in the 4th Qtr, watch for the DVD release of Superman Returns, Superman: The Movie - Special Edition, Superman II: Special Edition, Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut, Superman III: Deluxe Edition, Superman IV: Deluxe Edition, The Superman Collection, The Superman Ultimate Collector's Edition, Supergirl, Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman - Season Four, Adventures of Superman: The Complete Fifth and Sixth Seasons, the Superman Serials (the 1948 and 1950 editions, starring Kirk Alyn), Krypto: The Superdog - Volume Two, Justice League Unlimited: Season One and Justice League of America: Season Three (street date for all is TBA, but likely November). Whew! That's a lot of super for one year."


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No mention of the original Fleischer shorts there, but I bet they show up somewhere. WB has the best-condition films and surviving elements for many of the Superman theatrical shorts.

If you don't already have the Reeve Superman films, WAIT. If you want nice extras, just wait for the 2-disc versions.

Personally, I'm only looking to get the first two Superman films (with BOTH versions of Superman II), the Alyn serials, and the animated stuff, but I'm sure the bigger Super-fans will get EVERYTHING...!

[ShyViolet]

Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman - Season Four

If I remember correctly this was their best season, (Lois gets cloned and eats frogs) but after that it was all downhill. Bummer.

Plus back in 1989 or 1990 wasn't there a "Superboy" live-action series or something? No one ever talks about it...it was sort of like Smallville. I know Lana Lang made at least one appearance, but I don't remember anything else. This was LONG time ago.


EDIT: Oh, hey! There it is.

The Adventures of Superboy: The Complete First Season,

[Meg]

I saw an episode of Superboy once. It made me crack up.

[GeorgeC]

There was an interesting exchange on the Golden Age Cartoons forum a day or so ago...

http://forums.goldenagecartoons.com/sho ... hp?p=51587



Looks like WB might FINALLY be releasing its prints of the classic 1940s Superman animated shorts on DVD.

These prints have previously only been seen intermittently on television (AMC, TCM, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, Disney Channel) over the year and several shorts aren't aired on TV any more because of "propaganda issues" and racial caricatures.

[Ben]

Cool!

I just picked up yet another PD set of two discs and was blown away by the quality - the shorts were untamped with regarding sound, the images were bright and certainly the result of some kind of restoration, with no artefacting that I could see (and I scrutinised them)...AND ALL WITH THEIR ORIGINAL PARAMOUNT LOGOS INTACT on the front and back ends!

The interesting thing will be to see if WB retains the logos of the other studio on their discs - they certainly dropped the mountain logo from a recent edition of A Farewell To Arms that I saw.

[GeorgeC]

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articles/ ... 0406b.html

Throwing out yet ANOTHER Superman/Fleischer set is VCI...

Here's what the Digital Bits said about it yesterday --

"May 30th. On the same date, VCI will also release Superman: The Ultimate Max Fleischer Cartoon Collection, which will include the 17 original cartoons that appeared from 1941-1943 in theatres. Some digital restoration has been done on the cartoons, but it remains to be seen if this new set will improve on any of the existing versions already available. "




I'd cry if the situation weren't becoming so ridiculous!

[Ben]

I still have to get the original Image Entertainment disc, going for cheap right now on Amazon.

[GeorgeC]

Let's see...

Superman: The Animated Series Volume 3 which brings that series to its closing episode;
Justice League Volume Two (Season Two) which is when things got REALLY good with that series after a dismal first season -- the Superman episode, "Twilight" is probably the highlight of the season;
Superman: Brainiac Attacks premiered on Cartoon Network last Saturday and is decent even if it seems the writers didn't pay attention to the previous Brainiac/Luthor encounters in Superman: TAS and JLU -- still better than The Batman TV series and The Batman Vs. Dracula by far;


and while it's technically NOT an animated video, "Look, Up in the Sky! It's Superman" has shots of the restored Fleischer shorts making their way from WB Home Video later this year as well as an overview of Superman in multiple cinematic media (including his animated incarnations).

[James]

Thanks for this post. I'd been saving the news about all the Superman discs coming out to post today and had forgotten.

[ShyViolet]

I wonder if that whole thing that happened with the Salkinds and Lester was all part of "The Superman Curse." It's interesting that they're actually agreeing to be interviewed, especially with all the controversy.

It would be REALLY cool if on the Superman Returns DVD there would be interviews with Tim Burton, Kevin Smith and maybe even Nic Cage.

Hey George, are you going to see Superman Returns?

[ShyViolet]

Hey, what about "Challenge of the Superfriends"? (J/K )