More powerful than the pounding surf!
Production cel setup with master background (Max Fleischer, 1941)
Very cool news! Hot on the heels of this week’s release of the remastered 1968 Filmation Adventures of Batman Blu-ray comes word that Warner Bros. Discovery will be putting out a remastered 1940s Fleischer Superman cartoon set in May.
Dig the details, from Blu-ray.com:
Make them exciting and visually bold, make them in brilliantly saturated Technicolor: This is a job for Superman! From their signature bullet-paced prologues to their muscular style to their stories steeped in heroics and wartime topicality, these 17 animated theatrical shorts produced by Max Fleischer (with the first nine directed by his brother Dave) set the tone for future screen versions of the Man of Steel’s exploits, inspired animators for decades to come and, best of all, continue to pack a thrilling punch for fans. Superman’s adventures in comic books were scarcely three years old when the Academy Award-nominated debut cartoon, Superman, burst onto the screen with its breakthrough look and vitality. The excitement still soars.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
— NEWLY RESTORED
— Max Fleischer’s Superman: Speeding Toward Tomorrow – intense action, noir filmmaking, a heroic soundtrack, Max Fleischer’s Superman changed the world of superhero storytelling forever – Featurette
— First Flight: The Fleischer Superman Series – Featurette
— The Man, The Myth, Superman – Featurette
— Optional English SDH, Spanish, and French subtitles
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A few thoughts:
— The price and exact date of release don’t appear to be available yet. The set’s not even on Amazon. Keep coming back to 13th Dimension for updates.
— These have been released in high-def before, but I’m really looking forward to seeing these in 1080p.
— Between this, 1967 Filmation Aquaman and 1968 Filmation Batman getting the remaster treatment, I’m hopeful that Filmation’s 1966-68 New Adventures of Superman — with the Superboy shorts — is next.
— Thanks to our pal Anthony Desiato of the awesome Digging for Kryptonite podcast for cluing us into this one.
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MORE
— FIRST LOOK: Behold the Colorful Beauty of the Remastered FILMATION BATMAN. Click here.
— The TOP 13 FLEISCHER SUPERMAN Cartoons. Click here.
March 3, 2023
Wow, I can’t wait to see images from it!
Do you secretly know if Superboy will be part of the Filmation Superman Blu-ray?
That would be fantastic.
March 3, 2023
The definitive Superman .
March 3, 2023
It’s nice that the Fleischer “Superman” shorts are getting a Blu-ray release. But my only beef with the packaging is that the front cover uses the 1983 “Superman” logo instead of the one used specifically for those shorts.
March 3, 2023
Great that they’re coming out in hi-def, but I wonder if that also means they’ve undergone further restoration since the DVD release. That restoration was really good but not perfect, and also there were some visual and audio elements that were better represented on DVDs of the same material released by other companies: some of the opening titles were appended to the wrong cartoons; snippets of dialogue were missing, music cues curtailed. If they’ve squared all that, then this really will be the definitive release of these beautiful old classics.
March 3, 2023
I have the original Blu-ray release that I got at Walmart years ago, but looked at the back and it was done by a different studio. With this being done by Warner, I am guessing the quality will be a lot better.
March 3, 2023
Not the first time on Blu-ray. https://www.amazon.com/Max-Fleischers-Superman-Collectors-Blu-ray/dp/B008IG0EHM
March 4, 2023
eti313, I used to own that set, but I remember the company that put it out annoyingly watermarked their logo on every frame of every short. Bah!!! It didn’t stay long in my collection.
March 4, 2023
A “must buy” for me. I’ve been on a bit of a “Superman kick” lately, recently completing the Library of American Comics Sundays & Dailies sets. This is will be a nice addition.
March 6, 2023
I wonder how much it will cost. These are out of copyright now, aren’t they? Which is why the DVDs were so cheap.
March 6, 2023
Is this newly restored collection of The Fleischer”Superman”movie cartoons..available on dvd?
March 8, 2023
I wonder if this restoration will be included in the upcoming Superman 4K box set.