Superman on Television

Superman: The Animated Series - Episode Reviews

Season 1 - Episode 4: "Fun and Games"

Original Air Date: September 7, 1996

Reviewed by: Jeffrey Taylor

"All is but toys" - Macbeth

2Rating - 2 (out of 5): When creating a new Superman series, writers need to pander to a specific audience that can be easily broken down to three key groups. First there are the newbies who have probably heard of Superman, perhaps even seen one or more of the movies, might recognize the "S" emblem and know that he flies, or have never heard of him at all. Second there are the casual fans who think Superman is pretty cool, have seen the movies and perhaps picked up a comic book once in a while. Then there are the hardcore fans (like many who visit this site) who read all the comics, watch all the shows and know the names of most if not all of the villains.

Only a few of the secondary and tertiary characters in Superman: The Animated Series were drawn almost exactly like their counterparts in the comics. Most had to undergo a slight shift in appearance to fit the style of the show, while others were fated for a complete redesign. This was the first full episode to air on a Saturday morning after the Friday night primetime pilot. So why would the writers immediately jump in with a completely redesigned character so early in the series? It alienates a third of its core audience: the hardcore fans.

The Toyman of the comics was some indistinct fat guy with long hair and glasses who was fired from his toy-making job because children had lost interest in his toys, in favor of fad items and video games. His original intention was to protect children from their evil parents. Toyman's weapons were (you guessed it) toys - of all shapes and sizes, often giant robots, because that's the only way they could pose a threat to Superman. After Superman died and returned in the comics, Toyman reappeared with a shaved head, but the same glasses, which made him very creepy-looking. He took to kidnapping children in order to protect them from their "evil" parents. Once the children managed to escape from his hideout he caught and killed one of them, again under the pretense of protection.

The Toyman of the Animated Series, voiced by Bud Cort (Harold and Maude, Dogma) was completely altered in appearance and motivation. He only kept the name and toys. He wore a mask made to look like a smiling doll's head and a suit to match it and spoke in an eerily calm voice. All in all, he came off incredibly creepy rather than appearing to be any kind of a match against the Man of Steel. And why did he keep wearing the mask when he was alone? Toyman's father was framed by Bruno Manheim of Intergang and died in jail leaving him as an orphan, which gives him something in common with Superman. Now that he had become an adult, he sought revenge. Then he kidnaped Lois for no reason (to tell the world his story). So much for depth.

His weapons include: a flubber-like ball that bounces higher and fast every time it strikes a surface and it can dent solid steel, but apparently won't break through a window pane, Dopey Doh that sticks to a person and inflates causing Superman to struggle for all of 12 seconds, radio controlled planes with guns on them, and of course giant toy robots. That's right, Superman fights an oversized rubber ducky.

The ducky and the design of Toyman feel incredibly familiar to those who watched Batman: The Animated Series which was made by the same team of creators. It seems almost like Toyman should have been in that show instead, even though he's a Superman villain. He isn't strong, he isn't especially smart, he never stood a chance against Superman, and he was completely redesigned for the show. As a classic Superman villain, Toyman should still have been in the series, but definitely not the first full show after the pilot.

The saving grace of this episode are the secondary villains, the crime syndicate known as Intergang, whose face man is Bruno Manheim played by Bruce Weitz (TV's Highlander and Judging Amy). Bruce Weitz had a similar role a year before in Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman where he played Martin Snell, a sycophant for Bill Church's Intergang of that series. Intergang represents ORGANIZED organized crime in Metropolis and around the world (and off it). The full scope of Intergang's involvements won't be shown until later, but we can see some of the street level heists they pulled in this installment. For those of you who put any stock in the five point ratings I give these reviews, Intergang's appearance in this show brought the score up to a 2.

When the radio controlled planes were shooting at Manheim and the crowd, Clark pulls a classic "Clark" move and blows up the planes with his heat vision since he can't get away to change into Superman. There's also a reference to Joe Shuster (Co-creator of Superman) early in the episode. See if you can catch it.

Ok, who designed the ultra-lame Daily Planet computers? They look quasi-futuristic just like the rest of Metropolis, yet they run DOS. This was 1996. No one knew that Windows would still be the most popular operating system a decade down the line, but at least give the OS some quasi-futurism too instead of bumping it back to the 80's.

The problem this episode faced was not that it was bad or had a bad villain, but rather that the placement of the episode was off. I can see why the creators would want at least one show without Lex Luthor early in the first season, but this one probably turned off what would have been a lot of regular viewers right away. Perhaps they should have skipped to episode 6 - "Feeding Time" first, then come back to this one.



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