2009 Movie News Archives

Fleischer Superman Cartoons

May 19, 2009: An Historical Look at the Fleischer Superman Cartoons

The Green Briar Pictures Shows blog has an interesting look back at how the Fleischer Superman cartoons were promoted and received during the early 1940s when they were first released to cinemas.

    So what was this foreign concept called Superman? He'd been around just two years. Youngsters liked him, but adults (and exhibitors) knew less of comic fads than I would now of video games catching fire. One showman called Superman just too extreme to get by. Extremity might have been defined in terms of inflated rentals for the new cartoons. They'd cost more to make and that translated to increased costs for booking. Bad vibes toward the series might have had origins here. Exhibitor response was hostile in any case. They figured Paramount had rocks in its head for sending them dramatic cartoons, the term itself an oxymoron as far as adults were concerned. Superman cartoons are very silly. 'Tis a little like Popeye, but Popeye is funny, while Superman is supposed to be serious. Even the kids make fun of it and the animation is terrible. That was Ray Peacock of Onalaska, Washington talking, his a self-described venue for loggers and mill worker patronage, but did this broadside represent audience sentiment in general?

Read the complete, eye-opening article at the Green Briar Pictures Shows blog.

Thanks to Paul E. Nunn for the link to this article.



2009 Movie News

Listed below are all the Movie News items archived for 2009 organized into various categories:

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“Superman Returns” Movie News: “Justice League of America” Movie News: Christopher Reeve Movie News: Direct-to-DVD Animated Movie News: Other Movie News:

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