ToughPigs’ Danny Horn and Joe Hennes fly in to talk about Superman in his cinematic debut! We also look at where this fits into the history of the Fleischer studio.
Host/Producer: J.D. Hansel
Guests: Danny Horn and Joe Hennes
Content Warning for Animated Short: flashing lights; death.
Selected Availability: Public Domain; Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Academy Awards Animation Collection; The Superman Motion Picture Anthology (among other releases of Superman: The Movie); Max Fleischer’s Superman 1941-1943.
Notes:
At some point in this episode, one of us referred to comic book writer Grant Morrison using he/him pronouns. It should be noted that, in recent years, Grant Morrison has expressed a preference (albeit a very loose one, from what I’ve read) for being referred to with they/them pronouns. Apologies for the error.
In all honesty, my homework for this episode was a little rushed and relied on video sources almost exclusively, possibly at the expense of accuracy. Most of my info about the Fleischer studio came from the documentary Out of the Inkwell: The Fleischer Story. For information more specific to Superman and his shorts, I relied on the audio commentary track on the cartoon by Paul Dini on the Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Academy Awards Animation Collection and the featurettes Max Fleischer’s Superman: Speeding Toward Tomorrow and First Flight: The Fleischer Superman Series.