Max Fleischer's Superman (Blu-ray)

I've been a massive fan of these cartoons since I got a crappy PD VHS of 3 of them in 1987. These cartoons sent me down the animation rabbit hole. They are far and away my favorite cartoons made by any studio. I've easily viewed some of these 100s of times over the last 35 years.There have been a lot of assumptions going on surrounding these toons. First, I have the new blu ray set. It looks absolutely outstanding. It's equally the better of the WB DVD set as that DVD set was the better of the next best comp, the Bosko DVD. There is film grain in this set. It's a very fine grain and more noticeable in some scenes than others...it's there. Reading the early reviews and seeing the screencaps posted, I was not seeing what reviewers were seeing as far as the lack of detail was concerned. All the detail is there, and more. My concerns were that the image was soft. When I finally viewed them, I didn't see any of that softness in motion. The picture is crisp and clear, not quite as sharp as what is shown in the new featurette, but not far behind.....Speaking of that featurette, I'm fairly certain that the clips contained therein are from the previous DVD version, uncompressed. The idea that these are "raw scans" came from a declarative supposition from the first person that reviewed them, and everyone else has simply assumed that was true. They look just like the DVD versions. I did an experiment and raised the sharpness on my TV just a teeny bit for the new versions and I like that better, but they were just fine before. for all we know, the unprocessed shorts don't look much different than what's on this Blu-ray which contains a new 4k scan from the negatives. I've seen some toons done by Steve Sanchfield (Thunderbean Animation) from 35mm negs that look so clean and grain free they could be confused for digital. We also don't know what was used for the DVD versions. They didn't put much work into them. They look to me like very colorful, but very worn 35mm print scans.Again there is grain here, it's just very unobtrusive. there is so much detail that I'm now noticing small animation and ink and paint errors that I've not noticed in 35 years of viewing these. And yes, I've checked older versions to confirm. The lower fidelity of previous versions made it difficult to see those errors, but they are there.This release is not without its issues, however. Sound issues. based on the myriad of versions of these cartoons I've seen over the years, I'd guess that like a lot of Fleischer cartoons, the beginning and end titles were cut when they were sold to TV in the 1950s, and it looks like these were cut from the negatives. The Bosko release did manage to pull (washed out) prints that had all of the titles and original sound for each cartoon intact, with the exception of The Mummy Strikes. For this release, I'm guessing (which is all any of us can do since mum seems to be the word on how WB processes these) that they simply opted to go with whatever was the best sources they had for each cartoon, which means that for most of them, the beginning and ending titles have sound that often inelegantly cuts out or fades out. the good news is with a couple of exceptions, the body of the cartoons are fine (The Mad Scientist and Underground World are the only exceptions I've noticed so far...Mad Scientist has been an issue for decades).Also, the featurettes... I'm not sure we really needed 2 telling us the exact same thing "They're great". I really would have liked one that went into the nuts and bolts of how these cartoons were made great... basically, how they were made.If you are on the fence, absolutely buy this. If you insist on very noticeable grain in your image, probably you'll want to pass.

This is indeed THE best edition of these shorts that you can get. The original vision of the animators is indeed retained here. No animator has EVER, then or now actually wanted dust, scratches, and film grain. Back then they used very fast degrading nitrate and in this case they went even further back to the original three seperate colors that were scanned for each short to make the final negative.When they were new and prestine and unused, they looked exactly like this Bluray, in fact since it was 35mm it was even higher resolution than this 1080p can display. The film grain came later. Film grain is a byproduct of the film material itself and making a single negative and then a safety print, then a distribution print and on and on along with time and being used. It is not now or ever was a wanted part of the production by the artists. The negative reviews claiming loss of detail is absolute lies. There is absolutely zero loss of detail. These cartoons are from the early 1940s and have very simple backgrounds and character details anyway. To say that there is any loss in detail is simply not being honest. The details are more sharp and vivid than any previous release, especially in 1080p and having went through a 4k scan of all three exposure negatives for each short. Does it look the same as it did in 1941 when it debuted in Theaters? Of course not. What they had was a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy and all the dust, scratches, grit and "grain" to go with it. This is identical to the three original successive exposure negatives that were used for each short. They are brighter and the colors will of course not be exactly the same as an old theatrical print, or even the same as the final negative (that was used in the previous Warner DVD release of these shorts). These earlier negatives that are closest to the original cell animation had less scratches and less grain anyway.The included documentary that every negative review seems to refrence, has clips not of this unrestored scan. Those clips are upscaled video of the previous DVD release that used a rougher and more inferior source. It had more damage and more scratches and grain. Just watch it and you will see how horrible it looks next to this new and truly outstanding scan and restoration. If you want the old dusty and scratched up screen door, Theater print look, get the old DVD release or the old Superman Bluray collection that includes them upscaled to 1080. Those rougher theater looking prints are also on the new 4K Superman set (recycled from the old Bluray set).If you want the closest representation of what the artists put by hand to the animation cells get this set. This is what they truly envisioned to be shown. They just had an inadequate medium to show it . . . . UNTIL NOW!!!Don't believe the bull. Once you see it and compare, you will be so glad you got it. Max Fleischer himself would be amazed.

My favorite "Superman" on film. This Superman is vulnerable & it takes great effort to stop speeding trains & resist death rays. In my opinion a far more interesting take on the character than subsequent portrayals.