I've never seen the Kirk Alyn serials-- did he fly or leap in them?
If he had gotten the role of Captain Marvel, then he would have been the first Captain Kirk!
Three of Pixar's next movies (two of which are sequels), plus some other pics.
For some reason, I can't find Toy Story.
Nit: When Buzz is proving that he can "fly", he goes through the Hot Wheels loop-the-loop with his wings extended. His wings would hit the other part of the loop, knocking him off of the car.
Superman (1940s animated film series):
Between 1941 and 1943 came the release of 17 Superman short animated films.
Starring Bud Collyer as Superman/Clark Kent and Joan Alexander as Lois Lane, the animation might looked crude by the standards that today's audience have gotten used to.
However nevertheless, these animated films makes for fun adventure in a short period of time.
It presents a simple beginning, middle and an end for the audience to absorb.
It particularly drew themes of its time such as the Japanese being the enemy as these were made during World War II and the attack on Pearl Harbor coming after the release of the first two films.
Enjoyable and fun little adventures with Superman.
I really like those, too. I saw them on video many years ago, and there were times when I was impressed with the animation, which seemed fluid and with realistic movement at times.
There's a nostalgic element to it, too, representing the (original) 1940's concept of Superman, when we're so used to the live-action 1950's George Reeves version, the Saturday morning animated versions, the 1970's/'80's live action version, and today's movies, TV, and comics versions.
And the thing about this version of Superman is his mind-boggling strength. The feats of strength he displays in these cartoons makes him the strongest character of all time.
Don't think I've ever seen a full one (not really a Superman fan) but they were made by Fletcher Studios during their New York period. Fletcher also made the Popeye theatrical shorts. Although as children we may have preferred the colour ones (some of which were films, some were cheaply-done tv episode), if you watch these as an adult, you'll pretty much have to agree the early/New York/pre-code ones are by far the best, at least in terms of creativity.
Even from what I have seen of the Superman ones (mostly clips on documentaries on the Popeye DVDs and BRs), I disagree that they look crude by today's standards.
They are on Youtube, remastered and in 1080p HD, if anyone is interested.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UJphNPwDfk&list=PLhGipfv0juZWw5lM_NyhY1n32UXVSn37Q
The animation was cutting edge at the time and still works today.
I just recently found out that when Bruce Timm and co. were planning Superman the Animated Series the original plan was to do it in the same style, although they later dropped that plan, they still included homages to the Fleischer cartoons.
I've heard the Fleischers did not want to do this series so they asked for an outrageous amount of money... and their bluff was called. ;-)
The idea that Superman changes clothes in a phone booth comes from these cartoons. Although really it was done that way because showing Clark Kent changing to Superman in silhouette was an easier way to animate the sequence. (Even the shortcuts in this series became iconic.)
While not solely responsible for changing Superman from a leaper to a flier (the comic artists drawing things inconsistent with leaping also played a part) as more people saw the cartoons than read the comic books & newspaper strip it cemented the idea that Superman flew in the general conscious, although you can see the animators trying to stay true to Seigel's original idea of a super-leaper, at least in the early cartoons. (I kind of feel sorry for Jerry. His concept of Superman's powers was a sci-fi extension of super-strength, but flying was just fantasy and he was forced into making it a power.)
Superman fighting an unfrozen dinosaur predated a lot of later monster movies (Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, Godzilla, etc.)
IIRC the Fleischer Studio declared bankruptcy during the production of these cartoons and Paramount took over, but I think the animation staff more or less remained the same.
Oh, one other tidbit.
DC had agreed to a Superman serial thinking that the cartoon series did not affect the live action movie rights, but it did. So the cartoons prevented a Superman serial from being made and allowed The Adventures of Captain Marvel to be the first comic book superhero movie serial.
Maybe Seigel had to give Superman the power of flight because Captain Marvel also had that superpower? I know of the leaping-first-then-flying history of Superman, but if I remember correctly, Captain Marvel was always able to fly, because that's how he was created.
I've never seen the Kirk Alyn serials-- did he fly or leap in them?
If he had gotten the role of Captain Marvel, then he would have been the first Captain Kirk!
Maybe Seigel had to give Superman the power of flight because Captain Marvel also had that superpower?
Hadn't heard that one before.
BTW The Sub-Mariner flew before Superman. ;-)
I've never seen the Kirk Alyn serials-- did he fly or leap in them?
He turned into a cartoon and flew away. They animated the sequences they couldn't do in live action.
The Absurd, Surreal, Metaphysical and Fractured Destiny of Cerebus the Aardvark
Doesn't seem to be a create button in the Non-Disney Animation section so I'll post my thoughts here. (Although I don't imagine it will get a lot of comments, either.)
This is an animated feature based on the Canadian comic book Cerebus the Aardvark by Dave Sim.
The animation is (mostly) 3D computer animation and it's... not great. They did have one section where they used some traditional hand-drawn animation and it works much better (and faster) than the rest of the movie.
The voice work is... okay.
Story... hooboy. To describe Cerebus as weird is not unusual, but the comic is a straight-forward weird, whereas the movie mixes and matches stories and characters into one movie.
It starts off with Cerebus and someone else confronting Nekross the Mad which had me wondering if this villain was even from the comic. Maybe he was, but if so he was so dull I couldn't remember him (although I did remember Thrunk, but Thrunk had a bigger part later on in the comic.)
Soooooo... with all the various stories and characters they had to choose from the writer thought this guy should be what movie audiences see first???
Then the movie jumps to that morning where we have events of the first comic and we don't get back to the opening scene for around a half hour.
Ugh. They should have just started at the beginning and included the opening scene in chronological order.
And speaking of chronological order if you're familiar with the comics the insertion of characters, plots and events of later issues can be distracting. Cerebus, G'ar & T'ar are going to pick up supplies and I was shocked to see Princes Mick & Keef whom I don't think showed up in the comic until it was in the 100s, so yeah... if you're a comic purist it might be really annoying.
Surprisingly they decided to take the events of the first story and stretch it out with the other stories inserted before the ending which struck me as odd since the ending of the first story is fine for a done in one comic, by making it the end of the movie is questionable. One wonders why they didn't didn't use a later story for the framework like the Palnu Trilogy or something.
Oddly enough by stretching out the first story they actually gave the evil wizard a lot more sympathy than he had in the first story.
Not bad actually and fits in with subversions that Dave Sim had done with various tropes in the comic.
Elrod the Albino shows up and is fairly true to the comic which is good. The voice work could have been better, but it's acceptable.
Lord Julius shows up and has his offering Cerebus a job from the Palnu Trilogy (which makes not using the Palnu Trilogy really inexplicable.) Again the voice could have been better, but acceptable.
Red Sophia seems to show up in a bar fight, but she has no dialogue.
IMDB credits an actress for playing a Jaka lookalike reporter, but I don't remember seeing her and why the screenwriter didn't try bringing in the real Jaka into the story was odd as she did appear in the early stories he was picking and choosing from.
I also didn't see the Cockroach at any point.
The movie ends with Cerebus on the steps of the hotel that was the center of the High Society storyline and a to be continued closer implying that if a second movie is made it will be High Society skipping over a bunch of stories that could have been good fodder for movies and characters.
The movie can be found for free viewing at a couple of places. I watched it on the Tubi ap on my TV.
So if you wanted to see it, look around, you can probably find it somewhere.
Never heard of it.
When I read the name, I thought it was the same as the three headed dog of Greek mythology. However, that's Cerberus.
Yeah, it's based on this series.
Those who make those shows basically have a ready made and detailled storyboard to work from, so why don't they follow it more closely and show a little respect for the original material?