The Fleischer cartoons: the 17 shorts where Superman starts to fly
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Everything about the Fleischer cartoons: seventeen Paramount shorts, September 1941 – July 1943. Nine carry the Fleischer Studios stamp. The next eight are credited to Famous Studios, after the 1942 reorganization. Yet common usage files all seventeen under the name “Fleischer.” You will see who produced which ones, the budget, the rotoscoping, Bud Collyer, and the day the leap becomes flight.
📋 Contents
- The Fleischer cartoons, 9 then 8: who produced what
- $100,000 requested, $50,000 for the first
- Rotoscoping: a process, not 17 entire films
- Bud Collyer and Joan Alexander, from radio to animation
- The Fleischer cartoons and the shift to flight
- Famous Studios, 1942-1943: the war enters the frame
- What the 90s series picks up
- What common usage unifies, what the credits separate
- FAQ — Frequently asked questions
- Conclusion
The Fleischer cartoons, 9 then 8: who produced what
The English Wikipedia page “Superman (1940s animated film series)” and DC.com (March 8, 2023) agree: seventeen Technicolor shorts. The first nine: Max and Dave Fleischer, Fleischer Studios. The next eight: Famous Studios, which succeeded Fleischer Studios after Paramount reorganized it in 1942. FilmBuffOnline lists nos. 10 to 17 under Famous. Yet the restored 2023 set is titled Max Fleischer's Superman 1941–1943: a catalog title, which does not erase Famous.
The first short, often called The Mad Scientist, opens in the United States on September 26, 1941. About ten minutes long. Nominated for the Oscar for best animated short in 1942. In 1994, a vote of industry professionals ranks it 33rd in The 50 Greatest Cartoons. Action Comics #1 predates it by three years: on paper he leaps, in the 1941 cartoon he flies.
| # | Original title | Studio | US release |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Superman (The Mad Scientist) | Fleischer | Sep. 26, 1941 |
| 2 | The Mechanical Monsters | Fleischer | Nov. 28, 1941 |
| 3 | Billion Dollar Limited | Fleischer | Jan. 9, 1942 |
| 4 | The Arctic Giant | Fleischer | Feb. 27, 1942 |
| 5 | The Bulleteers | Fleischer | Mar. 27, 1942 |
| 6 | The Magnetic Telescope | Fleischer | Apr. 24, 1942 |
| 7 | Electric Earthquake | Fleischer | May 15, 1942 |
| 8 | Volcano | Fleischer | Jul. 10, 1942 |
| 9 | Terror on the Midway | Fleischer | Aug. 28 or 30, 1942 |
| 10 | Japoteurs | Famous | Sep. 18, 1942 |
| 11 | Showdown | Famous | Oct. 16, 1942 |
| 12 | Eleventh Hour | Famous | Nov. 20, 1942 |
| 13 | Destruction, Inc. | Famous | Dec. 25, 1942 |
| 14 | The Mummy Strikes | Famous | Feb. 19, 1943 |
| 15 | Jungle Drums | Famous | Mar. 26, 1943 |
| 16 | The Underground World | Famous | Jun. 18, 1943 |
| 17 | Secret Agent | Famous | Jul. 30, 1943 |
$100,000 requested, $50,000 for the first
Cartoon Research (“The First Fleischer Superman”) and Superman Homepage cross-check the amounts. Dave Fleischer first asks for $100,000 per short, about four times the cost of an average cartoon of the time, enough to put Paramount off. The deal: $50,000 for the first, $30,000 for each of the rest. A Popeye back then: about $16,500 (Paramount Sales News, cited by Cartoon Research).
The eight Famous shorts stay in the same Paramount series, on the same budget of $30,000 per short: $530,000 in total for all seventeen. The Warner Bros. Discovery restoration, announced on DC.com on March 8, 2023 and released on Blu-ray and digital on May 16, 2023 under the title Max Fleischer's Superman 1941–1943, brings all seventeen together. Marketing unifies. The 1942 credits, on the other hand, switch studios.
Rotoscoping: a process, not 17 entire films
Max Fleischer patented rotoscoping: tracing a live actor, frame by frame. It is not “17 rotoscoped films.” Cartoon Research and Bold Entrance: a few scenes, a minority. Most of it is drawn by hand. Flight and the lifting of heavy loads are not rotoscoped like an actor's walk. The patent is real; the myth of seventeen fully traced films is not.
The S on the suit is already there, Art Deco, red cape. The shorts set a silhouette and a backdrop whose Art Deco and skyscrapers the 90s animated series will keep. Remember the technical point: the rotoscope is a tool, not the only method. If someone tells you all the flying is a traced actor, you have Cartoon Research to answer: no.
Bud Collyer and Joan Alexander, from radio to animation
Bud Collyer (Clayton Collyer) is Clark / Superman and Joan Alexander is Lois, at least in the nine Fleischer shorts: they are the voices of the radio show The Adventures of Superman. Jackson Beck plays Perry White and does the narration (DC.com). For the eight Famous shorts, the credits differ: DC.com keeps Collyer and Alexander, while historian Will Murray (RetroFan, 2023), cited by Wikipedia, credits Lee Royce and Barbara Willock. Radio comes before the short; the short keeps the voices.
This is not Tim Daly in 1996, nor Kirk Alyn in the 1948 serial. The Superman series page sorts out the rest. Here: 1941, Collyer switches register between Clark and the cape, already on the air, now on Technicolor film. Alexander plays Lois, a reporter, not a silent foil.
The Fleischer cartoons and the shift to flight
In the 1938 comics, Superman leaps: Action Comics #1 has him clear an eighth of a mile, about 200 meters, and hurdle a twenty-story building. The phrase “Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound” comes, for its part, from the opening of the Fleischer shorts. The Fleischers find the animated leap “silly looking” and ask National, the publisher of Action Comics, for permission to make him fly. The publisher agrees. Flight then carries over into the comics (Wikipedia, 1940s series; Cartoon Research). Wikipedia also lists other earlier flights that are sometimes cited: radio, a drawing error in Superman #10, the cover of Triumph #772. So remember this: the 1941 short establishes flight for the general public, with the publisher's approval, without being the character's very first flight.
The Superman's flight article covers the Kryptonian mechanics. Here, the production fact: an animation studio asked, National said yes, the leap lost. Terror on the Midway, the ninth and last Fleischer short: DC.com and the short's own Wikipedia page give August 28, 1942; the Wikipedia page for the series gives August 30. Both dates circulate.
Famous Studios, 1942-1943: the war enters the frame
Starting with Japoteurs (September 18, 1942), Famous keeps the shorts coming. Eleventh Hour, Jungle Drums: wartime plots, 1942-1943 stereotypes. These shorts are best watched with their date in mind, without excusing or erasing them. Directors cited by FilmBuffOnline: Kneitel, Sparber, Gordon. It is Kal-El in a cape, up against saboteurs, mummies and the jungles of propaganda films. The skyscrapers are those of Metropolis, named as early as The Bulleteers (March 1942) and spelled out in full on the munitions plant in Destruction, Inc. (December 1942).
This is not a Kirk Alyn serial. It is not a Donner Superman film. It is Paramount, about eight minutes, a 1943 movie house. Secret Agent closes the series on July 30, 1943. After that, no more Fleischer / Famous Superman shorts. Radio goes on. The comics go on. Flight, however, stays.
What the 90s series picks up
Superman: The Animated Series keeps the Art Deco and the skyscrapers, not the retro look: Bruce Timm first considered a style modeled on the Fleischer shorts, then dropped it for a less dated world. Livewire is born in that series, not in a Fleischer short.
The S, the cape, horizontal flight: three visible traces. The $50,000 budget, limited rotoscoping, Collyer: three production traces, invisible on screen in 1996. If you want the full history of the character, you leave the seventeen shorts behind. If you want to know why Kal-El no longer leaps, you stay here.
What common usage unifies, what the credits separate
Common usage files all seventeen under the Fleischer name. Wikipedia notes it: “all seventeen shorts are collectively known as the Fleischer Superman cartoons.” The credits, however, say 9 + 8. The 2023 restoration makes the same catalog move. Famous is not a fan footnote: it is the stamp on nos. 10 to 17.
Kirk Alyn and My Adventures with Superman fall outside the scope of these seventeen shorts. Remember: Paramount, Technicolor, Collyer, authorized flight, a budget of $50,000 then $30,000, limited rotoscoping, Famous from September 1942 on. The rest belongs to other pages and other decades.
FAQ — Frequently asked questions
How many Fleischer Superman shorts are there?
Nine by Fleischer Studios, plus eight by Famous Studios, making seventeen between September 26, 1941 and July 30, 1943. Common usage files all seventeen under “Fleischer”; the credits, however, change in 1942.
When does Superman start flying in these shorts?
From the very first one, September 26, 1941. The Fleischers asked National to replace the leap, which looked ridiculous in animation. The publisher agreed. Other earlier flights (radio, comics) are sometimes cited: the short establishes flight for the general public.
Are the 17 films rotoscoped?
No. Rotoscoping, a Fleischer patent, is used in a few scenes. Cartoon Research: a minority. Flight is mostly drawn by hand.
Who voices Superman and Lois?
Bud Collyer (Clark / Superman) and Joan Alexander (Lois), voices already heard on the radio, at least in the nine Fleischer shorts. For the eight Famous shorts, the credits differ: DC.com keeps them, while Will Murray (RetroFan, 2023) names Lee Royce and Barbara Willock. Jackson Beck: Perry White and the narration, according to DC.com 2023.
What was the budget?
Dave Fleischer asks for $100,000. The deal: $50,000 for the first, $30,000 for each of the rest, versus about $16,500 for a Popeye. Sources: Cartoon Research, Superman Homepage and Paramount Sales News.
What is the date of Terror on the Midway?
DC.com and the short's Wikipedia page: August 28, 1942. The Wikipedia page for the series: August 30, 1942. The ninth and last Fleischer short, before Famous.
Is that the same as Superman: The Animated Series?
No. The 1996 series keeps the Art Deco look without copying the shorts. The 17 shorts are Paramount productions, 1941-1943. The series has its own page; this one covers the shorts.
Conclusion
Nine Fleischer, eight Famous. Flight requested, flight granted. Collyer on the air and on film. Common usage says Fleischer for all seventeen; the credits, from Japoteurs on, say Famous.
The physics of flight has its own page. The 90s series has its own too. Here you have the seventeen dates, the $50,000 and rotoscoping put back in its place: a tool, not the whole series.