The Best Superman Show Exists Because Nobody Wanted to Make it - Fact Fiend

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---
Original Article - www.factfiend.c...
Video credits -
The Story of Batman the Animated Series - • The Story of Batman Th...
It's All Been Done - How SUPERMAN: The Animated Series Found Its Face
• It's All Been Done - H...
Background music -
Two Finger Johnny Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
creativecommons...

[@MahkyVmedia1]

I had 3 VHS tapes of the Max Fleischer Superman cartoon when I was a kid and I watched them until they broke but I still kept them in their cases and years later I took them apart and fix 'em and got to relive my childhood.

[@ozwald9118]

My dad had the DVD set with Betty boop, Popeye, and superman was inspiring

[@scottvarley3823]

Flex

[@scoobyfckndoo]

I had one, long gone now 🥲

[@dylanwicklund5129]

You cuold have fixed them with clear tape ive done this to a few vhs tapes that broke

[@MahkyVmedia1]

@@dylanwicklund5129 i did

[@JDashington]

Those old Superman shorts were 100 percent top tier! I can not believe how well the animation holds up to this day!

[@Dark_Jaguar]

No reason hand drawn animation wouldn't "hold up", the difference is going to always be skill there, not technology like with CG.

[@MultiEvilOverlord]

Owl House on Disney does the same thing of spending their entire animation budget in a few carefully chosen scenes and the smoothness and flow of the art really brings you into those scenes.

[@garr_inc]

Those being either beaut action scenes or cute feel-good scenes. Both are grand.

[@estefanolivares4159]

Amity Luz kiss scene is the one that jumps to my mind first. I just remember watching and bam, the art felt like it changed

[@mackea1]

Or the BIG fight scene between Eda and her sister. SO SMOOTH.

[@randomcatname7792]

The most important thing here is: Even though they asked that price out of spite, they actually used that budget to go far and above what they would have done for the normal price.

[@armaslohemadu]

Surprised to hear a mention of "your name". It was thw first proper anime i watched outside of studio Ghibly movies and i was absolutely blown away by tbe visuals (it also completely knocks me down every time emotionally) and i was lucky enough to stumble across "weathering with you" in cinemas as it looked just as stunning, if not more so. Absolutely love the kind of animation where every frame could be a wallpaper edit: Also gotta mention "Arcane", love the league lore/world and arcane was absolutely amazing surprise

[@lbryant2261]

One of the director's first works is called "Voices of A Distant Star," and it's phenomenal. It's only 25 minutes long... but has a gripping story and fantastic animation... especially once you find out that Makoto Shinkai wrote, directed, and produced the entire thing on his Power Mac G4!

[@ericmartinez1956]

Garden of words is also amazing. Same studio that did your name.

[@Swift96]

Komi Can't Communicate is a slice of life anime with pretty good animation. The protagonist is almost always drawn without a mouth (because she has severe social anxiety problems, making her too nervous to speak in public), but they still manage to show SO MUCH emotion in her face.

[@thematman92]

I liked the first season but forgot by the time s2 was on Netflix. Should I go back to check it out?

[@Swift96]

@@thematman92 I don't know, I've only seen the first few episodes

[@OlieB]

I really enjoyed it, very uplifting and cute. Gives you a feel good moment for even the smallest everyday victories

[@collinbeal]

It's a cute show, but about middle of the road in terms of animation. Not bad, not spectacular, just good.

[@ytho7842]

I really liked the Batman of Shanghai shorts they used to show on Cartoon Network back in the day. I remember being a kid and i was comepletely shocked by the animation quality even before i had a concept of how much work went into it.

[@brandonhendrickson1252]

This was my first Superman and it set my standards for life 😄. My grandmother used to get me VHS's at the Goodwill (a charity/bargain bin store), so I was blessed to grow up with a quality of entertainment that most other kids missed, in the 90's. Then I basically went right into the all of the JL shows from the WB in the 2000's.

[@someguywithacoconut9895]

I always really liked the animation of the various Popeye shorts and short films from the 30s and 40s. My favorite was from the Popeye meets Sinbad the Sailor short film. The final fight, and especially after Popeye eats the spinach, is unironically one of my favorite fight scenes in animation.

[@sea-envy3137]

the hand drawn painting backgrounds of Sinbad are what I always remember.

[@filiformis]

I really liked the animation of Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade. There are, of course, beautifully animated action scenes. Anyone familiar with the movie, even coincidentally, probably knows it from the iconic men in black armor firing lovingly animated MG 42's. But even slower scenes capture it. Two character's holding hands. A guy shuffling through a bag. Men getting out of cars. All of it is money dripping off the screen. It's in the the same vein as Vampire Hunter D or Neo Tokyo: The Running Man. Never the first to be mentioned like Akira, Ghost in the Shell, or Cowboy Bebop, but still up there as one of the greats.

[@nouboyo5093]

The same level of care is given to action sequences and laid back humdrum of everyday life. Stuff like that can't really be done without budgets larger than Dwayne Johnson's ego, but when it does happen it's fucking awesome.

[@DefendYoungstown]

Can't mention Fleischer Studios quality animation without mentioning the Betty Boop short with a rotoscoped Cab Calloway dancing whilst singing "St. James Infirmary" and the intricate background shots coinciding with the lyrics.

[@spnsman1]

I will fully admit that My Dress Up Darling has very beautiful animation. It has no reason to look like that

[@cme2cau]

About the molten metal and Superman's cape. In 2019 I was in Singapore. There was a Disney exhibition at the ArtScience Museum. Apart from early drawings and cels, there was a movie showing how they prepared for the lava (Night on Bald Mountain) scene in Fantasia(1940). There was a tank of mud, with air forced through from below, with a bunch of animators making drawings of how the mud reacted when the bubbles burst.

[@starch_lad]

Animation is truly an under appreciated medium, I’m glad that more films are taking advantage of it like puss in boots the last wish.

[@cyb3r_fox114]

This is the Superman that comes to mind when I think Superman, that black logo, those soulless dot eyes, and the fact he punches a fucking laser

[@tank247comicnerd7]

I'm fast approaching my 50's and I grew up watching the Popeye and Superman reruns. I still watch them now. But I only ever saw Gulliver's travels once on T.V . It was a master piece.

[@adampoole948]

As its fairly easy to see, the design of characters from batman tas were also influenced by the Fleischer superman cartoons

[@sleepingkirby]

For me, this just proves that good animation is timeless.

[@THarSul]

this might not be an anime, but an example of insane animation in a more literal sense was the way they drew adultswim's Superjail, the innumerable fight scenes are always absurdist-tier violence and insane gore distilled into a minute or two of mind-numbing madness; it always reminded me of the old Spy vs Spy comics from MAD magazine.

[@Etherian87]

i stumbled across a DVD of all the shorts in a pound shop a long while back, best quid i ever spent.

[@cerberus144]

I love the different framerate of characters in Into the Spiderverse even if it gave me actual eyestrain and a migraine. The art is worth the pain.

[@positronium3525]

Good call on into the Spiderverse. One of the best animated movies I have seen. I think it is among the best super hero movie of all time, second to only Logan.

[@thebenjaminrupp]

😮

[@sbusisoshongwe209]

Man i still have this dvd from back in the day It had these superman shorts,had popeye and some other old goldies

[@stijnvanrobaeys7011]

Has anyone seen "Les triplettes de Belleville"... That animation was on point!

[@tonymazzola1821]

My wife and I saw this movie just last week and was really impressed at the animation. Being that it’s hand drawn as opposed to computer generated was what made this film refreshing to watch

[@LivelyR]

This video brought back so many good memories of watching those shorts at my grandparents house as a kid. Thank you for reminding me of the good 'ole days, and thank you for the great content as always, keep up the good work

[@alexbarker975]

This is still the version I think of when I think 'animated superman' because it was just so wonderfully simple and clean in it's own way, but still so detailed and fluid. It was like a comic and radio drama blended together.

[@calicojack4655]

If you're looking for more somewhat obscure amazing animation I can really recommend "Tragedy of man" from 2011, it took over 20 years to make and it really shows on screen!

[@jaojintalonis92]

Im surprised FLCL didnt get an honorable mention at least. I thought everyone knew about that anime and its production value is through the roof, at one point animating in manga and doing crazy 360 stuff long before One Punch Man or Mob Psycho. It has an interesting development story as well and a killer soundtrack from 'the Pillows'. Only 6 episodes, if you haven't watched it, theres practically no reason not to.

[@jonathancruz2631]

Fog Hill of five elements animation is majestic and gives like the old Chinese painting looks but with fluid animation.

[@LilMally243]

Invincible on Amazon was a great example of this. The art style is consistent for the show but you can tell where they spent the budget on animation. Some scenes the characters move slow and clunky like an episode of South Park, but then there's fight scenes on par with One Punch.

[@LilMally243]

I should have waited 10 seconds.

[@joshuajespersen3336]

I had a dvd of these superman shorts, for a long time it was the only superman I knew

[@thedamino87]

I had the collection of these Superman videos on VHS as a kid. Played them till the tapes wore out.

[@mmaestas87]

I can't stop laughing at the skeleton screaming in the background.

[@BowlOfApples]

One of the greatest anime fights of all time: Kakashi vs Obito from Naruto Shippuden. All theatricality and ott magic goes out the window and we just see 5 minutes of immaculately choreographed and animated hands being thrown

[@Kamidio]

One detail I'm surprised wasn't mentioned is that the Fleischer Brothers basically invented the rotoscope and rotoscoping just to make the Superman cartoon look as good as possible.

[@bakomusha]

They invented that over 20 years before they got the contract for Superman.

[@Shalakor]

I'll never forget Superman punching the death laser into submission.

[@dresdenlancer9012]

I just want to say the final 4 episodes of Avatar the Last Airbender. The budget was *all* there for the Zuko v Azula Agni Kai. The Fire Lord v Avatar Aang. Even Suki, Sokka, and Toph taking out the blimps. It's not the apex of animation, but it is definitely one of those "here we go. Put in all the budget we need" moments.

[@sollyswolly1623]

I grew up with DVD collections of old cartoons, and this was my introduction to Superman! I was 4 when I first watched it, in my 20s now and I still remember him fighting a dinosaur!

[@0nceAhero]

I met spacewolf at a weird art expo a couple weeks ago and bought one of his pieces, and I just noticed you have one on the shelf behind you.

[@kr4261]

Not anime anime and pretty well known but, in the spirit of top tier animations, the Tie Fighter short by otaking is still one the most awesome pieces of animation I've seen in recent memory.

[@Kindyno]

My favorite animation is still Metropolis. Even with everything that came out since then that style was nice.

[@takeru3159]

A good, completely brand new series that I would suggest for awesome animation is the new Gundam, Witch of Mercury. The fight scenes there are top tier.

[@Chuck-PK]

23:22 this part of the discussion reminds me of Martin Mystery, there was something that felt so "off" about their attempt at imitating anime that I just couldn't watch it. The faces especially bugged me.

[@teradul2480]

I'm trying to decide if Arcane wasn't mentioned because you guy haven't seen/forgot about or if it is just a case of "Of course everybody know this shit is amazing, we're talking about deeper cuts". I'd love to see you guys talk about the series, because it can have some real good titles, like "The hit single that exists because a series was shit", "That time Imagine Dragons became canon in a Video Game they played" or "The time a video game company held events in their game's world". The show's good and it has a lot of stories that could be told and riffed on by you guys.

[@steelmagnum]

There was one scene in the Heavy metal movie that still impresses me to this day. It's a shot near the end of the film where the protagonist of the current story is flying over this canyon and the camera pans around them as they're flying and you can see all the detail of the canyon below them as the viewpoint continually changes. Very impressive

[@nunyabiz7699]

So an Example that no one most likely will talk about. Fatal Fury the Motion Picture. There are 3 and they are based on the king of fighters video Games. The Last one is fantastic animation. This also came out in the mid 90's and a censored version was shown on Sci Fi Channel back in the late/super early hours (adults only parts) For a movie about a fighting game it was honestly one of my Fav early anime. And as some one who got into anime back in the old days before even the internet and when DBZ had not even gotten out of the Saiyan saga here in the US it was something. That and Akira(which you mentioned) were my fist intro of what they could be. May I also suggest. Blue Sub 6, or Fooly Cooly (or Fury Cury). I have tons of others but for animation. Yeah. Fatal Fury the motion picture and Blue Sub 6 are ones you most likely do not know about.

[@blackfire3744]

I (still) have an original tape for the show that has the episodes "the bulleteers" and "the mechanical monsters" and a combo tape that had a Popeye Aladin parody episode and a superman episode where he fights Egyptian guardian monsters. Edit: I also found a DVD copy that has all the episodes on it. Highly recommend seeing at least once.

[@imblue9839]

Paprika or Millennium Actress are both beautifully animated movies

[@Emery_Pallas]

For a personal favourite for just really nice looking animation, all of the animation for Pink Floyd The Wall and the film adaptation of the same name. It’s full of absolutely massive, immaculately detailed handrawn animation that blends with the music they’ve been put to near seamlessly, with a lot of contorting and morphing into other objects, with each frame of animation for at least one segment taking an entire day of work. There’s also any studio Ghibli film. They’re not doing much that is technically impressive a lot of the time but the sheer detail that goes into them works to create an awe-inspiring and beautiful experience, kind of like clockwork.

[@Emery_Pallas]

Also of note: The head of animation for The Wall (the political cartoonist Gerald Scarfe), would also be the production designer for Disney’s Hercules

[@jakeosoart2141]

A show i recommend with such cool moments of animation is Cybersix, its done by TMS the same studio who helped on Batman TAS and it just looks amazing, the budget got so high that the creator chose to take a pay cut just so the show could keep looking good cause he loved the show to much to let the animation suffer from getting a budget cut

[@Mangaka718]

i somewhat accidentally found an anime called Snow White with Red Hair, and while im not usually interested in shoujo stories, the animation is so incredible i can't shut up about it

[@kamikage9420]

When I saw Blood of Zeus the poster was in the Castlevania Anime style that the show itself is in, and I loved it. But if they made the whole thing look like Greek pottery that would have been a million times cooler and I would have been just as disappointed to have that idea in my head and then get what we got.

[@wastedinspiration]

Not going to mention Ghost in the Shell, because EVERYONE knows that, but I really loved Scissor Seven (or Killer Seven) and Jujustu Kaisen and Death Parade

[@tristanwilliams7283]

Guess I could throw out some possibly obvious picks with Macross: Do You Remember Love, Urusei Yatsura: Beautiful Dreamers, Gunbuster, Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise, and the first 2 Patlabor movies as having beautiful cel animation. Macross DYRL is arguably the best looking animated movie of the 80's, even better than Akira.

[@mackea1]

Full Metal Alchemist, Trigun, GTO, There's so many good anime lol

[@NicholasTylerBrown]

I have a DVD with five or so episodes of this in a set of older cartoons. I only watched the Superman shorts 😅

[@WAHegle91]

For examples of good anime animation outside of the obvious ones listed off in the video, I would say Ghost in the Shell, Paprika, and Spirited Away. For bad animation, every straight-to-DVD Disney sequel.

[@leecoplandsingingtips.2198]

I tell you a show I watched which had an animation style that captivated me.. Phantom 2040...that show was so different... It reminded me of aeon flux.

[@theyakkoman]

One example of good and creative animation in what some people consider a "bad" film is Looney Tunes: Back In Action. In short, there is a scene set in the Louvre when Bugs and Daffy are being chased by Elmer Fudd through different famous paintings, and when they enter that painting the animation takes on the art-style of the painter. It's a short but pretty good scene. Now, I like flashy animation as much as the next guy. But what really get's me is when animators do that "little extra" thing that brings character to life and make them seem more alive. After all, that's what animation means. I mean the little details like in Beauty & the Beast when in the beginning of the song "Belle" we see Belle move her hair behind her ear. There's no reason for her to do that. In terms of animation and work it's just extra mileage. But it's such an everyday, mundane thing that, if you've had long enough hair, you've done yourself and it just make Belle seem more alive. Stuff like that, I love it. It's not as flashy as an anime fight, true, but it's still a flex showing that "Yeah, we can give you big musical numbers and cool special effects like the Ball-dance scene, but we're still able to do the mundane stuff too."

[@chiefgunner2030]

Holy shit you just activated some memories I didn't know I had. I remember watching the as a kid. Looking back now they were made in high quality.

[@thecondiffs]

man Max Fleischer was my childhood had Popeye on VHS and Superman on DVD

[@devilord3271]

My recommendation for really good animation is Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memories, the studio focused heavily on animation and realism when making it, which is great because the animation carries the whole thing since the story is dogshit

[@SomeOne-ex7hk]

85% of my knowledge, is useless trivia Ive learned from Fact Fiend over years. Thank you so much.

[@TheOldest]

Always gotta recommend Macross: Do You Remember Love, one of the best animated movies from the 80's and hardly ever hear anyone know, let alone mention it.

[@davidmarriott6321]

A had at least 1 perhaps a few vhs of these as a kid. Don't recall much but I do vividly remember the clip of him punching the bullets.

[@יובלאדלר-ק7כ]

Was this filmed before or after the Wano finale? Because THAT's where the animation bodget want in one piece!

[@tobiasneethling8871]

i still go back and rewatch Tanjiro v Lower 5 from Demon slayer. the combo between the sun breathing flames and the pink fire from the blood demon art are gorgeous even compared to the newest stuff from later seasons. another is all the final battles from netflix Castlevania and the hand drawn black and white action shots.

[@anthonylipke7754]

I was looking for an inclusion of ghost in the shell but I think a lot of people didn't see serial experiments Lain and I think the animation there is interesting. Honorable mention to Gargoyles. Regarding that netflix show did you like the art style of Aeon Flux and that Alexander the great show that used similar animation style?

[@beaawsome2211]

I am using a buddys disney + that is on Australia and I am in America. So it was weird to see a movie called "Zootropolis" because in America its called "Zootopia"

[@Geekaylee]

The OP to Ya Boy Kongming! has some of the smoothest movement I ever seen with some of the dancing, helps that the music is great. Very much an anime version of the Peacemaker intro.

[@VicenteMarinho]

I remember paprika having some amazing animated scenes, but I’m not sure if it’s just because I love the movie.

[@millar876]

modern One Piece is wonderfully inconsistent. there are a few episodes in the still ongoing Lucy v Kaido fight where they spent so much on the last scene that the next episode is a clip show hosted by Bartolomeo crudely drawn and around 2fps

[@Dark_Jaguar]

I didn't catch that they were doing some sort of story thing with the low frame rate in that Spiderman movie at all. I didn't catch that they were doing those tricks or trying to do a story telling thing with the frame rate at all. That's clever but I feel like it's "inside baseball" only big animation fans would notice.

[@Lord_Ocram]

Unicron destroying lithone, from Transformers G1 The Movie

[@SomeOne-ex7hk]

Boondocks is so damn great. They put so much work into the most asinine stuff and I love it dearly.

[@idcgaming518]

My favourite is Dr Stone. They did an excellent job with it.

[@SuperSleepyBro]

The one piece scene where luffy finally gets to the roof in wano is really good

[@joshpinchuk7061]

Actually, what is Red Lights? Or is Carl saying Redline?

[@positronium3525]

Batman: Mask of the Phantasm has great animation, action sequences, plot, and themes

[@GwilsonDrums]

My dad had the same opinion on the 'black bars on the TV' thing, until I explained the reason to him and he got it

[@khartog01]

I love Superman saving the plane in the opening of Superman Returns.

[@jcthull]

Grew up watching the Fleischer Shorts on DVD and Superman TAS on TV. Definitely was blessed. Your timing is insane because I just re-watched the first season of Superman TAS over the weekend and absolutely loved it. I specifically liked the early episodes where they used rack focusing (like the shot of Lex with Superman behind him in the opening credits).

[@tenshi004]

I'm just gonna mention Ranking of Kings from studio Wit and nuff said.

[@shadowanderson2004]

I grew up with a lunchbox from this show. It came with a DVD set

[@redhotchikapepr8978]

One Piece in its last 30 or so episodes has been one super high budget moment after another. Another show I always shout out when it comes to really clean animation is Kabaneri of the Iron Fortess, Steampunk with Zombies.

[@WolfBoy83090]

This was one of my favorite episodes youve done in a while

[@marcusinfante3757]

Afro Samurai has some great bits in it.

[@lkjackson7049]

I don't know if anyone's mentioned it but the entirety of gurren lagann is a perfect example of where you want to spend your animation budget. For Western animation seis manos is all so incredible and criminally underrated.

[@marcelinio9988]

Well if we are talking animation there is the short "TIE Figter - short film" on KZbin by OtaKing Animation with is glorious it also has like 13 Million views so is also not a unknown thing but hey its not akira level of notaryaty. Also honrabe mention to the sandman shorts by KiKa every evening in German television they are not animation but stop motion with a small story in a different style in be but they are 1.) very nostalgic for me and 2.) Examples of theos small shorts proroduced every today and as far as I know they don't do reruns but make a new one for every single day.

[@RandomEntry13013]

Bro, I straight up forgot about tie fighter. Thank you.

[@stefanschuster6739]

Sadly Son of Zeus was very disappointing

[@GoneFishingAmalgam]

This cartoon was my introduction to Superman. Growing up we had a VHS tape with a few of them on it, and it was badass

[@jokersredace]

I had these on tape. Vhs . And they're all on KZbin. I wrote my college essay about these animations . Just. Perfect

[@meloy96]

I think you'd enjoy the story of Fate:Zero or the look of Big O feeling like batman

[@DavidSilva-mn4dz]

In Latinamerica is named Batman del Futuro, Batman of The Future

[@brycevorreyer279]

I have some vhs and I found some dvd copies of these episodes

[@peanutbutter7682]

my grandma had these on vhs and me and my brother loved them

[@thiccthanos8757]

Regarding Karl talking about the Greek pottery style art there is a video game called Apotheon that is done in that style that I highly recommend

[@le563]

There are so many shows that have fantastic animation, one that springs to me is the skateboarding scene in K or K Project

[@le563]

Also, the song used in its is funny af for an English speaker

[@shoresean1237]

It took a year and a half to arrive and was arguably worth half of the asking price, but my 'Mechanical Monsters' Fleischer Superman figures are a treasure, along with the model of the car George Reeves drove in episodes of that show.

[@favoritemustard3542]

Awesome! That's a kickass 🤖 for sure, too.

[@shoresean1237]

@@favoritemustard3542 Now I'm searching for a diecast 1937 Desoto, the car he threw on the cover and inside of Action # 1. I did manage to find the two movie serial 'Batmobiles'.

[@jeremynapier5995]

Boondocks is peak Animation, Style, Music, Story, Comedy, Commentary, Peak everything really

[@ktcd1172]

Karl, to help your younger audience to put things in perspective, a loaf of bread was around $0.05US and daily wages were in the single digits. Both here and there in the UK.