Colibel Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.

FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

pointyfilippa The movie runs out of plot and jokes well before the end of a two-hour running time, long for a light comedy.

utgard14 I love the Fleischer Superman cartoons. The animation is smooth and fluid with vivid colors. The distinct art-deco style, vintage science fiction imagery, and use of noirish shadows gave them a look unlike any other cartoons. The music and voice work is superb. They're fun, accessible, enduring animation classics.This second cartoon in the Superman series is about an inventor who has built giant robots to commit robberies. The robots can fly like planes and opens banks like tin cans. Did I mention they are also SUPER FRICKING COOL!!! Pardon me geeking out but these robots are just awesome to watch. Anyway, back to the plot: Lois gets into trouble (naturally) and finds herself captured by the inventor. This, my friends, looks like a job for Superman if there ever was one. Supes must tangle with electrical wires, giant robots, and molten metal to save the day. Look at this cartoon! I mean, really, as you watch just take it all in and savor it. The rich details, the creativity, the vibrancy...it's just beautiful.

CageRage When it comes to plot and dialog, the Max Fleischer Superman cartoons pale in comparison to pretty much any modern superhero cartoon, even Batman: The Brave and the Bold is better written (I ought to write a review for that underrated show sometime, but not now). However, it's clear that's not the point of these cartoons. The point is to dazzle. To blow your mind with some of the most beautiful animation ever committed to celluloid. And almost all of the shorts succeed at that perfectly. Other than some very, very, very, very, very minor lapses that are easily ignored, the movements are fluid and grand on a level that would make the head of any MadHouse Studios animator explode.I chose to review them on the "Mechanical Monsters" page because it's my favorite (aside from perhaps The Artic Giant, but that's probably just my love of Godzilla). I mean, come on: it's Superman fighting a bunch of robots, how cool is that?

John T. Ryan BEING the second entry into the Fleischer Brothers Studios' line of SUPERMAN Cartoons, 'The Mechanical Monsters (Fleischer Studios/Paramount Pictures Corporation, 1941) was released for theatrical exhibition to the movie going public in November of 1941. This gave it the distinction of being on the theatre screens when the Sunday morning sneak-attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th.CLEARLY this would mark an abrupt change of direction that the series would be taking as the Fleischer animation operation would join in with the rest of Hollywood in the War Effort. The story lines from hence forth would be as populated with Nazi Soldiers, Imperial Japanese Agents and 5th Column Saboteurs as the were with all of those Mad Scientists.MUCH in the same manner as the other entries into the SUPERMAN Series, there is no wasting of time. The trouble with the giant, metal creatures are in progress of wreaking their brand of havoc on the Good Folks of Metropolis when the Cartoon Short opens. They are in the middle of an in-progress menace. Much of the necessary exposition is put into place by means of headlines in the Daily Planet. (A clever use of the visual medium; as the inclusion of any Title Cards would be considered strictly passé and a throwback to the days of the Silent Movies.) FOR all of the magnificent scientific marvels that were embodied in the invention of the giant metal robots, the Mad Scientist is concerned only in looting bank vaults, pillaging jewelry establishments and repelling attacks from Tommy Gun wielding Uniformed Coppers. Perhaps this is due to poor pay, working conditions and lack of employment opportunities for brilliant, albeit Mad Scientists that they are forced to supplement their meager incomes through such unlawful means.FURTHERMORE no one ever has truly explained just what makes these eggheads so 'Mad', anyhow! ALL kidding aside, the short is fast moving, well plotted and rendered in such a manner as to be an animated equivalent of a museum quality painting from one of the Dutch Masters. (No, Schultz; I didn't mean the Cigars!) 'MECHANICAL MONSTERS' comes complete with all the accoutrements that are needed in a series entry. First of all, the above mentioned renegade scientist is there for starters; along with some spectacular method of exacting the plunder on an otherwise helpless Metropolis. The regular Daily Planet gang gets involved in the natural manner; coming to the danger with hopes of getting "a Scoop!" MISS LOIS LANE, in order to have a chance to "Scoop the other Scoopers" gets a little too close and is abducted unwittingly by the baddies; having slipped and fallen into the iron giant's convenient and cavernous trunk space. (What's an Editor to do? She seems to get caught up in similar fashion time and time again! SPEAKING of recurring patterns, Superman manages to save the day, saving Miss Lane and her headline story. All's well that ends well, especially in Metropolis; as the episode closes out with a wink from Clark Kent to the audience.WE suppose that we could brand the Superman Cartoons as being formula and even clichéd, but that may not be fair, either; for after all, the Fleischer/Famous Studios' productions were essentially blazing new trails in the field of the animated movie. Whereas here to for, virtually all of the animated cartoon out put was done using highly caricatured human characters, anthropomorphic talking animal's characters or both. The idea of writing an action-adventure story featuring realistically rendered human characters in fantastic, albeit serious short subjects hadn't been done before, unless it would be highly obscure.* THE Fleischer SUPERMAN Series changed all of that by paving the way for so many of those adventure cartoons that we have enjoyed over the years on Saturday morn. Like most of the rest of this series, we rate it very high on the scale.NOTE * We can think of Walt Disney's FANTASIA (Walt Disney Productions/RKO Radio PUctures/1940) as being an exception; several of the segments having been done in a realistic style. Are there any others? POODLE SWCHNITZ!!

sbibb1 The second of the Superman cartoons released by the Fleischer brothers on November 28, 1941.A fleet of robots are terrorizing gotham. They strike at a jewel exhibit and make off with all the jewels. Luckily Clark Kent and Lois Lane are at the exhibit. When Kent steps away to phone in the story, Lois Lane hides in one of the robots, and gets taken back to the villians hideout. It is Superman to the rescue.This cartoon is one of 17 Superman cartoons made by the Fleischer brothers in the early 1940s. All Superman cartoons made during this time are available on VHS and DVD and all are in the Public Domain. Invest the time to look for a DVD that features all 17 cartoons for one price, and there are several available.