The Fleischer cartoons were not only the first Superman cartoons, they were also the first screen adaptations of Superman of any kind. Released from 1941 to 1943, and featuring the voice of Clayton "Bud" Collyer (the hero of the Superman radio series) in a number of episodes, the cartoons produced by Max and Dave Fleischer are prized editions to any Superman library... but reviewing them presents something of a problem. As one would expect, the episodes range from outstanding, to mediocre, to awful, and while most video collections will present them roughly in order, many have a collection taken from all over the place (the cartoons are now public domain, and can be recorded and sold by anyone who chooses to do so). Generally speaking, the cartoons are reviewed as a single entity, with one or two episodes pulled out for special mention, but as the possibility exists that any one video is unlikely to have all of these episodes, this reviewer has decided it might be more profitable to pull out select episodes for individual review. In this manner, the chosen episodes will have more attention given to them, and will not rely so heavily on references to the other cartoons, or the entire series as a whole.

The Bulleteers (1941) is from the first series of Superman short films, and was one of the best to come out of the Fleischer studios. Produced by Max Fleischer and directed by Dave Fleischer, with a story written by Bill Turner and Carl Meyer, as well as Orestus Calpini and Graham Place's animation and Sammy Timburg's driving musical arrangements, The Bulleteers is a minor masterpiece in early animation.

The story revolves around a group of thieves using a 'bullet car' to smash into buildings and cause major property damage. While this might seem like the ultimate in smash-and-grab techniques, these thieves have a different agenda in mind. They hold the city to ransom, and fly through city hall to show they mean business. On one looting spree Lois sneaks onto the car and gets kidnapped, of course, and Superman has to rush to her rescue (performed most daringly) and save the day. The thieves have a wonderful secret hideout built into a mountain, and as usual the props are almost worth the price of admission in themselves (everything was bigger in the forties. Modern programmes could benefit from the inclusion of a few huge pistons and an off-switch bigger than the average man).

True to the style of the period, the short is highly visual in content, featuring little dialogue while relying heavily on action and music. This short is the perfect example of animator and musical arranger working in harmony. The action and the music rise and fall as one, moving more and more quickly as the story progresses and sweeping the viewer along in the process. Resolve yourself to the central theme of the music. It is very forties, very thematic, and used in every Fleischer cartoon throughout the entire cartoon (with variations on the theme to stop it from being too boring in any one short), so you are bound to have the tune in your head for quite some time.

>From a filmatic point of view, the short is an excellent piece of cinema, and deserves a lot more attention that it is likely to get elsewhere, seeing as it is a cartoon.

The movement of the film is precisely timed, moving to faster shots and quicker cuts the closer we get to the climax. While the opening scenes are more laid back, compared to the latter scenes, they are still quickly paced themselves. Much use is made of tracking shots, often moving in an indefinite blur. This effectively keeps the pace moving quickly from the very beginning.

There is a clear love of shadow play in this short, as it has an oft-repeated device of focussing on the floor or a wall as a shadow or, say, the lights of a car are thrown onto it. This is sometimes used as a precursor to the action (the car follows the lights, the man follows the shadow), and often as a replacement for the action. You see the silhouette of Clark changing into Superman, rather than the actual transformation, and the shadow of Lois typing (rather dramatically).

Another repeated device involves a newspaper motif. In three separate instances, we see the headlines of a newspaper (sometimes with the whole, twirling paper cliché), then pull back to see the person reading it. This occurs at the beginning, towards the middle and at the end, providing an interesting thread running throughout the short.

Towards the end of the film the cuts and shots move very quickly, and there is 'never a dull moment' in the short.

Flimatically speaking, this cartoon is a great piece of early cinema, and as a cartoon, it's pretty fun to watch.

[Superman trivia to disinterest your family and annoy your friends: Most people have an actor who will always 'be Superman' for them, but if any one actor could lay claim to being the definitive Man of Steel, for shear longevity, 'Bud' Collyer would have to be it. Not only did he star in the radio series for nine years, but he also did the voices in a number of Fleischer cartoons, and voiced Superman in a Saturday morning cartoon from 1966 to 1969. All in all, Clayton 'Bud' Collyer breathed life into Superman over the course of three decades.]

Copyright c)2001 Siege Bruce