Warner Bros. Has Restored The Classic ‘Superman’ Theatrical Shorts

Warner Bros. Discovery has remastered the classic Superman theatrical shorts produced by the Fleischer Studios (and later its successor, Famous Studios) between 1941 and 1943.

While Fleischer is best known today for its Betty Boop and Popeye shorts, its work on the Superman series was equally notable. These seventeen influential shorts, which are now in the public domain, were made just three years after the character debuted in Action Comics #1. They were the first examples of superhero animation produced in the United States and set the standard for action-adventure animation for decades to follow, inspiring everyone from Bruce Timm to Hayao Miyazaki.

Here are details about the upcoming release:

• Warner Bros. did 4K, 16-bit scans from the original 35mm successive exposure negatives. The raw scans were then entered into the recombine process utilizing proprietary software to merge the successive exposure Technicolor negatives into a single RGB color image. The scans were done in the original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.37-to-1.
• Special features include a new featurette (Superman: Speeding Toward Tomorrow) and two previously-produced featurettes (First Flight: The Fleischer Superman Series – The Origins and Influence of This Groundbreaking Cartoon Series and The Man, the Myth, Superman: Exploring the Tradition of Superman Heroes on the Page and Screen).
• The set will be available on May 16 to purchase digitally for $14.99 from Amazon Prime Video, AppleTV, Google Play, Vudu, and other platforms, as well as for $33.99 on Blu-ray.

For more about Superman’s history in animation, and to learn about how the character was interpreted by other Hollywood animators – both officially and unofficially – watch this video below: