Here's a model sheet from the Superman cartoon Terror on the Midway
Directed by Dan Gordon, Terror on the Midway boasts of some great non-typical cartoon editing and camera angles. The Superman cartoons were directed and laid out much more like live-action films than "typical" cartoons. I've always loved the sequence in which Superman and the ape are shown in tight cropped close-ups. It's such a radical scene for 1940s animation.
The model sheet is interesting as it shows the studio filmed a live gorilla for some rotoscope work. To the best of my knowledge they did not ever rotoscope Superman. The great animation is just that.
Fleischer animator and director Myron Waldman told me the Superman cartoons represented a challenge and a lot of work to the Fleischer crew. He noted how the characters, especially Superman, had to be animated to give the impression of weight and power.
More Fleischer Superman tomorrow.
© 2006 by Gordon Michael Dobbs. My words alone here.
What do you think about all this flap about Superman refusing to stand for truth, justice and the American way now? Or, rather, technically, I guess, his creators and Warner Brothers refusing etc etc?
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