This latest release of “newly restored” classic Superman cartoons begs the question – “What is going on over at Warner-Discovery?”
The Production: 3.5/5
In the early days of animated movies, the Fleischer Studios were the closest competitor to Waly Disney. Some of their most popular characters were Betty Boop, Koko the Clown, Popeye, and, of course, Superman (whom they had licensed from Action Comics, precursor to DC). The first Superman cartoon debuted in 1941, marking the Man of Steel’s first appearance on film, and a total of 17 shorts would be produced, with the later productions becoming more propaganda pieces to build morale during World War II, and many of the films in this collection carry disclaimers regarding their now politically incorrect and offensive content. The animation style in these shorts is breathtaking, often imitated but never duplicated, influencing many animated comic book adaptations over the decades.
Video: 2/5
3D Rating: NA
Based on Warner’s press release, there were high hopes for this restored Blu-ray release:
“Warner Bros. Discovery’s advanced remastering process began with a 4K, 16-bit scan of Fleischer’s original 35mm successive exposure negative. Staying true to the original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.37-to-1, the highest quality raw image was then scanned and then entered into the recombine process – utilizing special proprietary software to merge the successive exposure Technicolor negatives into a single RGB color image. The end result are pristine animated shorts that have been restored to the animators’ originally intended production quality.”
While it is fair to say that these shorts have never looked better, something definitely went wrong somewhere between the remastering process and encoding these shorts for Blu-ray. Yes, these are free of dirt and scratches, and colors appear to have been corrected and brought back to life. However, nearly all film grain has been scrubbed from these new transfers, also scrubbing away most fine detail from the intricately animated cels. Although encoded with the AVC codec, the average bitrate for these shorts is around 12 Mbps, relatively low when you factor in that the disc has been pressed on a BD50, has a runtime of 146 minutes (not including the special features), and only uses 26 Gb of its available 46 Gb (after formatting). It is the low bitrates that likely contributes to the occasional banding and other compression artifacts.
Audio: 4/5
The good news is that the lossless DTS-HD MA 2.0 mono track is about as good as an 80-year old analog recording is going to sound. It is virtually free of pops, with minimal hiss and surface noise.
Special Features: 2.5/5
Max Fleischer’s Superman: Speeding Toward Tomorrow (1080p; 13:20): New for this release, Matt Peters, Rick Morales, Jim Krieg and Jeremy Adams discuss the importance of these cartoons and the influence they have had on animation.
First Flight: The Fleischer Superman Series (upscaled 1080p; 12:55): A look at the animation design thru interviews with modern-day animators. It is rather obvious this was upscaled from a 480/30i source to 1080/24p, as it is littered with stuttering frames and interlace issues.
The Man, the Myth, Superman (upscaled 1080p; 13:37): An overview of the character of Superman. It is rather obvious this was upscaled from a 480/30i source to 1080/24p, as it is littered with stuttering frames and interlace issues.
Overall: 2.5/5
I cannot recommend this release due to the low bitrates and lack of native film grain in these “restored” animated shorts. This unfortunately does not live up to Warner’s usual high standards.
Now retrieving an image set.
Max Fleischer’s Superman (Blu-ray)
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YES all the HTF reviewers are appreciated TY Todd - question is will WBHV fix it or is that that
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I am not a grain, cel debris or negative damage affectionado, so the pristine look was like seeing these films for the first time.
I ported over my reactions to last nights viewing from the WHV Press Release MF's Superman thread where I originally posted. For Those who have this on order, you may be pleasantly surprised if your viewing equipment can make it shine like mine did!
My Sunday 5/14 post is copied below....
_____________________________________
My copy was waiting when I got home late tonight. After dinner I had time to view the first 11 titles and all 3 bonus features. I viewed the disc on a 4K projector & video processor combination.
My impression is based on just watching the films for their artistry and emotional power...not the techical process of getting these ancient and poorly preserved relics onto HD media.
From my perspective...they look gorgeous! A true joy to watch. The color and shadow work is true artistry and for the first time after a lifetime of seeing badly decayed variations, I felt the power and the landmark place of honor these shorts hold...not just the development of Superman, but SciFi in general. Clearly...even the design of Godzilla is inspired by one of these shorts! There are several more standard SciFi tripes that are equally obvious.
As for technical flaws, the most jarring are certain spliced on ending titles which include random music cues in conflict with the music concluding the final scenes.
I watched the new bonus featurette to pay particular attention to the extra clarity various reviews have described. All I can say is for whatever additional clarity (it's minimal) the price is a filthy looking image! During WWll, animation studios were forced to wash and reuse cels to save on the use of plastics. If ever there were examples of well worn cels creating a dirty looking image, this is it. True, all the filth, grain and negative damage is very clear, but if your reason for owning these films is to enjoy storytelling, artistry and a style likely to never be seen again...it's well worth the buy!
Now about the flimsy eco case...you will need to move everything over to something more befitting of such artistic wonders!
ScottRE
Thank you for including this bit of info. I was hoping Warner was able to find the complete prints, but as long as the stories are intact, this isn't a make or break for me. Since the majority of those outros are substituted in the Famous Studios shorts, I wonder if they had period specific graphics, such as war propaganda which was edited for TV syndication and discarded? Anyone have any insight?
Thanks for your counterpoint. I am on the fence about this release.
Edit:
Weirdly, "Jungle Drums" on the 2008 Superman Anthology has the edited outro. However, our old friend YouTube has it complete. How does that one sit in the new set?
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. By the way, I posted this video in the Fleischer Superman Blu ray review thread, it’s 2 years old. It claims to be a 4K restoration and clean up made from the DVD copies. Looking at the video on my iPad Pro, it looks pretty good. I’ll compare it to the Blu ray when it arrives.
ScottRE
So the more I look at the shorts on the page I grabbed Jungle Drums for, the more original outros I see in his copies. Did WB not restore any? Because if the blu ray has the same edits as the earlier release in the Anthology. I'll just stick with those.
I, like others, am still very much on the fence with this one. At the moment I'm leaning towards the copies on the Superman movies BRs being "good enough" until it's known what WB plans to do.
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Sadly the new out title is not the correct match audio-wise. It has a jarringly abrupt effect.
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The assumption is that they are the raw 4K scan but I don’t believe we know that for sure. They look like higher resolution versions of the old DVD from Warner to me.
Additional thought: could the 4k upscaling on the TV be making the files look better/crisper?
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