Superman's First Flight

When he was originally created, Superman could only "leap tall buildings in a single bound." But when World War II came along, animators h=for his new animated adventures had a hard time finding enough cells to keep reusing. So, in an effort to both save cells and churn out the cartoons faster, the producers at the studio decided that Superman should fly.

The entire 1940's series is available on 1 DVD at HoughsVideos.50Megs.Com

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• superman
• cartoon
• animation
• flight
• scifi
• sci
• fi
• super
• hero
• action
• adventure
• flying
• history
• historic

[Superman19100]

Superman's not flying.. He's falling with style lol

[Ambereigh]

He's super = all the extra powers

[KojiTsunami]

@lowlypeasant It was really more like every six months, but I concur. Some of the best Superman stories were from that era where he couldn't fly yet. Adding flight was the first step to all kinds of shenanigans. Not that I mind shenanigans, but I often think Superman should be less Captain Marvel and more Spider-Man. Or at least FF. :P

[WatchVenusSpa]

Don't mess with the 'S'!!!

[Adom]

I remember as a kid thinking the descritpion of Superman "leaping tall buildings in a single bound" (after a single bound was explained to me) made no sense. Why would a guy who could fly go jumping around?

[lowlypeasant]

@hjerry69 ..they always screw things up by messing with a good thing. jumping makes infinitely more sense. I hate all those dumb powers..they used to give him a new one every issue.

[hjerry69]

@lowlypeasant AT THE BEGINNING HE WAS ONLY JUMPING, AFTERWARDS THEY MADE HIM FLY.

[lowlypeasant]

Looks like he is jumping to me. Which makes more sense than him having the power of flight (or x-ray vision.. or heat vision.. or freeze breath.. etc).

[GoblinXXX]

"Temporarily defying gravity" = flying. (He could have JUMPED out of the pit in SHOWDOWN, too- You have to ask the animators why he didn't.) But we agree in your main point, both in the radio dramas, and from the earlier Fleishers.

[captainmarvel63]

I would likely say he is temporarily defying gravity for dramatic purposes. This happens occasionally in their cartoons. In other cartoons he clearly challenged by gravity. For example: In "Artic Giant" he leaps repeatedly when flying, if he could do it, would make more sense. In another short he's dropped through a trap door and has to climb his way back up.

Byt the point I was actually making is that this cartoon is not his first flight, whether or not he is flying here.