History WesternAnimation / SupermanTheatricalCartoons

* MickeyMousing: A Fleischer staple of course. For example, a laser shoots Supes along to the background music in one of the shorts.

* ExactWords: In "The Mummy Strikes", the tomp of King Tush contained a plaque bearing this warning: ''He Who Disturbs The Eternal Rest of King Tush Must Perish''. The entire tomb had been disassembled and brought all the way to the United States, then reassembled in a museum, and even the sarcophagus of the pharaoh's body guards had been opened, and the mummies within injected with an experimental serum, to seeminly no ill effect, other than one man dying from a non-magical trap. It wasn't until King Tush's ''actual sarcophagus'' was actually opened that the curse took effect.

* ExactWords: In "The Mummy Strikes", the tomp of King Tush contained a plaque bearing this warning: ''He Who Disturbs The Eternal Rest of King Tush Must Perish''. The entire tomb had been disassembled and brought all the way to the United States, then reassembled in a museum, and even the sarcophagus of the pharao's body guards had been opened, and the mummies within injected with an experimental serum, to seeminly no ill effect, other than one man dying from a non-magical trap. It wasn't until King Tush's ''actual sarcophagus'' was actually opened that the curse took effect.

* UndyingLoyalty: ''Literally'' in "The Mummy Strikes". 3000 years ago, the bodyguards of Pharaoh Tush swore to guard him in this life, and the next one. When Tush died young, his guards committed suicide to follow their oath, and were mummified alongside him. When Dr. Wilson and Clark Kent opens the sarcophagus of Pharaoh Tush during their investigation of the death of Dr. Jordan, the mummies rise from the dead to kill them, just as they had sworn to do. [[PlayingWithATrope This is actually played with]] in that they wouldn’t have come back to life at all had Dr. Jordan not inoculated their mummies with the ElixirOfLife.

* BackForTheDead: [[spoiler: The Walmart-exclusive tie-in comic to the Series/{{Arrowverse}}'s [[Series/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths2019 adaptation of]] ''Crisis on Infinite Earths'' has [[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ELIZwdAU8AAREOG?format=jpg&name=medium Pariah getting to this world to warn them of the wave of antimatter, only for him to be too late.]]To make it worse, unlike Series/{{Smallville}} or Series/BirdsOfPrey2002 which were implied by the creators to have been restored post-Crisis, there is no mention of the same happening to Earth-F meaning this world is truly dead.]]

* BackForTheDead: [[spoiler: The Walmart-exclusive tie-in comic to the Series/{{Arrowverse}}'s [[Series/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths2019 adaptation of]] ''Crisis on Infinite Earths'' has [[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ELIZwdAU8AAREOG?format=jpg&name=medium Pariah getting to this world to warn them of the wave of antimatter, only for him to be too late.]]]]

* HoistHeroOverHead: In "Terror on the Midway", the killer gorilla lifted Superman over its head and threw him by the fire.

* RecycledSoundtrack: In "The Mummy Strikes" during the recounting of the hieroglyphics detailing the legend of King Tush, music from ''WesternAnimation/PopeyeTheSailorMeetsAliBabasFortyThieves'' is played

* RecycledSoundtrack: In "The Mummy Strikes" during the recounting of the hieroglyphics detailing the legend of King Tush, music from ''WesternAnimation/PopeyeTehSailorMeetsAliBabasFortyThieves'' is played

* EscapedAnimalRampage: The cartoon "Terror On The Midway" features Superman attempting to stop the chaos created when several circus animals escape their cages and restraints, including a giant ape. The "Arctic Giant" involves Superman trying to subdue a TyrannosaurusRex that was frozen in ice until it melted, and starts rampaging in the city.

* HarmlessFreezing: In "The Arctic Giant" a TyrannosaurusRex frozen for millions of years is accidentally thawed out and goes on a rampage.

* InformedSpecies: "The Arctic Giant" is labelled in the museum as being a ''TyrannosaurusRex'', but it looks more like a {{Notzilla}} than any real dinosaur, is stated to be [[MisplacedWildlife native to Siberia]], and at the end, we see that [[VegetarianCarnivore it's eating hay]] at the zoo.

* ArtisticLicensePaleontology: ''The Artctic Giant'' has this in spades with the alleged “Tyrannosaurus” found in Siberia with its display listing its age at around 3400 B.C. which... anyone with even basic paleontologistic knowledge will tell you is preposterous. Nevermind how the T-Rex looks nothing like the real deal; even discounting how people didn’t know about the feathers back then.

** In a looser sense the gigantic mummified guards in "The Mummy Strikes" were merely acting upon their sworn oath to protect King Tush. They had only just come back to life after 3000 years after all.

* UndyingLoyalty: ''Literally'' in "The Mummy Strikes". 3000 years ago, the bodyguards of Pharaoh Tush swore to guard him in this life, and the next one. When Tush died young, his guards committed suicide to follow their oath, and were mummified alongside him. When Dr. Wilson and Clark Kent opens the sarcophagus of Pharaoh Tush during their investigation of the death of Dr. Jordan, the mummies rise from the dead to kill them, just as they had sworn to do.

From the studio that brought you such classics as WesternAnimation/BettyBoop and ComicStrip/{{Popeye}}, [[Creator/MaxAndDaveFleischer Fleischer Studios]] played a major role in cementing [[Franchise/{{Superman}} the Man of Steel]] as a pop culture icon by means of these lavishly animated, massive budget short subjects which served to bring Superman to the big screen, from UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfAnimation. These cartoons were a big deal back in the '40s -- the first short, "[[WesternAnimation/TheMadScientist The Mad Scientist]]", was nominated for the 1942 UsefulNotes/AcademyAward (losing to a [[WesternAnimation/ClassicDisneyShorts Disney]] [[WesternAnimation/PlutoThePup Pluto short]], ''WesternAnimation/LendAPaw''). These cartoons were among the first cartoons that were made for genuine action and drama, rather than crude comedy, which was part of what contributed to their success. Paramount in fact had such confidence in the shorts being a hit, they even had had '''trailers''' made for them -- yes, that's right, trailers for ''short cartoons.'' Try to wrap your head around that.

Creator/{{Paramount}} would later co-produce with Creator/DCComics both [[Film/{{Watchmen}} the film]] and [[Series/Watchmen2019 the series]] of ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'''.

* InformedSpecies: "The Arctic Giant" is labelled in the museum as being a ''TyrannosaurusRex'', but it looks more like a {{Notzilla}} than any real dinosaur [[note]]Although it actually predates ''Film/Godzilla1954'' by about twelve years.[[/note]], is stated to be [[MisplacedWildlife native to Siberia]], and at the end, we see that [[VegetarianCarnivore it's eating hay]] at the zoo.

* {{Notzilla}: "The Arctic Giant" manages to give us a Notzilla about a decade before the real one shows up! The titular Giant is described in-cartoon as a ''T. Rex'', but it [[https://s3.amazonaws.com/intanibase/iad_screenshots/1942/3303/11.jpg stands as tall as a building and has fins down its back.]] Fleischer Studios was huge in Japan (with Creator/OsamuTezuka considering them an inspiration) so perhaps Eiji Tsuburaya had a memory of seeing this...

* {{Bowdlerise}}: Several home video copies of the first short (even Warner's "Authorized Edition" and ''Superman'' Ultimate Collector's Edition [=DVDs=]) cut short the scene where Clark asks Perry White, "Don't you think that's a dangerous mission [[StayInTheKitchen for a woman]]?" It's possible that the prints with the line intact are lost.

Creator/Paramount would later co-produce with Creator/DCComics both [[Film/{{Watchmen}} the film]] and [[Series/Watchmen2019 the series]] of ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'''.

* BurnTheWitch!: Happens to Lois in "Jungle Drums", after she's captured and interrogated by Nazi agents, she refuses to answer their questions, upon which they order her to be tied to a stake and burnt alive. Luckily Superman shows up to rescue her before things get too hot!

* ArtisticLicensePaleontology: ''The Artctic Giant'' has this in spades with the alleged “Tyrannosaurus” found in Siberia with its display listing it’s age at around 3400 B.C. which... anyone with even basic paleontologistic knowledge will tell you is preposterous. Nevermind how the T-Rex looks nothing like the real deal; even discounting how people didn’t know about the feathers back then.

[[caption-width-right:298:"[[CatchPhrase This looks like a job]] ''[[PowerMakesYourVoiceDeep for Superman!]]''"]]