History WesternAnimation / SupermanTheatricalCartoons

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsETxcZZAOM Secret Agent]]: July 30, 1943

These cartoons were also a huge influence on the [[{{Franchise/DCAU}} DC Animated Universe]] as a whole, as well as filmmakers like Creator/HayaoMiyazaki.

''The Man of Steel! (gong ring) SUPERMAN!"''

* AntiVillain: The Native American in "The Electric Earthquake" counts as this as unlike the previous villains, he only wants to reclaim his people's land given the terrible history regarding their interactions with the Europeans.

* ArtisticLicensePaleontology: ''The Arctic 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 paleontological knowledge will tell you is preposterous. Never mind how the T-Rex looks nothing like the real deal; even discounting how people didn’t know about the feathers back then.

* ClumsyCopyrightCensorship: Apparently, Warner could only secure one clip featuring the Paramount logo. They ended up taking this one clip onto the end of nearly every short on their DVD, creating an abrupt change in music.

* AlternateSelf: Given how this universe was included in the tie-in for the Franchise/{{Arrowverse}}'s ''Series/{{Crisis On Infinite Earths|2019}}'', Superman, Lois and Perry White all have counterparts in its multiverse, most noticeably on [[Series/Supergirl2015 Earth-Prime]], [[Film/SupermanTheMovie Earth-96]], [[Series/{{Smallville}} Earth-167]] and two [[Film/ManOfSteel undesignated]] [[Series/SupermanAndLois Earths]].

** Gigantic, the gorilla from "Terror on the Midway", is a lot larger than real life gorillas, towering the humans in the circus.

* 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 paleontological 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.

* BetterManhandleTheMurderWeapon: In "The Mummy Strikes", an Egyptologist is killed by a tomb's poisoned needle booby trap. His assistant picks up the needle he had been holding and gets her finger prints on it, [[EasilyCondemned so she is naturally arrested for it]]. Fortunately, Clark Kent and a professor find the booby trap and manage to clear her name.
* {{BFG}}: The superlaser cannon used in "The Mad Scientist".

* BiggerOnTheInside: Close examination of the villain's underwater lair in "Electric Earthquake" shows that it's only a few times larger than the elevator used to reach it in exterior shots, but cavernous in interior shots.

* 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!

* ClumsyCopyrightCensorship: Apparently, Warner could only secure one clip featuring the Paramount logo. They ended up tacking this one clip onto the end of nearly every short on their DVD, creating an abrupt change in music.

* CostumeCopycat: "Showdown", which revolves around a gangster having his henchman dress up in a Superman costume and commit crimes. It's a wonder it works at all, since the guy looks nothing like Superman, not to mention he's way too skinny, and of course has no superpowers.
* CutLexLuthorACheck: Most of the villains have non-monetary goals, or doesn't use all ''that'' impressive technology, but the inventor villain in "The Mechanical Monsters" invented and built remote-controlled giant mechanical machines... and used them to rob banks, jewelery stores, etc.
* DamselInDistress: Lois Lane has a complicated relationship with this trope. Generally speaking, if Lois isn't being BoundAndGagged at the hands of the villians, she's being put in a DeathTrap, menaced by a rampaging monster, or at the mercy of some natural disaster, all so Supes can swoop in and save her. ''However...''
* DamselOutOfDistress: ...In "Billion Dollar Limited", right after realizing the train's being hijacked, her first instinct is to try and stop the train despite the boiler being left in a pretty dangerous, un-attended state and not being a trained engineer, and when the remaining hijackers open fire on the engineer's cabin, she unhesitatingly picks up one of the fallen guards' tommy-guns and ''fires back''. She then repeatedly sounds the whistle while the train is out of control, which helps alert everyone (including Supes) that the train is in trouble. She only has to be bailed out when the robbers lob a ''bomb'' at her (having previously stayed with the train when ''its bridge was blown up and Supes had to save the whole damned train and get it back on the tracks''). Other shorts, particularly the earlier ones, have her performing similar feats of competency and only really put her in "distress" when she would logically just be completely outclassed as a normal human being.

* 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 ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' that was frozen in ice until it melted, and starts rampaging in the city.

-->Faster than a streak of lightning! More powerful than the pounding surf! Mightier than the roaring hurricane!

** In a looser sense the gigantic mummified guards in "The Mummy Strikes" were merely acting upon their UndyingLoyalty to protect King Tush. They had only just come back to life after 3000 years after all; and it was the late Dr. Jordan who revived them.

** How about the villain from "The Mechanical Monsters"? What does he do when he sees that Superman is trouncing his robots? Leg it while Superman is busy? Of course not, he stands there like an idiot until the last robot is demolished and Superman throws the pile on the control console. Then he tries to hold Lois hostage, but instead of trading her life for safe passage, which Superman would uphold if he agreed to do so, he tries to kill her and THEN runs for it. Yeah, he ends up in jail.

* DeadUnicornTrope: The "cliche" of Clark turning into Superman in a phone booth is based primarily on TWO of these cartoons: "The Mechanical Monsters" and "Bulleteers". In the first cartoon, Clark is with Lois when he ducks into a phone booth to...[[UnbuiltTrope call in the story to the Daily Planet.]] While he's on the phone, Lois sneaks away to investigate the story further. Clark finishes the call, steps out, sees Lois is missing, and only then goes back in the booth to change into Superman. In "Bulleteers", Clark changes in the phone booth for no apparent reason, helping to solidify in the public's mind that this is how he "always" changes into Supes. The earliest known comic where he does this was in a newspaper strip that came out later the same year as "Bulleteers". In that strip, Clark even [[LampshadeHanging thinks to himself]] [[{{Deconstruction}} that this is a fairly uncomfortable place to change clothes in]] [[JustifiedTrope and that he's doing it here only because he's in a hurry.]]
* TheDeterminator: The scientist supervillain in "The Mechanical Monsters" counts as a villainous version. Where many of the other villains flee at the first sign of their plans being thwarted, this guy just keeps throwing everything at Superman in an effort to either destroy the hero or to escape. When Superman interferes with one robot, he drops Superman onto some power lines. When Superman breaks into his headquarters, he sends his ''entire'' robot army after Superman. When Superman destroys them, he holds Lois hostage and tries to get Superman into a risky position by saving her. And after Superman successfully saves her, the guy tries to destroy them both via a vat of ''molten metal''. It's only after he exhausts everything on hand that he tries to make a break for it.

* 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 seemingly 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.

** "Showdown" has a cameo by a Daily Planet office boy who is clearly supposed to resemble ComicBook/JimmyOlsen, but he is never named in the cartoon. It's possible Paramount didn't have the rights to the character at that point, but wanted to incorporate him into the cartoons somehow, leading to this character. He never appears again after that scene or in any of the later entries.

* GodGuise: Its heavily implied that the Nazi commander and his men are posing as gods to the African tribe serving them in "Jungle Drums", although not stated outright.

* {{Hammerspace}}: Subtly subverted in "Showdown". Initially it's unclear where the spandex-clad impostor is carrying the stolen jewels (and [[ShootingSuperman the gun that he pulls on the real Superman]]), but after losing his cape, he can be clearly seen to be wearing a hip-satchel.
* {{Handwave}}: In "Showdown", the short excuses the imposter Superman's pretty obvious disguise by not letting anyone get a good look at his face (though this doesn't explain why nobody notices that "Superman" is scrawnier than usual or that he's not using his superpowers).

** Technically speaking, Superman does speak in every short:

** "The Mechanical Monsters" has the introduction newspaper imply that significant measures to stop the mechanical monsters, but it only amounts to a large number of guards using a automatic rifles. The bullets simply bounce off the armor, and the robot simply walks into the building as if there's no opposition. These robots are still destructible (as demonstrated by Superman fighting them).

* InformedSpecies: "The Arctic Giant" is labelled in the museum as being a ''Tyrannosaurus rex'', 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.

* KillerRobot: The eponymous machines from "The Mechanical Monsters." Not only are they ImmuneToBullets and have SuperStrength, they have ''flamethrowers'' on their heads.

* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: "Mundane" is a relative concept here, since it involves an ElixirOfLife, but in "The Mummy Strikes", the mummified bodyguards of Pharaoh Tush swore an oath 3.000 years ago to protect their lord, both in life and in death. In modern day, Dr. Jordan tried to bring them back to life using an elixir, which he had found in the tomb, but this failed, and Jordan himself died from a poisoned needle hidden in the sarcophagus of Pharaoh Tush. When the sarcophagus is opened, and the needle trap is discovered by Clark Kent and the curator, a light begins to glow from an amulet worn by the mummy within, and the dead bodyguards do indeed return to life.

** Lois's reaction in "The Underground World," when she realizes what the birdmen creatures [[TakenForGranite did to the professor's missing father]], and that they're intending her and the professor to share his fate.
** Her reaction in "Terror on the Midway", when she sees Gigantic the gorilla coming towards a little girl, causing her drop her camera in shock.

* PublicDomainAnimation: All 17 of the cartoons. After Paramount's contract for the character expired, the rights to the cartoons reverted to ''Superman'' rights-holder National Comics (now Creator/DCComics), which was a common practice by the publisher to retain maximum creative control of their property. When time came for copyright renewals, National somehow neglected to renew all of the cartoons' copyrights, and all of the cartoons went public domain as a direct result.

* RemovingTheRival: In "Volcano", Lois steals Clark's pass to go investigating the eponymous volcano alone [[GloryHound and get sole credit for the story]]. Clark finds out at the end, but doesn't seem hold it against her.

* {{Rotoscoping}}: Used to make the bulk of the animation. Interestingly, according to the book "Hollywood Cartoons", some of the animation wasn't rotoscoped and was drawn freehand by the animators themselves!

* SceneryPorn: A lot of the art deco backgrounds.

* SchizoTech: It's the 1940's, but somehow there's still robots, laser guns, earthquake machines and other tech around that'd be difficult to make ''today'', much less a near-century ago.

* ShoutOut: Whether or not its intentional, the scientist in "The Magnetic Telescope" resembles [[ComicBook/{{Shazam}} Captain Marvel's]] nemesis Dr. Sivana. And to a lesser degree, to [[ComicBook/LexLuthor that bald mad scientist that causes trouble for Metropolis]]...or, going back ''further still'', the prototype for Lex Luthor, the [[EvilCripple Ultra-Humanite]].

* SuperNotDrowningSkills: Averted. One of the few weaknesses this version of Superman has is a need to breathe (and which gives him trouble on "Electric Earthquake" and is actively exploited by the villains on "Billion Dollar Limited").
* TakenForGranite: In "The Underground World", the professor and Lois Lane comes across a statue of the professor's long lost father, who originally discovered the caves, but disappeared into them. Lois soon realizes that the statue IS him, and the Birdmen of the Underground World intend to turn them into statues as well.
* ThisCannotBe: In the first Superman cartoon, the mad scientist has this reaction when his destructive ray has no real effect on Superman (aside from just knocking him down and pushing against) and that Superman is more than a match for it.

** Lois, most of the time. In the first short, Lois insist that she'd cover the story on the mad scientist alone without Clark and despite Perry's saying "no".

* 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. Of course, Jordan himself had died from a poisoned needle hidden in the pharao's sarcophagus, [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane so the pharaoh wasn't actually disturbed until Clark Kent and the museum curator investigated it...]]

* WellIntentionedExtremist: The villain in "The Electric Earthquake" is a Native American with obviously legitimate land claim grievances given his people's terrible history interacting with Europeans, and whose first public appearance is in the ''Daily Planet'', where he tries the legal and moral route of getting his story published in the paper (heck, Clark clearly thinks he has a good point.) It is only the fact that both the piece of land he wants people to vacate is ''the island of Manhattan,'' one of the most densely populated places on Earth; and that after it is rejected he decides to stoop to making terrorist threats and has the destructive means and will to carry them out, that is obviously beyond the pale.

* ShesGotLegs: Lois

* EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs: "The Arctic Giant." The eponymous monster is identified as a ''Tyrannosaurus'', but it is [[ArtisticLicensePaleontology much bigger and looks nothing like the real deal]].

* AlternateSelf: Given how this universe was included in the tie-in for ''Crisis On Infinite Earths'' Superman, Lois and Perry White all have counterparts in [[Characters/ArrowverseOtherEarths the multiverse]], most noticeably on [[Series/SupermanAndLois Earth-Prime]], [[Film/SupermanTheMovie Earth-96]], [[Series/{{Smallville}} Earth-167]] and an [[Film/ManOfSteel undesignated Earth]].

* BackForTheDead: The Walmart-exclusive tie-in comic to the Franchise/{{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.]]

* DamselOutOfDistress: ...In "Billion Dollar Limited", at the first sight of robbery, she unhesitatingly picks up one of the fallen guards' tommy-guns and ''fires back''. She then makes her way to the engine and repeatedly sounds the whistle, which quickly alerts everyone (Including Supes) that the train is in trouble. She only has to be bailed out when the robbers lob a ''bomb'' at her. Other shorts, particularly the earlier ones, have her performing similar feats of competency and only really put her in "distress" when she would logically just be completely outclassed as a normal human being.

''The man of steel! (gong ring) SUPERMAN!"''

** Briefly and [[UncannyValley somewhat unsettlingly]] averted for an action closeup during the climax of "Terror on the Midway".

Paramount returned to involvement in the ''Superman'' franchise first in 1972, when it produced an episode of the animated TV series ''WesternAnimation/TheBradyKids'' (a spin-off of ''Series/TheBradyBunch'') that featured Superman, then again in 1995, when the acquisition of the studio by [[Creator/ParamountGlobal Viacom]] gave Paramount the US TV rights to three of the Christopher Reeve ''Superman'' films - ''Film/SupermanIII'', ''Film/{{Supergirl}}'', and ''Film/SupermanIVTheQuestForPeace'' - along with US TV rights to the ''Series/TheAdventuresOfSuperboy'' TV series. The former two films are now fully owned by WB, while Paramount continues to own US TV rights to ''The Quest for Peace'' as it was a co-production of Creator/TheCannonGroup, whose films were distributed on US TV by Viacom and later Paramount, while Creator/{{CBS}} Media Ventures owns the US TV rights to ''The Adventures of Superboy''.

A comic tie-in to ''Series/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths2019'' established this series as a part of the ''Series/{{Arrowverse}}'', designation Earth-F.

* BackForTheDead: 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 date, all 17 of the cartoons have fallen into the PublicDomain and are all free to view on the internet. For your convenience, links have been provided below in the filmography.

* ImmuneToBullets: Aside from Superman, "The Mechanical Monsters" has the introduction newspaper imply that significant measures to stop the mechanical monsters, but it only amounts to a large number of guards using a automatic rifles. The bullets simply bounce off the armor, and the robot simply walks into the building as if there's no opposition. These robots are still destructible (as demonstrated by Superman fighting them).

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 shorts 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.

* BackForTheDead: 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.

* EverythingsBetterWithMonkeys: The giant ape from "Terror on the Midway."

** "This is a job for Superman!" and other variations of it.

* CostumeCopycat: "Showdown", which revolves around a gangster having his henchman dress up in a Superman costume and commit crimes. It's a wonder it works at all, since the guy looks nothing like Superman, not to mention he's way too skinny, and of course has no superpowers.

* DefiantCaptive: Despite her frequent distress, she always manages to seem self-possessed and/or defiant until the last moment, when it really looks (to her) like this time she's not going to make it. (Superman has a tendency to arrive JustInTime.)

* DisneyVillainDeath: One of the Nazi henchmen in "Jungle Drums" gets killed while grappling with Superman atop the AntiAir gun they've disguised as a large stone idol. He takes a leap at Superman but accidentally goes over the edge and plunges to his death. We dont see the impact, but we do see his hand bounce to a stop.

* 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.

* KryptoniteFactor: While never named outright, Superman finds himself powerless against the comet in "Magnetic Telescope", which constantly emits a SicklyGreenGlow and hurls Superman back to earth unconscious every time he attempts to attack it directly, strongly implying that the comet is made of the trope-naming mineral--or, at least, a precursor thereof (considering Kryptonite as we now know it was not created until the radio show a year later and didn't appear in the comics until seven years later).

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Okl9vSJCRNg Japoteurs]]: September 18, 1942