Superman: The Mechanical Monsters Review

Something that is hard to believe is that now technically Paramount Pictures owns DC Comics due to them of course buying Warner Bros. I only mention this because of the fact that the Superman cartoon from the nineteen forties were ironically distributed by Paramount Pictures with the character of Superman being popular still to this very day it made sense to a look back at one of the cartoons that not alot of people talk about and so then join me as I review the cartoon that sees Superman trying to defeat an army of giant robots with the cartoon in question being called simply just "The Mechanical Monsters" enjoy.

The plot of this cartoon is when a mad scientist starts using giant robots to rob banks it's up to Superman to stop him before its far two late. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very cartoon well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very cartoon was in all honesty really good. The cartoons plot was a simple but this is something that is to be expected as these cartoons didn't typically have alot of plot in them with them just having a very basic set up and that's and to be fair that's all it needed to have as nobody in the forties or even today for that matter goes into one of these cartoons expecting there to be this deep and thought provoking plot rather they just wanted something simple. With that being exactly what we got a simple plot that's very easy for people of all ages to follow and while it would have helped this cartoon if there was a little bit more meat to its plot as the plot of the cartoon does come of as being really thin it wasn't something that was needed in the long run as in the long run this cartoon works because of the fact that it was this short and simple plot with the cartoon still managing to get across alot of important things about the cartoons plot in it's short running as there no scene being wasted, with the only aspect about the plot that could either have been done better or not be in the cartoon at all was the fact that Lois gets kidnapped quite easily which just wasn't needed as Superman was already going to save the day anyway therefor plot wise it didn't make sense for her to get taken by one of the robots with the only way to fix this being if the robot kidnapped her first and then attacked the building where all the jewels are with the plot of this cartoon also being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Starring in this cartoon is Bud Collyer as Clark Kent / Superman , Joan Alexander as Lois Lane and Tedd Pierce as Police Officer and The Inventor Of The Mechanical Monsters. Also starring in this cartoon is either George Lowther or Grant Richards as the Opening Narrator. For some unknown reason no body really knows just who it is that does the opening narration for these Superman cartoons which to be fair is kind of expected as it's not exactly a big role but at the same time tho there should have been some listing for who it is that is doing the narration as they did have the job of telling us the audience Superman's backstory in the first cartoon and in filling us in on who he is in quite literally every single Superman cartoon. With the fact that this cartoon does have such a small list of actors in it is something that really isn't all that surprising as heck even Warner Bros cartoon only had at most two maybe three actors in all of there cartoons and they all worked just fine with the same thing being true for this cartoon as well as there was no need to for this cartoon to have a large amount of actors in it as there aren't that many speaking characters in the cartoon and even then only three of them have big roles in the cartoon itself, therefor it would have have been odd for there to be alot of of speaking characters in this cartoon with the actors that the cartoon does have more then making up for the fact that there's not alot of speaking characters in the first place as they all do have voices that more then distract you from the fact that we are not hearing alot of people talking in the cartoon and heck it could even be seen as being a good skill as Tedd Pierce plays multiple roles in the cartoon and yet you wouldn't know it due to the fact that the characters that he plays do sound so radically different from each other.

Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very cartoon well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very cartoon was in all honesty really good. The fact that we have some really good acting in tis cartoon is something that both is and isn't all that surprising as the acting in all of this series of cartoons was always really good and the fact that they managed to get both Bud Collyer whom along with Joan Alexander both of whom are reprising their roles from the The Adventures Of Superman radio show does make the acting in this cartoon alot mor better then what it really should have done as they have two people who know there characters inside out being asked to do them again only this time it's for animation and not for radio. With the best actor in this cartoon being Bud Collyer as he does manage to do something that no other actor playing Superman does and that's that he makes Clark Kent sound different from Superman this is a small thing yes but it's a small thing that helps to sell you on the fact that the people around Clark might not pick up on the fact that's Superman with his performance as both characters being truly wonderful to see in this cartoon with his own natural charm and charisma really shining through in this very cartoon. With the acting that's in this very cartoon really being helped by the fact that this cartoons script is just so good that all this cartoons actors have to do is just say the lines as they are are written and a good performance will come out of them naturally which is something that really does help to raise the overall quality of the acting that's in this very film.

Doing the animation for this cartoon is the legends and the greats that were currently over at Fleischer Studios. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual animation that's actually featured / presented to us in this very cartoon well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual animation that's actually featured / presented to us in this very cartoon was in all honesty really good. The fact that this cartoon does have some really good looking animation in it is something that really isn't all that shocking as apart from Disney and Warner Bros Fleischer Studio was a big name in the forties in the world of animation with alot of the theatrical cartoons that they worked on be it either Betty Boop or Popeye having some really good animation in them and therefor it made sense that that is something that would be carried over not only to these Superman cartoons but this cartoon. There is alot of detail in all of the cartoons backgrounds which is something that the makers of this cartoon really didn't have to include as it would have been a nightmare to animate and yet they did it anyways with this making the world that these cartoons to take place in oddly enough feeling more lived in and real, even the fact that we get these hyper stylized close up shots of both Superman and the mad scientist these are both things that not only help to give these cartoons there own identity as your never going to confuse a shot from this cartoon with say an early Disney film or a Looney Tunes cartoon for example with even the cartoons characters having these hyper realistic movements to them that help to make the action in the cartoon leap of the screen.

When you think of cartoon you don't usually think of there being continuity errors as afterall how can there be any when the person animating it is there checking it all the time. Yet that is the one thing that this cartoon and it's such a glaring mistake that it's wonder how it got past the makers of this cartoon as when the robot is sent to get the jewels we can quite clearly see that its got a number five on it's back and yet when it enters the building with the jewels we see that it's got the number thirteen on it's front and on it's back and yet in another shot we see the number five show up on it's back again how was a mistake like this missed by all the people that this cartoon would have had to have gone threw as it is a mistake that does stand out. While you could argue that perhaps the mad scientist sent down two robots I checked he only sends out the one this is something that fair enough might not have been easy to fix as it would meant having to entirely animate the scene over again unlike today where you could just fix it with CGI and maybe that's how the mistake was left in the cartoon which is something that would be fair enough as these cartoons were very expensive to produce but at the same time tho it is a mistake that does stand out and while people in the forties might not have picked up on it due to the fact that the numbers on the robots don't show up for all that long it is something that once you see the mistake you really can't unsee as it does stand out a mile due to the fact that its the only robot that we see robbing people in the whole cartoon, this error is one is kind of rare for Fleischer Studios as they are usually really good with things like this and it is something that does make you wonder why Dave Fleischer the series director or the producer his father Max Fleischer didn't notice this mistake as both of them worked closely with the cartoon to notice any errors like this one.

The one thing that I felt didn't really work in this cartoon was again the fact that Lois got kidnapped far to easily in this cartoon. With it feeling like it was done so that Superman could have someone to rescue and while it made sense in the previous cartoon as she was in the way of danger at the time here she literally runs away from Clark while he's calls Perry to tell him what's going on and heads into danger on her own free will and it just doesn't work as this is a cartoon that really didn't need Lois in it as Superman would still have been at the building when the robot attacked and got the jewels and therefor would still have beaten up the bad guy and defeated all of his robots at the end with Lois not really adding anything to the cartoon itself. Heck you could cut Lois out of the cartoon entirely and nothing about the plot would need to be changed as she adds nothing to the plot and yet for one reason or another the makers of this cartoon thought that it would be a wise choice to have her in the cartoon and while yes you could very well make the argument that alot of the forties Superman comic books had Lois take part in the stories when she didn't need to be there and that would be a fair point to make but those stories weren't being told in a short amount of time to tell its story and didn't have plots that were told in one go whereas this cartoon does have both of those things and therefor a pointless character like Lois Lane in this cartoon wouldn't have been needed in the cartoon and heck nobody is going to a Superman cartoon to see Lois be forced into a story rather they want to see Superman do his things and while adding Lois to the story would have been a great way to make the attacks personal to Clark it also makes her look like a dumb character as she willingly climbs into the back the robot before it takes of back to its base.

The main villain of the cartoon an unnamed mad scientist type is a pretty decent villain as while he is underdeveloped as a villain. Given the cartoons running time this is understandable with him also clearly being a smart person as he's built not not only several giant robots but also a machine that he can use to control them all which is a good idea as it does mean that none of them are going to be going against him any time as he could very easily just switch them of if he so chose and while he isn't that creepy of a villain he does have more then a menacing look about him that you do end up still being afraid of him due to the fact that his design whilst yes it is that of a typical mustache twirling villain it is something that des work well enough for this cartoon. With the only thing that does let him down as a villain being the fact that we don't get to find out why he wants all of these jewels and money in the first place as he just steels them for no reason and while the cartoon might not have been able to fully develop him as a character as that would take up screen time from the cartoons plot they very easily could have added in a line or two about him wanting the money to fund either more robots or just because he wants to be the richest man in the world yes those are typical things but there better then what this cartoon gives us which is nothing with us only hating him because of the fact that one of his robots accidentally took Lois as well as a bunch of jewels ad that's really it as if you remove Lois from the cartoon we would have no reason whatsoever to hate this character as the cartoon doesn't give us a reason to hate him in the first place rather the makers of this cartoon just expect us to hate him due to the fact that he's going up against Superman and that's it.

Now then this cartoon has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly ten minuets and twenty three seconds. Which to be fair to this cartoon is pretty much the bogstandard running time for these Superman cartoon as alot of them did have very similar running times and while this cartoon doesn't really need that running time as the plot of the cartoon is that thin it is hard to picture just what it is that would need to be cut in order to make the running time shorter as every single scene in the cartoon is all about advancing the cartoons plot and in giving us some really good action and animation therefor this is a cartoon that while it could be shorter it would be difficult to make it shorter with the cartoon having more then enough there interms of plot to really cover that amount of running time in the first place. However tho this cartoon still doesn't use its running time all that wisely as the cartoon doesn't take its time to fully develop its plot due to the fact that this cartoon doesn't really add anything like why Clark is there with these jewels we find out why Lois is there as she's there to get a woman's point of view on things but not why Clark is there and we don't get to find but why the scientist wants these jewels all of this money in the first place both of which are things that could have made the cartoons plot feel alot more well developed with the makers of this cartoon putting more thought and effort into getting Lois kidnapped then they did into giving the plot some much needed plot development. With this also being something that does effects the cartoons character development as due to how short the cartoon is they really can't fully develop any of the characters which is fair enough as none of the characters in any cartoon from around this time period got any kind of character development but it is still something that could have happend just with Clark telling Lois not to run of again with the makers of this cartoon putting more thought and effort into the cartoon action then they did the cartoons character development but I really will admit that this cartoon really does have some really good pacing to it tho. 

So now then as this is an action cartoon that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very cartoon well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very cartoon was in all honesty really really good. The action in this cartoon really does leap of the screen due to how hard hitting the that the animation makes the things like punches and kicks look both of which are things that make the action in this cartoon really stand out as it would have been super easy for the makers of this cartoon to just phone it is and give us some really bland action and yet they don't do that rather instead they made the choice to go all out and it is something that does help the cartoon out in the long run. With the best action scene in the whole cartoon also technically being the cartoons only action scene as it's the attack on the villains base and while the attack on the base is where the action picks up thats not where it starts as it does technically start in Metropolis with Superman attacking the robot mid flight with the robot being forced to turn itself upside down to shake Superman of it's back causing him to line in some electrical wiring with Superman eventually getting free and attacking all of the robots at the same time at the villains mountain base and while there are times where it does look like Superman will get defeated he does of course save both the day and Lois and drops the villain of at prison with the whole scene being a really exciting scene to see as we get to see things like Superman beating up a bunch of robots before then using his cape to project both himself and Lois from some hot liquid with the rest of the cartoons action being really good as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. 

Overall this was a pretty good cartoon as it does give you everything that you'd want to see in a Superman cartoon but at the same time tho there are things in this cartoon that really could have been done alot more different all of which are things that would have made the cartoon alot more better in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very cartoon in this very review and as such that really does mean that his very cartoon really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 7 out of 10 from me.

Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images hat I personally used in this very review from Amazon . Co . Uk and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get the images from this very cartoon that I used in this very post being the really great Google Images really simply just due to the fact that really alot of if not really all of the images that are all really from this very cartoon with alot of them really being really better quality then what you'd really think of and all of the images are really of course up and really on Google Images really are also really all fairly high in quality and as well as them all being really fairly freaking high in definition.