Rob Dunlavey - Superman

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Superman

posted:May 1, 2006

Here are some stills from a Superman cartoon: "The Bulleteers" that Refrederator.com is podcasting. It's wonderfully dark and full of these angles and primary colors. Like an old comic book only animated.
It is dark and what I mean its that it mostly happens at night or in dark places so you get these marvelous contrasty lighting effects.

The Bulleteers are the bad guys who have this bullet-shaped rocket car who are terrorizing Metropolis. They destroy the power grid and attempt to rob the Treasury. Here they are zooming away from their strike on the power plant.

Lois Lane is quite fetching and always getting into the thick of things.

The cartoon is about 7-9 minutes long I guess. The camera is always sliding this way and that; the action really flows and it's fun to see the transitional devices used to link the different scenes. Here we are looking through the windows of the Daily Planet at the hard-working reporter Lois Lane. Looks like something you see in chrome on mudflaps or painted on the side of military aircraft.

There are many references to WWII era films and film noir conventions.
It's a showdown! But in the end, it's only Superman who can save the city.

Of couse these images make me think of our great contemporary Ross MacDonald!

Thank goodness for newspaper headlines to move the story along and tie things up.

As usual, the episode ends with Clark Kent complimenting Lois on the "great scoop".
Can all you armchair psychologists out there please comment on the dynamic between Clark/Superman and Lois. He IS powerless without her. It's totally Hollywood in an extremely compressed and almost non-verbal format.