The Mechanical Monsters
The Mechanical Monsters 1941

The Mechanical Monsters

Released
28 Nov 1941
Running time
00:09:00
Directed by
Dave Fleischer

A mad inventor has built an army of giant robots that fly on propellers, walk through walls and carry their loot in a compartment in the chest, and they have been robbing banks.

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About the cartoon

Studio: Fleischer Studios
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Produced by: Max Fleischer

Short Synopsis

A mad inventor has built an army of giant robots that fly on propellers, walk through walls and carry their loot in a compartment in the chest, and they have been robbing banks. Clark Kent is covering an exhibition of the world's rarest jewels when a robot walks in through the police and starts loading the gems into its torso. Lois Lane climbs in after the jewels; the robot takes off, and Clark, phoning in the story, steps into the booth and comes out as Superman. He chases the robot, is knocked off in mid-air by its propeller, and follows it to the inventor's mountain hideout, where the robots are lined up in rows. The inventor ties Lois over a vat of molten metal and sends the whole army against Superman, who smashes them one by one, catches the ladle of molten metal as it pours, and carries Lois and the inventor back to the city.

Why It Matters

  • The robots are the most famous design in the series, tall Art Deco machines with glowing eyes and a hinged chest, and the sequence in which Superman fights them in the dark, lit by their eyes and the furnace, is the Fleischer studio at its most atmospheric. The molten-metal rescue is one of the best single shots in 1940s animation.
  • The Mechanical Monsters established the formula of the series after the origin film: a scientific menace, Lois in danger, Superman's strength shown against machines rather than men. Its robots have been borrowed ever since, most openly in Hayao Miyazaki's Laputa: Castle in the Sky and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. It is in the public domain, as all the Fleischer Superman shorts are.

Notes and Trivia

  • The series was budgeted at about 50,000 dollars a short, several times the cost of a Popeye cartoon.
  • Superman's leaps were replaced by flight at the Fleischers' request, because leaping looked silly on screen; DC agreed and the comics followed.
  • See also: Superman: The Mad Scientist (1941), Billion Dollar Limited (1942), Castle in the Sky (1986).

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