Completed viewing* on 06/06/20
***SPOILERS***
Really quickly, I didn't watch this series in its entirety. Writing a review for something without at least completing a full viewing is bad practice but the second half of this series (produced by a different studio than the first) was mostly genuine war propaganda. That's interesting but I don't have the energy for it, so didn't watch it. I only wanted to watch the Fleischer Studios episodes anyway.
All I wanted to get out of this series was to see some sweet hand-drawn animation. I absolutely got that. Some of the sequences are genuinely beautiful (even just visually - it's a great style). Character are expressive and almost always talk while moving, twisting or turning. The animators were also clearly very dedicated to making sure dramatic lighting (like hanging spotlights or flying sparks) played with characters and objects believably and it really pays off. There are also a lot of sequences that are just shadows/silhouettes, which worked really well in terms of keeping visual interest. Really well executed. This all made it really great-looking but at its core, the animation was admittedly a little bit stiff. (Won't lie, I got sold a bit of a dream by KaptainKristian's video essay - the only reason I'd even heard of the series). Obviously I'm comparing this cel animation from 80 (fucking hell) years ago to 1990s/2000s masterpieces but objectively, it isn't the best animation I've ever seen. Nice looking though.
The stories that are told in the series are... pleasant. This is an incredibly early iteration of Superman (Lex Luthor had only just debuted in print the year before) so the stories are short, really straightforward, really predictable and always end with Superman saving the day. Again, given the point in time these cartoons were made, that's understandable but honestly, it isn't really a problem. Episodes are only about 10 minutes each, so it's actually quite nice they don't try to do too much.
It's a similar situation with the characters. Superman is Superman. Whatever happens, he's strong enough to save everyone. It's boring but it works. It does have to be said that the only other major recurring character, Lois Lane, was pretty cool. Yeah, she's a bit of a damsel in distress that needs saving by Supes every episode but unlike a lot of characters even today, she's at least in trouble because she's really out here on the front lines. It's a pretty easy plot setup, have her get too close to the story and end up in danger but it surprised me how much agency she had as a female charater in every episode.
For anyone who's an animation fan, I'd recommed this. For something with such a potentially small time investment, you get a lot out of it. Anyone else however, I'd say that beyond nostalgia value or 'canon'-fodder for comic book fans, the series doesn't offer much. Pretty bland.