The Mechanical Monsters: Seminal Superman Animated Film from 1941

In 1941, direc­tor Dave Fleis­ch­er and Para­mount Pic­tures ani­ma­tors Steve Muf­fati and George Ger­manet­ti pro­duced Super­man: The Mechan­i­cal Mon­sters — a big-bud­get ani­mat­ed adap­ta­tion of the pop­u­lar Super­man comics of that peri­od, in which a mad sci­en­tist unleash­es robots to rob banks and loot muse­ums, and Super­man, nat­u­ral­ly, saves the day. It was one of sev­en­teen films that raised the bar for the­atri­cal shorts and are even con­sid­ered by some to have giv­en rise to the entire Ani­me genre.

More than a mere treat of vin­tage ani­ma­tion, the film cap­tures the era’s char­ac­ter­is­tic ambiva­lence in rec­on­cil­ing the need for progress with the fear of tech­nol­o­gy in a cul­ture on the brink of incred­i­ble tech­no­log­i­cal inno­va­tion. It was the dawn of the tech­no-para­noia that per­sist­ed through the 1970s, famous­ly cap­tured in the TV series Future Shock nar­rat­ed by Orson Welles, and even through today. Take for exam­ple books like Nicholas Car­r’s The Shal­lows and Sher­ry Turkle’s Alone Togeth­er: Why We Expect More from Tech­nol­o­gy and Less from Each Oth­er.

Super­man: The Mechan­i­cal Mon­sters is avail­able for down­load on The Inter­net Archive, and Toon­a­mi Dig­i­tal Arse­nal has the com­plete series of all sev­en­teen films. Find more vin­tage ani­ma­tion in Open Cul­ture’s col­lec­tion of Free Movies Online.

Maria Popo­va is the founder and edi­tor in chief of Brain Pick­ings, a curat­ed inven­to­ry of cross-dis­ci­pli­nary inter­est­ing­ness. She writes for Wired UK, The Atlantic and Desig­nOb­serv­er, and spends a great deal of time on Twit­ter.


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  • Jan­u­ary 15th, 2012

    Mr.Clark ®-Kent I,
    Super-Hero,
    ®-The Dai­ly Plan­et,
    10-East, 53rd Street,
    ®-New York, ®-New York,
    ®-©AMERICA 10022.

    Cell: (214) 916‑5020; ext’: +937
    E‑mail: ke*********@bl***********.hero

    ®-©Mr. Alexan­der Simon,
    Field Inves­ti­ga­tor Of Mind,
    Sir William Place,
    Suite #305C,
    8820–85 Street,
    Boonie Doon,
    ®-©Edmon­ton, ®-©Alber­ta
    ®-©CANADA T6C 3C2.

    Tel’.: (780) 469‑9517
    Idyl­wylde Account: #21221018714623.
    E‑mail: al**************@gm***.com

    Dear Mr. ®-Kent (SUPERMAN)!

    “The Super­man Sto­ry: The Life Sto­ry Of The Man-Of-Steel … Now In One Incred­i­ble Vol­ume!”

    Mr. Curt Swan and Mr. Frank Chiaromonte with Writer and close investor to tal­ent­ed and Acad­e­my Per­for­mance win­ner; Mr. Mar­tin Pasko hired these two men for the TOR Mr. Tomas Doher­ty Asso­ciates Book of the real occur­ring Man of Red-Gold-Blue!
    The arrange­ment is okayed by The House of Con­gress of Amer­i­ca of course! The Edi­tor and friend too with invest­ment by the New York Stock Exchange met; Mr. Robert Roza­kis born here as Dad (of Yugosla­vian of his­to­ry met his best friend … and blood son … of Edmon­ton (Austin) here; Mr. Andrew Helfer; and raised $-TRUE!

    DC Comics, Inc. (found­ed in 1934 as Nation­al Allied Pub­li­ca­tions; must be British in invest­ment! If Action Comix Book was won by Wash­ing­ton the read through the orig­i­nal Bru­tal script! Nation­al Pub­li­ca­tions was one of the com­pa­nies that would lat­er become DC Comics. The cor­po­ra­tion was orig­i­nal­ly two com­pa­nies: Nation­al Allied Pub­li­ca­tions (found­ed by Major Mal­colm Wheel­er-Nichol­son in 1934 to pub­lish the first Amer­i­can com­ic book with all-orig­i­nal mate­r­i­al rather than com­ic strip reprints) and Detec­tive Comics. If Amer­i­can so; the oth­er dar­ing Crime Fight­er Mr. Bruce Wayne and his blood; are Eng­lish from ear­ly Amer­i­ca!

    How does the Caped Won­der arrive ear­li­er in Wash­ing­ton Direct Cir­cuit from Lon­don of Eng­land? And Action the Amer­i­can Cal­vary for killing vil­lains?
    This answer is these men of courage are blood relat­ed and not prop­er­ly rep­re­sent­ed from Cana­da here; and we are AMERICA!!!!!
    I bought and trade comics in the height of chil­drens Mar­vel in the 1960s to me! While I do not accept lousy trade I sup­port the tal­ent of Crime Bust­ing Adven­ture and I need to say Mr. Kent and Mr. Wayne are friends and love the Gap of moth­er! Nev­er does the Caped wing of Eng­land talk of moth­er; for both he and younger blood wait for re-con­cila­tion!

    Mr. Kent real­ly did excite the Amer­i­can Paper of The Dai­ly Plan­et!
    Here as a Uni­ver­si­ty Grad­u­ate of Yale and two sol­id years in Har­vard; (with oppo­si­tion) top­pling the under­bug of com­mu­nism; hat­ed and railed a new­pa­per prop­er called the US-Telex; with broth­er (unknown) then Wayne!!
    Here we have a sto­ry Gold; and Sil­ver and warm bet­ter than a new elec­tion for not inter­est­ed vot­ers to a major audi­ence starv­ing on why the Man-of-Steel and the Caped Won­der nev­er wed their High School (S)weet-Heart?!
    Mer­ry is the New Year and that is the Com­ic Book Indus­try!
    The Deal is two men fought injus­tice with blood fam­i­ly. The world in wor­ry raised phoney bi-lines; that these coura­geous in car­ing males nev­er cov­ered! One point is Superman’s blood moth­er and father: “A plan­et is dying; called accord­ing to this rare Bible; Kryp­ton; father is in Kryptonopol; (Greek for Edmon­ton); the moth­er of Mr. Clark Kent; is claims his (blood) father Jor-el; wants son (Clark) out to sail to Water new Earth; and love alone!
    As with the Orig­i­nal Bat-Man Script; baby pow­er is removed and sent sail­ing the Cos­mos to invade the Roman Catholic Cre­at­ed World called Earth?

    -5-

    Best regards out there…,

    ®-©Mr. Alexan­der Simon.

    • Alexander Simon says:

      “THE
      BURNING GUN”

      (By
      Writer Mr. Alexan­der Simon]

      The day was cool as I drank my cup of Joe, wait­ing
      for my next assign­ment from Alber­ta.

      While work­ing over the RCMP; I noticed a fla­grant
      Report and head­ed Ottawa for more Inquiry.
      The Ger­man Staff was relay­ing Reposts on a ‘sex-ring;’ pre­tend­ing to
      “out-hand;” the image of San­ta Claus.

      I derid­ed all accu­sa­tions and “launched;” an
      Inves­ti­ga­tion by my secrete table; and called the Fed­er­al Bureau of Wash­ing­ton
      to inter­cede on my rep­u­ta­tion! As the
      burn­ing for my Colt-.45; as Mick­ey Spillane Writer I sup­port;

      Edmon­ton was kool and Win­ter that Feb­ru­ary day!!

      “Well; she is a well kept Mom;” said Ms Julie
      Storm! “I, answered her call.”

      She was poised as Ger­man cool. She talked cool again; and asked for the
      dacia!

      We overviewed why a San­ta Claus was cen­tered in a
      rob­bery under a stolen name. I offered a
      detail of known in reli­gion pedophiles’!
      I held a gun burn­ing “red hot.”

      I called Ottawa, again with no avail!! And rest­ed for a Ger­man Kall.

      For I am Stan Berlin.

      I ride for Ger­many, only. My rea­son was the red-and-white imposters
      took on a Ger­man name!!

      v

  • 2012年2月16日

    ミスターアレクサンダー·サイモン、
    サー·ウィリアム·プレイス、
    アプト。 #305 — 8820 ‑85通り、
    エドモントン、アルバータT6C 3C2

    電話:(780)466‑9719
    E‑メール:al*****@te***.net

    “ボディコン·モデルは殺しがお好き!?”:今日の答えは “奥様は魔女!“を

    辞書のファンク&Wagnallsスタンダードデスクによると、 ‘;‘ヘキサグラム; ‘は6尖ったスターです。インターセクトまたはアセンブリで。 Hexは呪文であり、同じ研究者によって、パズルにすることです。

    “広告のホットポイントは、“ウィザードとホワイトをすべて備えた新しいプレミアエピソードである “妻;“の前の才能!私は、この無礼決してキャストのすべての専門家として1つを満たし、ここエドモントンで! MSエリザベスビクトリアモンゴメリーは、手入れの行き届いた家庭用の大きな喜びと私には赤、アイルランド穏やかです!

    AMERICA:;すべての強力なアメリカの$に影響を与える上で明示的に、爆発的な戦争の新たなアップカミング真実にまれな才能の全ステージは、EUの旗に捧げエピソードがあります!

    結婚の練習を回すとステッドを泥棒に嫉妬して興味のある自由な家を保持しているの、何が珍しい撮影と正確なのは “特殊効果“です!

    シーンは空腹成長惑星で同じ容姿の人々ここではない!そして新しい!旅行者が若いとスター…私は勉強し、広告もよく知っているつの領域と福祉などへの始まりを置きながら、この六角プラネットウォーロックグランデと賢明です。

    1。 (さんバイオレット冬)、珍しいロンドンの司書は、彼女のすっきりと慎重な夫と結婚している、(氏テッドはバロウズ)。
    2。のようなドイツの朝、(ダニエルさん冬は彼女を “採用した友人、希少すぎて数学を愛するブロンドです。
    3。 (ミスターライアンシモンズ)、 “信頼できる; ‘ベルギーの会計士はあまりにも彼の母親の名前が大好き!
    4 .. (氏とMsゴールディGaland)ネバダ州で、中央には、ドイツ料理を愛し、カナダ中央部で、この氏の冬を満たす!
    5。 “ホットポイント;” 1つのアカウント。(MSダイアン·バークレー)を保持していると企業を望んで、ダニエルは成功したようで!

    スター眼差しで、フィルムも “既得権益“です!

    あまりにもここで撮影。!!であるだけでなくオンWAY XXXXX、私はオリジナルの ” — 魔女のこと“を疑う。

    -30 -

  • March 13, 2012

    Ger­man War­rior: The Wolf Blass!
    Episode Pre­miere: “The Fly­ing Leather”!
    By, Mr. Alexan­der Simon,
    Sir William Place,
    # 305, 8820 – 85 Street,
    Edmon­ton, Alber­ta, T6C 3C2
    Tele­phone: (780) 466‑9719

    “Bat­man is an Amer­i­can tele­vi­sion series, based on the DC com­ic book char­ac­ter of the same name. It starred Adam West as Bat­man and Burt Ward as Robin — two crime-fight­ing heroes who defend Gotham City … Gotham City ( /ˈɡɒθəm/ GOTH-əm) is a fic­tion­al U.S. city appear­ing in DC Comics, best known as the home of Bat­man. Bat­man’s place of res­i­dence was first iden­ti­fied as Gotham City in Bat­man #4 (Win­ter 1940) … Con­gres­sion­al over­sight is intend­ed to pre­vent waste and fraud, pro­tect civ­il lib­er­ties and indi­vid­ual rights, ensure exec­u­tive com­pli­ance with the law, gath­er infor­ma­tion for mak­ing laws and edu­cat­ing the pub­lic, and eval­u­ate exec­u­tive per­for­mance … The day-to-day enforce­ment and admin­is­tra­tion of fed­er­al laws is in the hands of the var­i­ous fed­er­al exec­u­tive depart­ments, cre­at­ed by Con­gress to deal with spe­cif­ic areas of nation­al and inter­na­tion­al affairs. The heads of the 15 depart­ments, cho­sen by the Pres­i­dent and approved with the “advice and con­sent” of the U.S. Sen­ate, form a coun­cil of advis­ers gen­er­al­ly known as the Pres­i­den­t’s “Cab­i­net”; includ­ing approval of a new City Gov­erned and in New York: Gotham! For real proof; exam­ine the Nation Ger­many (It was estab­lished in 1966 by Wolf­gang Blass,[1] a Ger­man immi­grant) and — to Berlin! (Mr.) Wolf Blass is an Aus­tralian win­ery based in South Aus­trali­a’s Barossa Val­ley;” and lost no ware to any trade “embar­go!” His Mr. Blass found bats amus­ing and ate with them well while lik­ing their shin­ny leather! (Oh, appeal)!!
    Bat is defined accord­ing to the rare a Edi­to­r­i­al Staff of Funk & Wag­nalls Stan­dard; in Dic­tio­nary; by the expert in Geog­ra­phy; Mr. Harold A. Rogers Junior; as accept­ed by the San Fran­cis­co State Col­lege: “a noc­tur­nal fly­ing mam­mal with dig­its …:” in lay­men terms telepa­thy! Whole­some is intel­lect with intel­li­gence; and what I will prove is bats are not ene­my! And mind of com­mu­ni­ca­tion with­out a sound audio too! The caped crim­i­nal today knows this and one law must be sent – telepa­thy against the Nation hear­ing the Sound Nav­i­ga­tion on Reg­istry for crime! If you peo­ple doubt; then exam­ine the series Bat­man? And relay why in the Bat-Cave; two crime fight­ers are calm and not in war for no idiot fool dared every enter the Bat-Cave of Gotham? In com­pelling work only one (of more lat­er) lady fight­ing for women’s need met the head of a true work against com­mu­nism; Won­der Woman! Again in the 60s; times were media high on fund and lit­tle on prej­u­dice to me~! The social care for Union pay was more demand­ing for the grand man at the wheel of Amer­i­ca was the one Pres­i­dent Mr. Richard Mill­house Nixon! Not a com­mie nor a fool! And he it is said enjoyed the Caped Cru­sad­er and his broth­er of mov­ing flight fight every lousy com­mie to oust Gotham from infec­tion! That’s a tight and car­ing City I Roman Catholic and I am a col­lec­tor of 50 rare com­ic books approve! How the two Mil­lion­aires arrive was very Ger­man – the vine­yard of Berlin; Blass! In, con­clu­sion; a under­ground today does exist under Man­hat­tan, New York and in Lon­don and in ear­ly here! For the leather of Wolf; he is hair full!

    Sources: — http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman_ (TV series)
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gotham_Cityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_P._Kennedy,_Sr.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_of_the_United_States#Powers_of_Congress_2

  • Alexander Simon says:

    Dia­monds are a Girlu2019s Best Friend!! nnWriter­nAlexan­der Simon is open to com­ment!! nn(587) 589–6446nor Telus call on inter­net: al*****@te***.netnn nnFa­mous­ly per­formed by Mar­i­lyn­n­Mon­roe in the 1953 film Gen­tle­men Pre­fer Blondes; anla­dy with blue pierc­ing eyes had an engage­ment ring of dia­mond!! Here anoth­er Star Light; Jane Russell,nwho played oppo­site Mon­roe, sang “Dia­monds Are a Girl’s Best­n­Friend”!! In BIG anoth­er Pic­ture: Then­song is per­haps most famous­ly per­formed by Mar­i­lyn­n­Mon­roe in the 1953 film Gen­tle­men Pre­fer Blondes.nMonroe’s first ear­ly Alber­ta ver­sion!! nn nnWhat are dia­monds that daz­zles women to a fury like sharks in anfren­zy?? The only answer isnscience!! While Mar­riage hold a dia­mond­nring to a faith­ful mat­ri­mo­ny; why a high price for wed­ding rights!!?nn nnThe best answer is are Dia­monds real glass engi­neered to a new form? One is radioac­tiv­i­ty. u201c(from Latin:ncarbo “coal”) is the chem­i­cal­nele­ment with sym­bol C and atom­ic numbern6. As a mem­ber of group 14 on the peri­od­ic­ntable, it is non­metal­lic and tetravalentu2014makingnfour elec­tron­snavail­able to form cova­lent chem­i­cal bonds. There are three­n­nat­u­ral­ly occur­ring iso­topes, with 12C and 13Cnbeing sta­ble, while 14C is radioactive,ndecaying with a half-life of about 5,730 years. Car­bon is one of the few ele­ments known since antiquity.n If Car­bon­ate Car­bon occurs and isnen­riched where is this iso­tope that has an u201catomicu201d radi­a­tion that can ignite annatom bomb?? nn nnThe dis­tur­bance can be plot­ted against Dia­mond facets and read well!! As father and moth­er read off their daughteru2019snwedding con­clude this: Has a Nation ofnAfrica entered a head of the Unit­ed States as this read­ing: u201cDiamond extrac­tion­n­from pri­ma­ry deposits (kim­ber­litic and lam­proites) start­ed in the 1870s aftern­the dis­cov­ery of the Dia­mond Fields in South Africa.[85]nProduction has increased over time and now an accu­mu­lat­ed total ofn4,500,000,000 carats (900,000 kg) have been mined since that date; sin­cen­by the inter­net again 49% of dia­monds orig­i­nate from Cen­tral­nand South­ern Africa, although sig­nif­i­cant sources!!nn nnIf African­holds real dia­monds then why fund the poor with Unicef:?!!nn nnThe answer­nis fraud!! The African Nation has a lostnHis­to­ry includ­ing min­ing the Hope Dia­mond!! nKnown by ear­ly Unicef in France as (“the Blue of France”),;nIndia invad­ed parts of Chas­tain!! Heren­North­ern Africa was min­ing for oil not dia­monds and struck a ves­sel rich andnbet­ter than any glass!!nn nnIn­dia was­nover­whelmed with the suc­cess and Ger­many land­ed for more inter­est and left­nrea­son­ing not to trail women with false stones!!nn nnThus then­Blue Hope; was a media then race to not inter­est for­eign­ers from win­ning a newn­bold oil dis­cov­ery!! nn nnSad­ly todayn­while rock­et prices soar from $300. To ana­maz­ing $19,000. US on a Carat shin­ny; gaso­line is worth more and so is a womenu2019snreputation; as his­tor­i­cal­ly known!! Then­bet­ter invest­ment is in banking!!nn nnA womenu2019snbest friend is a true mar­riage not a mete­or of refined!! Mete­ors hit the Earth. Some-times nnBankers ofn­wis­dom refine a rare u201ccoal;u201d caus­ing­nalarm to un-wed women!! As Moth­ern­Earth’s trea­sures her only daugh­ter (s) on the wed­ding day; the old adage ofn­throw­ing rice and first toss­ing a bed of rest­ing ros­es to the next mar­ry apply;ndoes the con­sid­er­a­tion; if a dia­mond can cut through glass and is the hard­estnsub­stance in the Earth? u201cDiamonds have the high­est hard­ness of any bulk (all one type) mate­r­i­al. Because of this,nmany impor­tant indus­tries use dia­monds as tools for cutting;u2026u201d does this­nin­clude den­tistry? If this inter­netnstate­ment is cor­rect a crys­talline is mar­ket­ed as a glass com­mon­n­ev­ery­where!! While u2026 u201ccrystal is a solid­nwhere the atoms form a peri­od­ic arrangement;u201d u2026 this is accom­plished to shapenand facet a dia­mond!! From anmete­or!! Or; a rare though nown80-mil­lion tonne of cur­rent impact!! nn nnThat is the true Sto­ry of a rare ring in met­al usu­al­ly called Gold!!

  • Alexander Simon says:

    DE KARATE CRUSHER!

    Mijn oud­ere broer bracht me mijn eerste voor­beeld! Hij studeerde de Mar­tial Arts; en als een jonge tiener; Ik vond een ronde alu­mini­um 9‑inch cirkel met veren gekop­peld aan rood leer voor alle vingers en duim! Het idee werd doorges­tu­urd door Austin beroep! Op de jonge leefti­jd van slechts 13 jaar en oud­er; mijn han­den voelde goed; en ver­sterkt door de ver­beeld­ing van een “strak;” honkbal rond mijn rechts of links! Zulks soci­aal assis­tente mijn moed­er; voor ik gestofzuigd de tapi­jten dagelijks; en hielp unload bood­schap­pen; zoals mijn vad­er was heenge­gaan; en we lev­en alleen! De ‘veren;’ gelegeerd staal waren van Brit, Enge­land!
    Ik mis deze “Karate Crush­er;” van­daag en wens mijn zoon; kon ver­plet­teren met mij van­daag!

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