Japoteurs

Infobox Hollywood cartoon
cartoon_name = Japoteurs
series = Superman


caption = Title card from "Japoteurs"
director = Seymour Kneitel
story_artist = Bill Turner
Carl Meyer
animator = Myron Waldman
Nicholas Tafuri
voice_actor = Bud Collyer
Sam Parker
Joan Alexander
Julian Noa
Jack Mercer
musician = Sammy Timberg
producer = Sam Buchwald
studio = Famous Studios
distributor = Paramount Pictures
release_date = September 18, 1942 (USA)
color_process = Technicolor
runtime = 9 min. (one reel)
preceded_by = "Terror on the Midway" (1942)
followed_by = "Showdown" (1942)
movie_language = English
imdb_id = 0034913

"Japoteurs" is the tenth of seventeen animated Technicolor short films based upon the DC Comics character of Superman, originally created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. The first "Superman" cartoon produced by Famous Studios (the successor to Fleischer Studios), "Japoteurs" covers Superman's adventures stopping Japanese spies from hijacking a bomber plane and bringing it to Tokyo. This cartoon does not bear the Famous Studios name because that company had not yet been fully organized after Max Fleischer was removed by Paramount Pictures from the studio which bore his name. The cartoon was originally released to theaters by Paramount Pictures on September 18, 1942. [http://imdb.com/title/tt0034913/ Japoteurs (1942) ] ] The word "Japoteurs" is an portmanteau of the words "Japanese" and "Saboteurs".

Plot

The story begins with a shot of the front page of the "Daily Planet". The headline reads "World's Largest Bombing Plane Finally Completed." The man reading the newspaper is Japanese, he stands up and looks at a picture of the Statue of Liberty in his office, then pushes a button on his desk, and the picture changes into one of the Japanese flag. He bows to it and jams his glowing cigarette into the news headline. Later, Clark Kent and Lois Lane are taking a tour of the new bombing plane before a test run. When everyone is told to get off, Lois stays behind and hides in a locker on board the plane.

As the plane takes off, we see that there are other stowaways aboard. Hidden inside what look like bombs are three Japanese spies. The spies tie and gag the pilots and hijack the plane. Meanwhile, Lois emerges from her hiding place and sneaks over to the cockpit. As she's about to open the door, she notices that the Japanese spies have hijacked the plane. She sneaks into the room and calls for help on the radio. In response to her calls for help, fighter planes are sent to stop the hijackers. In response, the hijackers deploy a bomb, which stops the fighters from taking off. Clark Kent goes into an elevator and changes into Superman as it goes up to the roof.

Superman enters the plane to stop the hijackers, but one of them has Lois tied up and is ready to drop her out of the plane through the bomb hatch. Superman jumps out of the plane and comes back in through the bomb hatch to save Lois. He unties her and then starts fighting the hijackers. One of them breaks the plane's controls, and the plane starts falling towards the city. Superman takes Lois out of the plane and places her on the ground, then flies back up and catches the plane, bringing it to a safe landing right in the middle of the street.

Influences

The cartoon, and the stereotypical Japanese characters in particular, are done in a style typical of American propaganda during World War II. Many cartoons of the time followed a similar vein, such as the Schlesinger/Warner Bros. cartoons "Scrap Happy Daffy" (1943), "Daffy - The Commando" (1943), and "Herr Meets Hare" (1945), to name a few. Such films typically show Japanese and German characters in a negative light as the American hero makes short work of them.

The pose Superman strikes as he catches the plane, pressing his weight into its nose, is strikingly similar to a scene in "Superman Returns" (2006), in which Superman (Brandon Routh) stops an airplane from crashing into a baseball stadium, holding it by the nose, and carefully lowers it onto the field.

Voice actors

*Bud Collyer as Superman/Clark Kent/Japanese Hijacker
*Sam Parker as Clark Kent
*Joan Alexander as Lois Lane
*Julian Noa as Perry White)/Narrator/Police Officer
*Jack Mercer as the Press Tour Guide

References

External links

* [http://www.archive.org/details/japoteurs Japoteurs video]
* [http://cinemaniacal.com/video/superman-japoteurs Full cartoon] streaming on Cinemaniacal.
* [http://imdb.com/title/tt0034913/ imdb page]
* [http://www.bcdb.com/cartoon/15854-Japoteurs.html| bcdb page]