It is easy to gaze at the list of films currently playing at the multiplex and forget that there was ever a time when Hollywood didn’t crank out a new superhero movie every couple weeks. But there was indeed such a time, and in fact a very long one: the first 75 years of movie history were basically devoid of superheroes.
Then came Superman. A major box-office hit when it was released in December 1978, the film spawned three direct sequels and a fourth quasi-sequel/reboot thingamajig. More importantly, just as the Superman character is the prototype for comic-book superheroes, Superman: The Movie is the godfather of all the superhero flicks that came after it. The people who make the films about Batman, Spider-Man, and the X-Men usually speak in reverent tones about Superman and Superman II, the way people who make mafia movies acknowledge The Godfather.
Appropriate homage is paid by The Superman Motion Picture Anthology: 1978-2006, the new Blu-ray set that includes the four Christopher Reeve Superman films, an extended cut of the first movie, the alternate version of the second one, and 2006's Superman Returns (starring Brandon Routh), for a total of seven feature films. Each one gets its own disc packed with extras, and then there’s an eighth disc packed with more.
The 2006 Blu-rays had some (but not all) of the bonus features from the previous DVD versions, plus some new extras of their own. This new set finally compiles everything from the DVDs and the Blu-rays, which are as follows:
- Superman: The Movie audio commentary by producer Pierre Spengler and executive producer Ilya Salkind.
- Superman: The Movie Extended Edition audio commentary by director Richard Donner and creative consultant Tom Mankiewicz, who are both a lot of fun. There’s also a music-only audio track for this film, plus footage of screen tests.
- Superman II audio commentary by Spengler and Salkind. Salkind is defensive, pompous, and dull.
- Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut audio commentary by Donner and Mankiewicz.
- Superman III audio commentary by Spengler and Salkind.
- Superman IV audio commentary by screenwriter Mark Rosenthal, who openly mocks the film and its wrong-headed producers. Delightful!
- Superman Returns video journals with director Bryan Singer. He didn’t do an audio commentary (boo!), so here’s this instead.
- All the customary deleted scenes, theatrical trailers, TV spots, and so forth.
- Superman and the Mole-Men, a 1951 theatrical feature that coincided with the Adventures of Superman TV series.
- The Adventures of Superpup. In 1958, with The Adventures of Superman doing so well, somebody figured they should make a version set in an alternate universe inhabited by dogs instead of people. So you’ve got a guy in a Superman costume wearing a giant dog head, like a sports mascot. His name is Superpup. His mild-mannered alter ego is named Bark Bent. This was the pilot episode. It never even aired. It must be seen to be believed.
- TV special: The Making of Superman: The Movie. It’s a blast to watch anything from late-’70s TV, but especially a behind-the-scenes look at a then-current movie.
- TV special: The Making of Superman II. I totally remember seeing this on TV when I was a kid. It’s fascinating to see them explain “cutting edge” special effects that are now hilariously quaint.
- TV special: Superman’s 50th Anniversary: A Celebration of the Man of Steel. This aired in 1988, several months after Superman IV: The Quest for Peace had embarrassed itself in theaters, and it’s a curious bit of memorabilia indeed. Hosted by Dana Carvey and featuring several Saturday Night Live-related people, it’s a comedic tribute to Superman, not an actual examination of the character’s popularity or significance. Imagine a Superman-themed episode of SNL and you’ve pretty much got it.
- Warner Bros. cartoons “Super-Rabbit” (1943) “Stupor Duck” (1956), and “Snafuperman” (1944). Bugs and Daffy star in the first two; the third features a dopey G.I. named Private Snafu and was part of a series of Private Snafu cartoons made for U.S. soldiers during World War II.
- The 17 animated Superman shorts, each about 10 minutes long, that were produced by Fleischer Studios and then by Famous Studios between 1941 and 1943. They were in the public domain for a while, so you’ve probably seen dirty, scratchy versions of them lying around. They’ve been cleaned up for Blu-ray.
- Featurette: “First Flight: The Fleischer Superman Series.” This was the better of the two 1940s animated series, so it gets its own tribute.
- Featurettes: “Taking Flight: The Development of Superman,” “Making Superman: Filming the Legend,” and “The Magic Behind the Cape.” These docs, each about 30 minutes long and hosted by Marc McClure (aka Jimmy Olsen), were produced in 2001. They’re basically updated versions of those vintage TV specials, with new cast interviews and behind-the-scenes trivia.
- Featurette: “Superman II: Restoring the Vision.” A brief but informative summary of what the heck happened to Richard Donner and Superman II, and how Donner’s cut was compiled 25 years after the fact.
- Featurette: “Resurrecting Jor-El.” This shows how the effects wizards used old Marlon Brando footage to put Superman’s dad in Superman Returns.
- Featurette: “The Mythology of Superman.” In which experts give fascinating insight into the cultural origins of Superman, and how the character relates to centuries-old folklore, legends, and whatnot.
- Featurette: “The Heart of a Hero: A Tribute to Christopher Reeve.” This will make you cry.
- Documentary: “Requiem for Krypton: Making Superman Returns.” In case you needed a 173-minute doc about Bryan Singer’s 2006 film, here it is.
- Documentary: “Look, Up in the Sky! The Amazing Story of Superman.” Co-produced by doc guru Ken Burns, this is the informative and entertaining retrospective the Man of Steel deserves, though it focuses mostly on the early years of the character…
- Documentary: “You Will Believe: The Cinematic Saga of Superman.” …probably because this doc focuses on the Christopher Reeve years. There’s some really terrific stuff here from the various people involved, who openly talk about the problems of the last two movies and share highly amusing anecdotes about the production.
The only new feature is this one:
- Featurette: “The Science of Superman.” This aired on the National Geographic Channel in 2006. As far as I can determine, it was never available on home video until now.
Doesn’t that seem like the sort of thing that this new Blu-ray set should have more of?
Warner Bros. owns the rights to the 1948 and 1950 theatrical serials, Superman and Atom Man vs. Superman, starring Kirk Alyn. They’ve been released separately on DVD; it would have been nice to see them here, too, especially since George Reeves’ Superman and the Mole-Men is included. (We do get a few glimpses of the serials in the “Look, Up in the Sky!” documentary.)
Or how about some of the New Adventures of Superman animated shorts that aired on CBS in the late 1960s? Or the half-hour animated adventures from 1988?
Or what about this: In 1975, ABC aired It’s a Bird…It’s a Plane…It’s Superman, a shortened version of the Broadway musical (!) that had flopped in 1966. The network only aired it once, and it’s never been officially released on home video. (You can watch it through Google Video, though.) A collection that includes Superpup should also, I think you’ll agree, include the Superman musical.
It’s great to have all the previous bonus features collected into one set, though, and it will be at least a couple years before Warner Bros. releases another edition. (I wouldn’t be surprised if they update it to include Man of Steel, due in theaters in December 2012.)
Furthermore, all of the movies are presented here in DTS-HD Master Audio, a lossless format that makes the films sound better than they ever have before, even on previous Blu-ray editions. For fans with superior home theater systems, that factor alone might be enough to justify the new set.
Of course, if you don’t already own any of these films on Blu-ray or DVD, buying The Superman Motion Picture Anthology: 1978-2006 is a no-brainer. Even if you do, the set is a handsome tribute to the world’s most famous costumed extra-terrestrial.
