I really enjoyed the fact that the producers were able to put a little different offering before us. The usually simplistic plot is jazzed up. Apparently, the Fleischer Brothers were on their way out, and further Superman episodes would be watched over by someone else. In this one there is a circus in town. For some reason Lois and Clark are sent to cover it. Most of the episode has to do with atmosphere and circus images. That is until some carelessness leads to a huge gorilla being released, putting Lois in danger and causing a bunch of dangerous animals to be released. Superman must attempt to quell the scattered carnivores and rescue Lois. I thought the suspense and the realism of this episode was good. No outer space attacks. No misguided or mad scientists. No weird science.

This would be my response to the words Superman says in this 8-minute cartoons from 1942: "This is a job for Superman." The title sounds as if some super-villain gets loose and wreaks havoc on the highway, but the truth is it is just a bunch of circus animals who managed to flee from their prison. Sounds like a job for police and the local fire department perhaps if you ask me and not for the Man of Steel. Oh well, his priorities were clearly different back in the day looking at several other Fleischer cartoons from the years of World War II too. Sometimes he even struggles against random crooks and here he has to catch a couple animals then I guess. Not the Superman I like though and I wish he would finally stop saving Lois, the danger magnet. I don't recommend the watch. Thumbs down.

The band strikes up a march as playful kids wave pennants, Lois smiles and shifts her gaze lazily; clowns caper, elephants dance. It's a high moment of oblivion, humanity with its guard down. --The sort of scene Hitchcock laid out with such care, so that the mayhem, when it strikes suddenly, is fully felt. Outside, a tiny monkey playing with a bright metal ring starts at a shadow. Jumping away, he doesn't release the ring in time; this pulls the cord that it's attached to, which springs open the latch on a circus wagon. Brief transition, and we hear a low growl at the entrance of the main tent, over the music and sounds of the crowd. We track reactions in montage as every person freezes in place. Then, only after we have been allowed take in the ripeness of the delicious moment of growing terror, are we shown what has paralyzed everyone.The few minutes of this cartoon work exactly like prime early Hitchcock. It builds deliberately, lovingly toward a pivotal/revelatory brilliant set piece that is still exciting. Before every large budget film tried to encompass the destruction of planet earth and the end of space time within its plot thread, choice nuggets of time-- like the one in this simple little cartoon-- were what cinema was all about. You'd wait for a moment. The moment built slowly and deliberately. Everything wasn't yielded at once. The experience was cumulative, not all sensory avalanche from first shot to last. Ultimately, the overdone-gasm sort of film doesn't last. It is seen through; the novelty, which is all it has, exhausts itself after a few viewings. Claptrap-- even well-mounted, noisy, big, breathless claptrap-- is still only that.I see this great short as a wonderfully fresh, storyboard-like look at how feature films used to be put together. For that reason, I give it ten stars.

Lois Lane and Clark Kent are sent to cover a circus (for some reason). They separate to cover more ground. While Lois is watching a show in the Big Top a HUGE (and very fierce-looking) gorilla (or ape) is accidentally let loose.He proceeds to wreak havoc and, in the mayhem, other animals escape from their cages. Lois saves a little girl from the huge gorilla (or ape) but then it goes after her? Can Superman save her and the circus?Very strange Superman cartoon. For once he isn't battling mad scientists or creatures--just animals. Also it seems kind of strange that he has trouble beating a large gorilla (even though it IS huge). And he doesn't even show up until 6 minutes in (this is only 8 minutes long). Still, it's pretty good.