Last year, Toonami made available all of the classic Fleischer Studios Superman theatrical shorts on it's website. There's no direct link to it so you have to go to the main page:

http://www.toonamiarsenal.com/

And on the side menu bar, click "FEATURES". Superman should be at the top of the selections.

Every animator, as well as anybody who studies animation, knows this cartoon series. It's required viewing in Animation 101.

These toons were shown in movie houses in the early 1940's, and are some of the best animation to come from that era. The stories are kinda corny, but the dialogue is not too bad, and the artwork is fucking amazing. The Fleischers gained noteriety for their Out Of The Inkwell toons in the early 1930's, but hit it huge with Popeye (all of the black and white Popeyes were from Fleischer, as well as some of the early color ones). At one point, Popeye was more famous than Mickey Mouse.

Throughout the 30's and into the '40's, Fleischer was Disney's main competitor (Warner Brothers would not hit their stride until the mid 1940's, as would MGM), and these toons show why. Many of the things we know about Superman were from these cartoons (including the "Faster than a speeding bullet..." phrase). Superman was still very young in comic book years, so the Fleischers had a lot of room to improvise.

Have fun... and remember, they're from the early 1940's so try not to laugh too hard at the stoies.

DM