In 2023, Warner Bros. released a Blu-ray set containing the 17 cartoons, taken from high-definition restorations of the original 35mm source elements.

Paramount was interested in financially exploiting the phenomenal popularity of the then-new Superman comic books, by producing a series of theatrical cartoons based upon the character.

It lost to Lend a Paw, a Pluto cartoon from Walt Disney Productions and RKO Radio Pictures.

Rotoscoping, the process of tracing animation drawings from live-action footage, was used minimally to lend realism to the character's bodily movements.

In these cases, the Fleischers' lead animators—many of whom lacked training in figure drawing—animated "roughly" and depended upon their assistants (usually inexperienced animators but established draftsmen) to keep Superman "on model" during his action sequences.

The first nine cartoons had more of a science fiction aspect to them, as they involved the Man of Steel fighting robots, giant monsters, meteors from outer space, and other perils.

The later eight cartoons in the series, which were all Famous Studios productions, dealt more with World War II propaganda stories, such as in Eleventh Hour, which finds Superman going to Japan to commit acts of sabotage in order to reduce the morale of the enemy; meanwhile, an angered Adolf Hitler had a cameo role at the end of Jungle Drums after Superman foiled another Nazi plot.

For international prints of Superman cartoons starting with "Showdown" the opening line is "Faster than a streak of lightning!

The high cost of the series kept it from continuing in the face of budgetary restrictions that were imposed after removing the Fleischers from the studio.

[9] In addition, Paramount cited waning interest in the Superman shorts among theater exhibitors as another justification for the series' cancellation.

All eventually fell into the public domain, due to National's failure to renew their copyrights; thus, they have been widely distributed on VHS, LaserDisc, and DVD.

In a rare move for a competing studio, Leon Schlesinger Productions, producers of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies (which were distributed by Warner Bros.), featured Timberg's Superman theme in Snafuperman, a 1944 Private Snafu cartoon Schlesinger produced for the U.S. Army.

[citation needed] Comic book artist Alex Ross has also listed the shorts among the inspiration for his take on Superman's look.

[citation needed] This animated version of Superman was planned to be made as a cameo in the original final scene from the 1988 film Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

[18] The 2004 feature-length film Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (which Paramount released in several territories, Warner Bros. also distributed in a few countries) kept the setting in the 1940s, but scaled up the scene from a single robot robbing a jewelry exhibition to an army of gigantic robots stealing city infrastructure.

The movie gave a nod to its source following the robbery with the newspaper headline, "Mechanical Monsters Unearth Generators".

[citation needed] In the Crisis on Infinite Earths tie-in comic, the world of those cartoons takes place on Earth-F before being destroyed by the Anti-Monitor.

Among the best reviewed of these various releases was a 1991 VHS set produced by Bosko Video, the somewhat incorrectly titled The Complete Superman Collection: Golden Anniversary Edition – The Paramount Cartoon Classics of Max & Dave Fleischer released as two VHS volumes which featured high-quality transfers from 35 mm prints.

The Bosko Video set was later issued on DVD by Image Entertainment as The Complete Superman Collection: Diamond Anniversary Edition in 2000.

DVD features included: all 17 animated shorts digitally restored in Dolby Digital 2.0 audio; a bonus cartoon: Snafuperman (a 1944 Warner Bros. wartime parody of the Fleischer cartoons, featuring Private Snafu and produced for the U.S. Army); "Behind the Cape" synopses and fun facts with each cartoon; a DVD fold-out booklet with notes on the series; bios of the voice actors, producer Max Fleischer, and Superman; a bonus trailer for the 1948 Superman serial with Kirk Alyn; and a recorded audio phone interview with Joan Alexander (the voice of Lois Lane).

A Blu-ray set containing all the cartoons, called Max Fleischer's Superman: Collector's Edition was released on October 30, 2012, by the Gaiam studio.