I always took the Fleischer cartoons for what they were, game-changing animations for their time. Faces weren't really a huge priority back then so I'm not really surprised that there wasn't a lot of dynamism to them. The focus was on the novelty of hand-drawn movement (something that is both going the way-side and easier to do with computers these days) to action would definitely have been preferred. Not to mention, we're talking shorts so the storyline was ALWAYS compressed down. The Timm DCAU (i.e. the animated series voiced by Tim Daly and Dana Delany) were almost twice as long, allowing for a little more depth.
I tend to have a soft spot in my heart for the Fleischer/Famous shorts despite they changes in animation. It has a certain style (the Art Deco look) that is still tied to the Superman stories in many places today.
(Can you tell I have a motion designer/animator for a brother?)
CLARK: No. I'm just worried I'm a jinx.
JONATHAN: A jinx?
CLARK: Yeah. Let's face it, ever since she's known me, Lois's been kidnapped, frozen, pushed off buildings, almost stabbed, poisoned, buried alive and who knows what else, and it's all because of me.
-"Contact" (You're not her jinx, you're her blessing.)
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