Superman: Billion Dollar Limited (1942) User Reviews

A refreshing exception

[suchenwi · 8/10 · 22 August 2008]

When one watches the animated Superman shorts of the 1940s, the similarity of the plots can become a bit boring - the adversary is most often a mad scientist in a hidden headquarter, threatening Metropolis with some evil invention - death rays, mechanical monsters, electric earthquake, magnetic telescope, what have you.

This one is refreshingly different. The bad ones drive around in a car, shooting and bombing, but the center of action is the gold train (on which Lois Lane travels, as the only press reporter, it seems). Train movies have their own typical ingredients, from the 1903 Great Train Robbery on, and quite some are featured here: decoupling cars in motion, running on the roofs, taking the steam locomotive from the tender in the back, fighting with the engineer, a switch turned to deroute the train on a side track, the fall (of people or the whole train) from a high bridge... it's all in the few minutes of this lovely piece.

But it wouldn't be a Superman film if he didn't do some incredible feats (involving balancing and high-precision placement) to ultimately win the day. If you're a fan of train movies, don't miss this. It's in the public domain and can be legally downloaded from archive.org.

Another pretty good Superman cartoon from the Fleischers in Billion Dollar Limited

[tavm · 7/10 · 4 June 2011]

With this summer having more than its share of superhero movies (Thor, X-Men, Green Lantern, Captain America), I thought I'd review yet another cartoon starring the first of them: Superman. In this one, after reporter Lois Lane ends up having to take the train carrying a shipment of gold to its destination after some robbers take the actual engineers out, Supes saves her more than once from actual danger not to mention leading the locomotive the rest of the way. With this third entry, Max and Dave Fleischer once again provide an entertaining adventure of the Man of Steel as he uses all his power in keeping the vehicle from falling off a bridge, getting Lois out of harm's way of explosives, and running the thing himself after the lead...oh, just watch the cartoon if you want to know the rest. So all in all, Billion Dollar Limited is worth a look.

A Good Old-Fashioned Train Robbery

[utgard14 · 8/10 · 13 December 2013]

I love the Fleischer Superman cartoons. The animation is smooth and fluid with vivid colors. The distinct art-deco style, vintage science fiction imagery, and use of noirish shadows gave them a look unlike any other cartoons. The music and voice work is superb. They're fun, accessible, enduring animation classics.

The third in the series is about a train carrying a gold shipment to the mint that's hijacked by well-armed masked robbers. Also on board the train is Lois Lane, who at one point picks up a machine gun and attempts to fight the robbers off herself! Superman flies to save Lois and deliver the gold shipment, but the robbers don't make it easy for him. Gotta admire their tenacity. They see Superman show up and they not only don't run away, they start throwing cans of tear gas at him. Talk about doubling down on stupid.

This is another exciting Superman cartoon with non-stop action and fun. I love train stories so that was an added bonus for me. Like many of the Fleischer cartoons, this features very little dialogue. It's driven by the action and the exciting music.

This is the third entry in a perverse franchise . . .

[tadpole-596-918256 · 6/10 · 20 December 2019]

. . . about a show-boating hot dog and a wayward wench who sticks to him like bad news. Superman has an uncanny knack of making any calamity worse than it was before he arrived on the scene. BILLION DOLLAR LIMITED is no exception. When this brief cartoon came out, gold as valued at $35 an ounce, which means that one pound of the yellow stuff cost $560. By rounding that amount to $500, we can approximate that a billion bucks worth of gold bars would have weighed one thousand tons! Therefore, at best the would-be train robbers could have managed to stuff their getaway jalopy with about one quarter of one tenth of one per cent of this loot! Had Superman merely conceded that minuscule percentage of the gold shipment to the gang outright, he could have saved a historic TWO BILLION DOLLAR stone train trestle from being blown up! And what's with the deep-voiced Ms. Lane? Instead of parading around in men's duds (suits and ties), why doesn't she just start a GoFundMe campaign to finance some Gender Reassignment Surgery? Surely this would be the best way for her to become "just one of the boys."

It was good...

[paul_haakonsen · 6/10 · 10 June 2023]

If you enjoyed the numerous other "Superman" short animated stories from the 1940s, then you will definitely also like "Billion Dollar Limited".

Writers Seymour Kneitel and Izzy Sparber put together an enjoyable and entertaining script here, despite the fact that "Billion Dollar Limited" is only running at 9 minutes. It is a well-rounded script and story, and I definitely found it to be enjoyable, and very much in the spirit of "Superman".

The art and animation style in "Billion Dollar Limited" is similar to that in most of the other 1940s animated short "Superman" stories, for better or worse.

My rating of the 1942 animated short story "Billion Dollar Limited" lands on a six out of ten stars.

Best of the Superman Shorts

[BobLib · 10/10 · 11 April 2005]

While all of the Fleischer/Famous Studios "Superman" cartoons are excellent, "Billion Dollar Limited," the third in the series, is probably the best of the lot in terms of overall animation, plot, and pacing. Why it wasn't even nominated for an Oscar as Best Animated Short for 1942 (Incredibly enough, only the first one was) in inexplicable.

Here, Lois Lane is assigned to cover the transfer of one billion dollars in gold to the U.S. Mint. Masked gangsters in their super-powered (for 1942) car take off after the train, determined to get that gold. Without giving too much away, what ensues is a thrill ride for both the characters and the audience, with truth, justice, and Superman triumphant at the end.

As they did in all the Fleischer/Famous Superman cartoons, Clayton "Bud" Collyer and Joan Alexander, who played Clark Kent/Superman and Lois Lane on radio, have the voice work honors here, and Fleischer perennial Jack Mercer gets a little to do as one of the bad guys, as well.

Another Superman Animated Adventure

[Ron Oliver · 10/10 · 1 April 2000]

A SUPERMAN Cartoon

A huge shipment of gold is being sent across country by train. Using ultra-modern techniques, a sophisticated gang of hooded thieves try to waylay the gold. With intrepid reporter Lois Lane as the only passenger on board, it's Superman to the rescue. But now that it's become a runaway train, can even he stop the BILLION DOLLAR LIMITED?

This was another in the series of excellent cartoons Max Fleischer produced for Paramount Studio. They feature great animation and taut, fast-moving plots. Meant to be shown in movie theaters, they are miles ahead of their Saturday Morning counterparts.

Superman cartoon

[preppy-3 · 10/10 · 16 October 2004]

Millions in gold is traveling by train to the US treasury. Traveling along is Lois Lane to report on it. Along the way the train is attacked by masked thieves. They detach the car with the armed guards in it and attack the remaining ones. This leads to a vicious fight between the remaining guards and the thieves. The thieves overpower them but then Lois Lane jumps in. She beats the thieves off the train (at one point using a gun) but the train starts to careen out of control. Lois can't stop it and the thieves will stop at nothing to get the gold. Good thing Superman is on the way!

Fast, exciting, non-stop action. Probably one of the best of all the cartoons. Just great.

Billion Dollar Limited

[Prismark10 · 5/10 · 13 February 2021]

Crooks are stealing a shipment of a billion dollars worth of gold from a government train.

Lois Lane is on the train and she takes on the baddies with a machine gun.

Pretty soon Superman flies in and does battle. He faces machine gun fire and has bombs thrown at him as he needs to pull the train to safety.

A brisk cartoon. It is surprising that Clarke Kent did not suspect anything as the baddies rushed by as Clark was waving goodbye to Lois.

Different from the last two, but great all the same

[betina-18954 · 9/10 · 9 February 2018]

Billion Dollar Limited is another great Superman cartoon.

The film starts with an image of the front page of the Daily Planet, reporting the shipment of a billion dollars of gold to the US mint. A train is being loaded with hundreds of bars of gold, guarded by several armed police officers. Lois is off course on board the train, to report about it. As the last of the gold is loaded, a car a few hundred yards away turns on its lights, and the men inside are robbers. And they of course follow the train. Later, a few of the robbers board the train from the back, climb to the middle, and separate several cars carrying guards from the front, leaving them stranded. Two other robbers attack the locomotive, throwing the engineer and a guard overboard, but falling off themselves as well. Lois, hearing the commotion, climbs to the engine's cab and is immediately machine-gunned from the robber's car, keeping pace with the train to the side. Lois grabs the machine gun and returns fire, only to have the bullets bounce harmlessly off of the armored car. The train continues to speed down the track, completely out of Lois' control and continually followed by the robbers. And now it's up to Superman to save the day.

This is another great cartoon, and something different from the previous two. I love that these cartoons, each have a very cliche superhero challenge or task nowadays, like Superman fighting evil scientists, giant monsters, or natural disasters, but these plots were really impressive for they're time. In this one, the villains are very human, being simple robbers. That's different from the last two, but cool, and is also a very common superhero task or challenge. I really love that this cartoon has almost non-stop action, and there's so much going on. This is one of the most fast-past cartoons of this series. The highlight of this cartoon, is when the robbers blow up this bridge, which part of the track that the train drives through is on, then the train falls down, but then Superman grabs the front of it, and pulls it back up. It is also cool that we see Lois kick some ass in this cartoon, when she picks up this machine gun, and shoot at the robbers' car. That is pretty awesome when in most of the cartoons, she is just the basic damsel in distress.

In conclusion, this one is different from the last two, but great all the same. 9/10

An Almost Great Train Robbery

[Hitchcoc · 8/10 · 27 December 2016]

This is a more conventional, non-war effort episode. In this one, it is announced that a huge amount of gold is being transported on a train. Maybe they should have given the bad guys a program so they would know where this is all along the way. We're no dummies! We know those bad guys are going to try to get that gold. And there is no better way to cause trouble than to stick our Lois Lane on there. Of course, Clark is going too. This is a masterful effort to use what a train is and create visuals of cars flying apart, track being uprooted, people panicking and on and on. Of course, when Miss Lane is in trouble, you know who is going to show up.

Pretty good---and I like those sound effects.

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 1 January 2014]

During the early 1940s, the Fleischer Brothers made a bunch of Superman cartoons. They were in full-color and were all very similar--with their Superman theme blaring throughout and dopey Lois getting herself in one jam after another. For the most part, "Billion Dollar Limited" is typical of the series--though, for once, Lois is NOT some helpless victim and she uses a machine gun on the baddies in one cool scene!

Like the title implies, the short is about the attempted theft of a billion dollars' worth of gold from a government train. The baddies are all sporting cool costumes and machine guns! But, not surprisingly, Superman shows up and saves the day.

In addition to making Lois less annoying, this short also had terrific and very 3-dimensional sounding sound effects. I am not sure how they did this--but the explosions, gunfire and the like sound great!

A very human enemy

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 5 May 2016]

The title "Billion Dollar Limited" does not give it away, but in this 9-minute cartoon, the third from the series, Superman is up against a bunch of criminals who are trying to rob a train with a real lot of money. It was made during World War II just like the other ones. I personally was surprised how much Superman struggled against these crooks. I did not think it was realistic in the Superman universe. Lets be honest, he usually takes them out within seconds and here they almost defeat him. I cannot agree with this absurd plot. Of course, it was all for dramatic reasons, but it just made no sense at all. And it leaves a negative note on the entire short film. thumbs down from me.

More Powerful Than A Locomotive...

[azathothpwiggins · 12 April 2022]

BILLION DOLLAR LIMITED is the third instalment in the Fleischer brothers' classic, animated SUPERMAN series. This time, Big Blue is up against a gang of train robbers, out to abscond with a shipment of gold.

Of course, Lois is aboard, holding her own for a while. Even brandishing a machine gun gangster style. When Superman arrives, he finds that these crooks are very insistent upon getting their loot!

Action-packed and full of thrills, this is an excellent addition to the serial, also showcasing Superman's impossible strength when the train hurtles toward a failed bridge!

Highly recommended...

Superman #3

[Michael_Elliott · 17 May 2009]

Billion Dollar Limited (1942)

** (out of 4)

The third Superman cartoon from Paramount has robbers trying to cash in on the government sending a billion dollars in gold on a train. Lois of course finds herself on the train as Superman must come to her rescue. This is without question the weakest of the first three shorts and I'm really amazed at how poorly written some of it is. The criminals in this short are without question some of the dumbest I've seen since DUMB AND DUMBER because nothing they do here makes any sense. The thieves want the gold yet they are constantly doing things that could destroy the gold like sending the train into explosives. There's another sequence where they blow up a bridge to send the train off a cliff and again I have to wonder what type of idiots these guys are. Both Lois and Superman are pretty bland here without too much to do. Seeing Superman carry the train was pretty neat but that's about it.

One of a handful of cartoons done by the Fleischer Brothers in the Superman series.

[llltdesq · 3 December 2003]

The Fleischer Studios started a series of shorts based on the character of Superman. This was the third of nine done by Fleischer Studios, with another eight done by Famous Studios Paramount. All of the series features excellent animation and backgrounds and have a similar feel to them, reminiscent of the Supeman comics themselves. The Fleischer shorts were as good as their Popeye shorts and the Famous Studios shorts are among the best done for Paramount after Fleischer Studios waved bye-bye. Well worth seeing. Recommended.