Superman: The Animated Series – Funandgames

Fun and Games

Episode #04 – Fun and Games
Original Airdate – September 7th, 1996.

The vengful Toyman weaves a wicked web that snares two disparate victims: Metropolis thug Bruno Mannheim and Lois Lane. Only Superman can uncover and thwart the Toyman’s evil plan.

Media by Jim Harvey, Borg4of3
Review by Bird Boy

Credits:
Written by Robert N. Skir, Marty Isenberg
Music by Kristopher Carter
Directed By Kazuhide Tomonaga
Animation Services by TMS-Kyokuichi Corporation

Voices:
Tim Daly as Superman/Clark Kent
Dana Delany as Lois Lane
Bud Cort as The Toyman
David Kaufman as Jimmy Olsen
Bruce Weitz as Bruno Mannheim
Joe Nipote as "Spider" Spinelli
Kevin Richardson as Con
Joe Lala as Electrician

Screen Grabs

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Pans

I have to say, this was one of the more…disturbing episodes of
STAS I’ve ever seen. Granted, I have seen very very few of this series, but, the way Toyman just stood there and talked, without his face moving–well, I was a little creeped out. But, don’t get me wrong…it was a cool thing to be creeped out by a childrens cartoon.

Onto the story itself– Toyman, presumably an old toy maker that died in prison, has come back to get his revenge on Bruno Mannheim. Why Bruno?
Well, because he "helped" the old man in keeping his toy business going, when things went awry and the old man ended up in jail. After he comes back (and an attempt on Bruno’s life is made), Lois Lane prints a story about Toyman, which,as Toyman himself put it, was "full of lies", Toyman captures Lois and Bruno–turning Lois into a giant Barbie-like doll and putting Bruno in prisoner garbs.

The animation in this episode was great–No glitches, flaws or anything
I could see and it just all went along real smooth, without any jumps at all. The way Superman moved, the way Toy Man moved.. it just worked out great.

In the end when it turned out the Toymaker was actually the old man’s son, the Toyman fled, leaving his factory behind, and dumping all of his timed bombs. Superman rushes to grab Mannheim and Lois out of the factory and a gloriously animated explosion ensues. At the end of the episode, Toyman’s mask is found–broken into pieces and asks the question.. is he alive or dead?

Overall, a very very good episode, which I highly recommend to any
Superman fan (or non-Superman fan, as I was before I started to watch this series).

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