Superman II, 1980
Welcome back to another episode of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers! J. Blake and Dion Baia are celebrating the 5th anniversary of the podcast and after wrapping up the critically acclaimed 2019 Summer of Sequels, the boys figured they’d perform an encore to close out the season! And what better way to celebrate their anniversary then by exploring the iconic and legendary superhero sequel Superman II, from 1980!
Dion and Blake unpack the lengthy history of the Superman character, and do their best to lay out the timeline of lawsuits by creators Siegel and Shuster in their attempt to regain the rights to the character they created. The fellas then segue to Superman II and discuss the tension while filming the incredible sequel, and compare and contrast the different cuts of this film, juxtaposing the theatrical cut, to the television cut and the notorious Donner Cut. And Dion relays his fun Dean Cain story as well. So it’s a fun, fact-filled and lengthy, high-flying anniversary-installment of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers!
Please go check out this week’s sponsor, KEEPS!
(*At one point Dion accidentally referred to Sarah Douglas as Susannah Douglas– his apologies.)
Extras!
For those who didn’t know the reference, here is the 1980s toy, MUSCLE Men.
Here’s Blake having some fun with them, HERE, and HERE.
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Once again, you guys throw another great episode! just the right thing for a Friday morning at work before an end of summer canoe trip! I also like part 3 and can appreciate some ideas in part 4. Only saw the Donner cut for the first time last year and it just adds that much more to my love of the original movies. I’ll take Superman returns over man of steel any day! Here’s a nice little Canadian Superman themed commercial for you guys south of the border!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ScFwRoLhR2s
Now I’m off to listen to Superman’s Song by Crash Test Dummies!
Thanks, eh!
Hey Thanks Eric!
I have no idea what that commercial is for, but it is great. LOL. Thanks for sharing!
Blake
A great episode and a very happy anniversary to you guys! At first I thought you were gonna finish out the pulp hero cycle with The Phantom (which I love, by the way), but this was a huge and amazing surprise for this year’s anniversary. I’m a HUGE Superman fan, so this is right up my alley. I too have met Dean Cain and I can attest to how awesome of a person he is. And how incredible was that opening by Kevin Conroy??
As for the movie itself, I enjoy both cuts but also see their flaws. The theatrical cut is what we grew up with, but you can tell there’s something different compared to the quality of the first (plus Margot Kidder looks noticeably different). With the Donner Cut, while I love we got something as close to a Richard Donner movie was we could get, I don’t think the score is quite there. The scene where Superman flies in (The “General, would you care to step outside?”) and the scene were Superman crushes Zod’s hand have different cues that I feel don’t fit.
I’ve always wondered if one day someone could assemble a perfect cut of this movie, marrying both versions and adding in the cut footage you guys included in the extras. I’ve always thought we should’ve gotten that little bit of the Phantom Zone criminals being taken to jail at the end.
This was one hell of an amazing episode. Thank you guys for this and for everything you do! Here’s to many more anniversary episodes!
Thanks Jose!
We appreciate the continued support. I just watched The Phantom recently and it is a lot of fun. Superman II was a whopper of an episode to do…it is tough doing the anniversary and then jumping into the October schedule. Lol. We hope you dig what we have coming up.
– Blake