The Mechanical Monsters is a 1941 Fleischer Studios cartoon, and the second of the Superman Theatrical Cartoons.
The cartoon starts with a robot breaking into a Metropolis bank, flying off and dropping off a payload of money to a scientist hiding out in a mountain. The news quickly spread the word about the robbery, and armed guards are stationed around the House of Jewels, where a menagerie of lush treasure are put on display. Clark Kent and Lois Lane are present at this opening to get a story when another robot shows up, effortlessly plowing through the armed guards and stealing a large chunk of the precious jewelry. Clark heads off to phone the Daily Planet about the story, while Lois takes action and stows away inside the cargo hold of the robot, which flies off. Clark sees the robot taking off and notices that Lois is absent—he quickly deduces that Lois stowed away on it, and gets into a phone booth to change into Superman, quickly taking off to rescue Lois and find out who is controlling the robot.
The cartoon is in the Public Domain and can be viewed here
Tropes:
- Bank Robbery: What the villain primarily does with his robots.
- Bound and Gagged: Lois finds herself tied, gagged, and placed above a pit of boiling liquid metal after being discovered and infuriating the villain.
- Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Isn't it a pity that the only possible way to get rich off of inventing remote-controlled mechanical robots is using them to rob banks and steal jewelry?
- Damsel in Distress: Lois Lane unwittingly gets herself into this situation by stowing away into the cargo bin of one of the robots, which ends up getting her captured by the villain.
- Defiant Captive: Lois having been spotted by the villain and ordered to reveal what happened to the jewels he tried to steal, mouths off and tells him that he'll read about it in the paper. He doesn't take that well....
- Driven to Suicide: The villain attempts to leap to his death when he realizes the deck is stacked against him, but Superman saves him just in time and hauls him off to jail.
- Fire-Breathing Weapon: The robots are equipped with flamethrowers as a weapon, which they use in the climatic battle against Superman.
- Immune to Bullets: The robots are completely impervious to bullets, as the Metropolis police force quickly finds out.
- Humongous Mecha: The robots are quite large and imposing machines, easily towering over the humans before them.
- Killer Robot: The eponymous Mechanical Monsters, one of which effortlessly plow through Metropolis' police force to steal the treasures from the House of Jewels.
- My Suit Is Also Super: Superman uses his cape to defend Lois Lane from a vat of molten lead being poured on them.
- No Name Given: The villain is given no name.
- Oh, Crap!: The villain when he realizes Superman has broken into his base.
- Phone Booth Changing Room: Upon seeing the Mechanical Monsters fly off, deducing that Lois is inside one of them, Clark enters a phone booth and changes to his Superman costume.
- Police Are Useless: Unfortunately, with all their Tommy Guns and pistols, the police just can't take down the bullet proof robots.
- Robot: What the mechanical monsters are and what the episode is about.
- X-Ray Vision: This is the first time Superman uses this power on screen, and the only time in throughout the shorts that he uses his other powers outside of his Super-Strength and Flight.
