Superman's Family Album

I think this edit will best serve people with nostalgic memories of this series who want a way to rewatch. It's essentially a series of 5-minute misadventures, the majority of which are Superman as a young child or even baby! As far as the editor's intention of serving as a telling of Clark's origin story, I'd say pretty much only the first and last episodes fall into that category, showing him coming to Earth and moving to Metropolis, respectively.

Most of the shorts are Ma Kent lecturing to little Clark not to use his powers and give himself away, followed by him using his powers because they make life easier. It has a "oh that little scamp!" tone to it. Presented in this chronological way, a lot of the cheesiest moments are right up front, so I found it a bit much. These shorts work well as one at the end of a Superman episode, but all together like this I felt like really they were aimed mostly at young children, who would laugh at the empowerment to break grown-up rules. I kind of just found baby Superman annoying, so I watched this in 10-minute bursts over some days.

It ends stronger, with a teenage Clark being more responsible about concealing his powers instead of flying straight through town (and inexplicably not getting dissected by the military later that day). It also has him deciding to use his powers in order to help good people come out on top, or to not let others down.

There are just two kind of retcons of the Superman mythos that bugged me here. First is an early episode where a preternaturally smart newborn Superman sabotages his own adoption process so that he ends up with the Kents. The idea of baby Clark CHOOSING his own parents is a kind of weird one, and I dislike that it de-emphasizes the Kents' own motives for keeping this alien they found on the side of the road! They also have grown-up Clark use his Superman identity in order to get a job as a reporter, rather than doing it on professional merits. These are nitpicks in a kids' cartoon, of course, but I think it demonstrates how to take in this material. It's all just kind of a lark.

The quality is no different than what you'd expect from an '80s cartoon, I didn't detect any extra audio or visual polish. No subs or extras. This is a raw preservation, arranged chronologically. I think the fade-ins and outs are done well for the most part, so it's a professional edit. If you're looking for something to watch with young kids, this is a good candidate.