I like all of the old Fleischer studio Superman cartoons. This is one of the better examples plotwise. It probably was inspired by an actual disaster that happened around 1902 where Mt. Pe'ele on the island of Martinique erupted pouring searing hot ash and gas down onto the town of Saint-Pierre below killing all ~30,000 people except a prisoner in the lowest level of the the jail and possibly a couple of others. Read about it on Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Pelée

->Back to the Superman cartoon. It's a great little cartoon well worth the download. Enjoy!