Mr. Bug Goes to Town (1941)

Simply Perfect

Best movie ever!

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

After seeing 'Hoppity Goes to Town' for the first time a couple of days ago, it really stuck with me. Fleischer has done a lot of fantastic stuff, and 'Hoppity Goes to Town' is among their better and most under-appreciated efforts. Anybody who loves 'Gulliver's Travels' (count me as one) will love this.It is a shame that it was relatively forgotten, but very fondly remembered by those who loved it as a child. 'Hoppity Goes to Town', to a young adult who saw it for the first time on recommendation, has been one of my biggest pleasures recently and one of my best first time viewings in a long time. The animation is really wonderful, with lots of luscious colour, haunting but also dream-like atmosphere, imaginative and incredibly detailed backgrounds and beautiful drawing. The three-dimensional visuals are put to inventive and jaw-dropping effect.The music score is delightfully whimsical and rousing, while the songs are truly lovely and just as memorable as the ones in 'Gulliver's Travels'. The script has humour and pathos, without overdoing the comedy or dissolving into cheesiness and it is often very sweet, moving and heart-warming without falling into maudlin sentiment. Somewhat agree that the breaking into verse was not always necessary but it didn't really bother me.With the story, it is simple but incredibly charming and really warms the heart and uplifts and touches the viewer. The pacing is deliberate, especially in the first part, but never to interminable dullness, and the final act was pretty exciting. The characters are nicely done, with a very likable protagonist and a main villain that both intimidates and entertains. The voice acting is good too, with the always dependable Jack Mercer enjoying himself in particular.Overall, an animated classic that despite being fondly remembered is unjustly neglected. 10/10 Bethany Cox

Long before A Bug's Life or Antz there was Mr. Bug Goes to Town, a charming but flawed animated film from Dave and Max Fleischer. I'm a big fan of the Fleischers' work. Their Superman, Popeye, and Betty Boop cartoons are some of my favorites. Their first foray into full-length animation was 1939's Gulliver's Travels, which has its share of detractors but I like it a lot. I don't like Mr. Bug quite as much but it is worth a look. The story follows a community of bugs that live in a vacant lot. One bug in particular, Hoppity the grasshopper, is at the heart of most of the goings-on in this somewhat rambling story that eventually becomes about the bugs trying to save their home and Hoppity's girlfriend being forced to marry a villainous beetle.The animation is beautiful and charming but I found something off with this one. The voicework and music score are pedestrian and the general tone of the movie is a little flat. I'm not really sure if I can put my finger on it but the first forty-five minutes or so feels slow and aimless. It's lovely to look at throughout but the last half hour is the most exciting. Despite its flaws this is an enjoyable animated film that plays well to little kids, as well as adults who appreciate the craftsmanship that went into making quality animation back in the day. Unfortunately Mr. Bug was a financial disaster for the Fleischers and led to the brothers being ousted from their own studio, which was renamed Famous Studios by Paramount. Part of the reason for it flopping was undoubtedly its bad luck of being released two days before the attack on Pearl Harbor. It's an interesting movie, especially for animation buffs, and I do believe it will entertain the right audience. See it for the lovely animation if nothing else.

Leslie Carbaga's excellent book on the Fleishers tells the whole story of the Fleischer's big move of their entire animation unit to Florida, and their subsequent ejection by Paramount. Mr. Bug Goes to Town didn't destroy the animation pioneers' credit with Paramount, although it's often told that way, and this was Paramount's favorite version of the story. According to Carbaga, the big studio, more than anything, wanted to get their mitts on the animation studio and ease the famously bickering brothers out of the picture altogether. Mr. Bug provided them the pretext to do just that. --The sad closing of a great quirky, innovative chapter in American animation.I wanted to comment, also, that the film actually debuted December 4, 1941, not December 7. That may have been close enough to do the trick, anyway, in terms of national mood damaging the film's success. But another part of the legend of this troubled little film is that it was killed by having the bad luck to be in the theaters at the same time Dumbo (released October 23, 1941) was still doing very brisk holiday business. I haven't done the research into box office numbers, but I'd say that Dumbo's concurrent presence in theaters likely had an impact on Mr. Bug. Movie-going was at an all time high at this period, and successful films could go strong in theaters for months. -- Something unimaginable in these typically short-run, quick to-DVD days.

This film used to play occasionally on daytime TV when I was a child. I must have seen it at least three times. Made by the same team (Gordon and Fleischer) that brought us "Gulliver's Travels", it's a charming little movie with a plot very similar to the later Pixar film "A Bug's Life." I remember first learning the name Hoagy Carmichael when I read the credits as an eight-year-old (my mother was astonished to know that I had heard of him.) If "Hoppitty" were ever released on DVD I would buy it in a heartbeat. I don't know anyone else who has ever seen it, though, which necessarily limits the amount of outcry over this deep injustice to a great little movie.