''Mr. Bug Goes to Town'' (also known as ''Hoppity Goes to Town'' and ''Bugville'') is a 1941 American

animated Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most ani ...

Technicolor Technicolor is a series of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes, the first version dating back to 1916, and followed by improved versions over several decades. Definitive Technicolor movies using three black and white films ...

feature film A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...

produced by

Fleischer Studios Fleischer Studios () is an American animation studio founded in 1929 by brothers Max and Dave Fleischer, who ran the pioneering company from its inception until its acquisition by Paramount Pictures, the parent company and the distributor of ...

, previewed by

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...

on December 5, 1941, and released in California and New York City in February 1942. LCCN Permalink https://lccn.loc.gov/sn83016278 The film was originally intended to be an adaptation of

Maurice Maeterlinck Maurice Polydore Marie Bernard Maeterlinck (29 August 1862 – 6 May 1949), also known as Count (or Comte) Maeterlinck from 1932, was a Belgian playwright, poet, and essayist who was Flemish but wrote in French. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in ...

's ''The Life of the Bee'', but the rights could not be attained, or more rightly, Paramount was unwilling to purchase them from

Samuel Goldwyn Samuel Goldwyn (born Szmuel Gelbfisz; yi, שמואל געלבפֿיש; August 27, 1882 (claimed) January 31, 1974), also known as Samuel Goldfish, was a Polish-born American film producer. He was best known for being the founding contributor an ...

. Instead, they fashioned and crafted an original modern story loosely inspired on the book. The film was produced by

Max Fleischer Max Fleischer (born Majer Fleischer ; July 19, 1883 – September 25, 1972) was an American animator, inventor, film director and producer, and studio founder and owner. Born in Kraków, Fleischer immigrated to the United States where he becam ...

and directed by

Dave Fleischer Dave Fleischer (; July 14, 1894 – June 25, 1979) was an American film director and producer, best known as a co-owner of Fleischer Studios with his older brother Max Fleischer. He was a native of New York City. Biography Fleischer was the ...

. It features the songs "We're the Couple in the Castle", "Katy Did, Katy Didn't", "I'll Dance at Your Wedding (Honey Dear)" by

Hoagy Carmichael Hoagland Howard Carmichael (November 22, 1899 – December 27, 1981) was an American musician, composer, songwriter, actor and lawyer. Carmichael was one of the most successful Tin Pan Alley songwriters of the 1930s, and was among the first ...

and

Frank Loesser Frank Henry Loesser (; June 29, 1910 – July 28, 1969) was an American songwriter who wrote the music and lyrics for the Broadway musicals ''Guys and Dolls'' and ''How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying'', among others. He won a Tony ...

, and "Boy Oh Boy" by Sammy Timberg and Loesser. It was Paramount's last animated feature film until ''

Charlotte's Web ''Charlotte's Web'' is a book of children's literature by American author E. B. White and illustrated by Garth Williams; it was published on October 15, 1952, by Harper & Brothers. The novel tells the story of a livestock pig named Wilbur and hi ...

'' in 1973.

Plot

Hoppity the Grasshopper, after a period spent away, returns to an American city (

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

). He finds that all is not as he left it, and his insect friends, who live in the "Lowlands" just outside the garden of a cute bungalow belonging to down-on-his-luck songwriter Dick Dickens and his wife Mary, are now under threat from the "human ones", who are trampling through the broken-down fence, using it as a shortcut. Insect houses are being flattened and burned by cast away cigar butts. Old Mr. Bumble and his beautiful daughter Honey (Hoppity's sweetheart) are in grave danger of losing their Honey Shop to this threat. To compound their problems, devious insect "property magnate" C. Bagley Beetle has romantic designs on Honey Bee himself, and, with the help of his henchmen Swat the Fly and Smack the Mosquito, hatches plans to make Honey marry him or eliminate Hoppity as a romantic rival. Hoppity discovers that the songwriter and his wife are waiting for a "check thing" from the Famous Music publishing company for the songwriter's composition, "We're the Couple in the Castle." With this money they can repair the fence, saving the bug community. But C. Bagley Beetle and his henchmen intercept and hide the check, and the Dickens house is

foreclosed Foreclosure is a legal process in which a lender attempts to recover the balance of a loan from a borrower who has stopped making payments to the lender by forcing the sale of the asset used as the collateral for the loan. Formally, a mortg ...

. Days pass, and with nothing improved, nearly everyone in the lowlands loses faith in Hoppity's claim. Mr. Beetle discovers that a skyscraper will be built on the site, destroying both the Lowlands and his own property. He schemes to "gift" the other bugs his soon-to-be worthless property on the condition that Honey marry him. When he realizes that Hoppity was nearby and overheard him, he seals Hoppity inside the envelope with the Dickenses' check, hiding it in a crack in a wall. Construction begins while everyone is at the wedding of Beetle and Honey; a weight from a surveyor's level that rips through the chapel causes the terrified bugs to flee back to the Lowlands, not realizing their own homes are endangered by the construction crew. Hoppity escapes when the construction crew demolishes the wall, freeing the envelope. Hoppity comes to Honey's rescue, battles Beetle and his henchmen, and wins. Hoppity tells everyone what happened and manages to get the check to Mr. Dickens. "We're the Couple in the Castle" becomes a massive hit. Meanwhile, Hoppity leads an exodus from the Lowlands to the top of the skyscraper, where he believes the Dickenses have built a new home and invited the bugs to live there. They get to the top, which at first appears to be barren, but the young bugs discover the Dickenses have built a new penthouse with a "Garden of Paradise" just as Hoppity had described. Honey and the rest of the Lowlanders live there happily ever after in their new home. And as Ambrose looks over the edge, he remarks, "Look at all the human ones down there. They look just like a lot of little bugs!"

Production

Fleischer Studios' first feature, ''

Gulliver's Travels ''Gulliver's Travels'', or ''Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships'' is a 1726 prose satire by the Anglo-Irish writer and clergyman Jonathan ...

'', did such impressive business in its first week that Paramount president Barney Balaban ordered another feature for a Christmas 1941 release. ''Mr. Bug Goes to Town'' is similar in concept to ''Gulliver’s Travels'' with its large cast of characters, complicated crowd scenes, and the contrasting scale of tiny characters against the gigantic human world. In ''Mr. Bug'', the environment is central to the picture. While the lead characters, Hoppity the grasshopper and Honey Bee, do not lead the story as clearly as Disney characters do, it is the situation that propels the plot combined with colorful supporting comical characters. ''Mr. Bug Goes to Town'' was beset by problems due to the rift between Max and Dave Fleischer that began during the production of ''Gulliver's Travels''. From that point on, they communicated with each other via internal memos while working in the same building. Running a major animated cartoon studio solely by written communique turned out to be "a sort of tragicomedy." Paramount was acutely aware of the problems between the Fleischer brothers and structured their contract for the completion of ''Mr. Bug'' in an unusual way, allowing for the resignation of either brother following its completion. When Paramount renewed the Fleischer contract on May 24, 1941, a clause stipulated that the brothers deliver signed letters of resignation to Paramount to be used at the studio's discretion. Post-production concluded in Hollywood just before Thanksgiving, and Dave tendered his resignation one month before the scheduled release. ''Mr. Bug Goes to Town'' was the first animated feature to give screen credit to the voice actors. The voices were provided by actor Stan Freed (Hoppity) and Pauline Loth (Honey). The supporting characters were voiced by members of the studio staff including

Jack Mercer Winfield B. Mercer (January 31, 1910 – December 7, 1984), professionally known as Jack Mercer, was a prolific American voice actor, animator and TV screenwriter. He is best known as the voice of cartoon characters Popeye the Sailor Man and F ...

, the voice of

Popeye Popeye the Sailor Man is a fictional cartoon character created by Elzie Crisler Segar.Tedd Pierce Edward Stacey "Tedd" Pierce III (August 12, 1906 – February 19, 1972) was an American screenwriter and voice actor of animated cartoons, principally from the mid-1930s to the late 1950s. Biography Pierce was the son of a stockbroker, Samue ...

(C. Bagley Beetle, Insects), Carl Meyer (Smack the Mosquito),

Pinto Colvig Vance DeBar Colvig Sr. (September 11, 1892 – October 3, 1967), professionally Pinto Colvig, was an American voice actor, newspaper cartoonist, and circus and vaudeville performer whose schtick was playing the clarinet off-key while mugging. C ...

(Mr. Creeper, Insects), Gwen Davis and Jean Rhys (Mrs. Ladybug), Mae Questel (Buzz the Beescout, Insects) and Margie Hines (Insects). Singer

Kenny Gardner Kenneth A. Gardner (March 20, 1913 – July 26, 2002) was an American singer for Guy Lombardo's band the Royal Canadians. Early years Kenneth A. Gardner was born on March 20, 1913 in Lake View, Iowa, the eldest son of Norman and May Chambers Ga ...

and actress Gwen Williams portrayed "The Human Ones," Songwriter Dick Dickens and his wife, Mary.

Book and other merchandise

The film received a book adaptation which was released around the same time - it features new characters along with the ones from the film and goes further on key plots. For example, in the film Honey is aware of Beetle's romantic interest, expressing dislike to him but willing to make the sacrifice if it means everyone can live safely on his property away from the broken fence. However, in the book, Hoppity is made aware of this fact by Ambrose the Bee Scout, making Beetle's conflict with Hoppity more apparent from the start. Whether this was part of the film's script is unknown. The film also inspired a ''Mr. Bug Goes to Town'' board game and a series of trading cards.

Release

''Mr. Bug Goes to Town'' was previewed on December 5, 1941 in advance of its scheduled Christmas release. While it was well received by critics, theater operators rejected it. Two days later, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor signaled America's entrance into

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, and Paramount canceled the Christmas release. Three weeks later, Paramount president

Barney Balaban Barney Balaban (June 8, 1887 – March 7, 1971) was an American film executive who was the president of Paramount Pictures from 1936 to 1964 and an innovator in the cinema industry. Life and career Barney Balaban (formerly Birnbaum) was the el ...

activated Max Fleischer's resignation. Paramount finally released the film in California on February 13, 1942 (February 20 in New York City). In the UK, it opened during January 1942 under the name ''Hoppity Goes to Town''. ''Mr. Bug'' was a financial disaster. Paramount reorganized Fleischer Studios as

Famous Studios Famous Studios (renamed Paramount Cartoon Studios in 1956) was the first animation division of the film studio Paramount Pictures from 1942 to 1967. Famous was founded as a successor company to Fleischer Studios, after Paramount seized control ...

.Barrier, Michael (1999). ''Hollywood Cartoons''. New York:

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print book ...

. Pgs. 303-305. . Before the film's release,

Walter Lantz Walter Lantz (April 27, 1899 – March 22, 1994) was an American cartoonist, animator, producer and director best known for founding Walter Lantz Productions and creating Woody Woodpecker. Biography Early years and start in animation Lant ...

, Paul Terry, and

Leon Schlesinger Leon Schlesinger (May 20, 1884 – December 25, 1949) was an American film producer who founded Leon Schlesinger Productions, which later became the Warner Bros. Cartoons studio, during the Golden Age of American animation. He was a distant rel ...

all considered producing animated feature films, but after seeing the disappointing box-office of this film and the initial failures of

Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...

's new films ''

Pinocchio Pinocchio ( , ) is a fictional character and the protagonist of the children's novel '' The Adventures of Pinocchio'' (1883) by Italian writer Carlo Collodi of Florence, Tuscany. Pinocchio was carved by a woodcarver named Geppetto in a Tuscan ...

'' and ''

Fantasia Fantasia International Film Festival (also known as Fantasia-fest, FanTasia, and Fant-Asia) is a film festival that has been based mainly in Montreal since its founding in 1996. Regularly held in July of each year, it is valued by both hardcor ...

'' (both 1940), they cancelled any potential animated feature projects.

Harlan Ellison Harlan Jay Ellison (May 27, 1934 – June 28, 2018) was an American writer, known for his prolific and influential work in New Wave speculative fiction and for his outspoken, combative personality. Robert Bloch, the author of '' Psycho'' ...

described vivid memories of having to outwit his family in order to see ''Mr. Bug Goes to Town'' for free on his birthday in his book ''

Harlan Ellison's Watching ''Harlan Ellison's Watching'' () is a 1989 compilation of 25 years worth of essays and film reviews written by Harlan Ellison for ''Cinema'' magazine, the ''Los Angeles Free Press'', ''Starlog'' magazine, and ''The Magazine of Fantasy and Science F ...

''. He credits his exploit as having fostered his rebellious nature rather than remaining a sweet obedient child. He never got to see the entire film until it came out on videocassette, and he watched it frequently throughout his adult life. Paramount later re-released ''Mr. Bug'' as ''Hoppity Goes to Town'' (the original title is a

parody A parody, also known as a spoof, a satire, a send-up, a take-off, a lampoon, a play on (something), or a caricature, is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satiric or ironic imitation. Often its sub ...

of the title of the 1936 film '' Mr. Deeds Goes to Town''). The film cost $713,511 to make, but by 1946 had only made $241,000 back, and was withdrawn from circulation. Under the reissue title, ''Hoppity'' has had multiple re-releases on home video throughout the 1970s (most with inferior image quality) to its DVD release by

Legend Films Legend Films is a San Diego-based company founded in August 2001. The company specializes in the conversion of feature films, both new release and catalog titles, and commercials from their native 2D format into 3-D film format utilizing proprietar ...

, in which the studio re-titled the film again to ''Bugville'' (presumably to position against

Pixar Pixar Animation Studios (commonly known as Pixar () and stylized as P I X A R) is an American computer animation studio known for its critically and commercially successful computer animated feature films. It is based in Emeryville, Californ ...

's ''

A Bug's Life ''A Bug's Life'' is a 1998 American computer-animated comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. It was the second feature-length film produced by Pixar. Directed by John Lasseter and co-directed by Andrew Stant ...

''). The film was acquired in the 1950s by

National Telefilm Associates National Telefilm Associates (NTA) was an audio-visual marketing company primarily concerned with the syndication of American film libraries to television, including the Republic Pictures film library. It was successful enough on cable television ...

(which became Republic) and enjoyed a renewed popularity as a staple on local "movie classics" shows such as ''

Family Classics ''Family Classics'' is a Chicago television series which began in 1962 when Frazier Thomas was added to another program at WGN-TV. Thomas not only hosted classic films, but also selected the titles and personally edited them to remove those scene ...

'' on Chicago's WGN. The film (as ''Hoppity Goes to Town'') was officially released by

Republic Pictures Republic Pictures Corporation (currently held under Melange Pictures, LLC) was an American motion picture production-distribution corporation in operation from 1935 to 1967, that was based in Los Angeles. It had studio facilities in Studio City a ...

on VHS and

LaserDisc The LaserDisc (LD) is a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium, initially licensed, sold and marketed as MCA DiscoVision (also known simply as "DiscoVision") in the United States in 1978. Its diameter typical ...

in May 1989. In Japan, the movie was released on December 19, 2009 as part of

Studio Ghibli is a Japanese animation studio headquartered in Koganei, Tokyo."Studio Ghibli Collection - Madman Entertainment". ''Studio Ghibli Collection - Madman Entertainment''. Retrieved 2020-12-14. It is best known for its animated feature films, and h ...

's Ghibli Museum Library. A DVD was released in April 2010 by

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Inc., doing business as Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, is the home entertainment distribution arm of The Walt Disney Company. The division handles the distribution of Disney's films, television series, a ...

in Japan, and it has been reported to be a restoration using NTA re-release elements.Cartoon Brew: Disney releases "Mr. Bug" in Japan
/ref> Recently, ''Mr. Bug'', along with many other Fleischer-produced cartoons (including the Fleischers' previous film, ''Gulliver's Travels''), was restored from the original three-strip negatives by the

UCLA Film and Television Archive The UCLA Film & Television Archive is a visual arts organization focused on the preservation, study, and appreciation of film and television, based at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Also a nonprofit exhibition venue, the a ...

, and a few art-house theaters have recently screened the restoration (which features the original titles). On October 21, 2012, the

Turner Classic Movies Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie-oriented pay-TV network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasting campus in the Midtown business district of ...

channel debuted the film, transferred from an original 35mm Technicolor release print owned by the Museum of Modern Art Department of Film, for the first time on television in a special hosted by Robert Osborne and

Jerry Beck Jerry Beck (born February 9, 1955, in New York City) is an American animation historian, author, blogger, and video producer. Beck wrote or edited several books on classic American animation and classic characters, including '' The 50 Greates ...

dedicated to rare animated films, including ''

'', Lotte Reiniger's ''

The Adventures of Prince Achmed ''The Adventures of Prince Achmed'' (known as ''Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed'' in German) is a 1926 German animated fairytale film by Lotte Reiniger. It is the oldest surviving animated feature film; two earlier ones were made in Argentin ...

'', the UPA cartoons and the silent cartoons of 1907 to 1932 of the New York Studios. and again on the channel in June 2015.

References

External links

* *
''Mr. Bug Goes to Town (1941)''
Studio release DVD, 2019: AllMovies.com website. Retrieved on June 30, 2021.
Mr. Bug Goes to Town
at

The Big Cartoon DataBase The Big Cartoon DataBase (or BCDB for short) is an online database of information about animated cartoons, animated feature films, animated television shows, and cartoon shorts. The BCDB project began in 1997 as a list of Disney animated featur ...

*
''Mr. Bug Goes to Town'' (aka ''Hoppity Goes to Town, aka ''Bugville''
at

Don Markstein's Toonopedia Don Markstein's Toonopedia (subtitled A Vast Repository of Toonological Knowledge) is an online encyclopedia of print cartoons, comic strips and animation, initiated February 13, 2001. Donald D. Markstein, the sole writer and editor of Toonopedi ...