Tropedia

  • All unique and most-recently-edited pages, images and templates from Original Tropes and The True Tropes wikis have been copied to this wiki. The two source wikis have been redirected to this wiki. Please see the FAQ on the merge for more.

READ MORE

Tropedia
Tropedia
Farm-Fresh balanceYMMVTransmit blueRadarWikEd fancyquotesQuotes • (Emoticon happyFunnyHeartHeartwarmingSilk award star gold 3Awesome) • RefridgeratorFridgeGroupCharactersScript editFanfic RecsSkull0Nightmare FuelRsz 1rsz 2rsz 1shout-out iconShout OutMagnifierPlotGota iconoTear JerkerBug-silkHeadscratchersHelpTriviaWMGFilmRoll-smallRecapRainbowHo YayPhoto linkImage LinksNyan-Cat-OriginalMemesHaiku-wide-iconHaikuLaconicLibrary science symbol SourceSetting
MrBugGoesToTown 9789

Also known as Hoppity Goes To Town or Bugville, Mr. Bug Goes to Town is the second--and last--feature length animated film made by Fleischer Studios, in 1941. It is the sixth American animated feature film created and the second not made by Disney.

The plot of the film is centered on Hoppity the grasshopper, who has returned to his home in New York, but discovers that his friends are in danger of losing their homes due to humans breaking down the fence that kept their homes safe from trampling feet and tossed cigars to use as a shortcut. The film is centered on this and Hoppity's romance with his childhood sweetheart, Honey. Oh, and the villain, C. Bagley Beetle, who has romantic interests in Honey himself, and hopes, with the help of his henchmen Swat the Fly and Smack the Mosquito, to force her father to give him her hand in marriage.

Being quickly made to pay for the overhead left over by the alleged underperformance of their previous feature, Mr. Bug is a very interesting experiment in feature film animation--the most notable part being that it was one of the first animated films to have an original story made for it, whearas almost everything else during the time had been based on some pre-existing story (although Max admitted that he drew inspiration for it from a similar insect-centered story that he couldn't get the film rights to).

Learning from the mistakes Gulliver made trying to rip off the fairy tale atmosphere of Snow White and winding up as a cold, inferior imitation in the process, the Fleischers decided to take a more contemporary approach to this film, with its real world New York setting providing a believable, interesting backdrop for the events of the film. While there was still a treacly love story, the characters are still fairly interesting, and some generous slapstick is thrown in here and there to lighten the feeling of the film, obviously keeping one of the positive aspects of Gulliver. The film also benefits from having a much more episodic structure than Gulliver.

Unfortunately, the film had the misfortune of being released two days before Pearl Harbor—which, combined with lack of promotion from Paramount (who had no faith in the picture) caused the film to tank at the box office. While the Fleischers were ultimately ruined by Dave Fleischer's contract violating departure to Screen Gems cartoon outlet, this film could indirectly be considered a part of the Fleischers downfall.

On a side note, Disney has recently re-released this film on dvd--in Japan. Really.

The film was also given a dvd release in North America, this one coming from Legend Films[1], who renamed it "Bugville" and replaced the original title card.


Tropes in the film:[]

  1. but only as distributors, which may explain this version's utter lack of the usual TLC Legend puts into the releases they remaster themselves