Mr. Bug Goes to Town (also known as Hoppity Goes to Town and Bugville) is a 1941 American animated musical comedy film produced by Fleischer Studios and released by Paramount Pictures. It was the second and final feature-length film from Fleischer Studios (following Gulliver's Travels in 1939), the sixth animated film produced by an American studio, and the first based largely on an original story. Mr. Bug was envisioned originally as an adaptation of Maurice Maeterlinck's 1901 novel The Life of the Bee, but Paramount was unwilling to purchase the rights from Samuel Goldwyn.
Mr. Bug was produced by Max Fleischer and directed by Dave Fleischer, with animation sequences directed by Willard Bowsky, Myron Waldman, Thomas Johnson, David Tendlar, James Culhane, H.C. Ellison, Stan Quackenbush, and Graham Place. It was first previewed on December 4, 1941, in New York, three days before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the United States' subsequent entry into World War II. Paramount eventually released the film in the United Kingdom on January 23, 1942; in California on February 12; and in New York City on February 19. The film became a financial failure due to its botched release, minimal advertising, and short theatrical window. Fleischer Studios, which hoped to recoup the costs spent on Mr. Bug and Gulliver's Travels, was instead reorganized as Famous Studios in May 1942.
It was Paramount's last animated feature film until Charlotte's Web (made by Hanna-Barbera Productions in 1973).
Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
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