Mr. Bug Goes to Town
| Mr. Bug Goes to Town | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Dave Fleischer Animation directors: Willard Bowsky Myron Waldman Thomas Johnson David Tendlar James Culhane H.C. Ellison Stan Quackenbush Graham Place |
| Screenplay by | Dan Gordon Tedd Pierce Isadore Sparber Graham Place Bob Wickersham William Turner Carl Meyer Cal Howard |
| Story by | Dave Fleischer Dan Gordon Tedd Pierce Isadore Sparber |
| Produced by | Max Fleischer |
| Starring | Kenny Gardner Gwen Williams Jack Mercer Tedd Pierce Carl Meyer Stan Freed Pauline Loth |
| Music by | Leigh Harline (score) Frank Loesser (lyrics) Hoagy Carmichael (songs) Sammy Timberg (songs) |
Production companies | |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 78 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $1 million |
| Box office | $241,000 |
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, 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 in 1973.