Released in 1941, under its original title ‘Mr Bugs Goes to Town’, much of this movie’s financial failure was blamed on the fact that it was released on 5 December, just two days before Pearl Harbor was bombed and as a result of that failure Paramount fired Max Fleischer and Dave Fleischer and took over their studio, renaming it Famous Studios. The tale was a simple one, with the happy tranquility of Buggsville being shattered when the populace learns that a colossal skyscraper is to be built over their tiny town. Hoppity and Honey are delightful characters, while the crooked C. Bagley Beetle, and his henchmen, bunglers Smack the Mosquito and Swat the Fly, give the story some excitement as well as some wonderful comic moments.
This title along with ‘Gulliver’s Travels’, Copacabana’, ‘Wake of the Red Witch’, ‘Kronos’ and the serial ‘The Adventures of Captain Marvel’ were all part of the contract we had signed with Ivy Film of New York and when I joined in mid 1975, Derek had already printed these two labels for the super 8 prints, ready for when they arrived from the labs, and it would be a number of years before we printed a very colourful new label for the film.
Label courtesy of Peter Brooke at ‘SPROCKETS’
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