ChikPapa Very disappointed :(

Hottoceame The Age of Commercialism

Cathardincu Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

classicsoncall I chalk it up to a stroke of luck that I caught this movie on Turner Classics the other day, it's a charming period piece from 1941 set in it's own era rather than a formulaic or mythical 'once upon a time'. Scenes alternate between a bustling big city neighborhood and that of a rural Buggsville where the principal characters are faced with a decision to move before their homes are destroyed by the looming threat of major construction by the 'human ones'. Leading the lowland bugs is a recently returned home grasshopper by the name of Hoppity, with an eye for the cute Miss Honey Bee, their match a seeming natural but for the calculating duplicity of C. Bagley Beetle, the insect version of the evil town boss of so many B Western movies.I couldn't help but notice the similarity between the Hoppity character and the one created by Walt Disney, so a quick search reveals that Jiminy Cricket made his first appearance in the 1940 Disney film "Pinocchio". With 'Mr. Bug' released the following year, I'd presume there might have been some borrowing of ideas from the original here, though I don't know that for a fact. Still, there are enough creative elements in the picture to take delight in, particularly the inventive names of the insect characters, like Swat the Fly, and Smack the Mosquito, a couple of bumbling henchmen for the sneaky Beetle character. I think my favorite might have been Mrs. Stinkbug and all the little Stinkers, only mentioned once in passing but striking a whimsical chord for this viewer.Told primarily from a bug's point of view, the picture is delightfully colorful and with a rich attention to detail. I was particularly impressed by one scene during the construction of the high rise when the film artists actually depicted sawdust wafting off a piece of wood being cut to size. Keeping in mind that the picture was made over seventy years ago, that kind of workmanship alone makes the movie worth seeing. Definitely recommended for a family viewing experience.

writers_reign This is a very modest, very lovely movie with a great score by Hoagy Carmichael and Frank Loesser with a standout number, We're The Couple In The Castle, that is totally evocative of the period and harks back to Penthouse Serenade just as the opening premise (Hoppity's coming) may well have inspired Fred Saidy and Yip Harburg's opening (Woody's Coming) in Finian's Rainbow six years later. I totally agree with those posters who have noted that were the name Disney appended to this it would by now have achieved 'classic' status rather than have fallen into neglect. It's wonderfully inventive, never more so than when objects barely noticed in the 'real' world assume a much greater significance - both pro and con - in the insect world. Actually it IS a classic, albeit a minor one.

rdsptgtumpy I was born the year this movies was made. Watched it first on T.V. in the early 50's when there were only three channels, and only black and white. As an adult I remembered the movie and the music. Not being able to remember the title, I had to search through many catalogs before finding the film. I have shown it at home to my children, and now my many grand-children. I never get tired of watching it, and the children love it. No matter how many time they watch it, they still laugh loudly, and listen intently during the music. The story line is great, the animation is unbelievable compared to todays computer animation, the color us bright and crisp, and the music is fantastic. If I could have only one movie, this would be it.

florriebbc Hello again, I have been thinking about this movie all my life. I saw it when I was 5 years old in Los Angeles, California in 1942. What a wonderful story of being good to one another, kindness, and charity. You forget it is the bugs relating to one another. It was just as if they were people. I love this movie and so do my adult children. Such beautiful color in this movie.I need to see this movie again. There is a story about an envelope in the movie, that I just can't remember the "why" of it.Thanks for listening.