Wizard-8 The box office failure of the Fleischer brothers' second (and last) feature length animated movie has been blamed to the fact that the movie was released at the time when the United States entered World War Two. However, I think it wouldn't have done much better had it been released at another time. I will give kudos to the movie for being the first animated movie to be based on an original story. However, the story and the characters are extremely weak. The story is weak, very padded out despite its short running time. The main character of Hoppity is thin, like there being no explanation as to why Hoppity was away from town for a long time.However, despite the weak script, I do think there are some people who will enjoy the movie. Obviously, kids with their love of animation will gobble this up. And adults who have an interest in animation will find the movie has some amazing animation, particularly the excitingly executed climatic sequence. One has to wonder what the Fleischers could have accomplished had they spent as much time polishing the script as Disney did with the scripts for his animated movies.

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.

Charles Herold (cherold) Wow, every single use review on this site is a rave! I have to conclude that this is a movie all these people first saw as children and have fond memories of.As an adult who watched this because of its historical significance, I found it often tedious. There were clever ideas here and there, notably in the bugs' interaction with the human world, and a vaguely exciting finale, and some good songs, but it's very corny and very predictable and very much for kids only.It's a shame the Fleischer Brothers never made a feature with the surreal imagination of their shorter works. They never did Disney as well as Disney did, and one wonders what would have happened if they'd made a Betty Boop movie instead of this and Gulliver's Travels.

kriegers1900 Although never received well critically, this is a truly beautifully animated movie. This film, made at the outbreak of WW2 was one of the first 5 full length animated films ever made, and displays superb animation. Excellent too is the way human castoffs are used by the insects. Unfortunately the character of the principal villain is weak and two dimensional, and the story suffers as a result. The songs, however, are among the best I can recall in any animated film, and "Castle in the air" has to be one of my all time favorites. Unfortunately Max Fleisher was not as independent as Walt Disney, and as a result was never given an opportunity by Paramount to make another animated feature. However, the two that Fleisher was able to release will continue entertaining us for generations to come.