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Author
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Topic: Hoppity Goes To Town!!
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Osi Osgood
Film God
Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted December 02, 2006 09:57 PM
Here's a vintage super 8 feature from the golden era of super 8mm, and I finally had a chance to view a print of this, however faded.
It's hard to believe, but before "Yellow Submarine", there were only three feature films that were not Disney. One of those was "Animal Farm", directed by Halas Bachelor, a film made in England. There was only one other feature film producer during the golden age, the Max Flescher studio. One of them, thier first, was "Gullivers Travels", there second, (and better film) was Hoppity Goes to Town, (originally titled, "Mr. Bug Goes to Town")
The film begins with a wonderful sequence that takes place during the credits, which starts out in the vastness of space and comes down thru the clouds to a very realistic city, then all the way down to ground level, to a bugs perspective. We meet everyone in Bugtown, coming in on the local eatery, the Honey hive, where Mr. Honeybee and his lovely daughter, "Honey Bee" (don't figure, huh?). We meet the locals briefly.
We then meet the local bad guy, C.Bagley Beetle, who has a thing for Honey Bee. He has two henchmen, "Swat" the mousquito, and another fly character.
Hoppity returns, and before he knows it, he's having to put out a fire, (started by C. Bagley Beetle, in order to force Mr. Bumble Bee to convince him to let his Daughter marry Beetle in order to get a safe place to land.) Hoppity thwarts it.
Hoppity then takes Honey out on the town. C. Bagley Bettle sends his henchman after the two to watch them. They enjoy the dance club, cutting a rug. Hoppity gets electrocuted, which leads to a very good sequence where Hoppity first becomes a "Neon Sign" character, and then does some truly memorable dance moves. A Wonderful scene.
The henchman then report back to C. Beetle, who gets insanely jealous.
All this while, Hoppity is trying to find a home for the bugs, as civilization is creeping in on him. Hoppity finds a lovely home owned by two humans who have a lovely garden, per-
-fect for the bug folk, but when they move over there, they are drowned out by a faulty sprinkler.
Hoppity overhears that if the humans don't sell thier song they've written, (A Castle in the Sky), but C. Beetle finds out too, and manages to steal the letter with the check for the house. There seems to be no hope.
They blame Hoppity and turn thier backs on him. C. Beetle sees his opportunity. he invited all the bugs to move onto his land in trade for Honey Bee marrying him. She agrees to in the abscence of Hoppity. Little do the bug folk know that a skyscraper will be built right where they now live!
During the ceremony for marriage, they start working on the building of the skyscraper, and we see our dear beloved bugs running for thier life.
Hoppity finally finds out that C. Beetle has stolen the letter, but before he can do anything about it, he's tied up and stuffed into the envelope and sealed therein.
the building of the building continues. The Bug's scramble for thier lives. Then Hoppity gets out. He then realizes that he must get the letter to the couple, but by the time he gets it to the couple, they have left. he then gets it to a mailbox.
Hoppity then goes back to tell the bugs the good news. If the couple gets thier check, they will put thier new home in the penthouse, and will have thier beautiful garden up there, in thier "castle in the sky". He convinces them, and they make thier way up the building even as it';s being built.
Finally, they get up to the top, and find nothing but a roof.
But, happily, thats not the end ... for right on the other side of the roof, is the beautiful garden home they have been looking for, a happy ending!!
This was, (in this persons opinion), a much better feature film from the Fleschier team. They were much better at cartoony characters and not realism, which was Disney's forte, and while this is no "Disney" film, it has a wonderful charm to it. The cartoon characters are perfect for the story line, and thier little world is nicely realized. I would not be suprised at all if the recent CGI animated feature, "A Bug's Life" was influenced in part, by this much earlier feature.
Another aspect of this feature, which is better than the first, is that the story is much better realized and paced. In the feature "Gullivers Travels" a whole 8 minutes is devoted just to tying up Gulliver; it's like the whole film comes to a screeching halt. The heroines in this film appear in the beginning ... and the ending, just toi sing a rather unmemorable song.
In the case of Hoppity, the story flows well. The crisis of the bugs homes being destroyed and running for thier lives is also memorable. I was able to get into this story much better and actually care for these characters, which I could not do in the earlier film. Also, the idea of setting this film in modern times was a plus as well, making it comtemporary.
Sadly, this film was released in early 1942, right after we had went to war, and the film did poorly, but then, in the very same year Bambi (Disney) did poorly as well. It was a bad year for many a great film. It should also be mentionjed that this film influences the look of Don Bluth's animated film, "Thumbelina". Note, (if you should watch it) the very close resemblance between the bug folk in both films.
This film was a more mature feature as well. It dealt, (in subtle terms, of course) sexuality, as well as psycological issues, as C Bagley Beetle, (while the bad guy) does not feel worthy, or cannot seem to talk to Honey Bee on his own, he sends his henchmen to spy on her.
The Fleischer studio, while this was at thier end, would go out on top, animation wise. They has quite a few big suceesses; The Betty Boops, Popeye's, Kiko the clown, the Superman cartoons, and this film, and while Gullivers Travels was O.K. as a feature film, "Hoppity Goes to Town" stands the test of time far better.
Now, onto the film print itself. This particular print is a "Niles" film print, (this was released by a number of super 8 film companies, as it was a public domain print, I believe Derrann also released it as well in the 70's).
This print has pretty good contrast and grain for an older film, and judging by Niles "hit or miss" quality standards, it's actually pretty good.
The soundtrack is very good, not dropping out once, and somewhat clear, but it would definitely be a good candadite for a sound redo from a good DVD copy.
Sadly, the print I watched had very bad fading, (A common fault with Niles colour prints, as they printed on Eastman film stock.), but, alas, with a lot of these old film prints, the colour wasn't exactly always mint, not like the colour you find on most modern super 8 prints made today, so the colour may not have been perfect to begin with.
I would love to find a good colour copy of this, but I have heard that this, for some reason, is a rather hard film to get good colour copies of. It was quite enjoyable, and does not deserve to be forgotten by history.
UPDATE!!!
I have found two low fade prints of this title, from two different companies, and they are well worth commenting on here! I'll compare the two.
The first print in on L.P.P. and is from Derann Films. Now, Derann has released this earlier on in the 70's on Fuji film stock but sadly, this run of prints was on a Fuji film stock that has not kept it's color quality. Fortunately, Derann re-released this in the era of L.P.P. so decent color prints survive to this day!
The second print is the masterful print done by Red Fox Films. This print was a real unique marvel in that it was taken from a very early print of Hoppity. This is denoted that, while it has the "Hoppity" title card, the original leader from the source material is still on the print (on super 8) and clearly states, "Mr. Bug Goes to Town", which was the original first year release title of the film.
Now, I had originally assumed that Derann films, (in order to make new prints of Hoppity in the LPP era), had acquired the Red Fox Films negative materials, as they did recieve much of Red Fox Films negatives and did a fine job of reprinting them later on ...
However, when watching it just yesterday again, I noticed a terrible flaw in the original release material that I have glossed over when originally watching it.
The original Fuji Film stock release, while slightly OK in color on reels 1 and 4 (4X400ft release), reels 2 and 3 were from a faded eastman film print source, as the color quality is dramatically reduced on these two reels.
Upon watching the LPP reprint of this by Derann, I was surprised to see that they used the same negative source as in the 70's, as the color quality was reduced again in reels 2 and 3!
Now, I had originally assumed that Derann had Red Foxes negatives for Hoppity, but, upon looking at the very point in which the color goes down (from reel 1 to reel 2), on the Red Fox print, the color stays consistent throughout, and the Derann films negative is missing approximately 16 frames of the film from reels 1 to 2.
Also, the Red Fox films print also includes a full six minutes of scenes from the beginning of the film that DErann's print has always cut from the film. Why is this?
Perhaps Derann used a overseas print of Hoppity, and these scenes were cut from the UK version to save running time? It is possible, though, even with the six minutes of scenes, it would still fit on the 4 X 400ft reels.
The Derann print is taken from a source many times removed from the original first generation sources. The Red Fox print has to be from either a first generation or second of the original release, as it is extremely sharp with full details. A good example of this is with the very shot, right after the credits, where we are coming down to a little house in the middle of the city. In the Derann print, in the foreground, the building on the left and right are literally black. In the Red Fox print, these same walls are clearly deliniated with not only windows but lovely brick work!
Also, the soundtrack on the Derann film goes from murky to downright hard to understand.
The soundtrack on the Red Fox print is in incredibly sharp and is just about the sharpest mono soundtrack I have ever heard! It sounds GLORIOUS over my Dolby surround sound unit and 8 speaker system, (set to "simulated stereo")
At the end here, it should be noted that the Niles film release of this, while highly inferior to either the Derann or Red Fox release, does have the six minutes that the Red Fox has as well, it's just very dupey and hard of focus.
... and, as always ...
LONG LIVE SUPER 8!!!
[ September 29, 2012, 01:00 PM: Message edited by: Osi Osgood ]
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"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "
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Osi Osgood
Film God
Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted December 08, 2006 10:39 AM
Yeah, the dreaded Eastman, (which Derrann was forced to use back then as well, thank God they went on to LPP), though, a lot depends on how it was stored.
I felt that this was a very good second attempt at a feature. It is sad that the Fleischer studio never got a third chance, as they were getting better with each feature.
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"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "
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Osi Osgood
Film God
Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted December 15, 2006 08:49 PM
An earlier post stated that Derann aquired the negative from Niles films for thier prints, and I think that I can see why.
I just recieved an early print of Hoppity, and while reels one , part of two, and four have great color, reel part of reel two and reel three have faded color.
But here's the kicker ....
I went thru the footage to find where the pink ended and the good color came in, and expected to find a splice.
Nope.
... which leads me to believe that Derann's original negative for Hoppity had at least one orignal reel with bad color.
Here's another factoid though ...
In the earlier Derann release of Hoppity, it's missing the first approx. 6 minutes of footage from the film, beginning (in the Derann release) with Hoppity leaving the wagon he's been riding on to go to bugtown.
Kevin, when does your LPP print of this film begin, (that is, after the credits) ? Derann did buy the Niles print, so did they leave those 6 minutes in there?
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"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "
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Osi Osgood
Film God
Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted December 18, 2006 09:55 PM
Oh God, I envy you! That is a beautiful print!! (let me know if you ever decide to let it go ... yeah, fat chance of that eh?
That just shows how good a print can look, even from ancient source material. Beautiful colors.
Anyway, here's how the films first scenes take place : After credits end, we go past asorted humans walking about, to the abandoned lot. We see assorted debris and then come upon the little bugtown.
We enter the "Honey Hive" (or whatever Mr. Bumbles little cafe is called). We meet Mr. Bumble and Honey. Honey refers to Hoppity coming home.
We then dissolve to Mrs. ladybug, who goes to plead with Mr. C. Bagley Beetle about more time on her rent, (if I'm correct), and he pumps her for information about Honey Bee and her father.
Mr. bagley Beetle then goes to visit Mr. Bumble, to pressure him about leaving his home/business and moving to his property.
Mr. Bumble doesn't buy it, and Beetle is sent on his back for the first time in the film, (flailing all over the place trying to get back on his feet.)
We then fianlly come to Hoppity riding the bottom of the wagon on the lamp. The whole intro scene runs approximately 6 minutes.
What I would suggest if you were to try to hunt down this extra footage is, (since I doubt LPP prints were made with this scene)
just find it from an earlier print, witrh no doubt lesser color, and put it on the last reel after the end as a "deleted scene", which would allow you to use inferior material at this point, (as, if you noticed, on DVD's, the deleted scenes tend to be unfinished scenes)
Just a suggestion on that, and many thanks for those amazing shots. The colors are just magnificent!!
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"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "
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Osi Osgood
Film God
Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted February 14, 2007 10:08 PM
I do stand corrected, There was UPA's "Gay Puree", and a slew of other countries putting out features, (I never even knew abvout the Japanese features until just a week or two ago), I should have said mostly american companies, with the exception of U.K.'s Animal Farm, but also keep in mind that i was dealing with the Golden Age, which, in my personal estimation, would rate from the early 30's to the mid fifties. Most people who rate the Golden age say about the same, basically the time before the advent the of TV.
By the way, Walter Lantz actually did a partially feature on Science, I think the theory of relativity in fact, way back in the mid twenties.
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"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "
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Osi Osgood
Film God
Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted August 10, 2007 10:28 AM
Okay folks, I think I can rightly call this ...
HOPPITY : THE FINAL CHAPTER
I continued my search for the perfect Hoppity, after having seen Kevin Clarks beautiful screen shots from his L.P.P. print of "Hoppity Goes to Town". I made a stop at what will be an un-named U.K. film company. They had a print of Hoppity on FUJI film, which sent me a ray of hope, as FUJI tends to hold up well.
Well, the film held up well, the original negative they used, didn't.
It was taken from the 1970's Derann negative, (this was a Derann release), so, while reel one and 4 minutes of reel two had decent, passable colour, the rest of reel two and reel three had deplorable colour. Reel four had better colour, but not by much.
This would change when Derann secured the Niles Hoppity negative, AND started using L.P.P. film, as is evidenced by the screenshots earlier in this post.
So, here I was with a so-so Hoppity. Not three days after I had stupidly bought the FUJI Hoppity, Steve Osbourne of REEL IMAGES secured a very large collection and there were TWO HOPPITIES in the collection. Steve said the colour looked good, but to be on the safe side, he would sell them BOTH to me for 75.00!! (The FUJI Hoppity from the U.K. cost 125.00, 60 pounds!).
Fingers were crossed. I honestly wasn't expecting much, after having went thru three passable to rotten prints.
OY!! Was I suprised!!
Not only had Steve sent me one, but TWO perfect colour prints of Hoppity!!! One is the Derann re-issue on L.P.P., with the same exaxt colour as the screenshots in the earlier post, but also an AGFA print of Hoppity from, of all places, RED FOX FILMS!!
The Red Fox film print was even better than the Derann print, which is hard to say, as the Derann is quite nice. But there was a reason for this ...
The Red Fox negative was an actual Technicolour print of the original "Mr. Bug Goes To Town", which an Eastman colour title card of Hoppity spliced on for re-release, so this was an actual first run print of Hoppity. It's kind of funny, as the title card had Eastman fade, and the rest of the print is absolutely gorgeous!
One fault with the Red Fox print, is that there are occasional lines to the original negative, mostly towards the beginning. The Red Fox also has the six and a half minute first scene (introducing all the characters) that the Derann release doesn't have.
So, I'm very happy to say that my Hoppity trail ended well!
Oh, and one last thing. Steve Osbourne, as a freebie for buying Hoppity, threw in the gorgeous Technicolour trailer to Hoppity!
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"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "
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Osi Osgood
Film God
Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted December 30, 2008 12:06 PM
Awesome link Robert, thanks!
The more I watch this feature, the more I'm struck with how good it is. No, it's not Disney quality animation, but it is quite good. A large step above "Gullivers travels" made just two years beforehand by the same studio.
Hoppity was also the very first animated feature to deal with a story set in the "now" and not in a fairytale past. Though it is ficticious in it's use of cartoon bugs, Max and dave Fleischer
once gain outdid Disney with doing something first. While Disney was more than happy to stick to the firy tale realm (as a general rule, hey, you can't count out that cash cow!), still, the Fleischers took the chance at doing a modern film.
And some of those effects in the film are quite good. Hoppity being electrified and shocked into that "neon" dance. The incredible opening montage shots of the city. The ending chaos.
I hope that this 35MM revival might extend itself to a completel film restoration of this feature film on DVD. I havwe three different Hoppity items, two features, one L.P.P., one on AGFA and then a trailer on AGFA with even more outstanding color than the two features.
The greatest tradgedy is that, right after this film tanked, Paramount illegally took over the Fleischer studio and three the two brothers out. The studio became Pramount films, and the quality immediately went straight down the tubes!
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"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "
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Osi Osgood
Film God
Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted August 13, 2014 01:13 PM
Yep, Brian, I had one of those Fuji prints myself from Derann's earlier days of this print. The one thing I really liked about that print, however, was that it had an earlier "Derann Films" title card before the feature started which I was really fond of.
I wouldn't be surprised if "Hoppity" has been copyrighted for release these days. If someone is willing topay to have it restored, they'd no doubt protect they're investment ...
but that wouldn't cover copies of the film, on film, that were printed before the new or renewed copyright took affect.
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"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "
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