8mm Forum: Hoppity Goes To Town!!

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Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on 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 ]

Posted by Winbert Hutahaean (Member # 58) on December 08, 2006, 01:30 AM:

Osi,

I have heard Derann also erleased this title, but it has gone fade too.

winbert

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on 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.

Posted by Winbert Hutahaean (Member # 58) on December 12, 2006, 04:24 AM:

Hi, this is screen shot of Derann prints. It is fade but not that pink.

I have posted these picutres on the other post but then realized it should be better if it is here.

cheers,

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on December 12, 2006, 10:01 AM:

I noticed someone from australia, who is selling thier own print of this film, used your earlier screenshots of this, as thier exactly the same. The fade is acceptable on this print that's shown, (personal opinion, as I have seen far worse fade)

Thank you for the screen shots!

Posted by Kevin Clark (Member # 211) on December 15, 2006, 04:17 PM:

I can confirm that low fade Derann prints of Hoppity do indeed exist - it took me a number of years to get my Derann LPP print of this title but it was well worth the wait. I also own a nice Fuji Derann print of Gulliver's Travels which again was hard to find as mainly only the pink / red faded Derann Eastman prints turned up on seller lists. For me it was fourth time lucky on both occassions.
Kevin

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on 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?

Posted by Kevin Clark (Member # 211) on December 16, 2006, 01:57 AM:

Hello Osi

One of the faded (on Kodak SP - brown colour) prints of Hoppity I owned in the past was supplied in a Red Fox feature box so I would guess it is more likely Derann used a Red Fox master than a Niles master as they had a deal to use Red Fox negs. for a long time - such full features as Adventures Of Robin Hood & Dodge City are printed from the Red Fox supplied negs. and look great.
I will screen Hoppity sometime in the next couple of days and try to supply you with some decent screen shots and also confirm if the scenes you mention are in there (my scene by scene recollection of any film has never been particularly acurate unfortunately).

Kevin

Posted by Kevin Clark (Member # 211) on December 18, 2006, 08:27 PM:

Hello Osi
I can now confirm the opening scenes after the full title sequence starts with Hoppity riding home on a wagon so it looks as though this is printed from the slightly abridged Derann master you mentioned - I timed the film as 73 minutes duration which is a few minutes short of the running time stated on the IMDB. The colour is excellent all the way through with just a tad warmer last ten minutes due to the master material rather than colour fade as all 4 x 400ft reels on my print are on Kodak LPP. Here are some screen shots to give you a good indication of the colour of the print, the focus is less than perfect as my very basic digital camera has autofocus only and has problems adjusting to reflected images:

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on 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!!

Posted by Peter Richards (Member # 738) on February 12, 2007, 07:32 PM:

No sure if anyone is looking for this but i found this up on the bay tonight:-

http://cgi.ebay.com/Super8-feature-sound-Hoppity-Goes-to-Town_W0QQitemZ290083007713QQihZ019QQcategoryZ63821QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on February 13, 2007, 01:52 AM:

.

[ March 09, 2013, 07:54 AM: Message edited by: Lee Mannering ]

Posted by Chris Smith (Member # 132) on February 14, 2007, 02:48 PM:

Good review, Osi. However, you said there were only three features (Animal Farm, Gulliver's Travels, and Hoppity Goes to Town) before Yellow Submarine, excepting Disney's output. I can think of a few offhand...Gay Purr-ee (62)...Hey There, It's Yogi Bear (64)...Man Called Flintstone (66)...Man From Button Willow (65), plus a slew of Japanese feature cartoons Alakazan the Great (60)...Pinocchio in Outer Space(65) to name a few. Keep up the good work. I enjoy reading your stuff.

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on 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.

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on 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!

Posted by Mal Brake (Member # 14) on August 10, 2007, 04:55 PM:

Bought my print brand new in the mid 1970's at a Derann Open Day
for £49, but sold it last year as the fade was becoming more noticable. My kids loved it when they were younger so it had many screenings, had my money's worth out of it.
Just discovered that it is out on dvd in October, £7.99 on PLAY so all is not lost.
Mal

Posted by Robert Wales (Member # 502) on December 29, 2008, 05:20 PM:

Osi: I instantly thought of you when I saw this :

http://www.filmforum.org/films/hoppity.html

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on 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!

Posted by Robert Wales (Member # 502) on December 30, 2008, 07:48 PM:

The problem with restoring a public-domain film is that somebody spends a lot of money to make a beautiful master copy and all the bottom-feeders copy it to make a fast buck . It's hard to convince the holders of the original material that they are going to get their investment back.

Still, it's being done. Warner Brothers recently restored 'This Is The Army' which has long been kicking around in inferior prints. It premiered on Turner Classic Movies a few weeks ago and is also out on DVD as well. It looks sensational !

Posted by Brian Fretwell (Member # 4302) on August 11, 2014, 06:23 AM:

I only have one reel of this, reel 2 I picked up as an "odd reel" from Derann for £7.99. It is on Fuji stock and the black level is now mid-brown, but doesn't seem to have changed much recently. The change in colour level after the first couple of minutes is accompanied with a change in frame line, plus increased neg wear either side of the change. So it looks, as Ossie said, there was a faded reel used as the master for this. but it doesn't line up with the reel changes of the Super 8 print.

Posted by David Ollerearnshaw (Member # 3296) on August 11, 2014, 01:09 PM:

Wouldn't the film be copyrighted in the restored version?

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on 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.

Posted by Ray Faiola (Member # 758) on August 14, 2014, 07:12 AM:

The film is NOT in the Public Domain. NTA renewed the copyright and it is now back in Paramount's stable. By the way, here's the original main title:

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on August 19, 2014, 11:51 AM:

Ray, would you happen to know if there were any super 8 prints with the original Title card used? Both my LPP and my AGFA both have "Hoppy Goes To Town". I'd love to find one with the original title, if it exists.

Posted by Joe Balitzki (Member # 438) on August 23, 2014, 08:02 AM:

No Super 8mm prints have the Original Main Title because the NTA Title Card has no Copyright Notice which is why it was used. This led to the common belief that the film was in the Public Domain. Red Fox used the Matinee Memories Negative which was made from a 35mm IB Technicolor print which unfortunately has some splices in it. Matinee Memories could have left the Original Main Title in its Negative but of course they didn't because it has the Copyright Notice. To be on the safe side they removed the Paramount Logos and replaced the original End Title as well. The last printing in 16mm for rental does have the Original End Title/Paramount Logo and was "restored" for that printing. However, it does not have the Opening Paramount Logo or the "Mr. Bug" Main Title. Most likely NTA cut the Original Negative or the 16mm Negative made had it removed/replaced with the NTA version. This version was used when NTA Re-Released it to theaters but they did make 35mm Technicolor prints for the Re-Release. The reason I suspect that NTA did unfortunately cut the Master Negative is because they did so with many of the Fleischer Paramount Cartoons. Turner Classic Movies used a Original Release 35mm IB Technicolor print that came from the Museum of Modern Art. UCLA restored the film and Gulliver's Travels as well but I have no idea if the Paramount Logos and Original Titles are in the restoration. Since Paramount still owns the Negatives perhaps it will be released on DVD here. It was released on DVD in Japan but the NTA Negative was used. Perhaps because the UCLA Restoration wasn't available. Now Gulliver's Travels does exist in Super 8mm with Paramount Logos and the Original Main Title because the Copyright was allowed to expire and Original 35mm IB Technicolor prints were used to make a Negative. These two Features deserve a Official Release from Paramount but they probably won't bother to do so.

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on August 23, 2014, 10:51 AM:

Joe!!

Thank you for that totally awesome info!! I LOVE learing something further about a beloved print!!!

You are right, the Red Fox print, while slightly better than the Derann and the original full length, does have some splice issues from the original source, (as well as some slight "white" lines the appear here and there from the original source material) ...

I always wondered why the Red Fox was so exquisitely SHARP and has such great contrast to the print. My question has been answered in spades. Once again, KUDO'S to Joe!!!

By the way, on the official Blu-ray release, at least on Gulliver, they did restore the original Paramount titles to the beginning, as I have that. (OK, I am assuming that it is an official release, as it is totally restored and a 720p download. Lovely to look at. Now .... to look forward to an official "Hoppity" Blu-ray)!

Posted by Joe Balitzki (Member # 438) on August 24, 2014, 03:22 AM:

The "Gulliver's Travels" Blu-ray release is not a "official (Paramount Pictures) release". It was done independently from several prints; at least 2 35mm IB Technicolor Original Prints from a Re-Release were used as well as a AGFA 16mm Print. Its a composite. That is why there is such Richness of Color. It was also not "Digitally Tweaked" excessively. So, there are negligible faults in the picture which are only considered faults by those that cannot stand to see a scratch or dirt. The graininess of the prints used also was not tampered with excessively. It was a Labor of Love since it exists in far too many terrible video versions. It was funded by donations asked for online. If it was not in the Public Domain it would likely have never been done. It was done because Paramount has no inclination to do so. Many are fond of the two Fleischer Features, so if Paramount ever does Officially Release them I have no doubt they will sell many. I do not know if Paramount financed the UCLA Restorations, but I imagine they did contribute somewhat and that High Definition Masters were created. Finally, when "Gulliver's Travels" Eastmancolor prints were struck by NTA for Television, the Vibrant Reds from Technicolor were printed lighter (desaturated). It had more to do with the fact that Eastmancolor print stock was used. The same thing was done with Eastmancolor/Metrocolor prints of "Gone With The Wind" when it was Re-Released. The timing and saturation of entire reels was altered by MGM with the co-operation & supervision of David O. Selznick. Print stocks have improved greatly since then but even so, they are not the same as viewing a IB Technicolor print. Close perhaps, with careful lab work but the shadows and subtleties of the gradations of the Colors are not the same. Especially if one views a Nitrate IB Technicolor print.

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on August 25, 2014, 12:40 PM:

Are you referring to the "Steve S." print that I hear has been released on Blu-ray? If so, I would love to get that, as I have the earlier release that he did which was taken from a very un-restored print, but was the original aspect ratio! (rounded edges of the original 35MM frame!)

Is that the one that you are speaking of Joe? Did he retain that original aspect ratio on his restoration?

Posted by Timothy Ramzyk (Member # 718) on August 26, 2014, 04:17 PM:

The Thunderbean Blu-ray looks great, I've never seen Gulliver look that good.

I'm sad to admit however I find the film hard to sit through, it has moments, but only moments for me.

Someone joked when they heard about the forthcoming Thunderbean disk. "I'd only be interested if they were releasing a "Gabby Free" edition." I had to agree, Gabby is real migraine of a character. I'd like to see HOPPITY though, I never have.

Posted by Joe Balitzki (Member # 438) on August 27, 2014, 03:51 AM:

I'm referring to the Thunderbean release. However, I do not own a copy of it and have not seen it. I do not own a Blu-Ray player. What I wrote I have read elsewhere. And I agree that Gabby at times is obnoxious but I still enjoy the film.

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on August 28, 2014, 11:40 AM:

Agreed on Gabby as well, (though he DID get his own short lived series of cartoons apart from Gulliver) ...

... however, I personally think that "Hoppity" is a better film from the Fleischers, and only makes me wonder that if Paramount hadn't taken they're studio away illegally, (Max Fleischer didn't finally win his case in a court of law until the early 1970's), I wonder how much improved they're feature productions might have become!

Posted by Timothy Ramzyk (Member # 718) on September 01, 2014, 01:01 AM:

Gulliver is defiantly not on a par with Disney in my book. The Fleisher's seem to have bitten off more than they could chew at times, there's a pretty big range in animation quality within the film itself. I also find the pacing pretty uneven too (the scene where Gulliver is tied up on the beach goes on for an eternity). Still, it's great that someone showed it some TLC.

For those with no Blu-ray player, the Thunderbean Blu-ray also contains a DVD of the restoration.

Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on September 01, 2014, 04:11 AM:

They ain't no Disney Timothy...that's for sure!

[ September 01, 2014, 06:08 PM: Message edited by: Andrew Woodcock ]

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on September 03, 2014, 12:02 PM:

" They ain't no Disney Timothy...that's for sure! "

True, but then the Fleischer studio had it's own charm and "urban" comedy and style, while Disney had that farmyard "west coast" style, and while Disney was the greatest at "technical" animation (to this day, in my opinion), The Fleischers films were far funnier and the humor tends to hold up better than in the Disney's.

I rarely watch any of the Disney shorts anymore, but I still regularly view the Fleischer "catalog". [Smile]

Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on October 17, 2014, 09:40 AM:

Always loved it and always will. A wonderful memory from my childhood and with a message if you know the film. 10/10 for Hoppity!

Posted by Brian Fretwell (Member # 4302) on May 01, 2019, 09:35 AM:

I bought a Derann LPP print of this from CHC at the weekend and before the Derann logo it has "An Ivy Film\16 presentation" title card. There is no 8mm splice so I assume this was from the master used. The colour seems the same as in Kevin's print.

Posted by Leon Norris (Member # 3151) on May 01, 2019, 02:51 PM:

I just picked up a print of this film. On 2×800 ft reels. I see it starts off with the NTA logo! It looks pretty sharp with good color! I don't know who released the copy I have? Its not on the leader! But its very injoyable! A real crowd pleaser!

Posted by Panayotis A. Carayannis (Member # 1220) on May 02, 2019, 02:47 AM:

The film's original title is MR BUG GOES TO TOWN.In England it was renamed HOPPITY GOES TO TOWN,perhaps due to fear of aversion to bugs!,and sworn of a few minutes. So,copies deriving from American or British originals are titled accordingly.
Plus,it was Fleiscer and not Lantz who made the "Relativity" feature.

Posted by Leon Norris (Member # 3151) on May 03, 2019, 10:33 AM:

I would like to know how many features the Fleischer studio put out? And is it true that they were going to use Popeye for Gulliver's travels?

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on May 03, 2019, 12:01 PM:

Just two ...

Gullivers Travels
Hoppity Goes to Town.

"Hoppity" broke the bank for the Fleischer studios. In what turned out to be an illegal seizure of his studio, (he finally won his court case in the early 1970's), when Hoppity bombed at the theaters, Paramount stole the studio from out under Max and Dave Fleischers hands. The sad thing is that Hoppity is definitely a better film that Gulliver, but it had two things working against it ...

1. Paramount barely bothered to even market the film, not liking the original title "Mr Bug Goes to Town" ...

2. it had the unfortunate timing of being released the weekend of December 7th, 1941 ...

Peoples minds were immediately sidetracked, and sadly, "Bug" bombed.

It may not have the "craft' of a Disney feature at the time, but the subject matter certainly worked to the Fleischers strong points when it came to animation and story-telling.

The bluray still isn't out there yet but boy, I do look forward to it someday!

Posted by Brian Fretwell (Member # 4302) on June 08, 2019, 06:47 AM:

With reference to the original title, the Derann released trailer (on a rel with The Reluctant Dragon) has the film titled Mr Bug Goes to Town.

Posted by Iman Yahya (Member # 5842) on June 08, 2019, 07:36 AM:

Still looking for that particular Derann trailer reel. Have the Mr. Bug section only but the beginning is a little clipped.

Posted by David Ollerearnshaw (Member # 3296) on June 10, 2019, 08:13 AM:

I thought this was released by Ivy Films in New York originally on super 8.

Posted by Leon Norris (Member # 3151) on June 10, 2019, 09:00 AM:

Yes this film was released by Ivy films! I have a print by Ivy and red fox films! But I see that the Ivy print is sharper than the red fox print! The red fox print has a little more color to it! A every injoyable film!

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on June 10, 2019, 11:21 AM:

It's kind of Ironic that the trailer on L.P.P. film stock, that I happen to have, actually has more vibrant color than the features, both of which are on L.P.P. and Agfa respecitvely.

Posted by Leon Norris (Member # 3151) on June 10, 2019, 04:04 PM:

OSI, who released this excellent trailer you have ?

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on June 12, 2019, 11:22 AM:

I do not have the distributor, but it might well be Derann, it really is stunning. I'll look at the titles and see if it says "Hoppity" or "Mr Bug" Goes to town.

Posted by Leon Norris (Member # 3151) on June 12, 2019, 12:28 PM:

I'll be on the lookout! It would be nice to splice on to the feature!

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on June 13, 2019, 12:08 PM:

Here is a youtube video of that very trailer, (not my copy, but thats it). The color reproduction isn't entirely accurate, but it's close.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbOxYRMC2e4

Posted by Leon Norris (Member # 3151) on June 13, 2019, 04:42 PM:

Nice trailer OSI, its sharp with nice color! A must have!

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on June 14, 2019, 10:56 AM:

... and it does have better color than what you see on that youtube video. I wouldn't be surprised if that is the super 8 low fade print!

Ohhh, if only either one of the low fade prints had THAT color!

The Derann, while low fade, has a slightly "dupey" quality, where the Agfa Red Fodx print has some slight scratching to the negative here and there, but it IS the full complete feature, where the Derann has to be considered an edit.

Posted by Leon Norris (Member # 3151) on June 14, 2019, 03:12 PM:

Find a good Ivy print! Its nice and sharp!

Posted by Brian Fretwell (Member # 4302) on June 30, 2019, 04:48 AM:

There is a lot more about the production of this film here :- https://www.fleischerstudios.com/mrbug.html
Including the fact that it's first public showing was in England with the Hoppity title.

[ July 02, 2019, 04:03 PM: Message edited by: Douglas Meltzer ]

Posted by Leon Norris (Member # 3151) on June 30, 2019, 09:57 AM:

Also the red fox print is sharp with good color! I just had a print come in! On two 800 ft reels!

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on July 02, 2019, 11:42 AM:

Brian, sadly that link doesn't work. I would LOVE to read about Hoppity, though.

Posted by Douglas Meltzer (Member # 28) on July 02, 2019, 04:04 PM:

Brian had added a period to the url which I have deleted. The link works now.

Doug

Posted by Leon Norris (Member # 3151) on July 03, 2019, 11:06 AM:

Lots of great info on this production! A must read and see.

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on July 06, 2019, 10:45 AM:

Thanks for correcting that link, Doug!

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