Mister Bug Goes to Town

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Mister Bug Goes to Town is an animated feature produced by Fleischer Studios and released to theaters by Paramount Pictures on December 4, 1941. The film, which centers around a community of insects who must move from their garden home in the light of skyscraper construction, was a commercial flop, and lead to the bankruptcy and dissolution of the Fleischer Studio. It was originally meant to be an adaptation of Maurice Maeterlinck's "The Life of the Bee", but as the Fleischers didn't manage to get the rights to the book, they made their own story inspired by the original one instead.
This was the second feature animation from the Fleischer Studios and as mentioned the movie that became the deathblow for the studio. While Gulliver's Travels was a moderate success, Hoppity Goes to Town became a financial failure, even if it is considered artistically and technical superior to its predecessor.
Already having financial problems, "Hoppity Goes to Town" was Max Fleischer's last stand. It was his final gamble to keep up with Disney and keep the studio alive. The events of Pearl Harbor three days later not only sank the American Navy, but also Hoppity's box office and the Fleischer Studios last hope to survive.
The studio was already deeply in debt, and not surprisingly they failed to make back the money Paramount advanced for their production. Unable to make back the money put into their animated features, their distributor Paramount Pictures in 1942 foreclosed their loan, took completely over the ownership of the company, renamed the facility Famous Studios, moved it back to New York and fired the Fleischers from their own studio. Thanks to a series of unfortunate events, the movie that should have saved the studio ended up causing the brothers to loose it.

After Paramount had fired the Fleischers they reorganized the company and called it Famous Studios. Paramount later re-released the film as Hoppity Goes to Town, the name it is currently distributed under; the original title is a parody of the title of the 1936 film Mr. Deeds Goes to Town. The film cost $600,000 to make, and had only made $430,000 back by 1947.

The film was produced by Max Fleischer and Dave Fleischer, who was credited as director. The sequences of the film were directed by Al Eugster, Reuben Grossman, Abner Kneitel, Hal Seeger, Nick Tafuri, Dave Tendlar, John Walworth, Bob Wickersham, and an uncredited Shamus Culhane.