Truly Dreadful Film

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

This is "Bug Vaudeville", an 11.5-minute movie and part of the "Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend" series by American animation film pioneer Winsor McCay. It is from 1921, so has its 95th anniversary this year and not too long anymore until the century is full. In my opinion, it was an okay watch. Of course, you should not see it from the perspective of today's animation, but you need to keep in mind that this is from almost a century ago and it paved the way for many successful animators and inspired them to take a job in the profession and come up with quality films during the Golde Age of Animation. Admittedly, also in terms of the story, this film here is not the most creative achievement. A guy falls asleep and dreams that he is watching a stage on which all kinds of bugs perform, dance and sing and show boxing fights even. this is what vaudeville is. But it is all very absurd in this little movie. I just cannot recommend the watch to anybody other than film historians.

Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend: Bug Vaudeville (1921) ** 1/2 (out of 4)This Winsor McCay short has a hobo taking a nap after eating some cheese cake, which causes him to have strange dreams. This dream here just happens to take him to a circus where various bugs do tricks on the stage. I'd be lying if I said this here was among McCay's best works because it's certainly no where near that. It certainly falls well short of his earliest films but overall this here isn't too bad and fans of his should still want to check it out. The one thing lacking was an overall passion from the film. I didn't think the material was nearly as lively as it should have been and this includes scenes that are just rather flat and don't contain any laughs or charm. I think this might be due to the fact that everything we're seeing is pretty much just repeating itself. We see a bug doing a trick and then we get to the next bug who just does another trick. The animation itself is quite good and it's clear that it came a long way since McCay's first film ten years earlier.

Since I, as part of a modern audience, already felt entertained by this movie, I can only imaging how people must have looked at this movie back in 1921. Animated movies and short were of course still something new back then and it was also far from perfected but this movie simply serves its purpose, to entertain, quite well.It's the second hand-drawn movie done by Winsor McCay, which he based on his own comic-strip 'Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend'. It shows that McCay definitely had a bigger talent for drawing animals than for humans, when it comes down to his work for animated movies. All of the movements by the animals seem far more smooth and they also look quite good.Watching this movie really is like watching a vaudeville act, featuring bugs. This is what makes the movie real entertaining to watch and also keeps sure that there is always something going on. It's a fast going movie, that doesn't have to waste any time on a story or characters.A movie that's still quite entertaining to watch, even by todays standards.8/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

This is a creative and detailed Winsor McCay animated feature that is very enjoyable to watch, and it is fortunate that it is one of the surviving movies from his 'Rarebit Fiend' series. The idea itself is clever, and while it is a simple concept, the amusing details and expert technique make it work quite well.The dream about the "Bug Vaudeville" show opens up a lot of possibilities, and McCay does not let them go to waste. There is a series of interesting insects and arachnids who perform various feats of skill. They are cleverly drawn, and the backgrounds also contain some good detail. Most of their 'acts' are interesting and amusing to watch, and they show a resourceful sense of humor on McCay's part.Like most of the pioneers of the movie industry, McCay usually seemed to have a good feel for how much material there really was in one of his subjects. He gets lots of good mileage here out of the "Bug Vaudeville" idea, yet he also stops while the material is still fresh, instead of dragging out some extra footage from it. It's an enjoyable short feature, and a fine example of McCay's skill.