The Bug Parade - Merrie Melodies
An announcer describes the strange behaviors and adaptations of bugs and insects.
The Bug Parade premiered in 1941. The official release date was October 11, 1941. This was two years into World War 2 and just two months before the United States entered World War 2. The Maltese Falcon came out on October 18th. The first Wonder Woman comic came out on the 21st. My only point with these facts is to offer a brief idea of what the world was when this cartoon was showing in theaters. It's one thing to watch the cartoon now. The people watching it then were dealing with totally different chaos.
The short was inspired by contemporary educational shorts that would show in the same theaters as the cartoon shorts. The bug jokes are a traditional kind that can be found in books like Alice Through the Looking Glass where Lewis Carroll described the Rocking Horse Fly, the Bread and Butterfly and the Snapdragonfly. This cartoon is less pun fueled. They take commonly known insects and anthropomorphize them. Each part of the segment ends with a subversion of expectations (as jokes will).
This is an expertly done cartoon. The only big historical note for this cartoon is it was the last Tex Avery worked on before leaving Warner Brothers.
My Art
I love the fly in the short. I love his happily creepy, "I See You". I love his eyes. So I drew him with my usual mix of ink, markers and colored pencils.
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