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6.2/10
Senior Film Conservator
A definitive 6.2/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. Honeymoon Hotel remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
If you like old-school animation that feels like a fever dream, sure. It’s short, it’s bouncy, and it moves at a pace that makes most modern stuff look like it’s standing still. If you need a coherent story or realistic physics, skip it. You will probably hate this if you get annoyed by characters who just won't stop singing.
Bugtown is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a town full of bugs, which means everything is just a little bit too big and slightly off-center. The Honeymoon Hotel is the center of the madness. Our two lovebugs show up, and honestly, they are a bit much.
Their love is supposedly 'too hot,' which is a cute way of saying they’re basically a walking disaster. Every time they get close, the room reacts. It’s like the furniture itself is trying to get away from them.
There is a lot of music here. Like, a lot. The Varsity Three and The Rhythmettes show up and everything turns into a big production number. It’s kind of jarring when you just want to see the hotel staff panic, but that’s the charm, I guess. The rhythm is jumpy. It’s not smooth, but it has this weird, frantic energy that I kinda dug.
I noticed that the background characters in Bugtown look like they’re just waiting for the next cue to start moving again. It’s got that specific, slightly cheap feel of older shorts, but it works in a weird way.
It reminds me a bit of the frantic energy in A Pair o' Dice, where things just happen because the screen needs to be filled with motion. There’s no point trying to look for a deep meaning here. It’s bugs. They’re in love. The hotel is falling apart. That’s it.
One reaction shot of the manager, a very stressed beetle, lingers about two seconds too long. It turns into this awkward silence where you can practically hear the animator sweating. I liked that. It felt real, in a messy, imperfect way.
Is it better than, say, Dante's Inferno? Obviously not. But it doesn't try to be. It’s a snack. A weird, singing, jittery snack.
