Honeymoon Hotel (1934) User Reviews

Cute short with more than a few gags with a "nudge, nudge, wink wink" subtext to them

[llltdesq · 8/10 · 5 January 2007]

This is a cute, though somewhat limited, cartoon which is one of the earliest (if I recall correctly, the very first) Warner Brothers cartoons done in color. Because I want to discuss some of the details, this is a spoiler warning:

The short begins with three billboard painters painting the lyrics (with one straight, quick brush-stroke putting the lyrics down in readable form) to the song they're singing, which is all about Bugville. It's a nice little lead-in to the main plot line, which is about two bugs who fall in love, get married and go to the Honeymoon Hotel (watch for a funny gag involving their car as they enter the Hotel). They go to the front desk, where they sign in by using a rubber stamp indicating that they are "Mr. and Mrs Smith", the first of a number of arch jokes directed more toward the adults in the audience than the children.

Along the way, we see a house detective with a fondness for looking into keyholes, with very unfortunate results (from his point of view, at any rate), a household staff with a significant interest in the goings on in their room and an inquisitive (if bashful) moon. As the happy couple begins to celebrate, the heat in the room causes the thermometer to explode and sets the hotel ablaze.

Some nice sight gags involving the Bugville Fire Department and the rescue efforts at the hotel are next, with our couple trapped in their room by some quite lively flames-so they jump in their Murphy bed and it folds back into the wall. Later, after the hotel has been leveled and the fire is out, they emerge, the husband puts a "Do Not Disturb" sign on the door and they go back into the wall again and we see the closing sight gag on the exposed underside of the bed, which I won't spoil here.

Cute short, well worth watching, if you can find it out there. Recommended.

"Honeymoon Hotel" (1934) cartoon available free as an "add on" with "Footlight Parade" (1933) VHS and also DVD videos

[DavidAllenUSA · 10/10 · 25 November 2012]

"Honeymoon Hotel" (1934) cartoon available free as an "add on" with "Footlight Parade" (1933) VHS and also DVD videos.

This longer than average, very well done color 1934 cartoon is now (2012) available with both VHS and DVD editions of "Footlight Parade" (1933), a famous Warner Brothers musical which contains the "Honeymoon Hotel" song sung by Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler.

"Honeymoon Hotel" is a big production number in "Footlight Parade" (1933), one of three presented at the end of the movie. It is very witty, and very adult in ways later not permitted when the MPAA "Code" went into effect censoring major studio movies for most of the 1930's through the 1960's.

The "bugtown" cartoon version is a spoof with bugs singing the song, and is much longer (and in ways better) than the song sung by live people in "Footlight Parade" (1933). Used VHS copies of "Footlight Parade" (1933) can be purchased cheap from Amazon.Com and worth getting. Both "Footlight Parade" (1933) and the "Honeymoon Hotel" (1934) cartoon are true classics.

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Written by Tex Allen, SAG Actor.

Email Tex Allen at [e-mail]

Visit WWW.IMDb.Me/TexAllen for movie actor credits and biography information.

Lovebug honeymoon

[TheLittleSongbird · 8/10 · 13 August 2018]

Love animation, it was a big part of my life as a child, particularly Disney, Looney Tunes, Hanna Barbera, Studio Ghibli and Tom and Jerry, and still love it whether it's film, television or cartoons. With significantly broader knowledge of different directors, animation styles and studios, actually appreciate and love it even more now.

'Honeymoon Hotel' may not one of my favourite cartoons or an amazing one, there are funnier, more inventive and livelier cartoons about. Not that 'Honeymoon Hotel' is devoid of any of those things, just that other cartoons do it better. It is a lot of fun still and is very charming with a lot to like. Deserving to be more widely known, having come from a period with stiff and more well known competition from major pioneers in animation.

It is very flimsy in story sure and is fairly familiar, it is not hard to figure out how the cartoon was going to end.

Did feel that the cartoon was slightly too long as well.

On the other hand, the animation is great. Full of beautiful vibrant colour, meticulously detailed backgrounds, smooth movement and crisply drawn character designs, one is convincingly immersed in the bugtown world. The music is lush and full of energy, with an infectious song. The choreography in how it synchronises with the music and animated dazzles and amazes in its surprisingly grand spectacle.

Much of 'Honeymoon Hotel' is amusing, with some wit, and despite the bug characters it never tries too hard to be cute. The charm factor is high and while the bug characters are not the most distinctive they are appealing all the same.

All in all, charming and enjoyable. 8/10 Bethany Cox

"Goodbye to Depression--business here is fine . . . "

[oscaralbert · 8/10 · 8 December 2016]

. . . gleefully sing the animated bedbugs, roaches, and centipedes during Warner Bros.' HONEYMOON HOTEL cartoon brief. This simply reflected a Real Life fact brought into sharp focus by America's Great Depression, on-going when HOTEL hit the streets in 1934: tiny human predators thrive when their hosts are the most miserable. As the two featured love bugs here emerge from the church after their wedding, their well-wishers throw LICE at them! While they are getting settled in a very buggy HONEYMOON HOTEL, their centipede bellhop sings, "I'm here to carry your luggage; I see all the kissing and the Huggage." When you're at a hotel, your room rate only determines the SIZE of the bugs watching you: the lower your rate, the bigger the bugs! We've all heard that roaches survived Japan's nuking, eating the remains of the many victims so that all they left behind were the burnt rind outlines of their corpses. During Hitler's Holocaust, DENIAL documented this year that it took 1500% MORE Zyklon B poison to De-louse a person (that is, kill off the lice attached to them) than to murder someone WITHOUT harming their lice. Since Hitler was named Time Magazine's "Man of the Year" shortly after HONEYMOON HOTEL was released, let's just hope that Adolph's "Man of the Year" successor--Donald J. Rump--does not see THIS cartoon!

What it lacks in story, it makes up for it in charm.

[waynel-59765 · 8/10 · 14 February 2020]

I first stumbled upon this short on the Blu-Ray of the film Footlight Parade. I think I'm pretty well-versed in old-school animation so it's always a happy surprise to see cartoon characters and shorts from that era that I haven't seen before. This is a part of the Warner Bros cartoon series Merry Melodies, which isn't obscure by any means, so the fact that there are shorts that aren't well known is crazy to think about.

The premise of the short is quite simple, a male and a female bug get married, check into a honeymoon hotel, and it catches on fire. That's it, how it all plays out I won't spoil, but it's pretty simple. Some moments that happen in the short add nothing to the overall story. Again I won't spoil but a few times I said to myself "What was the point of that?". While the story and characters aren't especially interesting, the short makes up for it in its music and overall charm.

The character designs across the board are all simple and endearing. They might not be interesting but they are very cute to look at. And while certain moments don't add anything to the overall plot, the short has plenty of gags with the characters that are an absolute delight. And considering for a short during the 1930s, there are some nudge nudge wink wink gags in the short that I think modern audiences might be surprised and amused by. The world that the bugs live in is very well realized, the backgrounds and the settings the bugs are in show me that the people who made this had a ton of fun coming up with this world and how it functions, and the artistry is just straight beautiful. I think it's a shame we never saw this world again after this. It reminds me of the Disney short The Cookie Carnival which also had a great world in it, that never appeared again after that short. That's such a shame!

And being a short attached to Footlight Parade, the music is taken from that film and revised to suit this short, so if you've seen Footlight Parade and heard and enjoyed the song Honeymoon Hotel, then it'll be very interesting for you to see what this short did with it. As someone who really enjoyed that song from that movie, I thought what this short did with it was great!

Overall while what the short lacked in terms of plot and interesting characters, it made up for in sheer charm and its music. What the short did with the Honeymoon Hotel song was very enjoyable and interesting. The characters are just plain cute and delightful to watch. I would just like to say that the main characters that we follow, the male bug and the female bug are clearly inspired by Mickey and Minnie Mouse, from their designs, demeanors, and voices. Not putting it down just saying as that's what was going through my mind when I was watching them. It think it's a very delightful short and while I understand why it faded into obscurity, I think more people give it a watch as it's a very cute short. It might not have the best plot or compelling characters in regards to its writing, but in its sheer amount of charm in the characters makes this well worth watching for anyone who loves animation both new and old.

"So long folks!" :)