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.