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A Bug's Life
The same year that Disney Dreamworks released Antz, Disney Pixar released the similar, yet superior A Bug's Life, which provided more laughs than the Dreamworks film thanks to a bigger variety of colorful characters, meticulous detail for some amazing set pieces, and a perfect voice cast.
As this 1998 animated adventure opens, we are introduced to a colony of ants, led by Princess Atta (voiced by Julia Louis Dreyfuss) and her mother the Queen (voiced by Phyllis Diller) who work tirelessly as indentured servants gathering food for an evil grasshopper named Hopper (voiced by Kevin Spacey). After a season of gathering concludes, a well-intentioned but inept ant named Flik (voiced by Dave Foley) messes up the food supply and the ants have to do it all over again. After being threatened by Hopper, Princess Atta decides to get Flik out of the way by sending him to search for some bug warriors to keep the ants safe from Hopper and his fellow grasshoppers. Flik's journey for warriors finds him seeking help from a rundown circus, who think they are getting jobs with another circus, but are not too thrilled when they realize exactly what Flik wants from them
Avoided this film for years because, on the surface, it just appeared to be a rehash of Antz, which I had already seen, but it turned out to be anything but. The screenplay by John Lasseter (Toy Story) and Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo) is a delicious combination of entertaining bug characters and clever dialogue, manifested from a story that touches on universal themes and even world history that is just so masterfully crafted into an animated fantasy that, as always with Disney Pixar, is a little more complex than necessary, but one of the most entertaining aspects of this film is the canvas established by the animators.
I loved the way this move looked. I loved the way ordinary things in nature and ordinary objects were utilized as set pieces here. Loved the restaurant with bottle caps for tables and a beer bottle substituting for the jumbo tron in Times Square, or the boxes of animal crackers that became circus wagons. Flik's first journey over a rock formation via a dandelion was amazing. The attack of the giant red and yellow parakeet was genuinely frightening and I loved the construction of the "trojan" parakeet. And there must have been a couple of million different ways leaves became props in this story.
Another thing that made this film superior to Antz is that the story didn't whittle away to a romance between Flik and Atta. It's clear from their first scene together that Flik has a crush on Princess Atta, but it didn't become the focus of the entire film. Though I loved that moment when their antennae got tangled, which produced just a spark of sexual tension.
As always with Disney Pixar, I loved the voicework with standout work from Spacey, Dreyfuss, Diller, Richard Kind as Hopper's brother, Denis Leary as a ladybug, Madeline Kahn as Gypsy Moth, and David Hyde Pierce as a stick named Slim. Splashy and fast-paced entertainment from Disney Pixar.
The same year that Disney Dreamworks released Antz, Disney Pixar released the similar, yet superior A Bug's Life, which provided more laughs than the Dreamworks film thanks to a bigger variety of colorful characters, meticulous detail for some amazing set pieces, and a perfect voice cast.
As this 1998 animated adventure opens, we are introduced to a colony of ants, led by Princess Atta (voiced by Julia Louis Dreyfuss) and her mother the Queen (voiced by Phyllis Diller) who work tirelessly as indentured servants gathering food for an evil grasshopper named Hopper (voiced by Kevin Spacey). After a season of gathering concludes, a well-intentioned but inept ant named Flik (voiced by Dave Foley) messes up the food supply and the ants have to do it all over again. After being threatened by Hopper, Princess Atta decides to get Flik out of the way by sending him to search for some bug warriors to keep the ants safe from Hopper and his fellow grasshoppers. Flik's journey for warriors finds him seeking help from a rundown circus, who think they are getting jobs with another circus, but are not too thrilled when they realize exactly what Flik wants from them
Avoided this film for years because, on the surface, it just appeared to be a rehash of Antz, which I had already seen, but it turned out to be anything but. The screenplay by John Lasseter (Toy Story) and Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo) is a delicious combination of entertaining bug characters and clever dialogue, manifested from a story that touches on universal themes and even world history that is just so masterfully crafted into an animated fantasy that, as always with Disney Pixar, is a little more complex than necessary, but one of the most entertaining aspects of this film is the canvas established by the animators.
I loved the way this move looked. I loved the way ordinary things in nature and ordinary objects were utilized as set pieces here. Loved the restaurant with bottle caps for tables and a beer bottle substituting for the jumbo tron in Times Square, or the boxes of animal crackers that became circus wagons. Flik's first journey over a rock formation via a dandelion was amazing. The attack of the giant red and yellow parakeet was genuinely frightening and I loved the construction of the "trojan" parakeet. And there must have been a couple of million different ways leaves became props in this story.
Another thing that made this film superior to Antz is that the story didn't whittle away to a romance between Flik and Atta. It's clear from their first scene together that Flik has a crush on Princess Atta, but it didn't become the focus of the entire film. Though I loved that moment when their antennae got tangled, which produced just a spark of sexual tension.
As always with Disney Pixar, I loved the voicework with standout work from Spacey, Dreyfuss, Diller, Richard Kind as Hopper's brother, Denis Leary as a ladybug, Madeline Kahn as Gypsy Moth, and David Hyde Pierce as a stick named Slim. Splashy and fast-paced entertainment from Disney Pixar.