A Bug's Life Movie Reviews
[Mr. Showbiz] [A Bug's Life] [Movie Club Review] [National Critics]
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me if you've heard this one before. A worker ant with big ideas tries to share
his vision with his fascist ant colony, only to be told that individuality
spells death for the ant community. The spunky, headstrong princess ant becomes
a reluctant ally when it becomes clear that the colony is in danger of being
obliterated. The Queen is imperiled. The ants band together and fight for their
lives. Everyone lives happily ever after. What are we talking about here?
DreamWorks' already released Antz or Disney's current offering A Bug's
Life? How about both?
For those of you who have been
losing sleep wondering how the two anthills stack up in the battle between
DreamWorks and Disney, the verdict is in—and it's a decidedly mixed bag. A
Bug's Life is far more kid friendly; Antz is more clever. Visual and
computer effects (somewhat surprisingly) go to Antz, while A Bug's
Life prevails in the color scheme, visual excitement, and detail
departments. Antz has better ensemble voices (Woody Allen, Sylvester
Stallone, Sharon Stone); A Bug's Life has the best single voice of them
all: Kevin Spacey as the chief bad bug. Antz has a better script, but A
Bug's Life speaks better to its single-digit audience.
A well-meaning ant named Flik
(Dave Foley) dreams of improving his colony's lot in life, and saving the ants
from slavery under the hated grasshoppers. When one of his ill-advised
inventions practically destroys the entire ant civilization, the willful,
stubborn Princess Ant Atta (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) banishes him by sending him on
a veritably impossible quest to find "warrior bugs" to help defend the
anthill from the wrath of Hopper (Kevin Spacey), the grasshoppers' autocratic
dictator. Flik eventually returns triumphant to the anthill with what he thinks
is a band of samurai gladiator bugs, which unfortunately turn out to be fugitive
carny bugs on the lam from a decrepit flea circus. How will the ant colony save
itself from domination, starvation, and extinction with nothing more than a
troupe of hoity-toity theater bugs as allies? How will Flik redeem himself in
his colony's eyes? Will Atta recognize Flik's inventiveness and loyalty? Well,
of course, but most of the fun here is getting there.
The band of circus bugs (including
Frasier's David Hyde Pierce, Denis Leary, Lost in Space veteran
Jonathan Harris, Mel Brooks' alumna Madeline Kahn, and Jumanji's Bonnie
Hunt) is a hoot—especially Hyde Pierce's uptight stick insect and Leary's
unladylike ladybug. Thespian diva Phyllis Diller shows up as the Queen, and Cheers'
John Ratzenberg and the late Roddy McDowall have cameo voice roles as well.
But as a successor to Disney and
Pixar's last collaboration, the incredibly witty Toy Story, A Bug's
Life comes off as formulaic and not very inventive (although the kids won't
care in the least), and doesn't really stretch the computer graphic animation
envelope, which is a disappointment. Still, the story goes out of its way to be
kid-oriented and girl-friendly (a bunch of girl bug-scouts figures prominently)
and steers clear of the sort of language that gives the DreamWorks' film a much
harder edge.
—Naomi Ryerson
A
Bug's Life Fine For Small Fry
New Disney computer adventure uses
simple story, simple moral
By BRUCE KIRKLAND -- Toronto Sun
The battle of the bugs is on -- and the Disney-Pixar people are the losers, at
least on the artistic level.
Their new computer-animated movie, A Bug's Life, opens today in the wake of the
super-success of Antz, the computer-animated flick from Disney's upstart rival
DreamWorks.
Comparisons may be odious but they're unavoidable.
Both films feature ant colonies in social upheaval, in Antz because of a power
struggle, in A Bug's Life because vicious grasshoppers steal their food and
threaten starvation.
The ants in both look similar, even though the Disney bugs have only four
appendages while the Antz ants have six.
Both movies are melodramas featuring a maverick loser who becomes a reluctant
hero, the Dave Foley-voiced Flik in A Bug's Life and the Woody Allen-voiced
Z-4195 in Antz.
Flik annoys the colony with his wacky inventions. Z-4195 annoys the colony with
his Allenesque whining. Both losers are predictably thrust into love-hate
relationships with princesses.
On and on and on it goes. Even with different stories and unique secondary
characters -- A Bug's Life features a glorious troupe of eccentric circus bug
performers -- the two movies seem to be digging into the same plot of ground.
Which brings us to other factors, such as the expertise of the animation and
your personal taste for each story.
The print I saw of A Bug's Life seemed curiously mushy, in soft focus. It
certainly didn't look crisp like the ground-breaking Disney-Pixar film Toy
Story, which kicked off the big-budget computer animation revolution in 1995.
Visually, A Bug's Life is neither fresh nor especially inventive.
So what about the stories? With its socio-political subtext, Antz is perversely
radical, at least for an animated film.
The story in A Bug's Life was supposedly inspired by the Aesop fable about the
lazy grasshopper who, in vain, begs the industrious ants for food after a summer
of singing.
That has been radically changed here. Director John Lasseter's film has only a
murky moral basis. It is too goody-goody for me, although it is less complicated
than Antz and aimed at younger children than the more sophisticated Antz.
The voices of the star actors are not as distinct in A Bug's Life. Kids In The
Hall's Foley does a decent job with Flik while familiar names such as Julia
Louis-Dreyfus, Phyllis Diller, Madeline Kahn, David Hyde Pierce, Denis Leary and
the late Roddy McDowall voice characters. Yet nobody jumps out with the dramatic
appeal of stars such as Yo-boy Sylvester Stallone in Antz. Too bad, because
that's part of the fun.
All that said, A Bug's Life is still solid family fare at a time when most
movies -- even Antz -- are geared for adults.
'Bug's Life' is fun from the
ground up
By Joe Baltake
Bee Movie Critic
(Published Nov. 25, 1998)
|
Given that bugs are almost as
interesting as people, it's no surprise that two computer-generated movies, by
separate teams of animators, are currently available.
What is surprising, however, is
that it's taken so long for filmmakers to get around to them. A question
remains: Can audiences support two bug flicks? Absolutely, if the films in
question are as impeccably made and sophisticated as Dreamworks' "Antz,"
released two months ago but still in theaters, and Disney's brand new "A
Bug's Life."
Having seen the two, however, I'd
say that "A Bug's Life," the brainchild of Pixar's John Lasseter, has
the edge, thanks to a remarkable, witty script by Donald McEnery, Bob Shaw and
Andrew Stanton that's grounded more in fantasy than the brand of reality that
drives "Antz."
The skeletal plots of the two
films are virtually identical, but "A Bug's Life" comes with an
enjoyable show-biz savvy that keeps it lively and bright.
Each film is about ants fighting
back under the leadership of a misfit-nerd. "Antz," with its shades of
George Orwell's "Animal Farm," has worker ants, led by Z (voiced by
Woody Allen), organizing a rebellion against terrible employment conditions.
"A Bug's Life," owing much to Aesop's ant-vs.-grasshopper tale, has an
ant named Flik (David Foley) retaining the services of warrior bugs to protect
his colony from pillaging grasshoppers.
And both are in debt to the
brilliant 1996 French documentary about bugs, "Microcosmos," which was
real but seemed "animated."
Each film also has a princess --
Bala (Sharon Stone) in "Antz" and Atta (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) in
"A Bug's Life" -- to provide the hero with an elusive love interest.
So much for the similarities.
The difference between the two is
not so much in the telling as it is in the tone.
"A Bug's Life"
immediately pulls us in with its neighborhood friendliness as it peruses
familiar backyard ambience -- so that leaves and blades of grass, now seen from
a bug's level, have a new kind of grandeur, as if we're seeing them for the
first time. Yes, it's a back yard, but the main residents of the place have
dubbed it Ant Island and they work hard to keep their island productive and
operating smoothly. Threatening this is Flik himself, who just can't get the
rhythm of his co-workers and who is always out of step.
Worse than Flik, however, are the
mercenary gang of grasshoppers who, under the leadership of the evil Hopper
(Kevin Spacey, intoning all over the place like a hammy Shakespearean actor),
demand the fruits of all the ants' labor. The ants try to placate the marauding
grasshoppers with seeds, but like most bullies, they are never satisfied.
Something must be done, and Flik,
with the blessing of the Council Ant (the late Roddy McDowell), opts to head off
and look for help in foreign territories, since he's of no help at home. His
plan is to find some warrior bugs to help maintain peace, but instead he
stumbles into a literal Flea Circus whose out-of-work denizens volunteer to help
him.
The
first third of the movie is exposition about life on Ant Island and the
interaction of the personalities there -- and these ants have personalities, as
well as wonderfully singular facial expressions.
The second third picks up speed
with some comic spin and added vitality through the introduction of a
vaudevillian-style backstage story of life among the entertainer bugs both in
the spotlight and behind the scenes, working for one P.T. Flea (John
Ratzenberger).
Helping Flik is just another
performance for this gang. Among the show-must-go-on critters are an elegant
stick bug (David Hyde Pierce) with excellent elocution; a swanky black widow
spider (Bonnie Hunt); a male ladybug (Denis Leary), tired that other bugs think
he's gay; and the resident "fatman," a German caterpillar (Joe Ranft).
The razzmatazz of this section
would be hard to top, but the final third, when all participants -- ants, circus
performers and grasshoppers -- descend on Ant Island, is like a manic screwball
comedy.
As the ants and the performers
collaborate to construct a huge fake bird to scare off the villains, the ant
colony's second-graders perform a sweet little pageant in honor of the valiant
faux warriors there to save their home.
"A Bug's Life" literally
crawls with characters, all of them memorably designed and voiced (with the
inimitable Phyllis Diller a standout as the queen ant). Visually, with its
impressive dramatic lighting, this work is a huge advance over Disney's maiden
attempt at computer animation, 1995's "Toy Story" -- which was pretty
impressive itself.
This time around, Lasseter and Stanton, who co-directed "A Bug's Life," use the wide-screen format, which makes everything all the more opulent. Try to see "A Bug's Life" on the largest screen. It'll be well worth your effort.
National
critics review 'A Bug's Life'
Three-alarm slapstick reigns in "A Bug's Life," and the shrill
vivacity could be mistaken for wit if its contrivances weren't so graceless.
Pinging and clanging in a tireless clamor Spike Jones would find obnoxious, the
story finally winds down with a deflating why-didn't-they-think-of-that-before?
resolution.
The too-tidy ending is steeped in
Disney's didactic fondness for order and conformity, inoculating us with sweet
incantations about self-esteem and perseverance. It's nice stuff for the
children, but it's also conventional to the bone.
My adult star rating for "A
Bug's Life" is two stars. If I were 5 years old, it would be a giggle-laced
three. Sorry, kids.
Chris Garcia
Cox News Service
In the bright lights, bug city of the outside world, Flik mistakes an inept
group of circus performers -- a ladybug with gender issues (Denis Leary), a
cranky walking stick (David Hyde Pierce), a caterpillar with an eating disorder
(John Ranft) and a cowardly rhino beetle (Brad Garrett) -- for a group of
toughs. They return with him thinking they are to put on a performance. In the
end, their talents and his imagination combine to resolve the crisis.
"A Bug's Life" gives
Aesop's tale about the ant and the grasshopper a "Magnificent Seven"
and "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral" spin.
While the computer-generated
images in "Toy Story" were glossy and hard, the animation here has the
fabric texture of a velvet painting. Each detail -- dandelion fronds, mushroom
lanterns, basketball-sized berries and asteroid-sized raindrops -- enhances the
digital ecology. "A Bug's Life" is simply without ant-ecedent.
Duane Dudek
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
If
you were wondering in the wake of "Antz" whether there was room for a
second computer-animated feature largely about ants, the answer is an emphatic
yes, if the movie is "A Bug's Life." The second feature-length film
from Pixar Animation Studios, the "Toy Story" people, this tale of a
plucky ant determined to fend off the bullying grasshoppers who shake down his
colony for its food turns out to be one of the year's most entertaining
pleasures.
While the film takes several
technical giant steps forward, particularly when it comes to animating facial
features, the movie's real strengths come from its imaginative
characterizations, exceptional storytelling and a rollicking sense of humor
that, nevertheless, knows when to sit back and let the villainy turn really
evil.
In fact, despite being the latest
word in computerized technology, "A Bug's Life" is a remarkably
welcome throwback to classic Hollywood filmmaking, with all the traditional
virtues revived for a modern age that has just about forgotten them.
Henry Sheehan
The Orange County Register
It's a shame the nice bugs don't have as much personality as the baddies. Unlike "Toy Story," which was created by the same team as "A Bug's Life," the new movie doesn't have easy-to-relate-to protagonists. There isn't as much heart, possibly because "Toy Story" fleshed out a bunch of characters that were already familiar to us (Mr. Potato Head, Slinky), whereas "A Bug's Life" has about a dozen leading characters, and it has to start from scratch on all of them.