A Bug’s Life
Voices of : Dave Foley, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Kevin Spacey, Denis Leary,
Phylis Diller.
playing at theaters accessible to all - ie -
multiplexes
(available on video)
* * *
(three stars)
no
time to read the whole review?
THE
JIST of MY PROSE
Certainly Pixar's creations are easy on the eyes
and their easily digestible "Trojan Horse" retelling, though not the beautifully
crafted narrative of 'Toy Story', makes for a competent, funny and somewhat
dazzling eighty minutes. The secret, still up Pixar's sleeve, is the vanity
of their computer etchings - - which we could easily watch for hours on
end, no matter what the story accompanying it.
What a colorful and cartoonish film, alive with bursting characters
and really
crafty ideas. The film achieves, in it's closing credits, what the
intellectual, high-brow
‘Antz’ was attempting the whole time - a reality that measures up with
humans and pokes
fun with the same method we employ. Make sure you stay for the whole
closing credits
because what you will see is a grand surprise. ‘A Bug's Life’ is a
very human story, one
that we can all relate to, with themes and ideas that cater to the
everyman. Watching
‘Antz’, a more realistic but, in some ways, more drab film, I got the
sense that the whole
world was having an identity crisis. I had so much trouble having fun.
All the principles maintain their own famous personalities to
a point. What's great
about the film is the way it builds upon their specific
personas and allows them to be
similar, not identical characters (unlike ‘Antz’, the first animated
film starring Z as
Woody Allen).
Watching ‘A Bug’s Life’, we relive the joy of watching cartoons
where small
creatures manipulate fallen objects into human entities like cities,
bars and circus tents.
The film allows one to enjoy oneself without being bogged down with
an agenda. Once
we finally do realize where the story is going and the film begins
to lose it's animated
self-interest, it meanders, but never for long. ‘A Bug's Life’ is separate
and altogether
different Pixar film. It’s the kind of separate enitity that Pixar
needed after their
“got-it-on-the-first-try” masterpiece ‘Toy Story’.
[another bonus that this film and the other big kids film, ‘The Rugrats
Movie’, is the
addition of an animated short before the feature. ‘Geri’s Game’, winner
of the Academy
Award in 1997 for “animated short” concerns an old man playing chess
against himself
and winning. A nice change and the right foot to get off on with adults
who may feel
they’re too good for an animated film - stylish and full of humor,
‘A Bug’s Life’ and
‘Geri’s Game’ are a nice break : technology that actually distracts
us from boredom,
instead of exponentionally multiplying it while we're not looking.
But the technology
rant - I'll save it for another time.]