A Bug's Life

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I tend to be a little bit disconnected from this particular Pixar title for some reason I can't quite put my finger on. It's not by any means "bad", portrays plenty of likable characters, and it's an underdog story, which I usually tend to eat up. I can't very well argue that it's more directed at kids, because so was 'Toy Story', which I obviously have a love for. Perhaps it's just a simple matter of not being able to reach me on that deep level, as there's nothing particularly deep about this one. It doesn't really make you think so much as it's a simple underdog vs. bully story, which I've obviously seen done before.

Taking place on "Ant Island", a bustling colony works to gather various bits of food to appease a gang of grasshoppers led by Hopper (Kevin Spacey). Everything is going okay until an outcast ant named Flick (Dave Foley) knocks over the offering, resulting in the grasshoppers demanding twice as much food for compensation. It all must be done before the last leaf drops in Fall, or the grasshoppers will destroy the colony, including the Queen (Phyllis Diller), her eldest daughter, Atta (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), and youngest daughter, Dot (Hayden Panettiere). With no hope in sight, Flick makes the suggestion to seek help from stronger bugs who dwell in the neighbouring city. Seeing it as more of an opportunity to get rid of their "problem", the colony gladly sends Flick on his merry way, not believing he'll be able to come through.

On his journey, Flick comes across a group of recently fired circus performing bugs; Slim, the walking stick (David Hyde Pierce); Francis, the ladybug (Denis Leary); Manny, the mantis (Jonathan Harris); Gypsy, the moth (Madeline Kahn); Rosie, the spider (Bonnie Hunt); Dim, the rhino beetle (Brad Garrett); Heimlich, the caterpillar (Joe Ranft); and two fleas named Tuck and Roll (Michael McShane). Flick mistakes these circus performers as tough bug heroes, and brings them back to the colony to fight the grasshoppers. However, the performers are under the impression Flick is a talent scout, looking for an act. It could turn out to be the dumbest thing Flick has done yet, but it could also turn out to be a happy accident, with the right mindset.

I've always enjoyed this movie for the fun, underdog adventure that it is, but there's nothing all that special about it to me. To try to find a deeper meaning to this one is like trying to find the gold at the end of the rainbow. As mentioned earlier, it's quite simply your average underdog hero vs. bully, or 'David and Goliath' story, and the big takeaway is really just that the smallest person can make a difference, or not to judge people too quickly as they may serve a bigger purpose than you think. To be perfectly fair, however, Pixar was still a very new thing, and as it's trying to speak to a whole new generation of kids, so my "brush-aside" opinion on the film should be taken lightly. If you want a good underdog story you can show your kids, I'd still consider this a good place to turn.

Regardless of the old idea behind the plot, there's still quite a lot to enjoy about this movie. The voice acting is well-played, and the side characters here are generally likeable. By the way, I forgot to mention John Ratzenberger (who we recently say play Hamm in 'Toy Story') comes back to play P.T. Flea (head of the circus who initially fires the performers). Beyond that, however, technically speaking, this pushed what CG animation could do forward a little bit. One interesting thing about exploring early CG titles is their somewhat ground-breaking takes on environment, and if there's anything I can really give to this movie, it's the world these bugs live in. If you were to zoom out, it would only be a few hundred square feet, according to sources; yet in the movie, it's a whole world. It's interesting to think of things taking place in an area no bigger than say, perhaps your living room.

​​At the end of the day, 'A Bug's Life' isn't as impactful as 'Toy Story' was, and it's not as impactful as a lot of the titles to follow, but it is still a lot of fun for what it is. I very much appreciate the environments, and a lot of the different and interesting ideas that take place in a bug world - for example, using lightning bugs to light up billboards (I hope they get paid well). I believe this was also the first animated film to contain bloopers in the end credits for a funny way to cap things off. At times it's just dumb toilet humor, but others are fairly clever in their execution. Either way, animated outtakes were something new and different for the time, and still pretty entertaining. For as much as this one is only just "decent" to yours truly, there's bound to be plenty here others might like more, so I still recommend giving it a look for yourself, if only for a fun time.

​3/5

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