Year:
1998
Studio:
Walt Disney Pictures/
Pixar Animation Studios
Movie:
3/5
DVD:
2/5
Teaser
"The ants gather the food. The grasshoppers eat the food. The
grasshoppers leave the ants alone." That has been the mantra for years
and years, until Flik the Ant accidentally destroys this year's
grasshopper tribute. Now the grasshoppers are mad and their leader,
Hopper, gives the ants an ultimatum: "double the tribute by the end of
the season or else!" What can the ants do? Flik has an idea, go out and
hire a band of tough bugs to defend the colony! And so he goes out and
finds a band of fierce warriors -- too bad they're really circus
actors. Now what?
Movie
This is a fun take on "The Magnificent Seven" (I won't bring up "The
Seven Samurai" or whatever it's called since few people have seen it --
not that a huge number of people have seen Yul Brynner at his finest
:-). Except this time the seven can't fight so it's up to the main hero
to come up with a plan to save the day.
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Although this
movie came out after "Antz", it's the better movie
overall. Definitely better rendering and graphics. At times "Antz"
looks a bit cartoonish as if they were taking shortcuts to get their
movie out first (which they probably were). "A Bug's Life" takes the
time to do it right. The star power of the voice actors isn't as great
as in "Antz" but when you get down to it they're just voices.
Actors
As I just said -- voice actors not very important. Dave Foley, Kevin
Spacey (and I couldn't tell it was Kevin Spacey, why have him if you
can't tell it's him?), Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Phyllis Diller, Richard
Kind, David Hyde Pierce, Denis Leary, Madeline Kahn, Bonnie Hunt, John
Ratzenberger -- not trying to be mean but all of them B-list actors.
What was the point of using them?
DVD
I only saw the first DVD, not the Collector's Edition which includes
commentary. This DVD just has both of the endings with out-takes plus
an animated short "Gerrie's Game" which won some award in 1997. It is
entertaining but short overall. The movie is in wide-screen format.
Recommendations
See it once. Marvel at the graphics, the story, the witty banter. Then
realize that it's not a classic and give thanks that you didn't buy it. |