Worker ant Flik (voiced by Dave Foley) has a streak of individuality that constantly gets him into trouble. He invents things, to the bemusement of the rest of the ant colony, and he lands himself (and the colony) in big trouble when one of his inventions, an automatic harvester of grass seeds, causes the destruction of a food pile, the collection of which had occupied the whole colony for the summer. The problem for the colony is that the pile of food had been the annual offering to a group of bullying grasshoppers, who will destroy the colony if they do not get their food. When the grasshoppers, led by the cruel Hopper (Kevin Spacey) discovers the lack of food, he demands a double supply of food to be gathered before the end of the summer.
The colony is led by the ant Queen (Phylis Diller) who has given most of her responsibilities to her neurotic daughter Princess Atta (Julia Louis-Dreyfus). While Atta and her staff debate Flik's punishment, he suggests that he will travel from the colony (which is on an island) to find a bunch of warrior insects who will free them from Hopper's tyranny. The colony are glad to be rid of him and don't give him any chance of success. On his journey, Flik encounters a down-trodden (flea) circus of various insects and mistakes them for a bunch of fierce soldiers he and brings them back to the colony. The troupe think that they have been hired to give a performance.
John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton set a very high standard for computer-generated animation with Toy Story (1995), which evoked classic Disney animation values, with breathtaking animation, exciting story and a sharp and witty script which worked on two levels; amusing and entertaining kids and grown-ups equally. This time, the release of Antz (with a broadly similar backdrop and story) has added an extra competitive edge. And while both movies feature with a plucky individual ant, they are really quite different.
A Bug's Life is a far lighter movie in tone than Antz, and it is easy to see how the movie follows the traditional Disney formula. The animation is bright and colourful, and the humour is broad and wholesome, aimed squarely at the kiddies. Most of the characters are lovable (apart from Hopper) , and differ in appearance from each other (important for the cuddly toy spin-off market). Much of the humour is derived from the silly voices, antics and inept circus acts of the circus troupe - one of the most enjoyable scenes of the film is when the circus troupe try unsuccessfully to entertain a bunch of bored and unappreciative fruitflies.
Funnily enough, it is the fact that this is unashamedly a children's movie that points up the main weakness of the film. Like Toy Story, a number of celebrities appear (courtesy of their famous voices). However, the series that feature these actors, such as Frazier (David Hyde Pierce), Seinfeld (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and Spin City (Richard Kind) are unlikely to mean much to the average eight or nine year old. Moreover, their personas in the film are pretty much the same as those for which they are better known on TV. Therefore Hyde Pierce is a haughty stick insect (Slim), Louis-Dreyfus is a neurotic whiner and Kind (as a grasshopper called Molt) is a big goofy but well-meaning sidekick to Hopper. The problem is, they don't seem half as funny in the film, as they do in their familiar TV surroundings. Louis-Dreyfus is particulary grating. This is due, in no small part, to the script. It is rather bland, and only Kevin Spacey gets lines worthy of his menacing character (but the bad guy always gets the best lines in movies).
Don't get me wrong - this is a fine entertaining movie for kids, which is exactly what it was intended to be. But the animation is not as well-detailed or spectacular as Antz, and as a follow-up to Toy Story, it certainly doesn't the same impact. There were scenes in Antz that I felt simply could not have been made as well using traditional animation, whereas A Bug's Life, in it's structure and visual effects, looks as if it could have been made twenty years ago. But maybe that is no bad thing either.
It is also a rather cloying movie, with the moral of the story well and truly rammed home. However, before you, as a viewer, go home after the show, be sure to watch the end credits(after the theme song has played). It is the wittiest part of the movie.
Directed by John Lassiter and Andrew Stanton.
| ****** Excellent - An outstanding
movie ***** V. Good - Very enjoyable or engrossing **** Good - Entertaining *** Mediocre - Nothing special ** Poor - A waste of time * Terrible - Complete rubbish |
**** |
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