Review 27: A Bugs Life

A Bug's Life is an ingenious animated film and a childhood favorite of mine.

Flik (Dave Foley) is an individualist, would-be inventor and a misfit in a colony of ants who seasonally gather food for a small group of greedy grasshoppers as well as themselves.
When Flik accidentally destroys the offering stone, the angry grasshoppers, lead by their nasty leader Hopper (Kevin Spacey), threaten to kill the ants if they don't produce a new supply of food by the time they return. So Flik leaves to find warrior bugs to fight Hopper and his gang.
Unfortunately, the "warrior bugs" he eventually hires are actually a group of down-on-their-luck traveling circus insects in need of a job.

The plot is sweet and imaginative, it's actually inspired by Akira Kurosawa's film Seven Samurai, and Aesop's fable The Ant and the Grasshopper and while the kids might not get it, it's enjoyable and simple enough for them to follow and its brilliantly told and the adults will get it no trouble at all, the animation is eye-popping, the score by Randy Newman is catchy, its has a great sense of humor, the production design is gorgeous, they acctually created a whole ant coloney and gave us a whole mind-blowing depiction of what an ants world might be like, and loads of insects, the scenery is breathtaking, John Lasseter's animation direction is sharp, the editing is smart, the character design is memorable, there are some great action set peices, the intensity is killing, the sound effects are fun, the sound mixing is brilliant, its morals are genius and the effects of the ending sequence is epic.     

The voice acting is great, Dave Foley creates a very likeable protagonist in the role of Flik. Flik is an outsider (a misfit) amonst his fellow Ant. He's an idealistic inventor,  All he wants is to help his colony and prove he's not a failure but his best intentions usually make things worse for everyone.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus is cooky as the princess,  

Hayden Panettiere is cute as Dot, The Queen's youngest daughter,

Phyllis Diller is powerful as The Ant Queen,
David Hyde Pierce, Joe Ranft, Denis Leary, Jonathan Harris, Madeline Kahn, Bonnie Hunt, Mike McShane, Bard Garrett are halerious as the circus bugs,

Kevin Spacy is an intimidating villain and the rest of the cast is fantastic.
 
Another achievement from Pixar and a worthy follow up to Toy Story, 4.5/5.

The Anonymous Critic