THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
I think the coolest thing about a hero is that they come in all shapes and sizes. And in the case of A Bug’s Life, they happen to be very small.
PLOT
Inspired by Aesop’s fable, 'The Ant and the Grasshopper', the film centers on an island colony of ants that are forced to give their food to grasshoppers every summer. On one particular summer, an inventive ant named Flik accidentally knocks the offering into the water with one of his inventions. Disappointed of what happened, the grasshopper leader Hopper demands double by the end of the season. Flik offers to redeem himself by searching for bigger insects outside the island and request for their help to fight the grasshoppers. Princess Atta grants his request out of the fact alone that he can’t make any more mistakes on the island during this quest, not expecting him to find any warrior bugs. At Bug City, he recruits an array of circus bugs after mistaking them as warriors during a chaotic bar fight. The group of bugs include: an overweight caterpillar named Heimlich, a male ladybug named Francis that gets constantly mistaken as a female, a walking stick named Slim who plays a clown with the former two, a rhinoceros beetle named Dim (Brad Garrett) whose act involves being ferocious, his black widow tamer Rosie, a duo of twin pillbug brothers named Tuck & Roll, a praying mantis magician named Manny and his moth wife/assistant Gyspy. They take Flik’s offer when all mistake him as a talent scout. Upon arriving Ant Island, they are stunned of what they’re being assigned to do. They try to leave against Flik’s wishes, but choose to stay after proving themselves as heroes when saving Atta’s sister Dot (Hayden Panettiere) from a bird. Knowing that Hopper is afraid of birds, Flik and the circus bugs inspire the island to build a fake bird to scare off the grasshoppers. Just when building it has concluded, ringmaster PT Flea makes his presence to the island and reveals the identity of the circus bugs in hopes to rehire them. Every ant is stunned that Flik was lying the whole time. Atta and her queen mother (Phyllis Diller) decide to hide the bird and banish Flik alongside the other bugs before the grasshoppers return. However, they don’t have enough to make up for the double that was requested. When the grasshoppers return, Hopper decides to take over the island and steal the winter supply. When Dot overhears his intent to kill her mother, she leaves the island and reaches to Flik and the circus bugs for help. At night, the circus bugs distract the grasshoppers long enough before Flik deploys the fake bird, piloting it alongside Dot and the other young ants. It does appear to work as Hopper and his army are deeply scared of it, but when PT Flea sees it and mistakes it to be real as well, he burns it with a match and lighter fluid, causing it to crash back to the ground. With the ruse being ruined, Hopper has Flik beaten in retaliation and claims that ants are lowly life forms that were made to serve grasshoppers. However, Flik stands up to him and makes clear that ants are stronger than he claims. This inspires everyone to drive every grasshopper away except Hopper himself. They intend to send him off the island via cannon, but the raining season suddenly begins. Once Hopper frees himself from the cannon, he tries to abduct Flik but is saved by Atta. As they try to run away, Flik convinces her to take him to the bird nest. This pays off because the real bird ends up feeding Hopper to its newborn chicks. After some time passes from a triumphant victory, the film ends with the circus bugs being bid a fond farewell, Flik being congratulated as a hero and Atta being coronated as queen.
THOUGHTS
For someone who was born in 1998 and was watching many animated movies within the timespan of the 90s and 2000s, I was basically bound to see this as well and when I did so within my childhood, it's easy to admit that I enjoyed this one very much. After blowing the world away with Toy Story, John Lasseter and Co Director Andrew Stanton raise the bar with computer animation by making every shot become as realistic as possible. Just when being fascinated with the character designs wasn't enough, everything related to the background is beautiful because when looking at a feather, a leaf or a tree, you'll just be in awe with how real they appear. I always prefer this over Dreamworks' Antz because of how it is more effective on teaching viewers the value of owning up to mistakes. You catch on to this when you follow the perspective of Flik, portrayed by Dave Foley. This is a guy who cared about that cared about his people too much and used his intelligence to help as much as he can. And while he always had good intentions, he never really thought through of the possible consequences until it was too late. It does get hard to root for him because he did make it worse by going on with a very bad lie. But he still gets his redemption by inspiring the island to take a stand. Even during a moment of being overpowered, he sparked the courage needed to get rid of their oppressors, which is something you gotta respect. The positive impact he gets to make shows that leadership comes from unexpected places. And even before this, he was always a role model to the cute Dot because he taught her to not give up in what you believe in. She knew she could fly and kept trying until she succeeded. With the island in a much safer period, it'll be great knowing that Flik will be positively immortalized for this contribution. Although his journey of Flik is what makes the movie worthwhile, we had a slew of characters that made it feel so colorful. It is pretty to relate to Princess Atta because Julia Louis Dreyfus portrays her to be one so nervous with her responsibilities that she strives for perfection. She does come around giving interest in Flik because he taught her to be open minded. In return, he always liked her back because he respected how caring she was towards the island like him. She further proves her heart by being the first ant after Flik to stand up to Hopper. With such admiration they have for each other, it's easy to see that they'll have a good future together. In all honesty, all the circus bugs made it fun and memorable due to its surprisingly diverse group. Denis Leary made Francis the funniest one of the bunch for being so short tempered when others unintentionally mistake him to be an actual female, when his act is to crossdress. The irony of it all has me laughing like crazy, especially when he's a den mother to the young ants' blueberry troops. Oddly enough, Joe Ranft made Heimlich funny for simply being obese. Just seeing him eat in almost every scene is just ridiculous yet I love it. The gag pays off when he maintains his obesity after becoming a butterfly by the end of the movie. Bonnie Hunt was able to make Rosie a standout for being the most outgoing of the group and being motherlike towards everyone, especially Dim. Like everyone else, fighting grasshoppers wasn't on the top of her mind, but that didn't mean helping others wasn't either. David Hyde Pierce made Slim so funny for being so pessimistic half the time while hating being typecast because of his appearance. It's such a random trait that I can't stop laughing about. Jonathan Harris' Manny and Madeline Kahn's Gyspy were honestly a fine pair for showing to be equally courteous yet firm with what they believe in. And Gyspy is arguably the better half for being brave enough to distract a bird and defend her husband when the grasshoppers get suspicious of their act. Dim maybe childlike, but he does make up for his strength and size he contributes. You may not understand Tuck and Roll, but Michael McShane ensures that we have a good impression by portraying them as the most enthusiastic, as they choose to make the best of the surroundings. It's easy to dislike PT Flea since John Ratzenberger portrays him as boisterous as possible, but it makes sense for the character since he is in the position of a businessman. And when you're a businessman, attitude is gonna be based on success. I was irritated that he destroyed the fake bird on accident, but I have to admit it looked cool when he did it on his own. Last but not least, with a David like hero Flik appears to be, it makes sense to have a Goliath like villain as well and we get just that in the form of Hopper. Played to perfection by the controversial Kevin Spacey, this is a guy who had to manipulate as much as possible to maintain the power he had, believing he was gaining more in the long run. Deep down, he knew he was weak because he couldn't do anything on his own and that drove him to be so cunning to everyone, whether it was any ant in the island or his annoying brother Molt (Richard Kind). Lucky for us, his dictatorship came to an end in such graphic fashion. This movie will always be a blast after hundreds of viewings, but that decision has made me notice many issues. Like when looking at the opening, I did laugh when the set of berries dropped straight into an ant, but does that always happen or do ants get together and carry the set together? I keep wondering about it since that looks heavy for such small creatures. And in all honesty, why would the ants put the offering of food next to a cliff? That's just pretty stupid because it's possible for anyone other than Flik to have messed it up, or the wind could've knocked it down. And if the bird liked the options, it would've devoured what was offered. And on top of that, I really started to doubt the intelligence of ants when they chose to keep the offering stone near the cliff. This movie solely gets started with Flik messing up the offering, but why didn't he drop the machine next to the grass? He should've known it was acting up since it rattled when he was running towards the offering stone. It's even a funny gag when he struggles to reach for a seed from his back, but he could've asked Dot to grab one from the pouch. It is an interesting time frame for Hopper to give the ants that they got until the last leaf falls off the tree, which confirms the end of summer, but how does he know when that happens? It's not like he or other grasshoppers check every other day, so they were winging it big time for giving them so much time. It's a hilarious gag that Francis is commonly mistaken as a female just off of being a ladybug, but how does he not even try to change his appearance? If Heimlich can dress as a baby for an act, he can dress masculine if he wanted to. Also, Hopper may have a smart motive of displaying dominance over the ants, but how come they're the only one he steals from? If his army has a worry of them rebelling, then he should've scouted for other islands incase things went south, which they did. I really don't wanna be overthinking Hopper's death, but I'm kinda confused on how the bird basically drops him in front of the middle chick. Shouldn't a bird chew it up before rationing it to all three? I guess that would've been too graphic. Other than that, I still enjoy this movie for what it is. In short, A Bug's Life is one of Pixar's finest films for continuing to raise the bar with animation and having a big heart of a story. Whether you got an interest in insects or just love unlikely heroes, this is worth your while.
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