A Bug's Life - Movie Review

iliekpiez Pixar was on back of one of the most beloved animated movies ever, in 1995's Toy Story. So Pixar went on to work on another original movie, in 'A Bug's Life'. However, right after Toy Story premiered, a huge name of the Disney renaissance in Jeffrey Katzenburg, who left Disney to start Dreamworks, and apparently took The CGI Bug Idea with him, and Antz premiered in 1998 as well as A Bug's Life, and Antz was much better, and was a great movie. A Bug's Life was not a bad movie; but not really a good one either, and as a follow up to Toy Story, was below par and not that great, and people maybe were thinking Pixar was a one trick pony. Which did not age well, as shown by a lot of Pixar's other films.

The story is by far the biggest issue, and from some of the opening interactions, I guessed what type of story it was going to be already. I was correct. It was an idiot, some villains come and come up with false reasons so they can continue with no objection, he leaves, comes back, gains popularity. But, he is revealed a liar. Then they accept him and forgive him immediately after kicking him off. The core of the story are clichés. It's predictable. It's pointless, since the drama has no effect, since they forgive soon after, and that destroys all emotional effect. It's been done before, and the setup is simple - like Toy Story, but not executed nearly as well, and has nearly not as much emotional core as Toy Story, does as well, with all the "sad" moments not being that well emotionally executed.

The comedy contrasts quite a bit, it's essentially a mixed bag. On one hand the soundtrack builds up, and Flik hits a rock whilst trying to glide. Which is directly pandering to children, and that sucks. On the other hand, you have some comedy that is funnier than Toy Story's, and it comes through the circus bugs. These characters are the best part of the film. By far. Pretty much all my laughs that the film caused was their contribution. Tuck n Roll were my favourites. However, at the start the comedy suffers and is not funny.

Flik is a boring character to the very upmost. He's the idiot who's clumsy and is a social outcast. It's something we've seen before and it was never interesting. His very qualities as a character rely on clichés. He's not original, and we've seen clones of him before, even in 1998. Really any of the ants aren't interesting. All of them are just clichés that were rushed out in order to release the film around the same time as Antz, and it did not really work out. Flik doesn't have any interesting. Just a cliché character who offers nothing. Spacey gives a good performance as Hopper, who is a good villain.

The animation, at least some of it hasn't aged very well, but in fairness, it was one of the first fully CGI animated films. However, the colours are pretty great and they do great backgrounds. The climax is great. The flying sequences were almost always on point and above water, it looked stunning. The animation also contributes to how well the movie captures the size of a bug, and their animation of shadows massively contributes to that and how little things to a human eye, can seem huge things to an ant.

The soundtrack is extremely forgettable, and is a big part of some scenes, but is not just that impressive. I've heard this type of soundtracks in movies before. It's same old and not that great.

Overall, A Bug's Life is fine. The circus bugs are some of Pixar's best characters, and by far the best thing about the film. Flik is one of the weaker Pixar heroes. The animation is generally pretty good; especially considering the first CGI animated movie premiered 3 years before. The story's core is made up of clichés, and this is weak compared to Antz. Antz is the better out of the two by far. On its own though, A Bug's Life is fine, but don't watch it for a good story, message or protagonist.

Score: 6/10

Comments

clap - StarlightSpanks (3/26/2019)

Never seen Ants but I loved this movie quite a lot. It's just so charming for me - visitor (3/30/2019)

Most forgettable Pixar movie - visitor (4/9/2019)

Enjoying media studies olungajeshkwae? - Puga (5/19/2019)

Nice post - visitor (9/22/2019)

open up your messages. - visitor (4/8/2020)

return to Jeff’s server - visitor (4/8/2020)

Toxic server - iliekpiez (4/8/2020)

NC TK and -w- are not on it anymore. - visitor (5/11/2020)

This movie is incredibly underrated, and I think this post shows that very well. - visitor (4/12/2020)

Still can say reviewing movies is your strongest quality - visitor (5/12/2020)

The final blog post of iliekpiez movie review. Rest in peace! - visitor (4/23/2021)