For some lore on this review series
Well, well, well it didn’t take long for me to get to a Pixar movie that I had never seen before now. I do believe I have seen clips of A Bug’s Life before but I have a vague memory of it playing on a TV of a room I was in once, if that counts. Also I did go on the Animal Kingdom extraction “It’s Tough to be a Bug” like so many I was freak out by the sensory effects but mostly I recall enjoying the extraction.
So It’s not that I had nothing to go one for this movie but I had never sat down and watch it in its entirety before.
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In the scope Pixar’s movies A Bug’s Life isn’t as celebrated or discussed as some of the other offering which is interesting since it was the second one for the studio. And ultimately yeah it’s fine, it’s enjoyable as one watches but gets rather lost in the shuffle as the other Pixar movies.
PLOT
The plot is rather simple, it’s basically a remake of Akira Kurosawa 1954’s Seven Samurai. A village asks for outside protection from thugs.
I’m not going to hold the likeness against the movie as there are more than a few other movie titles that use this plot too. However A Bug’s Life uses a lot of tropes like the feeling like an outcast who just wants to not being a screw-up mixed with a water-down liar reveal plot. It’s watered down because while Flik misled the other ants about the circus bugs being warrior but it was mistake on his end whereas Princess Atta outright lied to Flik about sending him on a quest she hoped he would fail and then got indignant when he tried to cover up the mistake.
CHARACTERS
That’s bring us to the characters. In my opinion there are a lot of characters, 15 or so characters. Most of the character are reduced to down to a single characterization. While circus bugs are a highlight they are one-note, fun but one-note.
Hopper as villain was enjoyable and it also nice to see a proper irredeemable bad-guy and I appreciate the statement on class dynamics through the bug-lens.
I get the felling that Pixar was very “Yes And” which regards character development which is why there is so many characters and they just get them all in to the plot to a degree. But the characters while all feeling like screw-ups in their roles there isn’t much for them to do or much growth they can achieve.
Dot is small can’t fly but does, etc spider is nice, Francis is a lady-bug, Atta feels like the colony has no confidence in her ability to lead, no one appreciates Flik’s inventions and so on.
There is thematic theme of the characters feeling like screwup but it feels more hollow than well developed beyond the character saying it out loud and feeling bad before the they somehow prove themselves to the collective and the audience.
I do like Heimlich and Slim the best. It just feels like the move is little too small for the cast of characters when all is said and done despite the voice cast.
Final Thoughts
In the scope of existence A Bug’s Life is neither a terrible movie nor a masterpiece. At best it’s fun but still middling. It has shades of something but mostly it has a lack of sophistication even compared to Toy Story. Maybe if it skewed a little more silly rather than general movie meets Aesop mixed with Kurosawa it would feel more distinct and therefore more memorable.
I didn’t hate it by any means but when I’m doing these ranking/reviews I ask myself “Do I want to rewatch this movie again?” For A Bug’s Life I would rewatch if the need ever arose but I do not feel compel to at this point. I’m fine watching it once.
My Current Ranking of Pixar Movies Based on my own Subjective Opinion:
- Toy Story
- A Bug’s Life (fear not it will not remain at the bottom forever)
