Review of A Bug's Life (1998) by Ben L — 14 Mar 2012

Before Pixar was the premiere computer animation company, they were a company with only one success (Toy Story) and some fast approaching competition. In fact this movie was in direct competition with another animated film about Antz. I'm a little surprised that Pixar came out of that year as a success, because this movie is (arguably) one of the worst they have made. Lucky for them, even their worst movies have some redeeming qualities.

The voice cast for this movie is probably the least exciting list they've ever had. Not that they do a bad job, some of them are quite good, but the list isn't impressive. The animation is good, but it doesn't really show much improvement from what they did in Toy Story. They didn't do enough to differentiate the important ants from the rest of the colony, which felt like a mistake. The biggest bright spot is the troop of circus performers who look and sound great.

Perhaps my expectations have just been elevated too high because of all the better movies Pixar has made. There are some laughs here, but they just keep hitting on different interpretations of the same joke. Bug-sized analogs to things in the human world is funny for awhile, but it gets old. The biggest crime is that I just don't find the ant characters that likable. I appreciate the work that went into A Bug's Life and how that work might have influenced the better Pixar movies, but I never see myself anxious to watch this film.