A Bug's Life Reviews

Okeeey genteee, ya terminado el video de Elemental (que tardó bastante más de lo que esperaba), se puede continuar con las reseñas semanales de Pixar. Dependiendo la recepción, puede que esta semana suba una reseña diaria como compensación a la tardanza.

Pues bien, seguimos con Bichos. Creo yo, la película menos recordada y menos valorada de la etapa clásica de Pixar. Esto lo puedo entender comparando los chistes y tono de la película a Toy Story. En este caso, es verdad que los chistes no son tan "memorables" en el sentido de que no son "meméticos", como sí los son los diálogos y escenas de Toy Story. Esto debido a que Bichos juega casi enteramente con gags visuales respecto al mundo de los insectos, cosa que no viene tanto a la mente como sí las interacciones de Woody y Buzz o los marcianitos de Pizza Planeta. De igual forma, se puede señalar a que Bichos tiene una comedia y contexto mucho menos agradable y más crudo. No solo hablamos de insectos, algo que para muchos es desagradable aun si la película hace un esfuerzo porque sus diseños sean simpáticos (sin dudas mucho más a la versión "oscura" de DreamWorks), pero también es una película en la que mueren personajes, en donde hay una cantina y donde uno de los personajes protagónicos es una catarina cuyo chiste es ser "confundido con una mujer". En cualquier caso, nada de esto lo comento como un punto flaco, por el contrario, esto es parte del estilo que caracteriza a la película, sin embargo comprendo que para varios no sea tan atractivo o simpático.

En cuestión de concepto, hablamos de una película igual de ingeniosa que Toy Story con la temática de los juguetes. Bueno, quizá es verdad que bichos hablando, no es tan atrapante de a primeras como juguetes cobrando vida, pero funciona muy bien desde muchos puntos de vista. Primero, desde el punto de vista de diseño. Pixar todavía no estaba en condiciones para hacer una película sobre seres humanos, por lo que la decisión de tener personajes que son insectos fue muy inteligente, al igual que la decisión de personajes de juguete en Toy Story, esto les permitió jugar con diseños simples y geométricos haciendo que la película todavía luzca de diez a día de hoy. Segundo, el concepto de insectos es aprovechado para constantes chistes y juegos con relación a estos a lo largo de toda la película (recuerda a Elemental en ese sentido). Y tercero, la premisa es aprovechada desde un punto de vista filosófico, no muy distinto a El Rey León de Disney, aprovecha animales humanizados llevando a cabo sus roles naturales, para tratar un tema implícito sobre naturaleza humana, ESTO es lo más especial de la película.

Hay quienes dicen que Bichos es una alegoría al comunismo, es erróneo reducirlo solo a esto, pero sí, trata una metáfora que se puede expandir a un análisis social. El juego de contrastes va entre las hormigas y los saltamontes, una alegoría para un tipo de persona colectivista y otro individualista. Los saltamontes se benefician de las hormigas, pero el antagonista principal Hopper, sabe que debido a su capacidad de unir fuerzas, las hormigas pueden rebelarse contra ellos en cualquier momento, por ello es que pretenden tenerles controlados mediante el miedo para que el sistema siga funcionando a su beneficio, con la capacidad de unión de las hormigas siendo aprovechada únicamente para servir a los saltamontes, mientras carecen de estima propia. Si eres perspicaz, sí, ya te habrás dado cuenta de la densa metáfora social que esto implica.

El mensaje es, claro, sobre las hormigas aprendiendo a confiar en ellas mismas para unir fuerzas contra Hopper y compañía, pero el cómo se llega a esto es lo más importante. El protagonista Flik, es una hormiga exiliada por causar estragos al no poder servir al sistema de trabajo de sus compañeros, es alguien fuera del molde. Sin embargo, en su travesía, él logra reclutar a una serie de insectos que, de igual forma, son poca cosa en sus respectivos trabajos, para idear una manera de deshacerse del control de los saltamontes mientras le miente a su propia colonia haciéndoles creer que son más de lo que aparentan. Pese a que las hormigas terminan descubriendo el engaño de Flik, estas terminan valorando su esfuerzo y trabajo, porque aun si su plan se construía en una mentira, demostró su valor con lo que siempre fue capaz de hacer, así como una semilla puede crecer para ser un árbol. Es este reconocimiento de la capacidad de una persona lo que remarca la individualidad de cada hormiga en la colonia, y les permite así, poder unirse con aun más fuerza que antes.

Es esta matiz la que hace de su mensaje uno muy importante, pues no se trata sobre rendirse a una meta en colectivo, ni sobre hundirse en deseos propios de forma individualista, si no sobre trabajar ambos a la vez, considerar a la persona y reconocer su individuo, permitiendo que pueda seguir más y mejores metas en un trabajo colectivo. Esto se extrapola a ambientes de trabajo o sociedades, pero también a metas, aspiraciones propias y a la duda constante de "¿Cuál es nuestro lugar con los demás?". Nuevamente, es una demostración de la madurez y complejidad de Pixar mientras utiliza tramas sencillas, fáciles de entender y divertidas para todas las edades. Una de las mejores del estudio.

Si todo sale bien, mañana hablo de Toy Story 2.

Pixar's first feature movie 'Toy Story' was a critical and box office success. Pixar then decided to make a movie about bugs which is what DreamWorks was planning too. So it was a race to see who got there first and 'Antz' did. Personally I preferred 'Antz'. 'A Bug's Life' is not the same level as 'Antz' but I still think it is worth seeing!

'A Bug's Life' stars Dave Foley as Flik, an ant and Academy Award winner Kevin Spacey as Hopper, the leader of the grasshoppers! It has some good animation but a weak story! But it's still a good movie!

As always with Disney-Pixar animations, is a great film that is not just for kids but for adults too. The story is set around a colony of ants and their struggle against the evil Grasshoppers who come back every year and steal their food. There is some wonderful computer animation and the voices are great too.

One of Pixar's earliest films, 'A Bug's Life' is certainly not among the studio's best, and yet it is still a fantastic achievement. It is Pixar, of course the animation is superb and the story, as well as being funny and entertaining, also carries messages such as acceptance and honesty. Like 'Toy Story', the writers have also created a whole bunch of fun and memorable characters, from the gluttonous German caterpillar Heimlich, to the proud and proper praying mantis, Manny. The story has a similar start to many other films, featuring the 'nut' in the colony who doesn't fit in with everyone else, but it grows into an original and adventurous film, thanks to the fact that the story is in a 'bug world', giving the writers the opportunity to open the door to imagination and create exciting scenarios and conflicts that the characters encounter. I found 'A Bug's Life' highly enjoyable, a great family film by the always brilliant Pixar.

After the giant success 3 years before which was Toy Story, expectations was incredibly high for A Bug's Life. Admittedly, no it didn't reach up to Toy Story's level but my oh my! It wasn't that far from it. I absolutely loved it when I first saw it as a child and I have grown up with this one and still love it now. This perhaps rivalled with Antz in 1998 seeing as they were both released in the same year and are very similar films but I think that A Bug's Life easily blows it away! In A Bug's Life, we are like swept away into a world that isn't only smaller than ours but also shows the way bugs make their living as well and what they do to survive so it is perhaps a lesson too.


It wasn't until I really started to watch films like classics that I realised A Bug's Life is a loose animated remake version of the classic Akira Kurosawa film Seven Samurai and its remake The Magnificent Seven by John Sturges. Obviously, there are massive differences such as characters, the themes and the backgrounds they are set in and the fact the two older ones involve humans and A Bug's Life involves... well, bugs. Strong similarities are the plot itself with ants in trouble due to a group of grasshoppers and try to find soldiers to defend themselves. If there is a message that A Bug's Life brings out, it is a message about bullying. Bullying should never happen and if someone is being bullied, they should stand up and fight against the bullies; which is what the ants did against the grasshoppers in this film.


Set on a hot summers day on Ant Island (what they like to call it) where ants are pulling food off crops and are taking them to a pile of other food that isn't for them. It is for the grasshoppers. When they see that the grasshoppers are coming, they all hide in the Ant Hill but it doesn't become that simple for them. Flik, a friendly but rather clumsy ant accidentally breaks the stand where the food is and tips it over a cliff into the water. Grasshopper gang leader Hooper and the rest of his gang are angry at this but they give the ants one more chance but Flik doesn't get away with it that easily. However, instead of being sentenced to one month digging in the tunnels, he leaves Ant Island to find some stronger and bigger bugs to fight off Hopper and his gang (he had to persuade the Queen and Princess Atta first). We clearly see that these bugs Flik finds aren't soldiers. They are almost like the exact opposite: like clowns in a circus. Flik responds in shock when he finds out but what will happen with the rest of the Ant colony find out and what will happen with the grasshoppers after this?


Every single character involved is just brilliant! Flik, the main character in the film, is a rather clumsy and unlucky ant who always makes mistakes and messes things up for himself and the colony but despite this, he is an ant with a big heart who is always well-intentioned but as I said, is never lucky. Fighting off Hopper and the rest of the grasshoppers is his best chance at proving himself wrong to the rest of the colony that he does do things right but throughout what we see during the film, he doesn't exactly help himself at the best of times. Two-time Academy Award winner Kevin Spacey provides the voice of Hopper and what a great performance it was! I thought that he was perhaps the best choice for that character because he is a possessive and cold-hearted creature which is what Kevin Spacey is really good at by previously being in The Usual Suspects and Seven. I did like Princess Atta's character but she did get on my nerves a little bit at times and, quite frankly, the acting from Julia Louis-Dreyfus wasn't brilliant either, I don't think. Dot is just so cute! She is like Flik in a lot of ways but she wants to be able to fly whereas Flik just wants a bit of luck in his life. I love all 9 circus bugs so I cannot choose a specific favourite. All of their characters were well developed and I hope to see them again in a sequel or prequel in the future.


Direction is another among the list of other reasons why Pixar haven't failed. It was really well handled and the pacing of the film was quite suspenseful at times and it was almost like it was calm and rising up to explode into something crucial and when that was over, it would sink and begin to fill up again. No, this isn't a thriller, obviously, but there are some segments in A Bug's Life that do prove that. It also showed quite a bit of violence as well and a slight involvement of death too (like The Incredibles does a bit). Pixar always take us away on different adventures that feature different things and people (even Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3 do that. It is like they all have different themes but you can almost instantly feel that it is by that specific animation studio because of the comedy used, the drama and also some of the animation especially on the humans. Another flawless thing about Pixar is their scripts. A Bug's Life was full of fantastic jokes, some memorable quotes and some that are quite moving too.


Overall, A Bug's Life is a beautifully artistic, creative and extraordinary family animated film that is perhaps is the most underrated film from Pixar. I mean, no it isn't officially a remake of Seven Samurai like The Magnificent Seven but pretty much the whole story is based on it so I would call it a remake, personally, despite it is animation. One of Pixar's finest accomplishments! Actually, I take that back because every single Pixar film is an accomplishment so they are no failures. Loved this throughout childhood and still love it now and always will.

Not the most essential of the Pixar films for me, but proof that Pixar has provided smart and funny films that someone will love. While I find A Bug’s Life to be good but not great, I know people who love this one the most. And that is what makes Pixar the towering giant for our current animated landscape.

The story is a play off of Aesop’s fable about the ant and the grasshopper, expanding times a hundred. Instead of a singular ant and grasshopper, we have an entire colonies of each. All of the ants look like each other, but slightly different enough to tell who is who. The same can be said of the grasshoppers. This is a testament to the love, time and care put into the project by the animators. But as I was originally saying, the story concerns the ants, led by a Queen (Phyllis Diller) and her two princesses (Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, Hayden Panettiere), who must prepare an offering to the grasshoppers, led by Hopper (Kevin Spacey). Of course there must be a hero, and our everyman-cum-hero is Flik (Dave Foley), the smartest ant in the colony. He’s more prone to inventing wildly imaginative gadgets than doing things proper. And in a grand tradition dating back towards Hercules, Flik must go out into the world and prove his worth by completing a task. This task is to find warriors to fight for the ant colony. And the “warriors” that he finds have always been my favorite thing about the film. the rag-tag group of circus performers are charming, hilarious and adorable. I never knew I could want to hug a caterpillar so much.

It ends exactly how you think it would end, but the animation, humor and characters bring more heart and originality to the story than the story beats. Nothing wrong with that. This is an archetypal storyline, and deviation from the formula would put you into a different movie entirely. There’s room for unique characters and humor in these stories though. That’s how you make them special.

And since this is a Pixar film I must talk more about the gloriously rendered images. The tree at the beginning of the film looks like a real tree! The rain drops that fall on the ant hill might as well have been a blitzkrieg. The circus routines are zany and appropriately kid-friendly. The City looks like Manhattan made out of old soup cans, pieces of trash and other odds-and-ends. Beautiful.

But emotionally this is, for me, not as gripping as the toys of Toy Story, the monsters of Monsters, Inc., the nuclear family of The Incredibles, or the Chaplain-esque robot love story of Wall-E. I found them funny and likable, I loved the animation, but I just didn’t connect with this as I did with the others.