A Bug-Eat-Bug World

 

A Bug’s Life

1998

D: John Lasseter

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Pros: Cute Style, Entertaining Enough, Some Humor, Solid Villain

Cons: Some Tiresome Cliches

          As I mentioned before, this movie’s rivalry with Antz was the source of much drama.  As I also mentioned before, I don’t particular care who ripped off whom because A Bug’s Life is clearly the superior movie.  However, like its rival, it benefited largely from the novelty of being one of those new-fangled 3-D animated movies without music.  Ultimately it was a presentable but lackluster entry in Pixar’s filmography.

           Unlike this company’s more imaginative fare, A Bug’s Life adheres to the “[insert classic title here] except with talking animals” genre.  Many have called it “Seven Samurai with Bugs,” but considering that the protagonist mistakenly hired a group of performers who in turn didn’t know that actual hero work was expected of them, it’s really more like a less funny version of ¡Three Amigos! with bugs.  Naturally this misunderstanding results in mutual rejection followed by the dreaded Third Act Mope, which is a rather tedious trope.  I’m not sure if A Bug’s Life was already riding on a cliché, but it might have inspired a slew of Third Act Mopes, which I’m afraid is worse.

           The movie's conflict revolves around an ant colony that’s regularly coerced into paying tribute to a gang of Grasshoppers.  This references Aesop’s fable of The Ant and the Grasshopper and the common stigma of the predatory locust.  The beating of their wings obviously evokes images of marauding motorcycle gangs, although that’s a bit on the nose.  The leader of the grasshoppers, Hopper (Kevin Spacey), is a compelling enough villain.  He’s charismatic and intimidating, and his only inkling of humanity is his sparing of his buffoonish brother Molt (Richard Kind) due to a promise to their dying mother.  He’s even willing to threaten children in a cold-blooded manner.  His high point is when he murders two scoffing henchmen to make a point about the potential the ants have if they had the nerve to resist.  I will add that “Hopper” is a pretty unintimidating name for a villain, unless it’s referring to the Anglo-Saxon surname.

            Problems arise when our quirky outcast hero Flik (Dave Foley) accidentally destroys the ants’ tribute with one of his inventions.  His character type is a cliché that gives the movie another similarity to Antz, and he even ends up with the princess of the colony as a love interest as well.  An enraged Hopper demands twice the food for compensation, which is unwise since he’s already pushing the colony to starvation just to get his share back from the disaster.  Simply murdering Flik on the spot would have been a more effective way to send a message.  Facing the inability to feed the grasshoppers, let alone themselves, the ants send Flik away to retrieve a group of heroes.  Flik finds a colony of other insects (another Antz similarity) and recruits a quirky circus troupe led by P.T. Flea (John Ratzengerger), who is immediately pushed off into the sidelines.

            The troupe consists of a theatrical praying mantis named Manny (Jonathan Harris), a walking stick named Slim (David Hyde Pierce), a gypsy moth named Gypsy (Madeline Kahn), twin Hungarian rollie-pollies named Tuck and Roll (Michael McShane), a black widow named Rosie (Bonnie Hunt), a dim-witted rhinoceros beitle named Dim (Brad Garrett), a ladybug named Francis (Denis Leary).  Francis’s gimmick is that he’s a testy guy who’s constantly annoyed at being mistaken for a female.  I would find a realistic, non-cute faced masculine ladybug more interesting. Finally, there’s a German caterpillar named Heimlich (Joe Ranft), presumably because they wanted a plump jolly German stereotype and because “Heimlich” was apparently the first German would that popped into their heads.  While he is an animal with a human face à la Antz, he’s not off-putting because of his simplified design and lovable, rosy-cheeked plumpness.  In the end he pupates into a butterfly only to come out as a more colorful version of himself with negligibly small wings.  I think it’s just spoiling a good reveal for a silly joke.

             The movie makes good use of voice actors and characters actors, contrasting with Antz’s faddish use of celebrities.  Other cast members include Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Princess Atta (who struggles with the responsibility of being acting queen for practice), Phyllis Diller as the Queen, Roddy McDowall, Edie McClurg, Alex Rocco, David Ossman, Carlos  Alazraqui, Jack Angel, Bob Beren, Kimberly Brown, Rodger Bumpass, Anthony Burch, Jennifer Darling, Rachel Davey, Debi Derryberry, Paul Eiding, John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, Lee Unkrich, and more. 

            The animation is colorful and the character designs are cute.  My one problem is that when the movie needs to be dark and frightening, the style falls short.  My Little Pony: Frienship is Magic has a similar problem.  This is only really an issue when the songbirds come in.  The animators tried to put us in the bugs’ shoes so that we could find them just as horrifying as they would, with the deafening shriek of their voices and their jerky movements. I do, however respect that they tried to make the effort without cheating.  Don Bluth would have given them fangs, glowing demonic eyes, and…probably horns.  Birds are the only thing Hopper fears, and he ends up being caught by one and fed to its babies.  They could have made those things look gross, as baby bird actually are, but they miss this opportunity by depicting them as adorable, downy chicks.  The movie does, however, do a good job making rain intimidating, realizing that its surface tension can momentarily imprison a bug as well as harming it with its impact.          

              Humor is acceptable.  There are a lot of lame bug puns (especially one in which a mosquito asks for a “Bloody Mary”), but there are some good jokes.  The high point of the movie is the hilariously dark performance put on by the young ants led by Dot (Hayden Panattiere) which makes the circus troupe realize what they’re actually in for, as well as the awkward admission that follows immediately afterward.  There are moderately amusing fake bloopers, a relic of when Pixar didn't take itself seriously enough to reach its full potential.  I don’t particularly remember much about Randy Newman’s score.  Overall A Bug’s Life is a good cartoon for children that’s watchable enough for their parents.  In retrospect in represents a lot of the clichés that we didn’t mind when 3-D cartoons were a new thing.