Movie Review
Bug's life creates humor
Campus Times
November 20, 1998
It is the retold tale of the ugly duckling -- the unwanted, misunderstood
outsider who does not quite "fit in."
Flik, whose voice is provided by Dave Foley ("NewsRadio"),
is the inventive ant of his colony in "A Bug's Life." He is forever
concocting new mechanisms, such as a harvest picker, with hopes of making
the ants' lives easier. Unfortunately, his inventions seem to backfire on
him time and time again, leaving him feeling like a worthless louse.
The rest of the colony mock his ideas and wish that he would stop causing
disorder in the colony. Especially exasperated with Flik is Princess Atta
(Julia Louis-Dreyfus, "Seinfeld") the future queen of the anthill,
with whom Flik is head-over-heels in love.
Princess Dot (Hayden Panettiere, "Object of My Affection")
happens to be the only one who believes in Flik.
Each summer, a grasshopper gang, led by a bully named Hopper (Kevin
Spacey, "The Negotiator") flies to Ant Island expecting to find
harvest already picked and gathered by the ants.
Flik causes an accident with one of his inventions and thus loses all
of their hard-earned harvest. When Hopper and his gang come to gather the
harvest and realize there is barely any, they become furious and begin to
threaten the colony.
The ants have one season to gather enough harvest for Hopper and his
gang before the grasshoppers return to ruin all of their lives forever.
Determined to make it up to the colony, Flik sets off on a journey to
find bigger and stronger bugs than the grasshoppers who can help his colony
in their time of need.
He mistakenly hires a group of circus bugs, some of which include Slim,
the intellectual walking stick (David Hyde Pierce, "Frasier");
Heimlich, a fat, happy caterpillar with a thick German accent (Joe Ranft,
"Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas"); Francis, a male
ladybug (Denis Leary, "Monument Ave."); Gypsy, a beautiful moth
(Madeline Kahn, "Paper Moon"); and Rosie, a 12-time divorced black
widow (Bonnie Hunt, "Jerry Maguire"), as "warriors."
Flik brings the circus bugs back to his colony, where he is finally
greeted with smiles and declared a hero by all.
The circus bugs, thinking they were hired to perform an act, come to
understand what they are really suppossed to do and want no part of it.
Flik convinces them to stay; he has reached the point of desperation and
knows he must find a way to save the colony, or pack up and leave with the
circus bugs.
In preparation for the "fight," the circus bugs begin to feel
at home with the ant colony, where they finally receive admiration.
But can Flik and the circus bugs concoct a way to rid Ant Island of
the grasshoppers for good? Find out Wednesday, when "A Bug's Life,"
rated G with a running time of 94 minutes, opens nationwide.
"A Bug's Life," a Walt Disney Pictures presentation of a Pixar
Animation Studios film (makers of "Toy Story"), is a humorous,
talented and creative computer animation of the world from a bug's point
of view.
The movie, presented in wide-screen CinemaScope, is directed by Pixar's
John Lasseter, two-time Oscar-winner.
"A Bug's Life," keeps one laughing, but in good taste. Children
and adults will be entertained with the voices, imagination and one-liners
this film has to offer.
