A Bug's Life Review

The second film from the mighty, then quite small really, Pixar is A Bug's Life.
The budget was double that of Toy Story at £60M
It grossed about the same at $363M
Directed by John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton
A longer 97 minutes
This film was released in 1998.

I don't know if you remember all the way back to the release of Bug's Life but it went out head to head with Dreamworks' Antz. There was no competition as far as I was concerned, and I watched both within a few weeks of each other. A Bug's Life had a funnier story, was more insightful and was just beautifully animated, oh and have I mentioned the humour?

The lead role is Flik, a clumsy, keen, inventing ant who is determined to bring the colony into the twentieth century with more efficient systems, all of which go a little wrong. The baddy is Hopper, the leader of the grasshopper gang who spend their time hanging out in bars and eating the food that the ants have paid them for "protection". Can you see the plot yet?

My favourite scene is the ant line; they are lining up with their leaf cuttings and nuts and seeds to put them onto the 'offering pile' for the grasshoppers when a huge (to them) leaf comes down and blocks the line. What will the ants do? How will they cope? They have to follow the line. It still has me in stitches watching that.

You will love the characters, you will laugh and cry at the story, and you will care what happens. whether you are five or fifty five you will enjoy this film; I know because I have watched it with my daughter and her grandparents.

if you've never seen Bug's Life then go watch it, or better still buy it