Toy Story was lightning in a bottle. Pixar Animation Studios had managed to do the impossible by creating a feature length computer animated film, and not only that but it was a huge success. Critics loved it, audiences couldn’t get enough of it, and Disney were having a field day with the merchandising of it. Great success of course means that Pixar were not only expected to make another feature length animated film, but it needed to be bigger and better than what Toy Story offered. It seemed that Pixar didn’t get the memo about it needing to be bigger, because it seems small was what they had in mind for their second feature.
Once a year the colony of Ant Island prepare a feast for their grasshopper protectors. They come, they eat, they leave. In return the ants are afforded protection from larger bugs that might seek to encroach on their territory and cause them harm. But when a precocious and inventive ant, Flik (Dave Foley), accidentally destroys the food offering, the leader of the grasshoppers, Hopper (Kevin Spacey), gives the queen-in-training Princess Atta (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) the summer to gather double the amount they would normally expect to receive or pay a terrible price.
Outcasted but remaining loyal to his colony, Flik rounds up a group of warrior bugs to help the ants fight off the grasshoppers, but when he comes to realise that they are actually circus performers Flik’s plan to fight back against the grasshoppers becomes much more complicated and dangerous.
Once a year the colony of Ant Island prepare a feast for their grasshopper protectors. They come, they eat, they leave. In return the ants are afforded protection from larger bugs that might seek to encroach on their territory and cause them harm. But when a precocious and inventive ant, Flik (Dave Foley), accidentally destroys the food offering, the leader of the grasshoppers, Hopper (Kevin Spacey), gives the queen-in-training Princess Atta (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) the summer to gather double the amount they would normally expect to receive or pay a terrible price.
Outcasted but remaining loyal to his colony, Flik rounds up a group of warrior bugs to help the ants fight off the grasshoppers, but when he comes to realise that they are actually circus performers Flik’s plan to fight back against the grasshoppers becomes much more complicated and dangerous.
Watching A Bug’s Life is an oddly liberating experience. Witnessing these animated creatures realise their strength in numbers and unify to fight back against an intimidating force is both inspiring and strangely comforting. It’s also not the kind of story you would expect to find in an animated family film produced by Disney back in the 1990’s. I think that’s what makes A Bug’s Life really special, realising just how grown up it is whilst also retaining that whimsical and somewhat silly charm that makes Pixar films so unique in a genre that caters towards dumb humour for kids.
Flik is such a hugely relatable leading man in that all he wants to do is what’s best for the colony, but almost everything he does makes it worse. I also love the idea that he goes out to find warriors but returns with a travelling circus and doesn’t realise until it’s too late. It’s hilarious! Whilst I certainly prefer Toy Story as a film, A Bug’s Life is so much funnier, and its characters feel so much more fleshed out.
But if we’re talking standout characters then the award simply must go to Hopper. Pixar films often don’t have villains, at least not in the sense of a Disney-esque force of evil. Hopper is one such exception, but even he is grounded in the reality of the situation in that he must display dominance over the ants in order to survive. Despite his intimidating presence, even he is a real comedian when he wants to be. Spacey’s performance is spot on, and you can tell he’s having a really great time playing it, I’d probably even go so far as saying Hopper is one of my favourite animated villains because he’s the perfect mix of charismatic, intimidating, and funny.
For this watch of the film, I saw the 4K HDR version for the first time, and it’s really impressive just how much of a difference it’s made to the smaller details of the image. The ants have an iridescent coat that’s so much more visible in HDR than it was on the Blu-Ray, and especially in comparison to the DVD & VHS versions. The technological shortcomings of the era I feel are more evident in A Bug’s Life than in Toy Story, but that’s likely because A Bug’s Life is so much busier. There are dozens of characters on screen at multiple points in the film, and some shots later in the film see upwards of fifty ants in a single frame. That’s a lot of computer power needed to make those crowds, and the result does mean a slight knock on the detail in some areas. The ground can sometimes look a little flat, and character models can lack the level of detail afforded to Woody & Buzz in Toy Story. But A Bug’s Life does manage to compensate by having much more realistic lighting than Toy Story could muster. The way that plant life sways in the breeze and light filters through blades of grass is incredibly impressive for 1998, but water still has a long way to go before Pixar attained the kind of detail they achieved in Finding Nemo.
A Bug’s Life is a great second outing for Pixar, whilst I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s a better film than its predecessor, it does bring with it a lot of technological enhancements that would go on to make future Pixar films even better, plus the writing really is on top form here. It’s easy to overlook A Bug’s Life considering it’s sandwiched between the first two Toy Story films, but just because something is small doesn’t mean it can’t hold its own. I’d actually love to see A Bug’s Life re-animated with modern technology and see how Pixar could make this film even grander and more beautiful than it already is. But for now, twenty-four years later, A Bug’s Life is still a fantastic family film.
Flik is such a hugely relatable leading man in that all he wants to do is what’s best for the colony, but almost everything he does makes it worse. I also love the idea that he goes out to find warriors but returns with a travelling circus and doesn’t realise until it’s too late. It’s hilarious! Whilst I certainly prefer Toy Story as a film, A Bug’s Life is so much funnier, and its characters feel so much more fleshed out.
But if we’re talking standout characters then the award simply must go to Hopper. Pixar films often don’t have villains, at least not in the sense of a Disney-esque force of evil. Hopper is one such exception, but even he is grounded in the reality of the situation in that he must display dominance over the ants in order to survive. Despite his intimidating presence, even he is a real comedian when he wants to be. Spacey’s performance is spot on, and you can tell he’s having a really great time playing it, I’d probably even go so far as saying Hopper is one of my favourite animated villains because he’s the perfect mix of charismatic, intimidating, and funny.
For this watch of the film, I saw the 4K HDR version for the first time, and it’s really impressive just how much of a difference it’s made to the smaller details of the image. The ants have an iridescent coat that’s so much more visible in HDR than it was on the Blu-Ray, and especially in comparison to the DVD & VHS versions. The technological shortcomings of the era I feel are more evident in A Bug’s Life than in Toy Story, but that’s likely because A Bug’s Life is so much busier. There are dozens of characters on screen at multiple points in the film, and some shots later in the film see upwards of fifty ants in a single frame. That’s a lot of computer power needed to make those crowds, and the result does mean a slight knock on the detail in some areas. The ground can sometimes look a little flat, and character models can lack the level of detail afforded to Woody & Buzz in Toy Story. But A Bug’s Life does manage to compensate by having much more realistic lighting than Toy Story could muster. The way that plant life sways in the breeze and light filters through blades of grass is incredibly impressive for 1998, but water still has a long way to go before Pixar attained the kind of detail they achieved in Finding Nemo.
A Bug’s Life is a great second outing for Pixar, whilst I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s a better film than its predecessor, it does bring with it a lot of technological enhancements that would go on to make future Pixar films even better, plus the writing really is on top form here. It’s easy to overlook A Bug’s Life considering it’s sandwiched between the first two Toy Story films, but just because something is small doesn’t mean it can’t hold its own. I’d actually love to see A Bug’s Life re-animated with modern technology and see how Pixar could make this film even grander and more beautiful than it already is. But for now, twenty-four years later, A Bug’s Life is still a fantastic family film.