By Ned Jordan
A Bugs Life is the story of an ant hill terrorized by a gang of grasshoppers
that demand that the ants collect their food for them during the summer. One
inventive ant named Flick is continually trying to improve the ants lot through
his inventions, but he is continually sabotaged by his own clumsiness. When that
clumsiness leads to the loss of most of the summers harvest, the ants find
themselves faced with a shortage of food and time. Theres no way that they will
be able to collect enough food for both themselves and the grasshoppers before
winter arrives, but if they dont collect the grasshoppers food first the
consequences will be dire. Flick volunteers to go out into the world and seek
the aid of warrior bugs to defend the ants against the grasshoppers, and the
other ants, eager to get Flick out of their way for a little while,
enthusiastically send him on his way. Much to their surprise he finds his
warriors, but unbeknownst to Flick or the other ants hes mistakenly recruited a
circus troupe instead
A Bugs Life was one of Pixars earlier films, but it holds up quite well.
Its kind of strange to be writing that about a movie thats only a decade old,
but thats ages in terms of computer animation technology. Still, A Bugs Life
is no exception to the fact that Pixar films really should be enjoyed in hi-def.
The level of detail put into the animation, and even into the background of
every scene, really needs hi-def to truly be appreciated and enjoyed. Kids may
not appreciate the higher definition, but adults certainly will, as well as the
cleverness of much of the films dialog and the numerous references made by the
film. Is it Pixars best? No, but even films that are average for that studio
stand head and shoulders above the rest.
In addition to the excellent picture and DTS-HD sound, the Blu-ray release
brings with it a number of special features. The first is the inclusion of a
second disc with a digital copy of the film, which allows you to transfer the
movie to a PC or a portable device such as an iPod or PSP. You also get all of
the special features that have been previously released for A Bugs Life the
outtakes, commentary, behind-the-scenes, a bonus short (Geris Game) and more
as well as two new features for the Blu-ray release. The first is a collection
of animated sequences from the first draft of the story which is interesting
because it gives you an idea of how much the story and animation evolves during
the filmmaking process. The second is a filmmakers round table in which they
discuss and reflect upon the films development. These extras are of more
interest to adults than children, although kids will like the inclusion of an
extra short and the outtakes. Overall, this is a good release of a fun film, and
should definitely be added to the collection of Pixar fans or fans of animation.
Final Rating:
