A Bug's Life

Here's your not-much-of-a-conspiracy theory: A guy, working for The Mouse (one of Mickey's bitches, and Mickey has many bitches) jumps ship and starts his own studio with the other two richest and most powerful people in entertainment. Before he does, though, he catches wind of a project the computer wizards Pixar are working on as a follow up to Toy Story. It concerns an ant colony, individualism vs. going along with the tried and true, wooing the princess and facing some trouble from the outside world. "Hmmm," he thinks, "that could work." So at his new home, he produces a movie with a near similar plot, also computer animated, and sets up a bogus release date of four months after his former studio's picture on the same subject. Then, to drive in the last spike, he puts it out seven weeks AHEAD of his competitors. Ho ho,he who laughs last...

...works for Disney. Benedict Arnold may have won the battle, but he lost the war.

A Bug's Life is the most visually stunning movie I have ever seen. Every scene is the most colorful, immaculately detailed shot imaginable, and none of it is real. The technology has improved light years beyond 1995's Toy Story, which itself was a technical masterpiece. But the scenery here is so lush, it practically deserves an Oscar nomination for Cinematography. It's also hysterically funny, even if it's not as emotionally engaging as Toy Story.

The story centers around Flik (Dave Foley, of NewsRadio and ex Kid In The Hall), an energetic idea filled ant who is trying to make things better with his inventions. He is, however, met with much resistance. Ant colonies have order, not free thinking. His colony is working at putting a harvest together for the nearby bullying grasshoppers, for whom they must ante up a bounty in exchange for "security." After Flik accidentally destroys the bounty, the lead grasshopper, Hopper (a wonderfully menacing Kevin Spacey) tells them to pony up double the ante by the end of summer.

Knowing that is an impossible task, but also eager to get Flik out of the way before he causes more trouble, the princess (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), who worries that she's not up to the task of being the queen, sends Flik off to find some warrior bugs that will help them defend their colony against the grasshoppers. What he finds is a group of second rate circus performers who think he's offering another circus gig. And what a crew these guys are: a black widow (Bonnie Hunt), a ladybug (Denis Leary), a stick bug (David Hyde Pierce), a praying mantis (Jonathan Harris) and one huge caterpillar (no idea who does that voice, but he's really funny). Needless to say, they are not what the colony needs to survive the grasshoppers. But this is where it starts getting fun.

The humor in A Bug's Life definitely uses more physical humor over verbal than Toy Story did, but that movie had the benefit of a script polish from one of the Coen Brothers. Still, that's not to say Bug's doesn't have some smarts to it. (David Hyde Pierce doesn't slum, you know) In fact, I think I laughed more often than any of the kids within a perimeter of me, so I think the verbal humor that's in this movie skews a little older than the rest of it. But that's how all Disney movies are, really. How many kids understood half of the jokes Robin Williams pulled off in Aladdin?

A Bug's Life helps raise the bar that much higher for any studio who wants to usurp Disney's long standing stranglehold on the animated film market. Like I said when I reviewed Mulan, someone (listening, Mr. Katzenberg?) is going to have to take some serious risks in order to reap larger dividends than Disney, from subject matter to dialogue, and even casting counts big (notice how everyone in Antz was a former A lister past their prime, save Jennifer Lopez?). As it is, Mickey's bitches will rule supreme for eternity if they keep this up.

Note: If you go see A Bug's Life, do yourself a favor: Stay for the end credits. There is a VERY funny surprise in the credits that had me laughing harder than anything else. It's sheer genius. Enjoy.