Studio:
Disney
Production
Company: Pixar / Walt Disney Pictures
Producers:
Darla K. Anderson, Kevin Rher
Directors:
John
Lasseter, Andrew Stanton
Score:
Randy Newman
Cast:
Flik: David Foley
Hooper: Kevin Spacey
Princess Atta: Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Rosie: Bonnie Hunt
Francis: Denis Leary
Gypsy: Madeline Kahn
P.T. Flea: John Ratzenberger
The Queen: Phyllis Diller
Manny: Jonathan Harris
Slim: David Hyde Pierce
Thorny: Alex Rocco
Tuck and Roll: Michael McShane
Molt: Richard Kind
Mr. Soil: Roddy McDowell
Dim: Brad Garrett
Princess Dot: Hayden Panettiere
Heimlich: Joe Ranft
Cornelius: David Ossman
Dr. Flora: Edie McClurg
Domestic Release
Date: 11/25/98
Comments:
A Bug's Life is the second of Pixar's
three picture deal with Disney. Like it's first feature, "Toy Story", the
new movie will use all computer-generated
animation. Disney was referring to it as 'The Ant and the Grasshopper meet
The Magnificent Seven". This is a kind of re-telling the "Grasshopper and
the Ants" fable, and promises to do for insects what 'Toy Story' did for
toys.
"It was nice when we were doing
Toy Story" said Lasseter, "because nobody really knew who we were at Pixar.
We just quietly sat there and did it, and no one was really paying any
attention to us. Then, when "Toy Story" came out, it seemed to arrive from
nowhere, even though we had been working on it for four years. Now, everybody's
asking, 'What are you doing now?' There's a lot of pressure when you try
to follow a big success. We just try to put all that behind us and concentrate
on making a good movie." "We're in the thick of BUGS right now," reported
Lasseter, "and our animators are doing some amazing work." Lasseter picked
a story dealing with insects, knowing they would work extremely well in
computer animation, as well as provide Pixar's technical wizards with some
new challenges. "I always try to choose subject matter that lends itself
to the medium," he explained. "In a way, it's a subconscious thing. Our
main focus is on the story and the characters, but the subject matter is
always chosen with the medium in mind. We also like to push the boundaries
of the medium, so sometimes when we start on a project, everything we want
to do isn't even do-able yet! That means we have to develop the technical
know-how to make it happen as we go along."
Lasseter pointed out that TOY STORY
wouldn't have been nearly as effective if the same story had been handled
with regular, hand-drawn animation. "Part of the charm of TOY STORY," he
said, "was taking these plastic manufactured toys and bringing them to
life. CGI tends to make everything look plastic anyway, so why not have
your main characters made of plastic? The dimensional quality of CGI and
the fact that we could get all the different reflections and shading really
helped to make the characters seem like toys. In hand-drawn animation,
what would be the difference between a regular person walking around and
a toy coming to life. There really isn't that much. Hand animating an Etch-a-Sketch
coming to life wouldn't have the same kind of impact as having an Etch-a-Sketch
done in computer animation, because CGI seems more like the Etch-a-Sketch
you knew and loved."
Disney has begun to recruit audiences
to see test screenings of A Bug's Life in Orange County, California.
Here are 4 reviews of the first
test screening of A Bug's Life:
First review found at Corona Comming Attractions submitted by 'S.E.F'.
"I just came back from the Orange
County screening of A Bug's Life. This was a very early workprint of the
film. 50% of the film was still sketch drawings while the remaining was
rough computer animation. There was no score per say only tracks taken
from other films such as Star Wars, Indy and 1941. All the voice acting
in the film were top notch and match each of
their characters perfectly. The
movie even as it stands is a giant lap forward from Pixar's first film
Toy Story. When this thing is released, which I think is November, it will
bring in all sorts of money for Disney...it is that good. I would rank
it up there some of Disney's finest, unlike some of their most recent works.
Go and see this film when it comes out."
The next 3 reviews are from Ain't It Cool News:
Review by Loose Lipped Larry:
I just saw the first test screening of Disney's/Pixar's "A Bug's Life"; the second computer animated film from the dudes who did "Toy Story". It was better than I would have expected. Most of the film was still in sketch and rough rendering phase but it was still a lot of fun. What blew me away was when they did show us fully rendered shots--they were amazing, some even gorgeous... especially the grasshoppers. I must admit it was a simple story but it was well written with plenty of humor and good wit. (I suddenly feel like I'm working for Disney). Good characters too. Basically it's Ant's vs. Grasshoppers, I'd tell you the story, but I already feel too guilty after having signed all that legal stuff. I don't feel too bad since I'm sure Disney wouldn't mind a little early buzz. It was absolutely as entertaining as Toy Story. I hope you feel the same way when you see it.
Review by Mirth:
I lucked into the test screening of Pixar's ("Toy Story") latest effort, "A Bug's Life". I signed one of those I-won't-tell-the-internet forms (they should just print your name on 'em), but like it matters.
Set for release in December, much of the animation was either incomplete, still in line-test form, or in some cases in color still pictures. Still, what complete animation there was was truly magnificent -- whereas "Toy Story" was the first real test of feature-length computer animation (and therefore limited itself largely to man-made objects and locations that are easier to duplicate in CGI), "A Bug's Life" truly pushes the envelope. Set almost entirely out-of-doors and using only insects for characters, the quality of the animation -- from the texture on things like trees and rocks to the amazingly accurate insects -- is top-notch all the way.
Like "Toy Story" before it, "A Bug's Life" is a true joy to watch. Short (just shy of 90 minutes), inventive, packed with intelligent humor, Pixar's latest effort flows with the breezy quality of true inspiration that Disney's animated films have lacked of late. Highly recommended.
Review by The Sharp Dressed Man:
THE PLOT: A predicatble 90's kid-movie tale, loosely mirroring Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, meaning snooty-type-geeks'll enjoy that aspect of it. The main ant, flip, is sent to find warrior bugs to defend his colony from a gang of grasshoppers. what he gets are circus performers. Misunderstanding, wacky capers, pop culture references, and hilarity ensues.
ACTING/CASTING: Very good indeed! David Hyde Pierce as a Stick-Bug! Kevin Spacey as the villain!! DENNIS LEARY AS A PO'D LADYBUG!!!!! David Foley gave a respectable turn as Flip, in addition. The only Gripe was Julia Louise Dreyfuss. As the ant princess/love interest, her voice was uninspired and her dialogue was very poor.
PACING: Remember the final chase scene from Toy Story? ...Bug's life is a serious of final chase scenes strung together by a Story. I'm not saying that it doesnt work, the story is actually fairly interesting enough to hold an adult's interest. But some of the more interesting character development bits of Toy Story were not there, or more accurately they didn't seem to work as well. The film stalls a little in the second act, as flip and the princess atta kind of ... talk... about....things... but overall the movie is a lot more EXCITEMENT.
TONE: Fairly early in the movie, it is foreshadowed that one of the main characters is going to meet an end. This doesn't happen. Darn. YES it's a kid's movie, but so was 'My Girl'. A sacrifice being made would have made the film much more powerful, in my opinion. Otherwise, this isn't Anastasia where kids will have nightmares... the grasshoppers are just scary enough to let you know 'they're the bad guys' but not terrorize youngsters.
GRAPHICS: If you ever get the chance, see a work print of an animated film. A fascinating experience. Only about 60% of the movie was put into CGI, and of that only half was completely ready. What was ready looked marvelous. THOUSANDS of ants in certain shots at the end of the movie. Hopper looks BADASS... I'll buy a Hopper action figure. The gut-wrencher was that most of the scenes that are going to make your jaw stick to the floor of the movie theatre were only ready in storyboard form. In my Sharp-Dressed mind's eye, though, I could see... 'Bug City', an the rainstorm climax may well make some of the AntZ people very, very nervous. We ARE talking Pixar, here.
MUSIC: Temp tracked. Waterworld, Star Wars, Jurassic Park, even Star Trek II. There were no credits ready, so I asked a woman collecting opinion sheets if she knew who the music was being prepared by. Now granted she's just an NRG grunt and probably could have pointed me off in the direction of someone who knew, like John Lassatter the writer/director of Bug's Life and Toy Story who I got to sit by. 'Come back and see the movie and watch the credits.' was what I received in reply. BITCH!!
WRITING: It wasn't CGI, or real toys, or Tim Allen or Tom Hanks that were responsible for Toy Story's success. It was starting from a great idea and a great screenplay. Bug's Life kept this in mind. More conventional than Toy Story. But the magical ability of Pixar's writers to create children's stories that are neither heavy handed and condescending to kids nor mind- numbing to adults is in full effect.
OVERALL: Obviously I'm unable to think of this movie without comparing it to Toy Story, if only for being the other CGI feature out there. As far as becoming an instant classic and 200 million + smash, not bloody likely, the reason being that people aren't going to *click* with cartoon bugs as well as they would with their childhood toys, in addition to some cartoon about moses is due out around the same time.. 'King of Egypt' or something.On it's own, however, it is the most enjoyable Disney film i've seen SINCE Toy Story. To put it another way, I'll definitely go see it again, and not just to see everything completed.