Ok folks, one of my sheerest joy experiences I have spent in a movie theater was the time I spent with Pixar's TOY STORY. I remember sitting in the theater, and my head splitting in two because of the smile I had. It was so wide so pure, I felt I should be chasing Inky, Pinky, Blinky and Clyde around. So I've been following A BUG'S LIFE with great interest, and now we have some results from the first screening... Guess what? The love it. YIPPEE!!!!! Well, enough of me, on to the first of our three reviewers, the Sharp Dressed Man...
The Sharp Dressed Man here. Long Time Listener, first time caller, that
sort
of deal. Despite living in southern california I've had very little
opportunity to see anything 'spy' worthy Outfitted in the swankest Navy Blue suit, my colleagues and I descended
upon
the theatre in South Orange County... . we filled out the usual 'non-
disclosure' forms, and being a regular visitor to the site I'd reminded our
party refrain from even using the word 'internet' in our chat, lest an NRG
goon remove us from our place in line. maybe it's joe hallenbeck's
personality, but We encountered no hostiles and found our handlers to be
actually rather friendly. Of course, I attributed our lack-of-troubles to
being so finely decked out I made sure to procure seats adjacent to the taped off studio seating areas
to
see who was gonna be here. we noticed that the taped-off seat closest to
the
screen, an aisle seat, had a curious control panel with what looked like a big
button atop it. would they be auto-ejecting rowdy viewers? maybe it was a
'tingler' device... any of ya'll hollywood types wanna explain this mysterious
doodad to me? Suits and Audience people poured in, and the film began
after a
short introduction, explaining that this was a work print, that some images
would be complete, others mid-way, and some would be animated
storyboards.
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 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 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.
I got shirts to press and dry cleaning to pick up, so i'll catch you on the
flip side, Harry.
Now for a bit of Mirth. This jolly, happy go lucky person really enjoyed A BUG'S LIFE, like there's a doubt...
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.
The film opens on a group of worker ants -- under the command of the Queen Ant (voiced by Phyllis Diller) and her daughter, Princess Atta (voice of "Seinfeld's" Julia Louis-Dreyfus) -- gathering food for their annual "offering" to a grang of terrifying grasshoppers who demand the food in exchange for their "protection." Unfortunately, an individual-minded ant named Flik (voiced by Dave Folley of "News Radio" and "Kids in the Hall" fame) accidently destroys the offering before the grasshoppers can eat it. Their leader, Hopper (voice of Kevin Spacey), gives the ants an ultimatum: either they double the offering by the end of summer or "suffer the consequences." Flik proposes to the Princess that rather than pay Hopper's price they send him to the city to find warrior bugs who will stand up to the grasshoppers. The Princess agrees -- mostly to get Flik out of her hair.
Cut to the city and P.T.'s Flea Circus, where the crowds are getting restless. An unethusiastic bunch of circus performers -- including Francis, a ladybug (Denis Leary) who's desperate to prove his masculinity, a widowed black widow named Rosie (Bonnie Hunt), a pair of pillbugs who don't speak english, a caterpillar desperate to become a butterfly, and Slim ("Frasier's" David Hyde-Pierce), a stickbug clown who only wants to be treated with respect -- do their best, but their best just isn't good enough. As a last resort, circus owner P.T. Flea ("Cheers'" John Ratzenberger, who did a memorable turn as a piggy bank in "Toy Story") promises the crowd a daring trick involving, well, lit matches, and gets burned in the process. Soon enough the circus crew is out of a job and drowning their woes in a local bar. Re-enter Flik, whose arrived in the city and having little luck finding his warrior bugs. From here the film goes into "Three Amigos" mode, with Flick assuming that he's found his warriors in these circus performers and they assuming that Flik is a talent agent of some sort. You can pretty much guess the plot from here -- the ants think they're saved, the circus performers think they're employed, the truth comes out and all hell breaks loose just in time for the return of Hopper and his gang.
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.
-- Mirth
And then there was Loose Lip Larry's likable look...
I'm not sure if you're interested but 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.
