There was such a magic on the screen in 1995 when the people at Pixar came up with the first fully computer-animated film, Toy Story. Their second feature film, A Bug's Life, may miss the bull's-eye but Pixar's target is so lofty, it's hard to find the film anything less than irresistible.

Brighter and more colorful than the other animated insect movie of 1998 (Antz), A Bug's Life is the sweetly told story of Flik (voiced by David Foley), an ant searching for better ways to be a bug. His colony unfortunately revolves around feeding and fearing the local grasshoppers (lead by Hopper, voiced with gleeful menace by Kevin Spacey). When Flik accidentally destroys the seasonal food supply for the grasshoppers he decides to look for help ("We need bigger bugs!"). The ants, led by Princess Atta (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), are eager to dispose of the troublesome Flik. Yet he finds help--a hearty bunch of bug warriors--and brings them back to the colony. Unfortunately they are just traveling performers afraid of conflict.

As with Toy Story, the ensemble of creatures and voices is remarkable and often inspired. Highlights include wiseacre comedian Denis Leary as an un-ladylike ladybug, Joe Ranft as the German-accented caterpillar, David Hyde Pierce as a stick bug, and Michael McShane as a pair of unintelligible pillbugs. The scene-stealer is Atta's squeaky-voiced sister, baby Dot (Hayden Panettiere), who has a big sweet spot for Flik.

More gentle and kid-friendly than Antz, A Bug Life's still has some good suspense and a wonderful demise of the villain. However, the film--a giant worldwide hit--will be remembered for its most creative touch: "outtakes" over the end credits à la many live-action comedy films. These dozen or so scenes (both "editions" of outtakes are contained here) are brilliant and deserve a special place in film history right along with 1998's other most talked-about sequence: the opening Normandy invasion in Saving Private Ryan.

That D. Afton guy (below) is crazy. It's an awesome movie!!!!!

I LOVED IT! I'd give it 10 stars if I could! My kids mimic the friendly, cute diaglogue, not the bad dialogue like that D. Afton's kids.

Rethinking the appropriateness of all these "modern, CGI classics," that teach tots snide, obnoxious behavior

For many months, we've been allowing our tots to watch this movie (and other CGI-type "classics" like Toy Story I & II, Monsters, Inc., Shrek, etc). Of late, we realized, with horror, that our kids' recent aggression, and usage of snide and obnoxious remarks has been due to these "modern kids classics."---comments and demands like "WHERE'S MY FOOD!!!" (courtesy of "Bugs Life"); "YOU'RE STUPID!"; "YOU IDIOT" (Toy Story); "YOU STINK"; shouting "I'm an ogre!" after belching...and the like. Even the brilliant (for adults, that is) Monsters, Inc. and Shrek movies have the characters castigating, berating, ridiculing each other, and teaching some pretty detestable behavior in some places. Maybe "Finding Nemo" is the least objectionable of the bunch. This movie is the WORST, and is very scary for tots. The antagonist---the evil Hopper---at various times threatens to kill his own brother and the entire ant colony, humiliates and gloats at various protagonists, and displays other utterly obnoxious and disturbing behavior that is otherwise a very poor influence on toddlers and small children.
In retrospect, all the CLASSIC Disney movies in our collection are safe, tame, and benign by comparison, and far less objectionable if even at all. (e.g., Cinderella, Snow White, etc). I wish we'd stuck to safer products for toddlers, like the afore-mentioned Disney titles, or The Wiggles, Baby Einstein, Bob the Builder, etc. I choose politically correct but safe, over slyly entertaining and wickedly cutting-edge, any day! Those "modern classics" are great for adults, what with their modern spin, dialogue, etc----but why give the kids a head-start on learning objectionable phrases and vocabulary that they're going to learn later from others? No one wants their kid to be the FIRST SOURCE of the poor habits and language being adopted by the other kids in the neighborhood and amongst the extended family.
The golden rule now in our house: If the adults enjoy it, and it's not tedious and boring, it's probably inappropriate for kids!

Rave Reviews about Bugs Life

We loaned out our copy of 'A Bug's Life' to a couple who have no children yet.....and they could not locate it to return it to us...SO....we purchased another copy because we will NOT be without a copy of this in our library for our grandchildren (we don't have any of those yet either). When we purchased this....the couple found our copy and now we have 2 copies!
This purchased was in excellent condition and arrived at JUST the right time!