A Bug’s Life

Year: 1998

Grade: B

Country: USA

Director: Lasseter/Stanton

Review

it’s a cross between an aesop’s fable (the ant and the grasshopper) and kurosawa’s the seven samurai. it’s about a group of bandit grasshoppers who never store their own food for the winter and always steal it from the peasant ants. so, one ant goes out and recruits some other bugs that he thinks are badass mercenary types (the seven+ samurai). unfortunately they turn out to be circus performers so hilarity ensues. it’s a good take on those two prior works and was interesting in that way. it’s also interesting how water was used in the film – even a drop can be a destructive force. overall not a bad film, though the animation (especially that of the bird) left something to be desired. with a film like toy story the plasticy-fake look worked ok, but not so much here. pixar still didn’t have the texture looking right yet.