by Curtis Edmonds -- blueduck@hsbr.org
I went into A Bug's Life with certain expectations, and I was not disappointed. I expected to see a technically advanced movie, with visually stunning sets. I expected to see cutesy little characters spouting bad puns. I expected to hear lots of celebrity voiceovers. And I expected A Bug's Life to rival it's predecessor, Toy Story, in providing that ineffable something known as movie magic. If A Bug's Life did nothing more than meet my expectations -- which it does -- it would be a very good movie indeed. In movies, and life, you're supposed to expect the unexpected. What makes A Bug's Life a wonderful movie is the one thing I didn't expect going in. A Bug's Life just happens to be a grand celebration of something that seldom gets celebrated in Hollywood these days: The Values that Made America Great.
First, you need to know that A Bug's Life is about a clash between three cultural and political systems. We start off with the Ants, who are a nameless, faceless, Communist horde. (To their credit, the ants are the nicest, cutest Communists you'd ever want to meet, and they're ruled by Phyllis Diller instead of Big Brother.) They are opposed by the Grasshoppers, who are an evil Fascist menace led by Hopper (Kevin Spacey), who rules Grasshoppers and Ants alike with an iron, er, fist, I guess. The Ants work like Stalinist shock-workers to gather enough food to feed themselves and the Grasshoppers.
Along comes Flik, who -- with one exception -- is the digital embodiment of the American Spirit. (Save for his voice, which is provided by Canada's Dave Foley.) Flik is an Eagle Scout among bugs (yes, they have Scouting in A Bug's Life). We know right from the outset that he is smart, creative and inventive -- we see him with a jerry-built harvester designed to collect grain more efficiently. When he accidentally endangers the colony, he accepts responsibility and tries to stand up to the bully grasshoppers. He bravely goes forth on a noble quest and returns heroically -- then uses his daring and ingenuity in the final battle with the grasshoppers. Flik is the closest thing to a Frank Capra hero we've seen since Captain Miller in Saving Private Ryan (and before that, Kevin Costner's Postman, which makes you wonder where all the Capra heroes have gone.)
Flik is aided on his mission by a wandering troupe of circus bugs, who make the trip to the ant colony thinking they're there to entertain -- instead of serving as mercenaries. The troupe provides all of the other elements that you'd expect from a Pixar movie: lots of celebrity voices, physical humor, and cheap puns. The top act at the flea circus is at least as visually complex as the "falling with style" sequence in Toy Story, and the ending battle with the grasshoppers is as inventive as Buzz and Woody's final dash for the moving van. My only complaint is that there are probably one or two too many circus performers, and the ones who are most interesting (say, Bonnie Hunt's black widow) don't get enough screen time.
However, this is a minor quibble, and in no way should affect my admiration for the hard work of the Pixar team in bringing us this lively holiday gift. A Bug's Life is a labor of love in an industry that all too often takes the quick and dirty approach. Best wishes to them and to their marketing department, which is now, I'm sure, busy selling little Flik dolls... because capitalism is an American Value too.
-- Curtis Edmonds
MovieNation: Movie Reviews in Black and White http://members.xoom.com/movienation movienation@xoommail.com
"No children have ever meddled with the Republican Party and lived to tell about it." -- Sideshow Bob
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