Rating: G
Genre:
Children's/Family
Theatrical Release: 11/20/1998(USA)
Release Date: 05/27/2003
Dubbed: French
Sound: DD5.1
Run Time: 95 Minutes
Flags: Excellent For Children
Distributor/Studio: Walt Disney Video
John Lasseter, director of
Pixar's movie phenomenon
Toy Story, has set new standards in computer animation with this effort, another
Disney-released
children's epic entitled
A Bug's Life. Blending classic
Disney storytelling characters and the mysterious underground world of bugs,
Lasseter has created a film that can be enjoyed by all audiences, and another franchise in the process.
A Bug's Life is a computerized retelling of the
Aesop fable
The Ant and the Grasshopper, made as a cartoon-short by the one-and-only,
Walt Disney, in the mid-'30s. However,
A Bug's Life has modernized the story with many new twists and celebrity voices. The story focuses on a colony of ants who seasonally gather food for themselves and a wild gang of rowdy grasshoppers. When bumbling worker ant
Flik (
David Foley) destroys the food supply, the angry grasshoppers, lead by the maniacally warped
Hopper (
Kevin Spacey), threaten to kill the ants if they don't produce a new supply of food by the time they return -- an impossible feat.
Flik leaves the anthill in search of help in the form of bigger bugs, and to wage war against the grasshoppers. What he doesn't know is he has actually discovered a group of down-on-their-luck traveling circus insects in need of a job. When the ants realize that their heroes are really circus performers (and the circus bugs realize these grasshoppers are really big and mean), the situation goes from bad to worse. Ultimately, the ants use their large numbers to overcome the grasshoppers.
~ Chris Gore, All Movie Guide