A Bug's Life (1998)

The like... sixth-best version of _Seven Samurai_ to date. _Final rating:★★★ - I liked it. Would personally recommend you give it a go._

A thoroughly enjoyable production from Disney and Pixar. 'A Bug’s Life' cobbles together nice animation, fun characters and a memorable voice cast. The premise is entertaining, as the film flies through its 95 minute run time. The score is pretty solid, also. Dave Foley is good in the role of Flik, while Kevin Spacey is actually great as Hopper; shame about the actor himself, obviously. There's a load of other noteworthy members of the voice cast, including Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Atta), Hayden Panettiere (Dot), Bonnie Hunt (Rosie) and John Ratzenberger (P.T.) as well as many others - one of the studios' best casts. I actually prefer, somewhat controversially I guess, 'Antz' to this - only marginally though, as I truly like them both. I'd say watch the pair, if you can!

I'm not really into a lot of kid movies. My daughter made me watch this with her. It was a ok movie. It was something different to see. I'd probably never watch it again unless of course my daughter wants me to again.

I suppose we could have guessed from Randy Newman's wild west type opening theme that we were in for something... just not, maybe, an insect version of the "Magnificent Seven"! The ants slave away day in day out to pick a harvest that they leave as an offering for the marauding grasshoppers. Thing is, the enthusiastic (and annoying) "Flik" likes to try his hand at inventing things and after creating his own type of combine harvester finds himself left above ground and managing to tip the assembled food down a hole in the ground. Needless to say the hungry bugs aren't happy - they vow to return after the next harvest and woe betide the ants if there's not a feast awaiting them. The Queen and her daughter "Princess Atta" know they've no hope, so when "Flik" offers to ride far and wide to assemble a gang to defend them all, they cheerfully see him off as a liability they can do without. Can he get together a group of formidable defenders for his seemingly doomed colony and redeem himself? It's quite a well paced story this, with loads of different, vibrantly coloured, critters, but there's no getting away from the fact that "Flik" is just a pain in the neck - and after a while of the fairly constant barrage of verbiage - there is a great deal of dialogue here - I found my attention wandering a bit. The last ten minutes are quite fun, and I did quite like the denouement - but the rest of this was just a wee bit too repetitive for me.