We’re ranking the films of Pixar Studios, leading up to the release of Inside Out.
Directed: John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton
Writers: John Lasster, Andrew Stanton, et al.
Akira Kurosawa made one cinema’s greatest achievements in 1954: Seven Samurai. The movie tells the story of a village of farmers in the 1500s, who are terrorized by bandits that raid their crops. In an effort to protect themselves and their food, they hire a group of samurai to come to their aid before the next harvest and defeat the bandits once and for all. The film is a landmark of cinema, its legacy found everywhere from American movies, from remakes like The Magnificent Seven to triumphant underdog stories like Star Wars.
A Bug’s Life, the second feature from Pixar is not just inspired by Kurosawa’s masterpiece. It basically IS Kurosawa’s masterpiece, only with ants instead of 16th century Japanese villagers, grasshoppers instead of bandits, and circus performing bugs (a beetle, a spider, a caterpillar, etc) instead of samurai.
The result is an hilarious, high-drama affair, full of terrific scenes. The major set-pieces, like the circus act run by P.T. Flea, where the hero ant Flik finds his defenders, is grand in the style of Dumbo. But the best scenes of A Bug’s Life feature the film’s villain, Hopper (voiced by Kevin Spacey).
Most Pixar films are stories of relational drama that feature complex characters, none of whom would be considered “bad guys.” Not so in this film. Hopper is a “villain” in the traditional Disney sense: he’s terrible, he torments those weaker than himself, and for his villainy, he is killed (in what is, for a kid’s movie, a terrifically gruesome manner).
Lasseter and his co-creators give Hopper chance after chance to monologue, delivering speeches about the natural order and the importance of using force to protect their way of life. Kevin Spacey commands the Disney Villain in true scenery-chewing fashion, turning Hopper into the Gaston of the insect world, spewing his philosophy and bullying those who would oppose him.
Going back to early Pixar provides a great review of how fast the technology of computer animation was changing in the 1990s. When Toy Story came out in 1995, nothing like it had ever been seen. A Bug’s Life was released three years later, and the contrast between the two is stark. The complexity of character detail, motion and emotion is notable, even in the insect-faces of ants and grasshoppers. And the world created in A Bug’s Life represents remarkable progress in texturing a computer animated world.
I think it’s too easy to forget about A Bug’s Life, 17 years after its release. The movie wasn’t the smash box-office hit that Toy Story was, but it was equally well-received by critics. A Bug’s Life still represents a stepping-stone towards what Pixar would be become a decade later, but it’s humor, VO performances (especially Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Spacey), and depth of film-referentiality makes it a real treat for movie buffs.
Best Line: “Let this be a lesson to all you ants. Ideas are very dangerous things. You are mindless, soil-shoving losers put on this earth to serve us.”
Best Retort: “You see, Hopper, nature has a certain order. The ants pick the food. The ants keep the food. The Grasshoppers leave.”
Best Pixar Tradition Started by A Bug’s Life: Outtakes.
Surprise Cast Member: a 9-year old Hayden Panetteire voiced Dot, the little princess of the ants.
Best Hollywood Studio Feud: Dreamworks was simultaneously working on the film Antz, which was released one month prior to A Bug’s Life. Dreamworks chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg was a former Disney-man, who left the company in a highly public spat with Disney CEO Michael Eisner. The affair turned quite ugly, and John Lasseter accused his former friend Katzenberg of stealing his idea and creating Antz. Katzenburg eventually moved Antz’s release date 6 months just to get out before A Bug’s Life.
Ratzenburger:
Best Animated Feature: Not yet created. It did get an Academy Nomination for Best Score, though, for Randy Newman.
Return to The Pixar List Landing Page.
myriamm58 says
Reblogged this on myriamm58.