World Famous Comics: A Bug's Life (Two-Disc Collector's Edition)
A Bug's Life (Two-Disc Collector's Edition)
Starring: Phyllis Diller, Dave Foley, Brad Garrett, Jonathan Harris, Bonnie Hunt Directed By: John Lasseter, Stanton, Andrew Average Rating: Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Audience Rating: G (General Audience) Binding: DVD Format: Anamorphic, Animated, Closed-captioned, Collector's Edition, Color, DVD, Full Screen, Widescreen, NTSC Label: Walt Disney Video Number of Items: 1 Region Code: 1 Release Date: May 27, 2003 Running Time: 95 minutes Theatrical Release Date: November 25, 1998
Description: Journey inside the world of bugs in this epic of miniature proportions. Crawling with imaginative characters, hilarious laughs, and colorful animation, Walt Disney Pictures Presentation of A Pixar Animation Studios Film, A BUG'S LIFE, will "delight everyone -- young, old, or six-legged." (People Magazine) In this 2-disc set you'll step behind the scenes for a look at the innovation and teamwork that resulted in this ingenious film. Loaded with bonus features — including animation not seen in theaters, abandoned sequences, and multiple surprises — A BUG'S LIFE COLLECTOR'S EDITION offers something for everyone from families to film lovers!
Amazon.com: There was such a magic on the screen in 1995 when the people at Pixar came up with the first fully computer-animated film, Toy Story. Their second feature film, A Bug's Life, may miss the bull's-eye but Pixar's target is so lofty, it's hard to find the film anything less than irresistible.
Brighter and more colorful than the other animated insect movie of 1998 (Antz), A Bug's Life is the sweetly told story of Flik (voiced by David Foley), an ant searching for better ways to be a bug. His colony unfortunately revolves around feeding and fearing the local grasshoppers (lead by Hopper, voiced with gleeful menace by Kevin Spacey). When Flik accidentally destroys the seasonal food supply for the grasshoppers he decides to look for help ("We need bigger bugs!"). The ants, led by Princess Atta (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), are eager to dispose of the troublesome Flik. Yet he finds help--a hearty bunch of bug warriors--and brings them back to the colony. Unfortunately they are just traveling performers afraid of conflict.
As with Toy Story, the ensemble of creatures and voices is remarkable and often inspired. Highlights include wiseacre comedian Denis Leary as an un-ladylike ladybug, Joe Ranft as the German-accented caterpillar, David Hyde Pierce as a stick bug, and Michael McShane as a pair of unintelligible pillbugs. The scene-stealer is Atta's squeaky-voiced sister, baby Dot (Hayden Panettiere), who has a big sweet spot for Flik.
More gentle and kid-friendly than Antz, A Bug Life's still has some good suspense and a wonderful demise of the villain. However, the film--a giant worldwide hit--will be remembered for its most creative touch: "outtakes" over the end credits à la many live-action comedy films. These dozen or so scenes (both "editions" of outtakes are contained here) are brilliant and deserve a special place in film history right along with 1998's other most talked-about sequence: the opening Normandy invasion in Saving Private Ryan.
The video also contains Pixar's delightful Oscar-winning short, Geri's Game. Box art varies. --Doug Thomas
Bug's Life Lives on in Blu-ray! It's been a while since I saw A Bug's Life and it brought back great memories seeing it in Blu-ray. Great story, great performances, and beautiful images, sharp digital clarity. I highly recommend it to everyone.
A great DVD edition of one of Pixar's lesser offerings I know there is a generation of kids out there with a special place in their hearts for "A Bug's Life". I know this because I made the mistake of commenting that I thought it was Pixar's weakest film in the presence of the current crop of undergraduate university students. But I stand by the statement - as one who has only seen the Pixar films as a teenager or older. This film just doesn't have "It," (whatever "It" is). For an analogy, I turn to the time of the traditional Disney animated hits - "Lion King," in spite of a paint-by-numbers plot, had It. Pocahontas, although it had gorgeous animation and beautiful songs, didn't. Similarly, when compared to the "Toy Stories" and even "Cars", "A Bug's Life" just doesn't compare.
Don't get me wrong - there is lots to like about the film, and about this DVD edition. The voice acting is fantastic, featuring Dave Foley (best know to Canadians from "Kids in the Hall", and to Americans from "News Radio") as the unappreciated inventor and dreamer Flik. All Flik wants to do is make a difference, especially in light of his ant colony's oppression by a gang of ruthless locusts headed by Hopper, voiced by a scene-chewing (and always wonderful) Kevin Spacey. After accidentally destroying the annual tribute to the grasshoppers while demonstrating his latest invention, Flik is sent off on a mission (of his own devising): find some "big bugs" to help the colony fight off the grasshoppers. Instead he finds a set of circus performers who, through a misunderstanding, he brings back to the ant colony to defend it from Hopper's gang. The circus performers provide some of the best moments, including a pair of demented pill bugs and a German-accented caterpillar.
But.... for whatever reason, the movie never really takes off for me. Perhaps I was turned off by the variety of insects - it seemed like the filmakers simply threw in whatever came to mind, and it's a mishmash of whatever bugs they thought were fun to draw. Perhaps it's because the filmakers couldn't bring themselves to go all the way - worker ants are all female, so why is Flik a boy? The fact that these characters are ants (or bugs in general) is irrelevant. They could have been rodents, or forest animals, or anything. Toy Story, Cars, and the Incredibles are brilliant because the stories are driven by the relentless logic of being toys, cars, or retired superheroes. The bugs in A Bug's Life are just cookie-cutter characters who are manipulated by the plot.
I'm probably being too literal, but what can I say? Never having seen this as a child, and comparing it to every other Pixar film that I've seen, this one comes up short. It's still a good movie, and there is lots of good voice acting and some big laughs. It has a good heart, but unfortunately it is a little dumb.
This 2-disc DVD version has lots of great extras. John Lassiter's crew made lots of interesting little featurettes while making the film, in which we see the development of the story. There are interviews with the voice actors, a great audio commentary, and many other extras, including both versions of the end-credits "outtakes", probably the most enduring of this film's animated innovations.
Blu-Ray adds even more sharpness, brilliant color! This film was watched on a 42" Panasonic Plasma, and BD35 player.
As this is one of my favorite Pixar movies, I was very excited to finally see it on Blu-Ray. While the SD already flexes Pixar's animation brilliance muscle,the Blu-Ray is brighter, and even more sharp.
The story is well known, and the characters all heart-felt and adorable. The Blu-Ray is an upgrade in both sound and picture, with increased sharpness and subtelty in sound layers. Very enjoyable and a must for Pixar fans!
Didn't play with playstation 3 Bought and returned this disk twice before finding the trick for making it work with PS3. It would just go to a black screen forever on title 49. If you are having issues playing this disk on your PS3 just go to System Settings and Restore the defaults. You'll have to re-setup the date/time and a few other things but that will do the trick. Also when asked after entering the disk tell the system that you do NOT want to enable BD live connection. Disk plays fine after this.
A pixar classic Though Bugs Life wasn't quite as popular as its predeccesor and succesors, i think that bugs life is still one of the best films that pixar has created. the picture and audio quality are, as always, stellar! This is a must have for all who enjoy pixar, and just a good film for the whole family
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