I’ll just start off by saying that the presentation and special features of A Bug’s Life on Blu-ray exceeded my expectations!
The picture is crystal clear and the signature rich colors of A Bug’s Life are more vibrant than ever! The optimized surround sound booms in the speakers with a perfection only found on Blu-ray. A great example of the overall quality would be the movie’s climax with the fire and water effects. But you knew that, after all, it’s a Pixar Blu-ray!
Being a Pixar blog, we assume you, the readers, have seen the 1998 hit A Bug’s Life (but never like this) so we’ll skip reviewing the movie itself (which is as awesome as you remember) and get on with the juicy details…
As expected, the disc comes with never-before-seen special features that are worth the price by themselves, John Lasseter even recorded new introductions for the movie and the new content. Take it from me, even if you have this movie on VHS and on
DVD, getting the Blu-ray is completely worth it and a whole new experience in itself with amazing navigation and interactive content like BD Live.
Speaking of new content, Filmmaker’s Roundtable, featuring director John Lasseter, co-director Andrew Stanton and producers Darla K. Anderson and Kevin Reher, is a must watch for any Pixar fan! The group of talented Pixarians look back at the last 10 years and their experiences on A Bug’s Life which they call the most fun and most challenging movie they’ve ever done. Stories in this segment include when ABL was shown to Bill Clinton while he was President, how Andrew Stanton got on The Today Show, and the deal behind A Bug’s Life Appreciation Week.
Another stand-out feature would have to be A Bug’s Life: The First Draft. This is a full color animated story reel bringing the original concept of Bugs (you can see the preliminary logo during the previous feature) to life. Yes, the version where the main character was a circus ant named Red. Dave Foley, the voice of Flik, narrates this piece. The presentation of The First Draft is phenomenal, just imagine yourself being immersed in living storyboards!
Now you may be asking yourself, what about the features from the DVD release (AKA The "Supah Genius" Edition)? They are all there including Geri’s Game, Silly Symphonies’ The Grasshopper and the Ants, Behind the Scenes Featurettes, Audio Commentary, Outtakes and more! My only complaint would have to be that they neglected to add 10th Anniversary insignia.
In less than two weeks you too can experience the epic of miniature proportions in the best picture quality ever! The 2-disc set comes out on May 19th with a digital copy and a free redemable ticket for Pixar’s next film, Up.
A Bug’s Life is now available for pre-order with an MSRP of $39.99 from Disney Shopping or Amazon.
(Thanks goes out to Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment for allowing us to review such an amazing product!)
Last modified: May 7, 2009
Great! I jsut wish I had a Blu-Ray player…but I’ll take the Digital Copy and the ticket to Up!…but I’m not in the US to redeem the ticket…so I’ll just have the Digital Copy 😛
Great review Martin 🙂
Hello, thanks for the review.
I was wondering if there were french subtitles on all bonus (even on the audio commentaries, but if there are just english subtitle it’s great too) and if the french soundtrack was dubbed in france or in quebec
Thank you so much if you can tell me that 😉
because it’s one of my favorite movies.
A really mouth-watering review (even if it’s not about Ratatouille 😉 .
My only complaint with release is that they included merely a DRM-infested digital copy instead of bundling it with a DVD, as they did with recent (non-Pixar) Disney releases.
I have to buy this, just on the off chance they can do The Incredibles: The First Draft
You say all the DVD features are there? Does that really include the 5.1 sound effects only, and 2.0 music only tracks?