A Bug’s Life is, indeed, a great film. At least, I personally like it. I think the reason why it is so underrated is because of its theme. Maybe a lot of people have no interest in ‘insects’ theme, and they’d pre-generalize all animations as kids’ films. As for me, FONY, I started to truly appreciate it in my teens too.
I think Cars is also a good film but I’d consider it the worst amongst the bests. That means it’s very good and way much better than average 3D animation films, but not as good comparing to other Pixar films.
Ya know, i havent seen this movie in probably 2 or so years, which is a BIG problem. Im going to buy it as soon as i get paid this week, because it is such an epic movie!
I used to be in love with this movie, and id watch it like 5 times a week, i even had the action figures.
I miss this movie, and its weird that it is so underrated, because its just as good as any other Pixar film.
I wish i oculd go buy it right now, because im really in the mood to watch it!
I love A Bugs Life. One day I was sitting in math class, my friends were talking about movies and one of them mentioned Antz then he said didn’t they make a squeal. . . then i was like A Bugs Life?. . . he said yeah yeah yeah I was like gasp thats a Pixar movie! D: then they were like really. than he said Ratatoullie is a terrible movie and I pretended to faint , and the teacher asked if I was OK
I’ll probably be saying this many times here, but I just love A Bug’s Life. I agree with the two main reasons that were given as to why it is underrated: that it unfortunately had to get confused with Antz the year it came out and be lost in the Pixar library by being made in-between the Toy Story films. I would like to think that it only seems to be underrated to us as fans and is still appreciated by the folks at Pixar, but they just don’t seem to give it as much awareness to the public now with all their new films being made (Cars has gotten the most exposure, when there are arguably other films that deserve it even more). It’s too bad that it has to be so overlooked cause it really is one of Pixar’s best in my opinion. One reason I love it so much is that it was only their 2nd film and it was so ambitious. Even though it would probably never be better than Toy Story, you could tell they really wanted to outdo themselves in order to prove that they were capable of making more films and weren’t just a one-hit-wonder. The visual look of the film with the leaves and grass and the scope of being bug sized was impressive at the time. I know Pixar has gotten even better at capturing nature like with Paradise Falls in Up but the technology has come so far now that it can be easier to take it for granted, so when I watch A Bug’s Life I appreciate those visuals more and say to myself “Look at what they did back then!” cause there was so much they still had to figure out for that film. There was a large cast of characters but I never found that to be a problem. I managed to find the circus bugs to be about as likable as Andy’s toys in Toy Story, and Hopper is without a doubt the baddest of the bad when it comes to antagonists. Probably the most powerful thing in the film was when Hopper brutally beats up Flik, but then Flik stands up to him and gives the rest of the ant colony the courage to fight back. And of course it was this film where they first had the brilliant idea of putting outtakes in the end credits, which everyone was talking about when they first came out. But the thing I really love about A Bug’s Life is that it took what many consider to be creepy, yucky, and gross and made truly cute and appealing characters out of them that you cared about.
All in all this really is a great Pixar film, and while I’ll admit that all their films afterwards are always one step ahead this one still needs to be remembered. Such a shame that it almost seems to be like the black sheep of the family in terms of recognition.
Flik-E: You took all the words right outta my mouth! I adore this movie and agree on every single point you’ve made about it, and I too watch it and think, “Holy cow, they were doing all of this in animation just afterToy Story!”
Plus the story itself is beautiful, the characters stick with you, and yeah, Hopper is probably one of the baddest baddies in Pixar history. (Sorry Syndrome and Muntz… I’m not sure you guys add up. )
I love A Bug’s Life. Always have, always will. It is amazing visually, especially being only the second computer-animated film ever made. It’s amazing in it’s creativity, especially the way the animators used nondescript daily objects from the bugs’ point of view. The voice acting is marvellous, the characters are memorable, and the movie is a fantastic one overall. I don’t know why it is so underrated.
Funny, I thought Cars was labled as Pixar’s “worst”.
Flik-E did touch on a lot of good points though. The main reason that this film is seriously underrated is not only because it’s in between the first two Toy Story movies, but also because as Pixar’s technology started developing, they started releasing newer films that people like better over A Bug’s Life.
As for me, I love it. If it wasn’t for ABL, then I would have never gotten introduced to Pixar in the first place (along with Finding Nemo and Wall-E, I own this one on DVD too). It holds a very special place in my heart and it really touched me the first time I ever watched it as a kid, and I even have a soft spot for it. And Dave Foley was so brilliant as Flik, he made him look and sound so cute. <3
This is so true. I’ve always hated bugs, and spiders especially creep me out the most. A Bug’s Life actually managed to take bugs that are naturally creepy and disgusting and turn them into really charming and appealing characters. Next to Flik, Heimlich was my favorite and he cracked me up the most out of all of them (“I’m a beauuuuutiful butterfly!” lol. )
It’s under rated because public opinion SUCKS. I mean if The Dark Knight is considered a GOOD movie, then public opinion isn’t worth a crap. A Bug’s Life is amazing, and to true Pixar fans, that’s all that counts.
I would like to just reinforce some statements made by earlier posters. ABL dramaticaly pushed the technology of its time. Just watch the commentary on Toy Story 2; Lasseter mentions several times how the technological developements in ABL (and all the research Pixar did while making the film) really pushed forward TS2. The most obvious example of this is the leaves on the trees blowing in the wind in TS2. That did not happen in the first Toy Story! This advancement is all thanks to A Bug’s Life, and I find it very exciting. Even if you ABL isn’t your favorite, or even if you despise it, you hvae to at least acknowledge it for its technology.
Too many people to list that I agree with, too many to quote; I’m a huge A Bug’s Life fan. It takes the top of my list with Ratatouille the Toy Story(s). I’ve probably been quoting it on a weekly basis loyally since the first day I saw a trailer or some sort of special feature.
I have one friend who’s simple reason for not liking Bug’s Life is because she hates insects. Another person that I’ve touched the subject with told me it just wasn’t ‘Monsters’ or ‘Up’. The latter is something I’ve heard more than a handful of times. It’s sad that a film can become less than when new and better things come out. Toy Story was a huge movement in animation and yet put it next to newer CGI and while it’s impressive for what it did back then there are so many things we notice now that just- you need to admit there’s just so much improvement in the field. And yet Pixar fans don’t seem to lose their dedication to their love of the first Toy Story just because the animation is from an older time. Hm.
…Cars is the worse.
(PS, ladies please stop looking at my Alfredo, thanks. jk )
I really love “A Bug’s Life,” and agree that it doesn’t get the attention it deserves. The Flight of Flik’s Bird still rates as one of Pixar’s best action sequences in my book, Hopper is one of my all-time fave Pixar characters of any kind, and I still think ABL does the best job of all Pixar films in managing its big supporting cast. The Circus Bugs are a real lesson in how to set up a big group of characters and make each one instantly clear and relatable.
My recollection of reaction when ABL came out was that it was considered more of a “kiddie” film than “Toy Story” - I think partly because TS benefitted from the popularity of Tom Hanks and Tim Allen, and had the “bicker/banter Buddy Comedy” relationship between Woody and Buzz, so it was seen as more hip/cool/edgy. ABL in some sense had a sweeter, more whimsical tone, plus it had Dot, the Cute Little Kid character - I got the impression that it just wasn’t “hip” enough for the “too cool for cartoons” audience.
You know, it would be interesting to sit down 100 years from now with a “newbie” audience that had never seen any Pixar films and didn’t know the sequence or history, and see how they would rank them.
I have a feeling that when they chose Tom Hanks and Tim Allen to be Woody and Buzz, Disney and the audience must have assumed it was because they were famous household names (after all Disney also had Robin Williams and Gilbert Gottfried in Aladdin around that time) but it turns out the real reason Pixar chose them is because they were right for the character. In one of those making of features that was made when A Bug’s Life came out, Dave Foley talked about how he got to be the voice of Flik and thought it was some kind of mistake saying “Why would they choose me?” cause he wasn’t as recognizable as Hanks and Allen. In fact I’ve felt that most Pixar films, even when they do have famous voices, tend to use a cast that isn’t instantly recognizable so you think of the character and not the voice.
And now I know that the “hip and edgy” thing with Toy Story was something Disney tried to push on them (with horrible results that I have yet to witness), so even though they completely turned that around in the end I do think there’s still some aspect of that left over in the final film.
But this is about A Bug’s Life and not Toy Story, so I’ll leave it at that.
I always thought A Bugs Life was one of my least favourite Pixar films, untill I watched it again recently, and wow did it change my mind.
I think not watching it for a few years really helped to enhance my enjoyment when seeing it again. I would now rate it very highly on my list of animated films.
Having said that, I think my list of favourite anmated films chages every time i re-watch a pixar film.
Well, ABL is my favorite of the movies. It was pretty darn influencial for my ability to create fancharacters, fan art, and fanfiction, and had a pretty cool soundtrack. AND it made me looove preying mantises. We had a few in our neighborhood the year I lived in California, and there was one that just hung around our door for a week or two before she disappeared. And I “rescued” some babies, including one from the bathtub as we were moving out again (too cute X3 ).
I have to say that indeed,the movie is missing SOMETHING. There’s something that the others (a part from Cars) have, but this doesn’t. And maybe it IS A music sequence, as someone pointed out earlier, and maybe it’s the inability to get to know some of the characters. Characters like Manny and Gypsy, the Blueberries (only introduced after the bird chase) the Queen, the Council…yeah.
I’ve never really heard too much bad reviews or opinons on A Bug’s Life, but if I did, I know I’d start to get really defensive… I was FURIOUS when I read so many bad reports and criticism about WALL-E…and that’s when I wrote a letter (mostly to myself) about why I thought those people were mistaken and wrong (CHECK OUT THE LETTER IN THE WALL-E FORUM!). I also wrote a similar letter when I read a poor review about Cars (this letter is in the CARS forum, too…)
I think the bottom line is this: when people dislike certain stories and/or films, there is either a problem with the way the story is told or the audiences’ failure to understand it. One does not have to be a writer or filmmaker to appreciate a good story; one just has to be a good audience and listener.
People who want to be entertained have lost the art of living. They want the story just to speak for itself and don’t even try to immerse themselves in the characters and their struggles and triumphs.
Anyways, I think this applies for people when they overlook A Bug’s Life. I, for one, am NOT going to overlook such a wonderful film as this one!
I can’t see ABL being the worst pixar movie, but for me it’s hard to name any of them a worst they’re all great.
but if i had to say i think Cars is worse than ABL…
Well on the subject of the movie being under appreciated i really don’t think it’s that much disliked as it seems. Though the movie world can be a weird place so you can never be sure why it isn’t as loved as the other movies. My guess is that people did not want to think of bugs having emotions or something like that so they wouldn’t get attached to the characters. (Maybe some people thought if they got attached to the characters they might always make sure they don’t step on ants ) But that is just my opinion
I don’t think it was just audiences who thought that way, I think all of the other studios think that way too. They seem to think that the secret to success is just to sign up a few A-listers and any old rubbish will be a hit when in fact, like you say, Tom Hanks and Tim Allen were actually the greatest pieces of voice casting ever.
They all wonder what Pixar’s secret is but frankly there isn’t one. One word - integrity. People aren’t stupid, they can see when love has gone into something. That’s why if Pixar wants to stay number one and ahead of it’s competitors all it has to do is stick to it’s beliefs and principles. As long as they do that then the people will forgive anything that misfires slightly.
then he said didn’t they make a squeal. . . then i was like A Bugs Life?. . . he said yeah yeah yeah I was like gasp thats a Pixar movie! D: then they were like really. than he said Ratatoullie is a terrible movie and I pretended to faint , and the teacher asked if I was OK 
(Sorry Syndrome and Muntz… I’m not sure you guys add up. 
I was FURIOUS when I read so many bad reports and criticism about 
i don’t know why ABL is so underrated I think it is brilliant so are all the other Pixar films maybe is it because of the insects in it:/