Pixar’s forgotten film came after the success of ‘Toy Story’ after universal critical acclaim and a massive audience support, grossing more than $360 million worldwide.

 

Pixar’s second feature film was something entirely unique and different, a story about ants and other tiny crawling critters, titled ‘A Bug’s Life’.

 

Could Pixar prove they are more than just a one hit wonder?

 

Answer is a resounding YES!

 

While ‘A Bug’s Life’ is clearly no ‘Toy Story’, it is still a worthwhile and entertaining picture, with a few themes and messages thrown into the mix.

 

The picture opens on Ant Island, an island populated by… uh, ants. Flik is an ant version of Jimmy Neutron, loves to invent new and original ideas of popular human inventions like a megaphone and a telescope.

 

Yup, he is pretty inventive.

 

But the rest of the island don’t like much of Flik’s inventing, instead of picking food like the rest of the other ants for the big bad grasshoppers, but we’ll get to them in just a moment. Flik always fails at doing something right, even if his heart is at the right place, which causes all of the ant’s hard work with the food falling down the river by one of Flik’s crazy, but inventive, invention. This causes the princess, Princess Atta, to get blamed by the dumping of the food by the big baddie Hopper, one of Pixar’s most terrifying villains. This causes Flik to venture off into the unknown to find warrior bugs to defeat Hopper’s gang of grasshoppers.

 

The characterisation of these characters are pretty great, all having a trait, even the supporting characters. Flik and Princess Atta’s developing relationship is sweet and sincere, showing two opposites, but share one common trait among them both, they just want to make a difference to the island inhabiting full of ants and help the community out. This is where ‘A Bug’s Life’ really shines, is through the likeable characters, as they are funny and you can relate to at least one of the characters, despite being ants, share human traits and personalities. The charatcers interaction and humour shine through the film’s faults, one of them being the film’s narrative structure, that isn’t as strong as say, Pixar’s previous feature ‘Toy Story’, but while that may be true, ‘A Bug’s Life’ has enough heart that really makes ‘A Bug’s Life’ a worthy follow-up to ‘Toy Story’.

 

‘A Bug’s Life’ is like a tree, the film grows as the film goes on, getting better and better, delivering a great family movie that anyone can relate to and enjoy.

 

Score: 8.4/10