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"A Bug's Life" (1998)
26 June 2020 11:59 pmThis was a massive disappointment. I saw "Toy Story" long after it came out, when the whole computer animation hype was long since old hat, but still loved it at once. I really enjoyed "The Incredibles" and thought "Ratatouille", "WALL-E", "Up" and "Inside Out" took animated film to a whole new level. But it turns out "A Bug's Life" is... a whole heap of steaming clichés.
Almost from the very beginning it felt as if they were sticking in just about every Hollywood/Disney trope aimed at the under-tens, many of them painfully inappropriate to the setting. Sorry, but ants don't have cute little child ants who set up a 'clubhouse' and save the world when the adults are busy giving up; ants have squishy larvae. Grasshoppers don't have mothers or little brothers. Worker ants don't have romantic moments with 'princesses', because worker ants are FEMALE. ( Read more... )
I think perhaps what irked me about it was that there didn't seem to be any greater depth -- any references that adults could be expected to get over and above the target audience. The humour remains on the level of "Francis is a male 'lady'bird... haw, haw haw", the romance is school-gate stuff, and the attempts at emotional manipulation aren't exactly sophisticated. It was like being subjected to a lecturer who persists in talking to a mixed audience as if they were all six-year-olds.
Rating: 4/10
Almost from the very beginning it felt as if they were sticking in just about every Hollywood/Disney trope aimed at the under-tens, many of them painfully inappropriate to the setting. Sorry, but ants don't have cute little child ants who set up a 'clubhouse' and save the world when the adults are busy giving up; ants have squishy larvae. Grasshoppers don't have mothers or little brothers. Worker ants don't have romantic moments with 'princesses', because worker ants are FEMALE. ( Read more... )
I think perhaps what irked me about it was that there didn't seem to be any greater depth -- any references that adults could be expected to get over and above the target audience. The humour remains on the level of "Francis is a male 'lady'bird... haw, haw haw", the romance is school-gate stuff, and the attempts at emotional manipulation aren't exactly sophisticated. It was like being subjected to a lecturer who persists in talking to a mixed audience as if they were all six-year-olds.
Rating: 4/10
