A Bugs Life (Collectors Edition) (1998)

Entertainment Weekly
"...A hellzapoppin creature-feature jamboree..." -- Rating: B 01/15/1999 p.44

USA Today
"...Rowdier than a New Year's Eve party..."-- 4 out of 4 stars 12/24/1998 p.4D

New York Times
"...A BUG'S LIFE makes jaunty, imaginative use of both extraordinary technology and bold storytelling possibilities within the insect world..." 11/25/1998 p.E1

Box Office
"...Lasseter brilliantly exploits the material for both laughs and pathos, while pushing the technological parameters of computer animation even beyond the already impressive feat of TOY STORY..." -- 4 out of 5 stars 01/01/1999 p.53

Los Angeles Times
"...[A BUG'S LIFE has] an unfettered imagination....This footloose humor comes from both the writing and the direction..." 11/20/1998 p.C1

A.V. Club
"[T]he SEVEN SAMURAI-like story provides a solid framework for stunning animation and winning characters, including Dave Foley's nice work in the lead." 05/27/2009

Time Magazine 0 of 10
...In conspiratorial hindsight one might see A Bug's Life, the first feature from John Lasseter and his Pixar whizzes since their 1995 computer-generated hit Toy Story, as the company's rearview metaphor for its battle with DreamWorks' Antz. That similar computer-animated cartoon was conceived after the Pixar pic but released before it. It's bug-eat-bug in Hollywood's animation wars. Is there room for two? Yes, when the "second" movie is as rich and rewarding as A Bug's Life. Its design work is so stellar--a wide-screen Eden of leaves and labyrinths populated by dozens of ugly, buggy, cuddly cutups--that it makes the DreamWorks film seem, by comparison, like radio. If that movie was Ant-Z, this one is Ant-A... But as Walt Disney knew, animation is more than sublime trickery; the word means giving life. With a different kind of mouse, Lasseter does just that as his film finds its heat and heart. The plot matures handsomely; the characters neatly converge and combust; the gags pay off with emotional resonance. And at the end, the movie tops itself with comic outtakes, undoubtedly the funniest finale of any cartoon feature. Antz may have amused viewers with its sidewise wit, but as a comprehensive vision of computerized moviemaking, Pixar's dream works. And when A Bug's Life hits its stride, it's antastic. - Richard Corliss
 
Box Office Magazine 0 of 10
A handful of cursory similarities to Dreamorks' Antz notwithstanding, Disney's long-awaited A Bug's Life emerges as the clear winner of the computer-generated insect competition. Funnier, flashier, more colorful and imaginative, better animated and, most importantly, better written, this second collaboration from Disney and Bay Area-based animation studio Pixar is a festive delight sure to please adults and children of all ages. Like the first Disney/Pixar effort, Toy Story, A Bug's Life succeeds by creating a breathtakingly comprehensive world in miniature and imposing upon it a meticulously well-scripted concept... As he did with Toy Story, director John Lassiter brilliantly exploits the material for both laughs and pathos, while pushing the technological parameters of computer animation even beyond the already impressive feat of Toy Story. Similarities with Antz, of course, are certain to plague the film to a small degree: Both films deal with individualistic misfit ants whose courage in seeking the experience of the outside world enables them to save the colony and win the affections of the colony's princess (voiced here by Julia Louis-Dreyfus), who in the process is able to ascend nobly to the throne of her mother, the Queen (Phyllis Diller). The particulars of the two films, however, are so radically different as to be beyond comparison. Whereas Antz centers on the political machinations of the ant colony, A Bug's Life casts a wider focus on the world of all insects--a wiser and more interesting choice. Minus Antz's occasionally raw humor, A Bug's Life is also better suited to family viewing, with its splendid cast of bizarre and charming bugs perfectly pitched to capitalize on a holiday marketing bonanza. - Wade Major
 
ReelViews 9 of 10
It's almost a shame that A Bug's Life is debuting so close in the wake of Antz...No matter when the Pixar/Disney production reached theaters, comparisons between the two computer-animated insect movies would be inevitable...Fortunately, A Bug's Life can withstand the scrutiny. Despite a number of similarities to Antz, there are enough variations in plot and tone to warrant another visit to the unique and wondrous world existing beneath the blades of grass...One thing A Bug's Life has that Antz does not is a ingenious series of end credits. Instead of just the latest lame Randy Newman song warbling over scrolling names, we are presented with a collection of mocked-up outtakes that parody the kinds of flubs and goofs which have come to decorate the credits of numerous comedies. It's brilliant in both conception and execution, and one could make a solid case that the last three minutes of A Bug's Life are its best. I wouldn't go that far, but this is definitely a movie when it's a good idea not to run for the exit as soon as the story ends...Pixar is the studio that first brought a full-length computer-generated feature to the screen with 1995's Toy Story, and, by adding A Bug's Life to their resume, they have established themselves as a force to be reckoned with not only in the realm of animated films, but in that of family entertainment in general...Co-directors John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton understand that every story, even one with such an intense focus on visual elements, begins with a script and characters. A Bug's Life, like Toy Story, develops protagonists we can root for, and places them in the midst of a fast-moving, energetic adventure. And, while Antz and A Bug's Life each work well enough on their own, they are best when seen in concert, if only to compare and contrast the fine craft evident in such top-notch examples of family entertainment. - James Berardinelli
 
Chicago Sun-Times 9 of 10
As ants struggle to gather morsels of food, a leaf falls and interrupts their procession. "I'm lost!" screams a worker in panic. "Where's the line?" Rescue workers quickly arrive: "We are going around to the left!" The harvest continues. "This is nothing compared to the twig of '93," an ant observes...Enjoying this, I enjoyed too the use of animation to visualize a world that could not be seen in live action and could not be created with special effects. Animation contains enormous promise for a new kind of storytelling, freed from reality and gravity, but although the Japanese have exploited that freedom, too many American feature cartoons follow the Disney formula of plucky young heroes and heroines and comic sidekicks...It's a formula that has produced wonderful movies. But the Pixar computer animation studio, a Disney co-producer, broke new ground with "Toy Story" in 1995, and now with "A Bug's Life," it runs free. The story, about an ant colony that frees itself from slavery to grasshoppers, is similar in some ways to the autumn [1998]'s other big animated release, "Antz," but it's aimed at a broader audience and lacks the in-jokes...The film's hero is Flik (voiced by Dave Foley), the smartest ant in the colony (the competition is not fierce). As the other ants labor to pile up "The Offering," a mountain of food for tyrannical grasshoppers, Flik perfects an invention to harvest grain more quickly; he's the Cyrus McCormick of the hymenopterous Formicidae. But he's still basically just an ant; the film is more about the fate of the colony and not so much about individuals like the Woody Allen hero of "Antz."..."Antz" has a more sophisticated sensibility and could play for adults attending by themselves. "A Bug's Life" is more clearly intended as a family film. Smaller children will respond to the threat from the Hoppers and the zaniness of the weird assortment of mercenaries hired by Flik. - Roger Ebert