Underrated but very cute.

Rating: 9/10 (20 October 2000)

While not as absolutely perfect as the "Toy Story" movies (indeed, that's a very tough act to follow), "A Bug's Life" is very enjoyable movie. It's one of the very few animated movies that works well for adults and kids, the script is incredibly well written, and the artwork is bright and adorable.

I want to make one last comment on that last aspect. This summer, a lot of noise was made about how Disney's inventively titled (I hope you can all hear the sarcasm dripping off of that statement) non-Pixar-involving (and man, did that make a difference) computer animation -err- "movie" ("Dinosaur", if you haven't guessed yet) had backgrounds that were real live-action footage. Only the characters were animated. Well, watching "Bug's Life" again, I have to ask, what was the point? The backgrounds in "Bug's" are stunningly beautiful, and the characters interact with them convincingly. The characters (if you can call them that) in "Dinosaur" were less convincing than the animated creatures in a Ray Harryhausen movie. Much less. There's a lesson to be learned here.