An animated remake of The Magnificent Seven (and by proxy Seven Samurai).

Rating: 8/10 (12 June 2001)

I would have never thought anyone other than Miyazaki could (or would) make an animated remake of a Kurosawa movie aimed at children, but that's exactly what PIXAR and John Lasseter have done.
Does it work? Yes and no.
Yes, because the child-friendly changes to the plot are interesting and rather Aesopian, since it is also an extended version of the ant and the grasshopper fable. There are great references to the Magnificent Seven, and the pageant the little ants (especially the picture of one of them dying "because our teacher said it would be more dramatic") is hilarious.
No, because the seven-plus-two warrior bugs that Flick gets are stock characters, and only the ladybug has any resemblance to any previous incarnation (he is basically the Mifune character--he is ridiculed by others not for being a peasant instead of a samurai but because he is a male ladybug, and also he is the one who befriends the children). There is not a stoic character like Yul Brenner or Takashi Shimura to lead the pack, which I find a bit of an oversight (the praying mantis is hardly stoic in my opinion).
The animation is truly astounding, with beautiful scenery and "camera" shots. This is Pixar's most Miyazaki-esque film, which is why I like it so much (look for homages to Laputa and Kiki). In spite of this, I have to rank A Bug's Life below the Toy Story movies because of the ludicrous slapstick beginning that sets the plot in motion--the same sort of annoying joke that Disney deemed necessary to push the plot forward in Mulan (Mushu shooting off a rocket for no apparent reason) and Tarzan (the elephant stampede) when they were stuck for a logical reason. Would it have been too much to ask for Flick to actually have been a hero? What if, as bandits often do, they go down the anthole anyway just to harass them and make them work harder for them--then just have the movie go just as it is--the grasshoppers pick on Princess Dot, Flick tells them to leave her alone, and then Hopper orders double the order for next time and everybody starts worrying about that. Flick could be banished for that reason--sort of like what happens in Princess Mononoke when Ashitaka saves the girls but gets cursed and so has to leave and never return.
One other complaint--Dot believing she can and should be able to fly before her body is ready is an outright dangerous concept for Pixar to condone, despite society's current mentality towards girl-power and the "youth are always right" generation. Knowing what your limits are is as much a part of strength as anything else.
8/10