Light Years

Rating: 8/10 (2 July 2002)

The feature "A Bug's Life" shows the light years Lasseter's art had jumped in only ten regular years since "Luxo Jr.". No longer are the qualities of the faces affected by symmetrical shapes. In "Tin Toy", Tinny was cute, but his face was a perfect sphere. The baby was supposed to be cute, but because his face could not be perfectly round and still seem realistic, his face was ruined by unintended harsh angles that were supposed to give the baby a more "human" look. In "A Bug's Life", we now have cute ants whose faces are not perfectly spherical, yet are not ruined. The lines and bends in their faces and bodies are smooth and flexible. The sharp features that made the baby so sinister looking are reserved for the evil grasshoppers. The scene where Hopper is about to crush Flick's head is frightening not only because of what is happening, but because of the intense looks of anger/pleasure on Hopper's face, and the extreme fear on Flick's face.

It's not only the characters that make "A Bugs Life" a triumph. We see how far we've come since "Luxo Jr." when it was too risky to move the camera. Now the camera swoops and swirl through the air. The high-speed chase in the rain is particularly stunning. The rain adds added atmosphere, as well as a way to indicate just how fast they are flying. As the camera bobs up and down as it rushes through space, we can hardly believe that this is not real. I think it works better than a live action chase, because there is not that awkward mix between special effects and reality. Because "A Bugs Life" is all special effects, it is it's own reality