Pixar has had massive success over the years with the full-length CGI animated movies they have made. "A Bug's Life" was the second of a whole bunch of features they have made so far, preceded by the company's feature-length debut, the groundbreaking "Toy Story", which was the first ever feature-length CGI movie. I remember when this follow-up was heavily advertised around the time of its release in the late 1990's, but I never actually saw it until November 2006. I watched it twice that month, and over three years later, I have seen it a third time. It has never impressed me as much as probably any other Pixar film I've ever seen, but after three viewings, I still think it's better than some of the films I've seen from DreamWorks Animation.
Ant Island is the home of a colony of ants. These ants are forced to gather food for a gang of grasshoppers who come and take it every year. One member of this colony is Flik, an inventor with a bad reputation for causing trouble with his inventions, even though he doesn't mean to. One year, when the colony has just finished preparing the annual offering, Flik accidentally knocks it into a stream just before the grasshoppers arrive to get it! The grasshopper leader, Hopper, decides to give them a second chance to gather food and have it ready by the end of the season, but they will have to double their offering! Flik suggests to the colony's royal council that he goes and finds "warrior bugs" to fight off the grasshoppers when they come back. Princess Atta, the future Queen, lets him go on this mission just so he won't be around to cause trouble while the colony tries to gather food for another offering. The inventor finds a group of bugs which he thinks are warriors, but after he takes them back to Ant Island and introduces them, he learns that they are actually not warriors, but circus bugs!
The main reason why this second Pixar feature has never absolutely astounded me might be the characters. To me, none of them have ever really stood out as much as they could have, and generally seem a bit bland. Fortunately, however, it's not like "Shark Tale", a film with a very idiotic and unlikable lead character. "A Bug's Life" does have a likable enough main character, one which viewers can root for. The story also seems somewhat bland at times, but for the most part, it's good enough to keep the film at least moderately entertaining, and sometimes has some good suspense, especially later on. The humour, like certain other aspects of the film, isn't as good as it could have been, but there are definitely funny moments, some of them involving Francis, a male ladybug who is sometimes mistaken for a female. You can always expect great animation from Pixar, and the animation in this particular effort of theirs is no exception. With all this movie has to offer, it may be slightly disappointing when it comes to Pixar standards, but it is reasonable family entertainment.

I have never read the Bradbury novel that this movie is based on but from what I've gathered, it will be interesting (when I finally do read it and I will). My comments will be based purely on the film. As soon as I saw the trailer I knew I had to see it and was so excited but when I finally did, I was so disappointed it hurt. This is because the movie itself felt so amateurish. The actors were not well cast (though Robards and Pryce are both good actors - just not here). The kid actors, it seemed, were merely asked to show up, get in the characters' clothes, say the lines and make the faces. The set and props were cheap and unrealistic. The direction was surprisingly bad. I was so surprised at the awfulness of it that I had to go online and check who directed it, just to see the kind of work he had done. The editing was cut and paste and the plot (screenplay) was just that as well (even though the author had been involved himself, irony?). The building up of the tension, fear and suspense was so mild it was ineffective when the climax finally came.
I've read some of the comments on this movie and find it hard to believe people actually like it. What hurts the most is that the content is interesting and fun and intriguing. It had so much potential. Unfortunately, the film was so technically bad it takes away from the brilliance of the story.