journal features

movie review - A Bug's Life

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-eight years and a million words

Toronto, 1998.12.16

This is an animated movie about a desperate ant who wants to free his colony from the oppression of a gang of locusts. There seems to be a certain triumphant air to this thing, as if its makers felt they could do no wrong and as a result a lot of mediocre stuff made it to the final product. Maybe it was the smashing success of Toy Story from the same studio. I don't know. It's a forgettable paint-by-numbers affair with a plot that feels pieced together as it was made and no characters worth thinking about after you've left the cinema.

One quirk about this thing is that it came out at the same time as a rival. The other animated ant colony movie is Antz and it has what you'd call a plot and memorable characters. (Also Woody Allen, but you can't have everything.) Maybe it was the news that this other movie was coming out that caused the Pixar guys to bungle this one - or even produce it in the first place.

Not recommended.

rand()m quote

On the endless saga of Rob Ford, mayor of Toronto; "It shouldn't have had to come to this. I'm so tired of getting up every morning and wondering, 'What will it be today?' I'm so tired of giving the benefit of the doubt again and again, only to be let down again and again.... Somewhere a responsible adult has to appear, draw a bright moral line, tell the truth and say unequivocally what won't be tolerated. Somebody has to do the right thing."

—Denzil Minnan-Wong