Cast (voices):

        Flik - Dave Foley (TV's Newsradio)

        Princess Atta - Julia Louis-Dreyfuss (TV's Seinfeld)

        Hopper - Kevin Spacey (Usual Suspects, Glengarry Glen Ross, The Ref)

        Queen - Phyllis Diller

        Francis (Ladybug) - Denis Leary (The Ref, Two If By Sea, The Sandlot)

Director: John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton

Previews: Prince of Egypt, Patch Adams, Mighty Joe Young

I sat in the theater, as the credits rolled on Disney's A Bug's Life (btw, stay through these, they are almost worth the price of admission, another brilliant unique touch) and something did not quite ring right. I couldn't put my finger on exactly what it was. Maybe it was the fact that just 3 hours before, I had sat through the mostly unwatchable "Very Bad Things," and was still a bit perturbed, and angered by the waste of film, talent and potential there. I'm not sure, but something just didn't sit quite right with me about this movie. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the movie, and I believe that most of the youthful target market of this film will, as well. I guess it just bothered me a little, that I wasn't blown away, as I was with Toy Story, or Beauty and The Beast.

Disney does their usual, take a simple plain story, with some big name voices, some truly incredible animation and a swamping media blitz, and throw it all together on the screen, and hope (as it usually does) that it cashes in, and sticks.

The story, a colony of ants, whose sole purpose is to gather food for the grasshoppers, accidentally fail in their task one summer. Led by Hopper (a magnificently calm yet wicked Kevin Spacey) they intimidate the ants, led by Princess Atta (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and Flik (Dave Foley, who is responsible for the loss) into redemption of their lost bounty. Flik decides that enough is enough, and sets off to recruit insects to help with the harvest, or even defend against the impending attack and return of the grasshoppers. What he finds, is a rag-tag bunch of rejects, led by a gender confused ladybug (Denis Leary), and other assorted misfits. What ensues is fairly predictable, both by Disney standards, and general movie guidelines. However something just didn't seem quite right. The story seemed less fluid, and more like a series of required scenes, pasted together with a common theme. All of the necessary Disney trademarks were there, albeit some of them were thrown in, out of place, just to get them in there. It was a bit too much at times, the story lost focus briefly, as these obligatory scenes were run through, and it made the plot drift a bit, shocking for a Disney flick, which is usually focused on keeping children’s attention. The youth will not lose interest though, because this movie is visually stunning to look at, the bugs are cutesy, the bad guys bad, the heroes are good, there's a heroine, humorous sidekicks, zinging one-liners, inside Disney jokes. All of the necessary ingredients are here, but it's a like a soup that is missing a small dash of salt. It's good, but not breathtaking. I left the theater feeling happy, and that I'd not wasted my hour and half, but I wasn't thinking, or talking about it much after I left, except trying to resolve this lingering feeling in my head about what was wrong.

Have I become too hard on movies, I go through this debate in my head every now and then, when an obviously pleasant, and wonderful movie experience, is put through my personal wringer. I do not believe I have. I just believe that there are bars, standards, to which movies must strive to achieve. Disney especially knows this, year after year, pushing out animated classics, which are hits, and do raise the bar, more often than not. Here, however, they have succeeded only in not sinking below the competition, but rather keeping pace. In the world of the Mouse, this is usually not the norm. They are the innovators, not the followers, and this movie keeps the line moving, but does not top anything before it. I haven't seen Antz, so I cannot fairly compare, but this does fall below Toy Story, if not for creativity, then just for sheer enjoyabilty, and appeal. See this, for the animation, for the credits, and for the performances of Spacey, and Dreyfus. If you have children, this is a theater showing, otherwise, hang tight for the matinee, but definitely one for the big screen. ($$1/2 of $$$$)

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