I had A Bugs Life on DVD as a kid, but compared to the other Pixar movies such as WallE, Monsters Inc, and Toy Story 2 this one hardly got played. This is sort of Pixar’s sophomore slump, it’s not as funny or technologically interesting as the film that preceded it and not as impressive of technological advancements as future Pixar movies. A Bugs Life is really dull to be honest, its plot is dry, being the millionth Seven Samurai riff, the characters are broadly forgettable, and other than the city the films settings don’t properly convey scale. These are tiny bugs but they never feel small to me. I did like the performances from Kevin Spacey and Richard Kind, those were the only characters that had any sort of memorable presence. The lighting is occasionally very effective especially in the scene where they introduce the grasshoppers. in fact the movie opens on a really strong note, there’s a great sense of urgency and tension that isn’t there for the rest of the movie. The final thing I really enjoyed was the previously mentioned scene in the city, it’s so creative how they repurpose discarded trash from humans into architecture.

Is A Bugs Life great? No. Chicken Run would tell a similar story a few years later and knock this movie out of the park go watch that instead. But the film is far from bad, it has its charm as the ugly duckling of Pixar’s golden years, which it brandishes to lead animation into a new era.