A review by Mike Shea Movie Rating: ( * * · · · ) DVD Rating: ( * * * · · )
Buy A Bugs Life from Amazon.com
Well, take the plot of the Kurosawa movie, Seven Samurai and the charactors of Tom and Jerry and you have Bugs Life. If you ask me, this movie wasnt near as good as ANTZ. The plot was dumbed down to the maturity of a five year old (which fits the proper target audience I guess) but Disney movies like Toy Story. There just didnt without the extra detail that you find in other seem to be much below the surface, and the shots werent near as breathtaking as ANTZ (the opening shot comes to mind). If they spent more time on cool orientation shots instead of the dumb fat catapillar shots, it may have been better. The one dimentional charactors, while giving me a chuckle here and there, just didnt grab me like Cutter, Barbados and Azteca did. There just seemed to be more depth in ANTZ, though it did tailer to an older audience. While the Bugs Life DVD is nice that it contains both the widescreen and full frame, Disney has decided to "not support [16x9 enhanced] DVDs" and this follows that short sighted path. The Digital 5.1 sound is deep and impressive, though. It also contains the much anticipated double outtakes that they used in the theater to draw in the same audiences twice (another display of Disney reaping all the rewards they can) as well as the 1997 Academy award winning short animated film, Geris Game. This is good, but the $35 extended fee they charge for this disc is pretty unreasonable for a disc without a commentary or a 16x9 transfer. Of course this is typical Disney. They know they will make the profit because people rarely stand in the way of their kids wishes. Overall, I would stick with ANTZ and let Disney make their profit from the parents who have no choice but to give it to them. On the other hand, at least it isnt out on DIVX.