Disney teamed up with Pixar once again for their new computer animated film, and they got together the same creative team that created "Toy Story." The voices are a who's who of NBC sitcom alumni like Dave Foley ("News Radio"), Julia Louis Dreyfus ("Seinfeld"), Richard Kind ("Mad About You," but now he's on ABC's "Spin City"), David Hyde Pierce ("Frasier"), and John Ratzenberger ("Cheers"). Other voices include Kevin Spacey, Phyllis Diller, Denis Leary, Bonnie Hunt, and Madeline Kahn. Lotsa talent, eh?
The visuals are spectacular. Massive improvements have been made since "Toy Story," not that "Toy Story" looked bad. It almost looked completely live-action, but they screwed it up by making the ants look like a bluish-purple. What were they thinking? The visuals in "Antz" were great, and it outdid "A Bug's Life" as far as where "the camera" was placed, but if you're talking about realistic, almost lifelike animation, "A Bug's Life" wins easily.
By the way, "A Bug's Life" begins with an Oscar-winning short film from Pixar, one that I'd already seen before. I never understood why it won an Oscar. Mind you, I know the work involved in 3D animation, and it's visually unbelievable, but the story is pretty lame.
I didn't like
the story of "A Bug's Life" very much. I found it too boring and, well,
to me, it was just kid stuff. I'd hafta say that I liked "Antz" more because
it was geared more to adults while "A Bug's Life" is definitely a kids flick.
The visuals are really cool, though, and there really are some funny moments.