Introduction
The film, A Bug’s Life, was produced in 1998 by Darla Anderson and was an animation film. It is based on two movies that were released earlier and one of them is the film, Seven Samurai. The other film was the Ant and the Grasshopper. The aim of this paper is to provide a summary and an evaluation of the plot, characters and the special effects used in the film.
Summary
The film is about an inventor ant that was individualistic and hired a group of bugs as warriors (Foley 56). This inventor was named Flick. He believed that his warriors would help him fight off some of the grasshoppers who had made the group of ants their slaves. This individuality always got Flick into trouble. He always surprised the rest of the ant colony by making inventions that led them all into trouble.
A number of grasshoppers came by often to bully the ants into providing them with food. The ants decided to appease the grasshoppers by preserving a portion of food for them. However, one of Flick’s inventions – an automatic harvester for grass seeds – knocked down the grasshoppers’ food portion into the stream. The grasshoppers learnt about this and were agitated about it. Therefore, they demanded food twice as much as that which they used to take.
Following this incident, the team leader thought it best to recruit some bugs to help wade off the enemies who had been terrorizing them. The ants pretended to oblige. Flick traveled to the big city to recruit the warrior bugs but his intentions were not understood since the bugs thought that Flick was looking for talent, so they followed him back to the Ant Island.
The bugs made a good impression at the colony. They saved Dot from a killer bird. Flick ended up making something that resembled the killer bird in order to chase away the leader of the enemies. This worked for a while until the ringmaster found out. This angered him and led the ants to exile Flick in order to save him.
The attempt of the ants to satisfy the demands of the grasshoppers failed and this led the grasshoppers to plan to kill the queen. The queen’s daughter, Dot, went to look for Flick and convinced him to come back and help save the queen. Flick agreed and his plan almost worked but the grasshoppers’ ringmaster stopped him and planned to kill him. What followed was a combined effort from the ants as they managed to stand up to their enemies and fought them off the island.
The colony rejoiced because of the victory and Flick was acknowledged. This victory earned him respect among the members of the colony and he was treated right. He received the crown that belonged to the mother of the princess as a way of acknowledgment. Princess Atta was also promoted and became the colony’s new queen.
Evaluation of the plot, characters and special effects
The animated film had many special effects that used the most advanced and state of the art visual effects. The computer technology employed was incredible and it made the viewers wonder how the whole thing was pulled off. There was also the use of sound effects and many other effects.
These effects were essential to make the audience have a feeling of how it would be if one were a bug. The three dimensional filming techniques were used to create the characters to appear as realistic as possible and to make the film worth watching. The plot summary was also interesting and well arranged. It was well organized to bring out the story line.
There were several characters in the film. The one who starred the film, Flick, was blue in color and was voiced by Dave Foley. His only agenda was to make a difference in his colony and always tried to invent something to ensure just that. Kevin Spacey voiced the hopper, which was the leader of the grasshoppers.
The hopper was quite tough and stubborn but he was eventually eaten alive by an actual bird after being tricked by Flick into an actual nest. There was also a termite named Termite-Ator, two dung beetles that were referred to the dung beetle brothers and one unnamed bug. Dot was the youngest daughter of the queen and she did a lot to help the colony. The colony had a queen who acted as the leader of the colony and Dot’s mother. There are various other bugs in the colony that collectively fought for their freedom.
Conclusion
A Bug’s life was a film that was very well received by the viewers. Most of the critics gave it a positive review and this earned the film a 7.9 rating out of ten. The film was applauded for its cleverness and the enjoyable animations. The tale was about the life of bugs. A gang of grasshoppers had mistreated the bugs but with the help of their innovative team leader, Flick, they managed to wade off the enemies. The film was very interesting and it deserves more airplay.
Works Cited
Foley, Dave, perf. A Bug’s Life. Walt Disney Pictures, 1998. Film.