Stars: voices of: Kevin Spacey, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Phyllis Diller, David Hyde Pierce
What’s with all the sudden interest in insects in Hollywood?
This buggy animation is about a colony of ants threatened by a horde of grasshoppers who are portrayed as the Hells Angels of Bugdom. The hoppers want the ants to supply them with food …or else. Flik is the courageous outcast ant who tries to save the day by going out to look for warrior bugs to get rid of the hoppers. Instead, he picks up a troop of circus bugs who have no idea what’s in store for them.
It’s a cute movie, although I must say I was surprised at the amount of violence in it, particularly since it’s supposed to be geared toward kids. These ants are large eyed cartoonish characters without the exquisite look of the ants from ANTZ (which was not quite so violent). But the bugs from the circus troop are cute and interesting and the gags are good fun. Overall, the film is watchable; I think the kids will enjoy it and the parents probably will too. I’ll try to remember how cute they’re supposed to be the next time I find a line of them traipsing through my kitchen on the way to the honey jar. On second thought, maybe I’ll just bring in the dreaded hoppers.
Here’s a list of some of the more famous voices. I won’t tell who plays what. See if you can guess when you’re watching the tape : Kevin Spacey, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Phyllis Diller, David Hyde Pierce, Dennis Leary, Roddy McDowall, Madeline Kahn.
Lotta Says: One important note. Make sure you watch the tape all the way through the credits because there are a bunch of bug “out takes”, which in addition to being very clever are even funnier than the movie scenes themselves. Lotta says if life is “for the birds” then how come there are so many bugs?