Blu-Ray Review:
A Bug's Life
By Jason Gillard
*Screenshots are not from the Blu-Ray source.
Movie
A Bug's Life was Pixar's second film. I remember it fondly when it first came out. The animation and effects were a step up from Toy Story. It had a lot of funny characters and it was amazing to see what Pixar did to bring you down to bug's level where everything from a blade of grass looked like trees. In typical Pixar tradition it had great amount of celebrities voicing the characters like Kevin Spacey, David Hyde Pierce, Phyllis Diller, to name a few. The movie is about an ant called Flik. Flik is always causing trouble even though he doesn't mean to. The ants work for a very long time to gather food for the evil grasshoppers. Everything is fine and they have prepared enough food for the grasshoppers to leave them alone until, Flik accidentally knocks the whole pile into a stream below. The grasshoppers come and find the food gone and give the colony a short time to reproduce the food. Flik decides to head out to find some tough bugs to protect them from the grasshoppers. Flik meets up with some circus bugs and convinces them to come back and help him. The circus bugs think they are just coming back to put on a show. Will Flik and the circus bugs be able to save the colony from the evil grasshoppers? I found the movie to be just as enjoyable as I remember it back in 1998. It's quite funny and charming and the animation is superb for it being their second film. If you haven't seen it I suggest you check it out, because I am sure you will like it.
8 out of 10
Video
This movie is super colourful and I knew that going in, so I was anxiously awaiting how good the transfer would look. Luckily I was not disappointed as Disney has given us an absolutely jaw dropping transfer that rivals anything I have seen on this format. I mentioned that the movie is colourful and I certainly mean it. Colours explode of the screen burning your retinas! Detail is also fantastic making it easy to see every little detail that Pixar loaded into the film. Black levels are very strong as well. Textures are super crisp and the picture has a sense of depth like you could reach out and touch them. I was really surprised at how good it looks. When I first turned it on I got the same impression as I got with Transformers that I was looking at something special in the visuals dept. Well as you can see we have another reference quality disc and Disney once again hits the format out of the park.
10 out of 10
Audio
Just like the audio A Bug's Life does an amazing job in the sound dept. We are treated to a DTS-HD Master Audio track that is 5.1. The presentation is crisp clear and accurate. Dialogue comes across clear even in scenes of heavy action. Everything is really aggressive in the surround dept as well. When the grasshoppers are flying into the colony the detail in the sound is fantastic. Rear speakers are brought to life producing everything from a bustling city, to swarms of bugs and they really bring an imersiveness to the sound stage. Everything sounds so crisp and realistic. Even pans from speaker to speaker are done with the utmost care making them invisible. You really do feel like you are in the colony with the ants. Overall you have a reference grade soundtrack and another great audio track from the folks at Disney.
10 out of 10
Extras
Here is what's available in the way of extras:
Audio Commentary
Filmmakers' Round Table
Preproduction Featurettes
Behind the Scenes Featurettes
The First Draft
Design Galleries
Geri's Game
Outtakes
Publicity Materials
Grasshopper & the Ants
BD-Live
Digital Copy of the film
A lot of these extras have been ported over from the 2003 collectors edition DVD. But that's not a bad thing! I really enjoyed the Filmakers Round Table which is a new feature for this set lasting 21 minutes in length. John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, and producers Kevin Reher and Darla K. Anderson sit around discussing the film and what it was like to create this film. They are candid talking about how much they have come from making this film. It's an interesting little chat. The Behind the Scenes Featurettes are interesting and they discuss everything from the casting process to the sound design on the film. The other feature that is new to this set is The First Draft. In this feature Dave Foley narrates and with storyboards explains the first draft and what it looked like. I also liked the Outtakes. They even go on to discuss how the idea came forth. Overall there is a decent amount of extras here and if you're a fan of the film you will find them interesting.
8 out of 10
Overall
Disney and Pixar have done a fantastic job with this release. They have provided and awesome transfer, amazing sound and a good collection of extras. If you're a fan you should be picking this disc up right away and if you're not a fan you should still give this one a try.
9 out of 10
Highly Recommended