Visuals and Storytelling
Except for
Thumper, and the fact that the ants have only four limbs, just about everything
in A Bug’s Life makes sense. The ants
follow a specific line when they travel to and from their hole. City furniture
is made up of bits of garbage. Anything technological in the film comes from
the insects creating what they need from what they have. Even the mushrooms
used as lamps come from a phosphorescent type of mushroom in the wild. Because
of those details the movie seems like it could have been filmed with real
insects. Pixar plays with this idea to the point where the movie screens
outtakes involving the characters making mistakes on camera. When live-action movies
do that it shatters the movie’s illusion, but in a cartoon it adds to the
illusion because it comes across as evidence that this world exists off-camera.
The
groundbreaking visual technique in this movie is crowd movement. This was the
first movie that employed hundreds of extras, all acting like individuals. They
focus their eyes on different things, react at different moments, and show more
individuality in their actions. If you want to see a beautifully crafted mob
scene, check out the rainstorm at the climax of the film. Watch as the entire
colony scrambles in all directions at once. Or watch the beginning where all
the ants huddle in the anthill, fidgeting as they wait for the grasshoppers.
Speaking of
the grasshoppers, how amazing is their entrance? I’ll tell you: An alarm sounds and everyone makes a
final sprint to drop their grain off at the offering pile before “they”
arrive. Everyone makes it into the
anthill before something approaches the Offering Stone with a menacing hum that
farmers know too well. Inside, the ants gasp to hear someone above them yell
“Where’s the food?” Flik tries to explain that he ruined the offering, but
there is no time; the ceiling comes crashing in. First an ugly foot, then
several ugly feet, then scores of grasshoppers dive-bomb into the anthill,
starting a panic. I tip my hat to the screenwriters for never actually using
the word “grasshopper” up till now. We knew the ants were gathering an
“offering,” but nobody said what for. For one thing, they already knew what
for, and explaining just for the audience’s sake that ants gather grain every
year for grasshoppers to feed would have sounded too unrealistic, and would
have slowed the story’s pacing down. Not only that, it helps build suspense,
the same way the toys in Toy Story couldn’t see the present Andy was so
excited to get, then we could only see the box’s silhouette, then the box
itself, until Woody climbed up Andy’s bed to see the ankles, legs, torso, and
finally the face of Buzz Lightyear.
One of the
clever story-telling devices in A Bug’s
Life is the use of leaves. After the bird flies across the sky we see a
leaf land on water. That immediately gives us the time of year because leaves
are falling. The leaves remind the ants how much time they have to work before
rainy season, and before the grasshoppers come to claim their ransom. When the
colony begins constructing the bird, however, leaves have a different purpose.
The ants use the color leaves as plumage for the bird. We even see them air
surfing on the leaves that fall. It’s like time is now on the ants’ side.
The bird
itself is impressive as well. The real bird, I mean. It's the very first thing we see after Pixar's logo. There are many movies
about small characters where big things move more slowly than usual. Honey, I Shrunk the Kids is a good
example. In a pivotal scene the father is eating Cheerios, and scoops the
spoonfuls into his mouth quickly and chews at the same speed anyone would. Then
when one of the shrunken kids falls into the bowl, the dad slowly scoops him
up, and veeeerrrrrryyyyy ssslllloooooowwwwlllly opens his mouth. It isn’t slow
motion; everyone else moves at normal speed. I guess it was supposed to create
suspense, or something, but it gave the dog plenty of time to come barking and
nibbling the father’s ankle so the father can notice the kid swimming in his
milk. The opposite of suspense.
In A Bug’s Life, the Bird is huge and
cold-looking, but moves and twitches as fast as a real bird his (her?) size.
That makes it an even scarier monster to the bugs—who have little hope of
dodging its pecking. I honestly jumped the first couple times I saw Hopper’s
demise when the bird bowed at an instant and plucked him up into her beak
without any warning. And the bird has no idea of the horror she inflicts on the
bugs. Hopper was right; it’s one of those “circle of life” things. She wasn’t
trying to make life hard for the insects; she just wanted to feed her young. If
it acts a little mechanical, the blooper reel helps justify the animation by
showing the “bird machine” break down.
Along the same lines as the falling leaves, the weather in the background helps to comment on the story. The ants frequently mention the rainy season. Toward the end of the movie, a fog has hit the island. The rainy season must be approaching because the air is more humid than before. It creates a very bleak and desperate atmosphere. The grasshoppers use it to make a horrifying entrance as well, fading into view on foot through the fog. Then just as it looks like the fight between ants and grasshoppers is over, raindrops fall like mortar shells. The rainstorm is an excellent moment of chaos, and Pixar's writers set us up for it all along. The movie may have felt less fulfilling if everyone kept mentioning a rainy season that never came.
...You know, this whole thing is even bigger than I thought it would be. We'll have to pick this up again next week with the characters. End of Part 2.
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