A Bug's Life
The big crawling (original title: A Bug's Life ) is the second full-length, fully computer-generated animation film by Pixar animation studios , which was released in German cinemas in February 1999. It is loosely based on the plot idea of Akira Kurosawa's historical film The Seven Samurai , in which a group is supposed to save a village from oppressors.
action
The film is about a colony of ants that lives on an island. One of the ants is the impulsive and clumsy inventor Flik, who is desperately trying to find his place in the group. But he cannot fit into the conservative system in the anthill and is constantly offensive with his strange, rarely functioning ideas; especially Atta, the crown princess of the colony, is not very enthusiastic about him. The only ant in the colony that Flik is a loyal friend is Dot, Princess Atta's little sister.
The colony collects food for the winter - more than they actually have to, because the same scenario takes place every summer: the grasshopper Hopper and his gang terrorize the colony and force the ants to provide them with food on a regular basis. The ants have long since come to terms with it out of fear. But this year one of Flik's inventions mishaps and the entire accumulation of food falls into the river that surrounds the island. The threat from the grasshoppers comes immediately: in autumn, when the last leaf has fallen, they will come back. Then double the amount should be ready for you.
Since Flik is incredibly sorry for the whole thing, he has a plan: He wants to get reinforcements to fight the grasshoppers and finally chase them away. The Ant High Council only approves this plan so they can finally get it out of the way in their repair efforts. But Flik miscalculates: he does find insects, but through a misunderstanding he only learns later that they are circus performers who have just been fired by their director after a catastrophic performance. But he doesn't want to disappoint his people again and hatches a new plan. To deter the grasshoppers, the warriors had come up with a clever tactic: Since Hopper is afraid of birds to death, a bird is to be built from branches and leaves to chase the grasshoppers off the island.
The colony is initially skeptical, but then agrees and does everything in its power to make the idea a reality. But the dizziness that the insects are warriors is exposed when the ringmaster appears on the island looking for his artists, and the project suffers a major setback. Flik is expelled from the community and joins the circus performers who are now moving away.
The ants are now back to getting the food, but there is not enough to meet the demand. When the grasshoppers arrive, an ordeal begins for the colony. Like slaves, the grasshoppers drive them to get the food, and to further demoralize the ants, Hopper makes a plan to kill the queen when the work is done. Dot learns of the plan, hurries after Flik and the artists and reports to them about the situation. Flik realizes that he can make amends now and hurries back to the island with the insects. They give the grasshoppers a circus performance - a diversionary maneuver to inconspicuously throw the queen off course and get the bird ready to go.
When the bird takes off, everything goes according to plan, but the ringmaster falsely assumes that the attack was aimed at his artists and sets the bird on fire. Now the whole thing is exposed and everything seems to be over - but then Flik makes his fellow ants aware that they are much stronger in their community than the grasshopper gang, Hopper knocks Flik to the ground and wants to kick him to death, but Princess Atta stands protectively in front of Flik . The ants drive away the grasshoppers with the help of the circus performers, but when Flik and his fellow ants want to take on hoppers, it starts to rain. Flik and Atta flee through the rain, chased by Hopper, but Hopper catches Flik and tries to kill him in revenge, but Hopper is carried into the bird's nest by a bird and eaten by one of the chicks.
In spring the entire colony says goodbye to the artists as friends. Flik has finally found his place in the colony through his heroism, not only because his inventions are now finally seen as useful, but also as Atta's companion who takes over the royal crown.
background
Extensive research was carried out for the big crawling , for example recordings in nature were made with tiny cameras. Through these studies, for example, the colorful surroundings and the light-shadow relationships were developed. In addition, attempts were made to depict the characters and behavior of the insects as faithfully as possible through various insect photos. In contrast to the first film Toy Story , the aim here was to create an organic, complex environment, which was an enormous challenge in many ways. For this reason, the film is still referred to today by numerous contributors as the most elaborate Pixar film.
What counteracts this desired closeness to reality, however, is the fact that the ants only have four limbs (arms and legs) instead of six.
The film was originally supposed to be titled "Bugs". However, due to a possible risk of confusion with Bugs Bunny , the character of the competition studio Warner Bros. , the title was then revised.
The film was made in widescreen format 1: 2.35. For publication on VHS videocassettes in 4: 3 format (to avoid the letterbox effect with large black bars on the screen), the entire film was revised and either provided with additional image parts above and below the actual picture, zoomed into the picture ( and thus only a section is used ( pan & scan in part ) or the original image has been completely recalculated and reformatted (spacing / ratio of the individual areas in the image newly created). The Deluxe Edition of the Special Collection DVD (which offers the film in the 1: 2.35 version) has its own feature on the bonus disc.
In the credits you can read in English Filmed entirely on location (German: filmed entirely at the scene), which can be traced back to the real research for the film.
Reviews
"An exquisitely told story full of funny details, atmospheric also in the color scheme - a thoroughly lovable family film."
Awards (selection)
- The film won a Golden Satellite Award for Best Motion Picture - Animated or Mixed Media in 1999.
- Composer Randy Newman was a 2000 Grammy Award, a year before he was for the best music for the Oscar nominated.
Web links
- A Bug in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- A Bug's Life at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
- Official Pixar Movie Website
Individual evidence
- ↑ Approval certificate for The great crawling . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , July 2010 (PDF; test number: 123 664 V).
- ↑ The great crawl. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed September 7, 2015 .
- ↑ The big crawling - film review on the Internet presence of TV Spielfilm , accessed on August 1, 2014.