Bug's Life for 6-year-olds

It took its time, but Disney's fall release of A Bug's Life has finally made it to the Apollo and will be playing this coming week. The second of those two computer-animated ant movies that came out around Thanksgiving, A Bug's Life is decidedly the better of the two, which pretty much makes it well worth seeing.

Unlike Antz, Bug's is very clearly targeting a young audience. The dialogue is pretty shallow and the relationships aren't anything one would expect outside of a Facts of Life episode. The colony outcast joins forces with some circus bugs to save his heart-throb princess from the clutches of the evil grass-hoppers. This isn't even the first time Disney has used this plot.

Where this movie really shines, and in a way that Antz just didn't, is in the physical comedy. First and foremost, it has great slap stick, the highest form of physical comedy, of course. In addition, the animators manage to work in some fantastic visual silliness that just works over and over.

Furthermore, the animators over at Pixar are just fantastically talented and the audience can see it in the way the characters move. Antz comes off looking an awful lot like just really good graphical animation. It has its moments, but for the most part, one might believe the medium is under-utilized. No fear of that here. In A Bug's Life, the objects are fantastically created.

There are moments when one wonders if they just had incredibly good stop-motion animators, but then, that's the point.

Fantastic visuals used for full comedic effect are what A Bug's Life is all about. They do it well. And that dialogue aimed at six year olds, while the rule, isn't ubiquitous. There are plenty of good verbal jokes providing a thoroughly entertaining time for all.

Also, be sure to stay through the credits. While one wouldn't want a movie review to spoil the surprises in the movie, let it be known that the end of the story isn't the end of the show.