A Bug's Life (G)

Reviewed by RUSSELL BAILLIE

Cast: The voices of Dave Foley, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Kevin Spacey, Phyllis Diller

Director: John Lasseter

Let the great movie debate of 98 begin: which is the better computer-animated insect flick -- Antz or A Bug's Life?

At the risk of getting into a fight with the guy at the next desk who absolutely loved >Antz, my vote goes to A Bug's Life.

Sure, it isn't as knowing as Antz, and it doesn't have the likes of Woody Allen and Sly Stallone sending themselves up while voicing their characters.

But A Bug's Life does have a superior story, superior animation (from the Pixar people who brought us the brilliant Toy Story), and among its cast of thousands there's many a truly colourful creepy-crawly -- Spacey's grasshopper is scary enough to be a weta, and Leary's Ladybug just doesn't like being called a girl.

The story centres on maverick ant Flik (the aptly named Foley), part of a colony which each year must gather food for a gang of grasshoppers or suffer the consequences.

Out into the world he goes to gather reinforcements to finally take on the grasshoppers. But instead of mercenaries -- and after the funniest bar scene since Star Wars -- he mistakenly ends up with a bunch of bug-circus performers.

Will the circus bugs stay and help to battle the grasshoppers? Will Flik's lateral thinking just get him into more trouble? Will you be curiously excited and enthralled as the action winds up into a dazzling finale? To the latter the answer is: sure will. And like Antz, A Bug's Life is too good to waste just on kids. * * * * *
-- Weekend TimeOut, 28/11/98