Joe Carioca wrote:The Emperor's New Groove - The Road To El Dorado: Latin American setting
A Bug's Life - Antz: do I need do say something?
Treasure Planet - Sinbad: very obvious (as far as I know, Katzemberg used to hate stories about pirates...)
Finding Nemo - Sharkslayer: do I need do say something?
Your Emperor = Road is a stretch. Road is actually a remake of The Man Who Would Be King (John Huston), while Emperor, as far as I can see is original.
But how about:
The Iron Giant = Lilo & Stitch
Tha Land Before Time = Dinosaur
Everybody rips off everybody else.
...two men say they're Jesus, one of them must be wrong...
Joe Carioca wrote:The Emperor's New Groove - The Road To El Dorado: Latin American setting
A Bug's Life - Antz: do I need do say something?
Treasure Planet - Sinbad: very obvious (as far as I know, Katzemberg used to hate stories about pirates...)
Finding Nemo - Sharkslayer: do I need do say something?
Your Emperor = Road is a stretch. Road is actually a remake of The Man Who Would Be King (John Huston), while Emperor, as far as I can see is original.
But how about:
The Iron Giant = Lilo & Stitch
Tha Land Before Time = Dinosaur
Everybody rips off everybody else.
I didn't mean Disney is 100% originality - but DreamWorks isn't either. And I agree "Dinossaur" is a rip off of "Land Before Time" - in my humble opinion, this is the worst Disney animated feature in years (and sice it's CGI, I don't mind saying this!)
herman_the_german wrote:Your Emperor = Road is a stretch. Road is actually a remake of The Man Who Would Be King (John Huston), while Emperor, as far as I can see is original.
Yeah, well don't forget Emperor was long in development as the much more "serious" Kingdom of the Sun. I think the comparison is a fair one. We're only talking generalisations.
That said, SharkSlayer sound totally different to Finding Nemo. It is possible 2 CGI centered production houses both came to the conclusion that an underwater setting would be (a) interesting and (b) suited for CGI animation and came up with the two widely different stories independently.
I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt - as Sharkslayer is by no means attempting to be Nemo.
[quote="2099net"]I think the comparison is a fair one. [quote]
I am not disagreeing at all. I simply listed two examples which I believe better illustrate the point.
There is simply too much interbreeding within the "creative" animation (or film) community to not expect a reasonable amount of this to happen. But some projects are too obviously ripoffs of each other. It would be impossible to say that the final cut of Antz ripped of A Bug's Life, but certainly the studio and the producers tried to mine the same market as A Bug's Life at the beginning of the development of the project.
A similar thing may have happened with Road and Emperor, but ultimately the end products are too different. The only thing in common is a Mesoamerican setting. That's about it. Road shares more with Lion King than with Emperor.
...two men say they're Jesus, one of them must be wrong...
Another one of my random Disney/Pixar movies facts: I'm currently watching The New Advenutures of Old Christine (yes, I already know I have no life) and there's a couple of episodes featuring a nice little reunion between Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Atta) and Dave Foley (Flik).
Btw, I had no idea there'd be so many Bug's Life topics when I used the search function... There's like 7 threads about the Blu-ray edition alone. Anyway, sorry for resurrecting this 6-year old thread, but it seemed like a proper place to post my random crap thing, maybe it will inspire others to talk more about this unappreciated gem of a movie.
After a few years though I realized that the story is quite cheesy and quite tacky as it is an underdog story but it is still a Pixar classic and one that should not be overlooked by others.
A bug's life is really a good movie, maybe the reason that i gets overlooked these days is because there are now a lot of movies from Pixar and many of them i really like more than a Bug's Life.
ajmrowland wrote:A bugs' Life is one of Pixar's weaker links, but that's no reason to overlook it. It probably just wasn't as well-attended as their other films.
If I remember correctly it did do very well though. I just don't think it was as marketable. If you think about it there's a few Pixar films now that were fantastic and did very well but lack the attention now that they were given in the past (The Incredibles and Ratatouille fall into this category for me) I feel like Wall-e will also kinda fall into a forgotten favorite list after Up premiers. I think Disney/Pixar puts way too much emphasis on Toy Story, Finding Nemo, and Cars. I leave Monster's Inc out of the equation because it's a good balance of ignored and gets a lot of attention.
But ratatouille still gets a bit of attention. Just look at the pic in the article about the vancouver studio. They had nine other films to choose from, and they chose Ratatouille.
As for the Incredibles, it gets more airings right now than Bugs' Life(and many other Pixar films, but that's beside the point).
And if all those, plus Wall-E are forgotten, then it shows that people prefer the "fun and inventive" Pixar over their heavier films.
And Cars is still heavily marketed. It took me just one look at the toy aisle to see how much was put into that aspect. EVERY single car from the movie has at least one toy car modeled after them.
I think in the public eye Ratatouille doesn't come to mind when people think of Pixar, which is really kinda silly considering I believe it's one of their best works. As far as merchandise, and overall attention given I think most of it goes to Nemo, Toy Story, and Cars (not sure if you noticed i put it in with the attention grabbers).
The Incredibles, despite that it airs every other day on TV somewhere, isn't really as beloved by fans as much as it was around the time of it's release. Maybe I should put it on par with Monster's Inc. but it hasn't gotten any attractions at the parks and the characters aren't as out as much as they've seemed to be in the past.
I still believe that OVERALL A Bug's Life, The Incredibles, and Ratatouille get the shaft the most out of the other films.
Personally, I believe Ratatouille, A Bug's Life and Cars are the weakest Pixar films, with Finding Nemo at the borderline.
A Bug's Life, in particular, has always been sort of horrible. The only positive things I can ever remember about the film is the Queen Ant and some of the comedic moments. Hopper and his brother were also pretty funny together. But I think the film fails because it has so many characters, but only 1/5th of them are interesting (the Queen, Hopper, Heimlich).
I also agree with someone who posted in this thread earlier that I've always had more positive thoughts about Antz, where the serious moments were more dramatic and the comedy was funnier.
You know, I think the same flaw I find with ABL could go along with Cars, which also has a huge cast of characters where very few are interesting. I also think both films are filled to the brim with boring cliches.
Ratatouille is a different case. I really liked that film in many ways and most of the characters keep your attention, especially Anton Ego, but I think the whole rat angle came off just a bit too stupid. Controlling the chef through his hair? A whole kitchen run by rats? I don't know why, but for some reason that just comes off too silly for the film (even though I know the audience is supposed to suspend disbelief). It also had the major "I want fill-in-blank-here" cliche that's been played over too many times in animated films at this point, with no original spin on the storyline. We had the disaproving father figure and everything.
I think Pixar's most creative and near flawless films include the two Toy Story's, Monster's Inc., The Incredibles and WALL E (which is the weakest of these five, I think). Based on trailer-based thoughts, I think Up might end up joining these.
Also, commenting on an earlier 6 year-old post, I don't really think Dinosaur is that big of a rip-off of The Land Before Time. TLBT was more about children maturing and facing the loss of parental protection/love/etc. Dinosaur seemed more like an apocalyptic-type film. I, personally, enjoyed it for the most part.
Listening to most often lately:
Taylor Swift ~ ~ "The Fate of Ophelia"
Taylor Swift ~ "Eldest Daughter"
Taylor Swift ~ "CANCELLED!"
ajmrowland wrote:
And Cars is still heavily marketed. It took me just one look at the toy aisle to see how much was put into that aspect. EVERY single car from the movie has at least one toy car modeled after them.
i guess that's also a reason why they make cars 2. With cars they have a lot more possibilities for merchandising than most of the other movies.
ajmrowland wrote:
And Cars is still heavily marketed. It took me just one look at the toy aisle to see how much was put into that aspect. EVERY single car from the movie has at least one toy car modeled after them.
i guess that's also a reason why they make cars 2. With cars they have a lot more possibilities for merchandising than most of the other movies.
Really? I thought it was due to the really strong story-line, comedic triumph, and overall originality that just screamed sequel...
A Cars sequel doesn't really bother me all that much, but I think that if they were going to take the sequel route on another film Cars wouldn't be my first pick. I personally would love to see a Incredibles sequel above a Cars sequel. That film at least left us open ended for more!
Linguini wrote:
i guess that's also a reason why they make cars 2. With cars they have a lot more possibilities for merchandising than most of the other movies.
Really? I thought it was due to the really strong story-line, comedic triumph, and overall originality that just screamed sequel...
Nope, it's the possibilities.
Edit:I should have noticed your razz. sarcasm is more noticeable in tone than it is in type.
A Cars sequel doesn't really bother me all that much, but I think that if they were going to take the sequel route on another film Cars wouldn't be my first pick. I personally would love to see a Incredibles sequel above a Cars sequel. That film at least left us open ended for more!
I'd say I agree, but I'm I'll get scorched for not having any substance.
Last edited by ajmrowland on Sun May 10, 2009 12:40 am, edited 1 time in total.
Even though I find A Bugs Life to be one of Pixar's weakest films (next to Cars), I still think it's a pretty good animated film. I think the main reason it's underrated is because it could not top the same level Toy Story achieved as the first full-length computer-animated film.
A Bug's Life is actually my favorite Pixar film. When I talk to other Pixar fans, most of them put it close to the bottom of their list, if not last. When they tell me this, I always have to ask them why. Their response is usually about how scary the film was to them as a child. I remember the first time I saw it in theaters and Hopper did scare me a lot. In addition, a lot of them say they really don't like bugs, which I think is a load of bull because the characters don't look like real bugs.
I think that another reason A Bug's Life often gets the short end of the stick is because it came out not only in between the two Toy Story films, but it also came out at a time when Disney was still making memorable animated films as well (Mulan came out the same year, Tarzan and Fantasia 2000 came out the year after), so there was a lot of competition amongst animated films around the time of its release and I think it maybe got lost in the shuffle.
I think the reason I am so attached to A Bug's Life is that it is a Pixar movie that isn't a buddy film. When you think about it, most of Pixar's movies are buddy films: Toy Story and Toy Story 2: Buzz and Woody. Monster's Inc.: Mike and Sulley. Finding Nemo: Marlin and Dory. Cars: Mater and Lightning McQueen. Ratatouille: Remy and Linguine. That basically leaves A Bug's Life, The Incredibles, and Wall-E as the non-buddy films. While Up looks amazing and I am really excited for it, it also looks like another buddy film with Carl and Russell. Two characters on a journey that strengthens their friendship seems to be at the core of most of Pixar's stories.
A Bug's Life, on the other hand, is a story about the little guy, in this case ants, rising above the odds and forming a team to defeat their oppressors. I think the film has a lot going for it. The characters are not only likable and appealing, but also quite funny in a variety of ways. The adventure is inspiring and as an audience member, you really root for the characters to succeed. And the score is fantastic. In my opinion, it is the second best Pixar score, second to Finding Nemo.
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