• Star Wars
• 3dSMax
• PIII and K7
• The Haunting

    Around last Thanksgiving the silverscreen took on a whole new look. But rather than being revolutionary, like say Disney/PIXAR's Toy Story, this new look was more evolutionary - very, evolutionary. At a time when the movie industry was struggling to bring about something fresh and creatively-new, being checkered all over, red and white (if you will), with tried and true genres such as war (Saving Private Ryan) and, of course, action thriller (Snake Eyes), Disney/PIXAR and Dreamworks Entertainment dared the margin with a combination of creativity and, ...well, bugs. The two blockbuster hits ANTZ and A Bug's Life, Disney/PIXAR Studios and Dreamworks respectively, rocked the movie industry with a bang of flashy pizzazz and fresh family fun (like Home Alone did...eheh, ok, please don't kill me for that one). These computer-animated wonders weren't only connected by the fact that they were both animated by computers, or that they were strikingly creative, but also the eerie closeness their release dates came to (uhhh...sorry, don't remember them). Oh, and then the fact that they both told the tale of a lost, low-self-esteemed, clumsy nobody trying to find himself amidst the pity of watered-down slavery, a routine, humble existence of monotonous chores, and indifference from his peers, driving him to want to ensure his hope that there has to be MORE out there, of which this journey would turn him into a hero by film's end. Both films co-starred a beautiful bug princess (by bug standards, of course) who would end up to be the hero's "main squeeze", and along the way be the one to bring out the hero in their little bug hearts. Both featured an all-star cast of voices. Both had about the same running times. Both strove to speak the moral of 'never give in, never give up on hope'. And finally, both were successful in changing a few squares on that checkered tarp, to blue (or forest green, or cyan if you wish). Now, if there's still people out there who think that's not some kind of voodoo de ja vu thing, or else a when-pigs-fly matter, and think "so what, coincidences happen", I will personally knock on your door and shove this mouse down your throat, but not before strangling you with the cord and bashing your skull in with my keyboard. No! Just kidding, jeez! My point in this too-darn-long paragraph is that the similarities are uncanny. But WHY, is up for grabs for anyone to explain. Really, go ahead, go find out.......................PLEASE! I want to know.

    Okay, let's get to the dirt on the plots of these movie masterpieces ("about time!" you say? Hehe...I know). Dreamwork's ANTZ (with a backward 'Z', I think) told the story of a pathetic, highly paranoid, scarcely self-esteemed ant named Z (might have something to do with that backward 'Z', if it was actually backwards). Z (of whom better to be voiced by than Woody Allen, the king of low self esteem) and the entirety of his race are under military and government control, undertaking a years-long process of digging a "tunnel to a better life for ants", though they're never really told what the whole thing's for until it's just about too late. There's an underlying sophisticated caste system - what you'd expect from a colony of ants - throughout the film, playing true to the nature of our good little buddies down there as well as relating to the job statuses and stereotypes of our world. Z is a worker ant, and therefore, is supposedly forced to be so the whole of his life, labeled as nothing more. So you can't blame him for wanting more. One fateful night at the bar, a slurring, crazy-talkin' drunk starts blabbering that there IS a better life. A place called Insectopia, where rules are non-existing, where you can get all the grub you want, and still have millions years more in supply, where you aren't anybody's slave anymore. Z returns finally only to find the truth of the tunnel project, and the horror of the purpose of the general's orders. Can Bala and Z get the truth to the rest of the colony on time? I'm not TELLING you, go watch it for YOURSELF. You'll love the clever ending.

    Disney/PIXAR Studio's A Bugs Life takes on an even more creative life. We're almost immediately introduced to a humble, clumsy, yet very iventive and practical ant named Flik (given the perfect voice by News Radio's Dave Foley). Flik's having trouble getting his great ideas acclaim, and furthermore having a hard time just fitting in amongst the other ants. The movie's first scene takes place right outside the ant hill, where this certain busy colony of ants is frantically rushing about gathering seeds for the harvest. But this is not just any harvest. It's a harvest to feed the bigger, stronger, impending grasshoppers that come every year to collect their dues, like a corrupted monarchy. So to save their live, you can see why they rushing about like there's no tomorrow; there may not be if they don't get this done. And then PIXAR hits us with a very clever and creative, faster-than-you-can-blink-an-eye cause and effect chain of events that ends up sending the gathered on the gathering stone to a watery grave. Flik's eyes fill with terror and he rushes in to the hill. The grasshoppers come, they don't see any food, they don't like seeing no food, they come into the hill to get the food. The circus bugs decide to help once they notice how much the ants love them, and that their dreams for being famous were now actually being fulfilled. The whole crew begins to work on the bird, building it of a walnut shell, a bunch of leaves, and a sturdy twig frame. But it's how they build it that's so creative (you'll see). But when the flea returns again, and again making horrible timing, he ends up putting the grasshoppers one-up again, and what follows is the circus bugs and Princess Adda racing to save Flik's life in a spectacular climax through bomb-like, bombarding rain drops, and tangled tree branches, upon which Hopper meets his sealed fate.

    It's hard to pick one movie over the other. I mean, both are so darn creative with fresh ideas and perspectives you never knew existed. But I've always loved PIXAR ever since their amazing work on Toy Story. Not that Dreamworks is any less ambitious. They just aren't quite as experienced....I guess. I don't like even putting it that way. I guess A Bug's Life just had more of a creative punch.