great for kids, they'll love it! a classic pixar.
A Bug's Life
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Is it age appropriate?
About our ratings -
Is it any good?
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Common Sense says
Pixar's hoppin' delight is full of fun characters.
Why We Rated This 
for Ages 5 and Up
What to watch out for
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Violence & scariness:
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Sexy stuff:
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Language:
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Consumerism:
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Drinking, drugs, & smoking:
What Parents Need to Know
This review of A Bug's Life was written by Nell Minow
Parents need to know that this movie has a few scary bad guys -- grasshoppers -- who may scare small and sensitive kids. Some action sequences put the main characters in danger.
Families Can Talk About
Talk to your kids about the media in their life. We have more tools and tips that can help
- Families can talk about the bug world. How many bugs can you name? How do bugs communicate in real life? Why do you think ants and bees live in such big colonies? How do they benefit the earth? Families can also discuss bullies, and how to deal with them (note Hopper's view that their power depends more on the ants' perception than on reality), what makes a leader, the obligations of responsibility, and responding to challenges -- including failure.
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More on A Bug's Life
What’s the Story?
When Flik inadvertently loses the food tribute set out by the ants for the predatory grasshoppers, he must find a way to protect his community. In the spirit of The Magnificent Seven, he goes off in search of warrior bugs to fight the grasshoppers. He mistakenly hires a group of unsuccessful vaudevillians from (of course) a flea circus, who think they are being booked for a performance and have no idea he expects them to fight. But they turn out to have just the right stuff to help the ants fight the grasshoppers after all, and Flick gets to prove that he is a hero at heart.
Is It Any Good?
Oddly enough, this wasn't the only computer-animated movie about bugs to come out in the fall of 1998 -- Antz was released just a month before. The difference between the two animated bug movies is exemplified by their lead characters. Antz has Z, voiced by Woody Allen as -- well -- Woody Allen, angst-ridden, in analysis, searching for individual identity in a world of conformity. A BUG'S LIFE has NewsRadio's Dave Foley providing his voice as Flik, an All-American ant-next-door type who is inventive, brave, and loyal.
Helped by outstanding voice talent, the rest of the movie's characters are quirky and endearing enough to make you forget they are computer-animated. Lending their voices are Seinfeld's Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Phyllis Diller, Kevin Spacey, Spin City's Richard Kind, Frasier's David Hyde Pierce, and John Ratzenberger of Cheers.
Antz was largely brown, but this ant movie uses a paintbox of color to produce stunning images with luminous tones. You'll need to see it twice to appreciate the scope of the movie's visual wit and technological mastery.
Movie Details
Studio: Disney, Director: John Lasseter
Run time: 95 minutes
Theatrical release: 11/25/1998, DVD release: 05/27/2003
MPAA Rating: G
Run time: 95 minutes
Theatrical release: 11/25/1998, DVD release: 05/27/2003
MPAA Rating: G
Our Members Say
See all 22 member reviews
Most Recent Reviews
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I rate this title on for age 4 and give it
- My concerns are:
- Excessive violence
- My highlights are:
- Good role models
classic
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I rate this title on for age 9 and give it
- My concerns are:
- Excessive violence
it was an okay movie; a little overrated
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I rate this title off for age 4 and give it
- My concerns are:
- Excessive violence
- Inappropriate language
Not Appropriate for Ages 4+
My wife and I are generally happy with the Pixar movies and do not usually feel that we need to "preview" a Pixar movie before letting our oldest child watch it, but this movie changed this practice. We sat down to watch it with our son when he was 4 and turned it off after the first 10 minutes. In the first 10 minutes, there was enough violence and inappropriate words that we both turned to each other at the same time and shook our heads. We did not need our son going up to other kids, hitting them and calling them "stupid". Though others say this movie has a good moral message, we were not willing to stick around long enough to hear it. There are a ton of other movies more appropriate from which they can get good messages without learning bad ones in the process. The good does not offset the bad in this case.
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I rate this title on for age 6 and give it
- My highlights are:
- Good role models
Not my favourite pixar movie, but good nevertheless. Good morals and good role models, another creative movie.
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I rate this title on for age 6 and give it
- My concerns are:
- Excessive violence
- Negative role models
- My highlights are:
- Good role models
it's good I'm 14 and I loved it
I watched it all the time when I was little. It was my favorite pixar movie and still is. It's kind of violent or scary though, I really think it should be PG. There is blood when there is a picture of the caterpillar cute in half and it made me wince. The queen says it's suicide to go away from the island and the bird catches on fire, and the grasshoppers can scare little kids. Thumper scared me a little when I was little, and I wasn't easily scared. But it's a really good movie, you cant miss it. It's good for adults, too, not just kids. You have to get past the fact that they're bugs and be open with it.
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I rate this title on for age 5 and give it
- My concerns are:
- Excessive violence
This had me think
I should probably be nicer to insects. This film is awesomely well done, with creative characters, brilliant animation, realistic sequences, and a fantastic climactic ending. Your kids (and teens) probably have seen it thousands of times already.
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I rate this title iffy for age 4 and give it
- My concerns are:
- Inappropriate language
Suicide?!?!
If your child is curious about language, brace yourself to explain this line... "Oh, because it's suicide" - Queen ( A Bug's Life) Perhaps it's just me, but I don't think the word suicide should be in a child's vocabulary.
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I rate this title on for age 2 and give it
Nothing bad
There is nothing that parents should find offensive in this movie other then the grasshoppers who might frighten young children.
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I rate this title on for age 6 and give it- My concerns are:
- Excessive violence
Astonishing! Pixar follows up 'Toy Story' with another HIT!
Parents should know that the grasshoppers can be quite scary for young, particularly one of them. There are also moments of peril, including getting chased by a bird. There is talk of "Sqishing" the queen ant. Aside from that, I highly reccomend this film to anyone and EVERYONE 6 and older.
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I rate this title on for age 5 and give it
Good Kids Movie
This is a good kids movie. I did not care for some of the humor, but by no means offensive.
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I rate this title pause for age 0 and give it
Boring and unimaginative
Rent Spirited Away for your child instead.
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I rate this title on for age 0 and give it
An really nice movie that was a lot of fun
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I rate this title pause for age 0 and give it
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I rate this title on for age 0 and give it
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I rate this title on for age 0 and give it
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I rate this title on for age 0 and give it
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I rate this title off for age 0 and give it
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I rate this title pause for age 0 and give it
weird movie i didnt like it
When I first saw this toddler flick i thought it was awsome but now that I'm 10 years old, it just does not do it for me.
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I rate this title pause for age 0 and give it
Cute movie, some iffy language
We have a two daughters - a 5 year old and a 2 year old. Obviously there are certain words & phrases that we do not use in our house - two of them are "stupid" and "shut up", both of which were used quite a bit in this movie. The movie is very cute - our girls loved it, but they, especially the 5 year old, caught every "bad" word and pointed them out to us each time they were mentioned. I probably wouldn't have let them watch this movie if I known ahead of time that these words would be used.
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I rate this title on for age 0 and give it
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Ratings at a Glance
| 67% | of parents say it's too violent |
| 67% | of parents say it has language their kids can't use |
| 33% | of parents don't think the messages are positive |
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