Underrated Movie: A Bug's Life

There are a whole lot of different movies that I personally think are great and amazing but a lot people either haven't seen them or even know about them. The movie I am going to focus on for this blog is the Pixar film A Bug's Life. It was released in 1998. It was the second movie from Pixar studios, the first being Toy Story. While it was successful and did well critically it was not as popular as Toy Story. Also it is now one of their most unknown movies from Pixar studios. It is overshadowed by huge critical and financial hits like Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, and Up. I personally love A Bug's Life the best. It might be because it was the first Pixar movie I ever saw or that it was just a great movie. I will have to think it is a little bit of both. I consider myself a huge Pixar fan. I own every movie and a lot of them rank high on my list of favorite movies, especially A Bug's Life. The movie has many themes that I love and are really important for me. I feel that A Bug's Life is their movie with most mature themes, even compared to the themes of Wall-E. The are many themes that are very prominent in A Bug's Life. The first is the breaking expectations theme. This is one of my favorite themes and something I try to do in my own life. Basically in the movie the main character is expected to be a failure and the group which he belongs to in the movie has him go on a quest that they are sure he will fail at. He ends up proving everyone wrong and saves everyone. Another big theme featured in the film is fighting your own battles and standing up for yourself. In the film the main character is told to go on a quest to find great fighters to defend the colony, a task which he accomplishes, but in the end he is the only one who can save the day. Another theme the movie contains is revolution and learning that you don't have to do what other people want you to do especially when it is negatively affecting yourself. The movie portrays this theme with a scene towards the end of the movie where the colony up rises against their oppressors because the main character was willing to sacrifice himself to stand for what he believes is right. This leads into the next theme of doing what is right even when it is the most difficult thing possible. The main character is about to get killed by the villain and is about to go willing because he knows that no matter the sacrifice it was the right thing to do. Fortunately for him this inspires the rest of the colony to rise up stop the oppression put upon them, so he does not have to die. These are just my favorite of the many different themes this film contains. While it all sounds doom and gloom it most definitely not that way. It is a lighthearted comedy family film that has strong themes that are important to teach children. I don't think I recognized these themes when I was a child but I do think that I was able to subconsciously absorb the content and themes, put them to use, and later as I got older realize what they meant.