A Bug's Life - Pixar's forgotten child? (1 Viewer)

[Kwang Suh]

I love A Bug's Life. But then again, I love all the Pixar movies, so maybe I'm a bit biased

 

[GregBe]

I really like A Bug's Life. Just a cool sidenote, I had a chance to attend the Silicon Valley premier of ABL for all of the Pixar employees. The film was introduced by Steve Jobs and John Lassiter and Dave Foley was in attendance as well. It was really cool to hear all of the applause during the credits as each Pixar employee saw their names come up.
The party after was also cool. It was set up in a tent, and once you walked in you had the feeling you were the size of an ant. You were surrounded by 15-20' high mushrooms and plants.
Greg

 

[Ernest Rister]

Just a few un-asked-for opinions:

* I think Finding Nemo is Pixar's darkest film, not A Bug's Life.

* I think A Bug's Life is Pixar's most beautiful movie, with Nemo a close second.

* If Ant-Z had not preceded A Bug's Life, A Bug's Life would have done better - still, $170 million in 1998 was nothing to sneeze at.

* As for this "least popular" business, at one time, A Bug's Life was the highest-selling DVD of all time, until the release of The Matrix. Popularity does not equal "box office revenue". I know many films that did well at the box office that are today almost universally reviled. I know many films that flopped in theaters but are now wildly popular.

* All of the Pixar films are wonderful - because they are so wonderfully written. A Bug's Life is perhaps the only one that improves substantially on repeated viewings, because it is so dense, and contains so many characters.

 

[Scotty_McW]

As you have in so many other posts, Ernest, you've hit the nail on the head. I think this is why I enjoy ABL so much more than the other Pixar films.

All of their films have great themes running through them, fantastic animation & voice acting, wonderful musical scores, and so much more. It seems as if the bar is constantly being raised by Pixar. I hope their streak of successes can last for a while yet, but I do dread the day when they produce a stinker.

 

[DaveF]

I'd go further and say it's because they are almost perfectly realized, as Scotty observes.

And I guess I need to rewatch ABL to see how it improves with age.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

But this is all relative, and I don't see how one can contend that ABL isn't the least popular Pixar flick. I'm sure it's sold the fewest copies on DVD - though the fact it was the first Pixar flick to hit DVD when fewer players were out there probably hurts it - and it clearly made the least money. Down the road, might it enjoy a stronger reputation than some of the others? Sure. I really like it best of ALL their flicks and think it's miles above Monsters and Nemo. But it remains the least popular of the five to date...

 

[Ernest Rister]

"But this is all relative, and I don't see how one can contend that ABL isn't the least popular Pixar flick."

And I don't see how you can contend that it is using specious data like box office revenues.

Pearl Harbor made $200 million at the box office. Popular film?

Shawshank Redemption made less than $50 million. Popular film?

The only thing that box office proves is that a certain film earned a certain amount of money. It doesn't prove how many people saw the film, it doesn't even prove how many tickets were sold - it is only a measure of financial earnings. Just because a movie was seen does not mean the movie was liked. Just because a movie was not seen does not mean the movie was hated. There are simply too many factors at play...in the case of A Bug's Life, it was outgrossing the original Toy Story on a weekly basis until Prince of Egypt was released, cutting into the family market. Plus, another CGI "Ant" movie had been released eight weeks prior to the release of A Bug's Life, hurting the film's appeal quotient...not to mention the film is about BUGS, not exactly the most appealing subject for certain people. Young children are frequently hauled out of the Bug's Life 3-D movie at Animal Kingdom because they are scared out of their minds.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

I'm not just going on BO data. Do you think ABL sold more DVDs than ANY of the other Pixar flicks? Very unlikely. Do you get any sense of continued popularity via sources like this? Not really - that's why this thread began.

And if we look at IMDB ratings, here they go:

ABL: 7.4
Toy Story: 7.9
TS2: 8.1
Monsters: 8.0
Nemo: 8.3

So ABL a) sold the fewest copies on video, b) made the least money at the BO, and c) has the lowest score by far amount readers on IMDB. Pee in THAT cup and drink it!

 

[Ernest Rister]

And what are the demographics of the imdb voting block? More popular with who? 12 - 24 year old boys? People who use the internet to rank movies in their spare time? And isn't this the same group that has Titanic ranked in their "Worst Films of All Time"?

And more popular around here -- well who posts here? Again, mostly males.

Go look at the Average Rating Score for the five Pixar films on Rotten Tomatoes -- the "least popular" film among critics is Monsters, Inc., with a 7.8 score, or a C+. A Bug's Life earns an 8.0, or a B-. Of course, most film critics are male, so that also skews the picture.

Go hire John Zogby to do a nationwide poll of Americans with a sampling of all ages, races, levels of education, and genders, and then we'll talk.

 

[Holadem]

Because unless every claim is backed up by a poll, we can't talk :rolleyes

ABL is the least popular of the Pixar films among people I talk to, on and offline. I don't need a freaking poll. 'nuff said.

--
H

 

[Ernest Rister]

"Because unless every claim is backed up by a poll, we can't talk."

A fact is not the same thing as an impression. A supposition is a theory, not a rule. Popularity is a nebulous quantity as it ebbs and flows on a daily basis, as people's attentions are diverted from one thing to another.

As far as I'm concerned, asking people "Which Pixar film is the least popular?" is like asking a bunch of raccoons what shiny piece of tin is the least compelling. All five Pixar films are greatly admired and all five have been very successful, and all five have individual strengths and weaknesses. Which one of these 4-star movies is the least wonderful? Depends on who you ask.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

No, IMDB voters DIDN'T rate Titanic as bad film overall. It has a rating of 6.9, which puts it well above the 3.5 rating of the movie with the 100th worst score on IMDB. Titanic gets a bad rap on the Internet because of a small group of fanatics who hate it - not enough to sway the scores at IMDB, since they take in pretty huge numbers for movies like these.

 

[MatthewLouwrens]

Am I a bad person for finding this funny?

 

[Ernest Rister]

"No, IMDB voters DIDN'T rate Titanic as bad film overall. It has a rating of 6.9, which puts it well above the 3.5 rating of the movie with the 100th worst score on IMDB. Titanic gets a bad rap on the Internet because of a small group of fanatics who hate it - not enough to sway the scores at IMDB, since they take in pretty huge numbers for movies like these."

The results you are looking at today are the current results. Ebert answered a letter in his Movie answer Man Coloumn many many many many moons ago in which a reader was irate about the poor showing Titanic had on the imdb. Ebert brushed it off as a kind of hostile reaction to the film's popularity. The imdb is updated all the time - again, proving my point that popularity is always in a state of some flux. I still think 6.9 is rediculously low for that film, as is the fact that 10% of those who rated the film gave it a "1" out of 10. Does that sound like any sort of reasoned thinking?

And just last year, imdb users were asked to pick which film really was the worst movie of all time, using the movies selected by the BBC in their infamous poll. Titanic came in 3rd -- according to imdb users who answered the poll, they considered Titanic worse than:

Pearl Harbor
The Blair Witch Project
Highlander II: The Quickening
and
The Avengers, among others.

http://www.imdb.com/poll/results/2003-11-14

imdb a reliable arbiter? The same people who currently have Return of the King ranked higher than Schindler's List, Seven Samurai, Casablanca, Citizen Kane, Lawrence of Arabia, and 2001: A Space Odyssey?

Again -- popular with whom? Depends on who you ask, where you ask, and how you ask.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Yeah, whatever you say. In this case, "popular" means "the Pixar flick that the most people in the general movie-watching population have seen and enjoy". Not looking to debate which one librarians from Kansas between the ages of 37 and 42 like most and least.

Still waiting a) to find out why the concept that ABL is the least popular Pixar flick gets your panties in such a knot, and b) hear some evidence that demonstrates it's NOT the least popular.

 

[Ernest Rister]

"Still waiting a) to find out why the concept that ABL is the least popular Pixar flick gets your panties in such a knot"

I don't wear panties, nor do I personally own any, hence, I have no panties to tie in a knot.

"and b) hear some evidence that demonstrates it's NOT the least popular."

Popularity is not a fixed constant. If it was, Burt Reynolds would still be one of the highest paid actors in the world, new songs by Billy Ray Cyrus and Ricky Martin would always find airtime on top 40 stations, Vanilla Ice and Hammer would still be susperstars and Shawshank Redemption would be known as a little-seen also-ran at the 1994 Oscars. Since popularity waxes and wanes and is always in some degree of flux - no matter how minor - the very question of popularity is moot, especially when considering the backlash against Titanic and other once-popular films in certain circles. It's a moot point.

If you want to find out the answer to the question, you'd have to do a scientific poll of the U.S., and even that would become worthless after a few months, and you'd have to do the thing all over again.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

You just can't admit you're wrong, can you?

 

[Ernest Rister]

Ah, the personal attack. First sign that you've lost a debate.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

How was that a personal attack? I've presented lots of evidence that ABL is the least popular Pixar flick, you've offered none that it isn't. You claim that I needed minute-to-minute polls to "prove" my case, which is bizarre.

In other words, you keep coming up with ludicrous methods to avoid... admitting you're wrong. I still have no clue why it seems to bother you so much that ABL IS - by all logical measures - Pixar's least successful, least well-known, and least popular fick...

 

[Scott Weinberg]

What is it, exactly, that's being argued?

That A Bug's Life is (relatively speaking) Pixar's "weakest" effort in many regards?

That the IMDb formula is a fairly unscientific method of judging a film's popularity?

That, despite not being Pixar's largest success, A Bug's Life is a very excellent movie?

Look, if a baseball player hits four home runs and a triple in one game, that's pretty amazing. We need not point to the triple and wonder why it wasn't a home run.

But the arguing is kinda fun to read.