A Bug's Life (Two-Disc Collector's Edition)

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Product Description ------------------- A colony of ants is threatened by a gang of grass hoppers led by the evil Hopper. Flik, a common ant and a misfit, has an uncommon vision when he tries to rise to heroic proportions by enlisting a band of circus fleas to help him defend his colony from the grasshoppers. Set Contains: ------------- Codirector Andrew Stanton warmly calls this collector's edition of A Bug's Life the "Super Genius" edition (referring to another animated delight, Wile E. Coyote). That's a better title, since this double DVD set is never as stuffy and ho-hum as many collector's editions. On the second disc, which is jam-packed with details on how the movie was made, there isn't a single boring snippet. There must be a creed at Pixar Animation Studios dictating everything must be fun. When Stanton, director John Lasseter, or any technician comes onscreen, there are jokes, camera muggings, and controlled insanity. But there's a method to their madness. For example, the storyboarding process--sketching out the entire picture before cameras roll--isn't just explained; it's storyboarded itself. Another highlight is an early presentation of the film's subject matter that takes on the flavor of a poorly dubbed Japanese film of the '60s. There's also a wonderful process using the DVD format's rarely used angle feature that allows the viewer to go between pencil sketches, color drawings, and the finished project to see how the art progresses to the screen. The film, presented here in both widescreen and recomposed full-frame (the latter also explained on the disc), is the first DVD created by a digital source for the purest presentation possible. Whatever the presentation, this "Super Genius" edition certainly gives one pause to consider what super geniuses the folks at Pixar truly are. --Doug Thomas