In case you're having a hard time distinguishing between the season's two computer-animated insect movies, "Antz" may have been the first, but "A Bug's Life" is definitely the best.
While it doesn't boast quite as many big names in the voice cast as "Antz," "A Bug's Life" is a deft comedy with depth of characterization — and of animation — that makes the work in the other film look like sketchbook doodles by comparison.
Also, a warning to filmgoers: Don't leave the theater early or you'll miss a series of hilarious bug "outtakes," some of which are funnier than the movie itself.
The story is inspired by Aesop's fable "The Ant and the Grasshopper," but changes the focus from a lazy grasshopper to an industrious ant named Flik (voiced by Dave Foley, from TV's "NewsRadio").
A well-meaning but klutzy inventor, Flik endangers the entire population of Ant Island when he accidentally destroys the annual offering of food for the wicked Hopper (Kevin Spacey) and his gang of grasshopper toughs.
Hoping to make up for the mistake, Flik volunteers to go to the City to find warrior insects to help repel Hopper and his crew. Instead, he mistakenly drafts a troop of second-rate performers (cast-offs from a flea circus).
Meanwhile, the other ants have begun stockpiling more food for the grasshoppers. And they are ecstatic when Flik returns with his new, rather large friends. But that exuberance turns to despair as the performers' true identities are revealed, and the entire anthill must come up with an alternate plan.
Though the story is credited to a quartet of scripters (including "Toy Story" writer Joe Ranft, who also voices a character, the caterpillar Heimlich), it's surprisingly coherent and loaded with gags that fly by at a furious pace.
And a great voice cast (which also includes Julia-Louis Dreyfus, David Hyde-Pierce, Madeline Kahn, Phyllis Diller and the late Roddy McDowall) does a terrific job bringing the characters to life.
"A Bug's Life" is rated G, but does contain some animated violence (mostly slapstick) and some vulgar gags.