Monday, August 18, 2008

All Bugged Out; Rent "A Bug's Life" + Visit an Insect Zoo = Kids Off The Couch

Our families truly enjoyed watching "A Bug's Life" and then off we ventured to the Insect Zoo at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles. And don't forget to visit the Kids Off the Couch Website for the full adventure with even more tips and an article about our personal adventure.

Film Title:
A Bug's Life
Directed By: John Lasseter
1998, Rated G, 96 mins.
Our Buttery Bits of Wisdom about this Film:
  • Why This Film Is Worth It: Our kids love this movie about a misfit ant that rallies the colony to overcome adversity. Pixar's message bears repeating -- being a misfit or little doesn't mean you can't do incredible things.
  • Red Flags: Few, but younger kids may be unsettled by the grasshoppers' mean treatment of the ants and a bird chase. Best for pre-school aged kids and up, though some of the jokes are really aimed at adults.
  • Who's Talking?: Listen for a star-studded cast voicing the Queen (Phyllis Diller), Hopper (Kevin Spacy) and Atta (Julia Louis-Dreyfus).
  • On The Outs: Stick around for the credits -- our kids loved the hilarious outtakes.
Our Tips for Talking to Your Kids about this Film:
  • Science Savvy: Outside your home, or in a park, it's easy to locate an ant colony as they march back and forth from their nest. To reenact the scene from the movie where a leaf falls into the ants' carefully ordered path and causes havoc, we had our kids carefully drop a leaf in the path of the ants and observe the ants behavior as they circumvented the leaf. Ask your kids, if they were an ant, how would they get around the obstacle.
  • Cinema Savvy: A Bug's Life pays homage to the great Kurosawa film Seven Samurai, a classic tale of a warrior who hires outside warriors to protect his village.
  • Industrial Revolution Savvy: Tools make our lives more efficient -- dishwashers, cars, and portable DVD players. Ask your children to think about what tool they would make if they were an ant in a colony.