Perhaps inspired by the animated bug films A Bug’s Life (1998) and Antz (1998), Bugs! is a 3D IMAX film that trains dual camera lenses on a caterpillar and preying mantis in the ruined waterside hut in the Borneo rainforest. Aided by a wry narration from Judi Dench, the roughly 40 min. short documentary covers aspects of birth, foraging for food, running for cover, camouflage, and predator vs. prey.

Unlike Microcosmos / Microcosmos: Le peuple de l'herbe (1996), the astonishing French film with extensive vignettes on a wide array of insect species, Bugs! is more traditional, perhaps fusing the wonder and wit of BBC nature docs with vintage Disney shorts and their light anthropomorphic subjects - which is why the compact narrative in Bugs! will appeal towards families.

That isn’t to say the film is juvenile – we’re shown the mantis graphically devouring a fly head-first – but the emphasis is on character as delivered by the insect cast, and the building of a pseudo-relationship of sorts between two species – the caterpillar/butterfly (prey), and preying mantis (predator) – who live side by side like cousins until one day, as adults, the mantis decides he needs an immediate snack. Naturally the butterfly’s death isn’t showcased in much detail, but director/co-writer Mike Slee and co-writer Abby Aron did their job in building up slight personalities, so the fluttery one’s demise is affective.

Goosing up the atmosphere is an eclectic score by John Lunn (Cambridge Spies), applying orchestral jazz, symphonic cues, and light new age to certain segments, and the strategy is pretty successful, particularly when he applies soothing strings to the creepy intro of a mass of baby mantises.

Bugs! isn’t for bug-a-phobe; the photography is very detailed, and certainly in IMAX 3D, the very idea of watching a roach as big as a Volkswagen Beetle is probably unsettling. On home video, the film was released flat by Image as a Region 1 DVD with a making-of featurette, whereas in Germany the disc was apparently given the deluxe treatment on DVD and HD-DVD, with flat and 3D versions (glasses included), plus a few more extras.

The 3D anaglyph process (the blue-red Polaroids) is kinda, sorta, partially successful. Whereas the Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D (2008) DVD contained a really swell 3D transfer (using red-green glasses), Bugs! is still hampered by ghost images, soft focus, and fuzzy colours. The finale, wherein the butterfly meets the mantis, takes place on a red flowering plant, but in the 3D version, the plant’s blooms are more yellow-orange. Just as problematic is the headache that will hit some sensitive viewers, as well as having one eye see yellow and the other light green for 5 mins. after the film’s end.

The Region 2 3D version is better than the handful of 1980s thriller films released on disc (like Paramount’s recent Friday the 13th 3D edition), but that’s perhaps owing to the clarity inherent to IMAX’ 70mm film stock. The sense of dimension is strong, and a few ‘immersive’ moments pay off, particularly when a spider drops down from a web, a moth flutters from below a tree, and a handful of butterflies flutter into the audience area. These moments work, and that’s due to the filmmakers being inventive and creative without trying to rudely shove a bug in one’s eye.

To achieve the effects, the dual 3D cameras were attached to an Iweks rig, as well as placed side by side on a wide plane to create some startling wide shots, such as the slow pan across a valley wherein a tree in the forefront was counterbalanced by a row of distant foliage and far off mountains. The filmmakers also photographed the insects on branches in front of a large green screen, and overlaid the footage onto background plates shot in Borneo.

The DVD’s lengthy making-of featurette covers almost the entire production (music scoring, however, is entirely ignored), which involved assembling a real hut as a set in the Borneo rainforest, as well as an Oxford studio where the transported bugs were grown and coerced into performing for the camera by the film’s versatile animal wrangler.

Some deleted interviews and whole segments from the making-of featurette are also archived in separate Interview and Behind the Scenes galleries, as well as a rough theatrical trailer with synth score mock-ups, TV trailers, and a razor sharp Stills Gallery. The Region 2 release also comes with dual French and German menus, and optional subtitles for the English extras and English dub track.

Pity the 3D version wasn’t ported over by Image for its own Region 1 DVD, but even in 2D, Bugs! is still an impressive and amusing short.

© 2009 Mark R. Hasan