Harry Shearer Leaving The Simpsons

It was quite a shocker yesterday morning to read that Harry Shearer was apparently leaving The Simpsons. There have been some struggles between the voice actors and production team before, but from what I've read it seems all the cast have been together for it then. Now it's just Shearer that's leaving, which is weird. Show runner Al Jean told The Hollywood Reporter that even he has no idea why Shearer doesn't want to do the show anymore. Shearer seems to have said that he wants the freedom to do other projects, which sounds odd since all of the voice cast has a lot of freedom. The production team seems to be willing to try to work with him to make him stay, except that he should have the same deal as the rest of the cast, money-wise. And I guess he could want a bigger salary, but to walk away from an over 25 years legacy just to get even more money (more than $14 million over two years) rings a bit false. What would he do that'd pay more in that case?

The last reason I can think of would be that he's simply tired of it. That he doesn't think it's fun to do any longer, and think that 25 years is enough. Anyone could get tired of doing the same thing for over 25 years, but if that is the case I feel he would've told the rest of the cast and production team already, and prepared them for it. His leaving is very sudden and mysterious so I don't think the reason is as simple as getting tired of it.

I honestly can't think of any good reason why he would leave, but I hope he changes his mind and come back and see it to an end. Mr. Burns, Smithers, Skinner and especially Ned Flanders, are such major characters and I can't see the show going on without them or with someone else voicing them.

Edit: Just after I posted this Al Jean tweeted out a link to this article, which indicates that not all hope is lost yet. We will just have to wait and see.

Image from here.

A Bug's Life vs Antz [Spoilers]

Which is best, Pixar's A Bug's Life or Dreamworks' Antz? They are both quite similar, about an ant that doesn't really fit in and wants to change things in the colony and in the meantime falls for the princess.

First of all, from what I've read it was Katzenberg who stole Lasseter's idea about an ant movie. That alone makes me want to give the point to A Bug's Life, but I'm trying to look past that and just focus on the movies themselves.





Let's start with the story. Antz is about an ant called Z, who doesn't feel like he fits in and he wants more out of life than just being a worker ant. One day at the bar he starts dancing with a girl and finds out that she's the princess. To be able to see her again he switches places with a friend who is a soldier ant and soon finds himself going to war. Some way he's the only survivor and returns to the colony a hero, but when they learn that he's a worker ant Z finds himself in trouble again and (a bit accidentally) holds the princess hostage to get out of the situation. Well out of the ant hill Z decides to search for a paradise like place called Insectopia, and princess Bala has to go along. At the same time back at the colony, a power hungry general is setting his evil plans in motion and it's up to Z to save the colony.

A Bug's life is about an ant called Flip, he likes to invent things that is supposed to help the colony but he always seem to screw up. The colony works to gather food for the grass hoppers, but when Flip accidentally makes all the food disappear, the ants are threatened to gather the double in a shorter period of time. While deciding how to punish Flip, he comes up with an idea to go find some bugs that can help fight the grass hoppers. After a misunderstanding Flip recruits some circus bugs and bring them home to the island. The ants are impressed but when the circus bugs and Flip realizes their mistake they have to figure out a way to keep their secret and scare away the grass hoppers once and for all.

The story in A Bug's Life is simpler and more straight forward. Antz is aimed for an older audience, having more adult humor and even some gruesome scenes (a beheaded ant anyone?) I like the Antz story better, there are more things going on and the villain is more villainous. I get more of a sense of danger in Antz. The main villain in A Bug's Life even says that they aren't that big of a threat. Point goes to Antz.

Let's take a look at the characters. The main characters are pretty different even though they might look the same on paper. Z is the neurotic and want more than his predestined place in life. Flip is more the "spacey", excited but a bit careless inventor, who mostly wants to get some respect and help his colony. The princesses are also very different. Bala is ironically more of a Disney princess, she's not really satisfied with her life, she finds it boring and is looking for some adventure. Atta is nervous and trying to get ready to take over as queen but is scared that she isn't quite ready for it. The last same character is the queen. The queen in Antz is very royal, she knows her place and duty and cares a lot about the colony and her daughter. The queen in A Bug's Life (how come neither of them have a name?) is more of a relaxed, fun character. She isn't too worried about much but takes care of her colony.

Obviously there are a lot more characters to go, but we'll be here all day if I were to describe them all. The circus bugs, Zs friends, the villains. Most of them are good in their own way. But which ones do I like more? I have to go with Antz. First the main character, I find Flip a bit annoying. He's just a bit much and I almost want to yell at him to stop fiddling around. Z is fun, he's sarcastic and pessimistic and he knows what he wants. I like Bala more because of her confidence and calm, which creates some contrast to Z. Both Atta and Flip are very jumpy and high-energy characters, and that gets kind of annoying. And then you add a kid character and circus bugs and it seems none of the characters can stand still for more than two seconds. I do like the queen in A Bug's Life a bit more because of her energy and how fun she is, but she's not enough to save the rest. Point goes to Antz.

What is a story without its villains? Not as fun I'm guessing. Both of these have some good villains. Let's start with ABL. Hopper is the leader of the grass hoppers. His goal is to scare the ants into submission so they don't realize that they could stand up against him. He's a very serious and intimidating type but does enjoy some comedy. He's the biggest grass hopper and he's brown which makes him stand out and is easily recognizable among the green grass hoppers.

Antz has General Mandible, the highest general ant who starts of as a bit more than a jerk, but grows more and more dangerous. He wants to create a stronger colony by killing the weaker ants. He is very calm and collected and only gets aggressive or blows up towards the end of the movie, when things go wrong for him.

This is a tricky one because I do like them both, they are both good villains. But I do have problems with one of them and it's Hopper. I like him a bit too much, I like him more than the rest of the characters which makes A Bug's Life harder to sit through because the antagonist has to loose. You might think that'd be more of a problem with the rest of the characters than with Hopper, but I should still want the villain to loose even if I don't like the protagonists. And it sort of fails at that. Mandible on the other hand is intimidating, interesting to watch but you still want him to loose in the end. So the point goes to Antz again.

The last thing I want to comment on is the colony. We learn much more about it in Antz, we find out how it works, that they have soldier ants and worker ants and how they're chosen, that they have a bar/dance club and we even get to see how some of them sleep. In A Bug's Life we don't learn a whole lot about the colony. We know they're routine based and they get anxious when things don't go according to plan. We know they have some sort of council for handing out punishment and we know they never leave the island. Other than that I feel like I know nothing about that colony. And the few ants that we get to hear from are mean and condescending. That leads to me not caring at all whether they make it or not, and that's kind of a big deal since the whole plot resolves around rescuing them. In Antz we see more of their day to day lives and I end up caring more for them. Antz win another one.

"Yowch"

So for me, Antz is the better movie. I'm not surprised that I ended up here because I've thought that for quite a while, but it's been so long since I saw A Bug's Life so I was hoping that I would think it was a better watch now. Some things surprised me though, it had some fun jokes, some very nice colors and I do like the circus bugs more now than when I was younger (though I still have some issues with Heimlich). But it just isn't as good as Antz. I'm sorry Lasseter.

Do you think I'm out of my mind or do you agree with me? Let me know below!