LIKABLE BUGS FIGHT UPHILL BATTLE.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Daily News Film Critic

``A Bug's Life,'' Disney and Pixar's computer-animated follow-up to ``Toy Story,'' has a lot going for it. The movie bursts with eye-popping colors, dazzling animation, uproarious action and an array of funny, fast-talking insect characters.

So why does it feel like something of a disappointment? Two reasons: First, it's not nearly as good as ``Toy Story,'' which had a much better story, not to mention a couple of winning musical set pieces from composer Randy Newman. Second, coming on the heels of DreamWorks' enjoyable ``Antz,'' ``A Bug's Life'' has a certain been-there, done-that quality to it. That's not to say it isn't a fine movie. It simply fails to live up to some pretty high expectations.

Whereas ``Antz'' was basically a neurotic Woody Allen movie set inside an ant hill, ``A Bug's Life'' keeps its story firmly rooted in the Disney family tradition. A hero who believes he's never going to make a difference joins forces with a princess (with her own set of self-doubts) to combat evil forces intent on limiting them from being all that they can be. Only, since this is a Disney cartoon (by way of Aesop), the heroes are ants (lavender ones, at that) and the bad guys are grasshoppers.

Flik is the hero ant, an original thinker whose creative ideas often put him at odds with the rest of the conformers in his colony. The queen ant (voiced by Phyllis Diller) and her princess daughter (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) run the colony the best they can, but are handicapped by the extortionist tactics of a marauding group of grasshoppers who demand a hefty portion of the ants' harvest.

When Flik messes up the agreement, the head grasshopper (voiced by a fiendishly menacing Kevin Spacey) demands even more food - or else there's going to be a pile of eight-legged arachnids pushing up dirt in the colony's graveyard.

The hapless Flik, hoping to find some warrior bugs for protection, mistakenly enlists a rag-tag group of flea circus performers, who turn out to be the most interesting characters in the movie. There's a walking-stick clown, a praying-mantis magician, a male ladybug trying to get in touch with his feminine side, a couple of Hungarian sow bugs and a roly-poly German caterpillar. They're all delighted to go to the colony with Flik until they learn the real reason he brought them there. These bugs are lovers, not fighters. Somehow, though, you know they'll find a way to help.

Pixar's John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton direct ``A Bug's Life'' and, along with their talented group of artists, they have effectively imagined the insects' surroundings and how things like wind, sun and rain affect their precarious existence. But while the look of the film and the quality of the animation are state-of-the-art, ``A Bug's Life'' lacks the cinematic set pieces that made ``Antz'' such a visual treat. It's like everybody was so swept up in envisioning this small world that nobody bothered to think big.

The film's story is never fully realized, either. Scenes inside the colony aren't very interesting and the ants themselves become tedious after awhile. Flik, annoying to his own species, doesn't rate high on my list, either. A more endearing hero would have helped.

When the circus ants are on the screen, though, the movie's pace turns fast and furious - almost too fast. (Stick around for the end credits for some of the best bits, which come in the form of the kind of outtakes usually reserved for a Burt Reynolds movie.)

I feel like I need to see some scenes a second time to fully absorb all the action and one-liners. I'm sure that's part of the design. Repeat viewings of these films are encouraged; that's why videos (specially priced to take home) exist, after all. Unfortunately (and this certainly wasn't the case with ``Toy Story''), once was enough for this film.

THE FACTS

The film: ``A Bug's Life'' (G).

The stars: Voices of Kevin Spacey, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Phyllis Diller, David Hyde Pierce, Denis Leary, Jonathan Harris, Madeline Kahn, Bonnie Hunt, John Ratzenberger, Roddy McDowall and Alex Rocco.

Behind the scenes: Directed by John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton. screenplay by Stanton, Donald McEnery and Bob Shaw based upon a story by Lasseter, Stanton and Joe Ranft. Released by Walt Disney Pictures.

Running time: One hour, 37 minutes.

Playing: Citywide.

Our rating: Three stars.