A Real Bug's Life

My favorite nature documentaries are about insects and microscopic organisms. So I was pleasantly surprised to watch these over the course of a few days. I thoroughly enjoyed the video footage and cinematography but the narration from Awkwafina, the narrator, ALMOST killed it for me... and not in a good way.

I think that she could have been a decent narrator for the series but needed to take the role more seriously. The childish script from the Disney production team was a part of it but her tone and "jokes" really pushed it over the edge.

Video Score: 8/10 Audio Score: 3/10

Total Score: 5.5/10.

I have a 7 year old boy and a 5 year old girl and they both love it.

It can be hard to get kids to watch documentaries some times but my kids were glued to the screen for every episode. They give each insect a story and that along with the amazing camera work makes it feel like a movie which helps the kids stay engaged.

It isn't the most "educational" in terms of just throwing facts at you but it's a good one to introduce your young kids to if you want them to learn about insects as each episode teaches them about bugs that they will see in their back yard or city and what their role is in the city environment and made my kids want to go outside to see what insects they could find.

Nothing wrong with the voice actor but if you don't like Awkwafina you may not like it.

We've only watched the first season so far, but we love it.

This show is extremely well structured, written, and edited. Every episode carries you along with great confidence. This is a show that is obviously aimed at kids, but we enjoyed it as well. Even when we were seeing things we are already familiar with, like the lifecycle of the monarch butterfly, the intimacy of the cameras, the details were all a revelation.

It is completely incomprehensible to me how people didn't enjoy Awkwafina's narration which was funny and sweet. The writers gave her some corny lines, and she pulled them off beautifully by not overselling.

I've never watched a wildlife documentary that mentioned twerking. Seriously.

This narrator was literally as bad as it gets. Of all the wonderful voices out there why would they choose this women, her voice was very distracting and ruined it for me. My kids didn't seem to notice but for the adults I have to say it took away from the story.

Positives, it looked great. Most Disney stuff looks great. I have noticed Disney's quality in everything has gone way down over the years. Everything LOOKS amazing but that's not good enough. Everything else was good but ruined by the narrator and some of the dialog.

The narrator and script really let this production down. It is clearly aimed at 8-10 year olds (not surprising for Disney) but the voice over track was very annoying to the point where muted it half way through series. The script lacked proper facts and any depth of detail.

Captions for the names of the bugs including common and scientific names along with a fact sheet would have enhanced the educational nature of the programme. And instead of sitting on the fence 'suggesting' bugs are good and necessary it should have been at the forefront of the narrative.

This would have gotten 2 star if it wasn't for the amazing camera work and my love of bugs as macro photographer.