A Bug’s Life

“An epic of miniature proportions.”

Joe Ranft (story)

Donald McEnery (screenplay)

Bob Shaw (screenplay)

Julia Louis-Dreyfus

**A Bug’s Life** is a 1998 computer-animated comedy film directed by John Lasseter and co-directed by Andrew Stanton, and produced by Pixar (as its 2nd film for Disney after *Toy Story**)* for Walt Disney Pictures. The movie centers on Flik, a misfit ant who is trying to look for "tough bugs" in hopes of saving his colony from a gang of greedy grasshoppers, only to hire a group of bugs that are revealed to be unskillful circus bugs. It stars Dave Foley as Flik, the main protagonist, Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Princess Atta, the princess and future queen of the colony, and Kevin Spacey as Hopper, the leader of the grasshoppers and the main antagonist.

The film is inspired by Aesop's *The Ant and the Grasshopper*. Production started shortly after the release of *Toy Story* in 1995. The screenplay was written by Stanton and comedy writers Donald McEnery and Bob Shaw. The ants in the movie were redesigned to look more appealing, and Pixar's animation unit used technical innovations in computer animation. Throughout production, the filmmakers got involved in a public dispute with DreamWorks Animation because of the production of their similar film *Antz*, which was released the same year. Randy Newman composed the score for the movie.

## Cast

* Dave Foley as Flik, an inventive but accident-prone ant, and the main protagonist.
* Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Atta, the princess and future queen of the colony, and the deuteragonist.
* Hayden Panettiere as Dot, Atta’s little sister and the tritagonist.
* Phyllis Diller as The Queen, the leader of the colony, Atta and Dot's mother, and the secondary tritagonist.
* Kevin Spacey as Hopper, the ruthless leader of the grasshoppers
* David Hyde Pierce as Slim, a walking stick and Francis and Heimlich's friend.
* Joe Ranft as Heimlich, a fat German-accented caterpillar who wants to be a butterfly.
* Denis Leary as Francis, a short-tempered ladybug who is constantly mistaken for a girl.
* Jonathan Harris as Manny, a praying mantis and magician in P.T. Flea's circus.
* Madeline Kahn as Gypsy, a gypsy moth and Manny's wife and assistant.
* Bonnie Hunt as Rosie, a black widow spider and Dim's tamer and friend.
* Michael McShane as Tuck and Roll, two twin pill bug brothers from Hungary.
* John Ratzenberger as P.T. Flea, the ringmaster and owner of the bug circus.
* Brad Garrett as Dim, a rhinoceros beetle who plays the "Fericious Beast" in the circus act, and is Rosie's companion.
* Roddy McDowall as Mr. Soil, the colony's resident thespian.
* Edie McClurg as Dr. Flora, the doctor of the colony.
* Axel Rocco as Thorny, Atta's assistant.
* David Ossman as Cornelius, an elderly, doddering ant with a walking stick.

### Additional voices

* Carlos Alazraqui as Loco/Ant who shouts "I'm lost!"
* Jack Angel as Fly Brothers
* Bob Bergen
* Kimberly J. Brown
* Rodger Bumpass as Mosquito
* Anthony Burch
* Jennifer Darling
* Rachel Davey
* Debi Derryberry as Baby Maggots
* Paul Eiding
* Jessica Evans
* Bill Farmer as ant who says "We'll be stuck here forever!"
* Sam Gifaldi
* Brad Hall as one of the grasshoppers
* Jess Harnell
* Brenden Hickey
* Kate Hodges
* Denise Johnson
* David Lander as Thumper
* John Lasseter as Harry
* Sherry Lynn
* Mickie McGowan as Cockroach Waitress
* Courtland Mead
* Christina Milian
* Kelsey Mulrooney
* Ryan O'Donohue
* Jeff Pidgeon
* Phil Proctor as Slick
* Jan Rabson as Axel
* Jordy Ranft as one of the two young ants
* Brian M. Rosen
* Rebecca Schneider
* Francesca Marie Smith
* Andrew Stanton as Bug Zapper Bug #2
* Hannah Swanson
* Russi Taylor
* Travis Tedford
* Ashley Tisdale as Lead Blueberry Scout
* Lee Unkrich
* Jordan Warkol

## Release and Critical Reception

The film was made on November 25, 1998, and it performed well at the box office, surpassing

competition and grossing $363 million worldwide. The movie received positive reviews from film critics, who praised the plot, witty dialogue and animation, although others unfavorably compared it to *Antz*. It was the first movie ever to be digitally transferred frame-by-frame and released to DVD, and has been released many times on home video. I praised the movie for its animation, story, and characters.

#### Why I Love It

1. Great animation, for 1998 standards.
2. The story is good.
3. Flik, Atta, Dot, and the whole circus troupe are my favorite characters.
4. Excellent soundtrack by Randy Newman.
5. Hopper is a menacing and strong antagonist, and Kevin Spacey does a great job with his voice.
6. The voice acting is great.
7. Memorable dialogue, such as "***FLAMING DEATH!!!***", "Come on, Francis, you're making the maggots cry" and "**I'M LOOOOOST!!!**"
8. With this movie, Pixar manages to double its greatness!
9. The concept is really interesting.
10. Great inspiration from *Seven Samurai*.
11. "The Time of Your Life" is a great song.

### The Only Cons

1. Depending on your view, the scene where Hopper gets killed by getting eaten by chicks, while he deserved it for snitching on the ants for too long, can be kinda disturbing to some.
2. The scene where Flik is exposed as a liar to the ants because all along the "warriors" he hired were circus bugs and gets banished from the colony is the one (and one only) part that is too hard to watch, because of how upsetting it is. Normally, I'd watch sad scenes but this takes the cake.