A Bug's Life

***A Bug's Life*** is a 1998 Disney/Pixar movie from Buena Vista Distribution, Inc.

## Profile

* **Title:** *A Bug's Life*
* **Genre:** Family/Animation
* **Directed by:** John Lasseter
* **Produced by:** Darla K. Anderson, Kevin Reher
* **Country:** USA
* **Release date(s):** November 20, 1998
* **Running time:** 95 minutes
* **Language:** English
* **Australian Rating:** G
* **Budget:** $45 million
* **Total Worldwide Box Office Gross:** $363,398,565
* **Following by:** *Toy Story* (1995)
* **Followed by:** *Toy Story 2* (1999)

## Plot

Ant Island is a colony of ants led by the Queen and her daughter, Princess Atta. Every season, they are forced to give food to a gang of marauding grasshoppers led by Hopper. One day, when Flik, an individualist and would-be inventor, inadvertently knocks the offering into a stream with his latest invention, a grain harvesting device, Hopper demands twice as much food as compensation. When Flik suggests in earnest that they seek help from other stronger bugs, the other ants see it as an opportunity to remove him and send him off.

At the "bug city", which is a heap of trash under a trailer, Flik mistakes a troupe of Circus Bugs (who were recently dismissed by their greedy ringmaster, P.T. Flea) for the warrior bugs he seeks. The bugs, in turn, mistake Flik for a talent agent, and accept his offer to travel with him back to Ant Island. During a welcome ceremony upon their arrival, the Circus Bugs and Flik both discover their mutual misunderstandings. The Circus Bugs attempt to leave, but are attacked by a bird; while fleeing, they save Dot, Atta's younger sister, gaining the ants' respect in the process. At Flik's request, they continue the ruse of being "warriors", so the troupe can continue to enjoy the hospitality of the ants. Hearing that Hopper fears birds inspires Flik to create a false bird to scare away the grasshoppers. Meanwhile, Hopper tells his gang how greatly the ants outnumber them and worries that they will eventually rebel against them.

The ants finish constructing the fake bird, but during a celebration, P.T. Flea arrives, searching for his troupe, and inadvertently reveals their secret. Outraged by Flik's deception, the ants exile him, and desperately attempt to gather food for a new offering to the grasshoppers. However, when Hopper returns to discover the mediocre offering, he takes over the island, and demands the ants' winter food supply, planning to assassinate the Queen afterwards. Overhearing the plan, Dot goes after Flik and the Circus Bugs to inform them, convincing them to return to Ant Island.

After the Circus Bugs distract the grasshoppers long enough to rescue the Queen, Flik deploys the bird; it initially fools the grasshoppers, but P.T. Flea, who also mistakes it for a real bird, burns it, exposing it as a decoy. Hopper beats Flik in retaliation, saying that the ants are humble and lowly life forms who live to serve the grasshoppers. However, Flik responds that Hopper actually fears the colony, because he has always known what they are capable of, inspiring the ants and the Circus Bugs to fight back against the grasshoppers. The ants attempt to force Hopper out of Ant Island using P.T. Flea's circus cannon, but it suddenly begins to rain. In the ensuing chaos, Hopper frees himself from the cannon, and abducts Flik. After the Circus Bugs fail to catch them, Atta rescues Flik. As Hopper pursues them, Flik lures him to the nest of the bird he, Dot, and the Circus Bugs encountered earlier. Thinking that the bird is another decoy, Hopper taunts it before discovering in panic that it is real, and is captured and fed to its chicks.

With their enemies gone, Flik has improved his inventions along with the quality of life for Ant Island, he and Atta become a couple, and they give Hopper's younger brother Molt, and a few ants to P.T. Flea as new members of his troupe. Atta and Dot respectively become the new queen and princess. The ants congratulate Flik as a hero, and bid a fond farewell to the circus troupe, who promise to return in the future.

## Cast

* Dave Foley as Flik
* Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Princess Atta
* Hayden Panettiere as Dot
* Phyllis Diller as The Queen
* Edie McClurg as Dr. Flora
* Roddy McDowall as Mr. Soil
* Alex Rocco as Thorny
* David Ossman as Cornelius
* Joe Ranft as Heimlich
* Denis Leary as Francis
* David Hyde Pierce as Slim
* Jonathan Harris as Manny
* Madeline Kahn as Gypsy
* Bonnie Hunt as Rosie
* Brad Garrett as Dim
* Michael McShane as Tuck and Roll
* John Ratzenberger as P.T. Flea
* Kevin Spacey as Hopper
* Carlos Alazraqui as Loco/additional voices
* Jack Angel as Thud/additional voices
* Bob Bergen as Aphie/Male Ants/additional voices
* Kimberly J. Brown as additional voices
* Rodger Bumpass as Mosquito/additional voices
* Anthony Burch as additional voices
* Jennifer Darling as additional voices
* Rachel Davey as additional voices
* Debi Derryberry as Baby Maggots/additional voices
* Paul Eiding as Ant #1/additional voices
* Jessica Evans as Ant #2/additional voices
* Bill Farmer as Ant #3/Flies/additional voices
* Sam Gifadi as additional voices
* Brad Hall as Grasshopper/additional voices
* Jess Harnell as additional voices
* Brenden Hickey as additional voices
* Kate Charlotte Hodges as additional voices
* Denise Johnson as additional voices
* David Lander as Thumper/additional voices
* John Lasseter as Harry/additional voices
* Sherry Lynn as Female Ants/additional voices
* Mickie McGowan as Cockroach Waitress/additional voices
* Courtland Mead as additional voices
* Christina Milian as additional voices
* Kelsey Mulrooney as additional voices
* Ryan O'Donohue as additional voices
* Jeff Pidgeon as additional voices
* Phil Proctor as Ants/Slick/Grasshoppers/Fly/additional voices
* Jan Rabson as Axel/additional voices
* Jordan Ranft as additional voices
* Brian M. Rosen as additional voices
* Rebecca Schneider as additional voices
* Francesca Marie Smith as additional voices
* Andrew Stanton as Bug/additional voices
* Hannah Swanson as additional voices
* Russi Taylor as additional voices
* Travis Tedford as Ant Kids/additional voices
* Ashley Tisdale as Lead Blueberry Scout/additional voices
* Lee Unkrich as additional voices
* Jordan Warkol as additional voices

## Trivia

* The circus wagons are made of boxes of animal crackers called Casey Jr. Cookies. This is also the name of the toon circus train in Disney's 1941 animated film *Dumbo*. And the bakery that makes Casey Jr. Cookies according to the box is the J. Grant Bakery, named after Joe Grant, one of the storyboard artists on Dumbo.
* The ant's tree is used again in other Pixar movies. For example, in *Toy Story 2*, it is the tree in Jessie's flashback and in *Up*, it is the tree Carl Fredricksen and Ellie go to.
* ***A Bug's Life*** used almost 10 times the computing power that *Toy Story* required. On average it took 3 hours to render each frame of the film. Compare this to the average of 17 hours it took for each frame of *Cars*. This may seem counter-intuitive given the large increase in computer processing power between the two movies. But it demonstrates how much more detail is going into the film. In addition, computers are being used to do things that the animators used to do by hand such as ray tracing (for reflections).
* This is the first Pixar movie with bloopers at the end, followed by *Toy Story 2*.
* This movie bears many similarities to *Antz* (both films feature a colony of ants with a member who thinks differently to the others and wishes to gain the feelings of the princess), a movie released by DreamWorks Animation a month beforehand. This was due to Jeffrey Katzenberg leaving Disney due to a bitter dispute between himself and the company. Katzenberg then co-founded DreamWorks SKG with Steven Spielberg and David Geffen and, knowing that Disney was making an movie about ants, instantly started production on *Antz*(although Katzenberg claimed that the film came from an independent pitch that had nothing to do with Disney). When Pixar scheduled *A Bug's Life* to be released in the same week as DreamWorks' first feature *The Prince of Egypt*, Katzenberg was furious. In retaliation, he brought forward the release date of *Antz* by five months to ensure it was released ahead of *A Bug's Life* (with a rumor that was never confirmed that he offered 'rich financial incentives' to the production team to get their film out first despite Pixar's head start). In the end, *A Bug's Life* made $200,000,000 more at the cinema thanks to better promotion and being more aimed at kids, although both films were praised by critics and audiences.
* This is the first Pixar film to released on DVD.
* This is the first Pixar film promoted by McDonald's.
* This is the first Pixar film to receive a fullscreen home release. Unlike most fullscreen viewings, which cut off huge portions of the image to make it fit on a smaller screen, *A Bug's Life* actually has many scenes in the film completely reanimated (such as minor tweaking of certain characters, props, and even entire scenes) so that its quality remains true to the widescreen release even on a smaller TV screen. The process would continue until 2006's *Cars*. It should also be noted that the fullscreen version is exclusive only to the US original home releases, all of the international versions contain only the widescreen version.
* In a game of "Props" on an episode of improv-show *Whose Line Is It Anyway?*, regular performer Wayne Brady, held a big V shaped figure that looked like the antenna of a bug, put the figure on top of his head and said, "Maybe you've seen me in Bug's Life," referring to Flik.
* The story of the film is based on the Aesop's fable *The Ant and the Grasshopper.* Also, the plot has references to *The Seven Samurai*.
* This is the first Pixar film to both use the "normal" customized Walt Disney Pictures logo which used until 2007 film *Ratatouille* and to have the Pixar logo appear at the very beginning.
* This is so far the only Pixar film where John Ratzenberger voiced more than one character, not counting Cars, where he voiced car-ified versions of the characters he voiced in other pixar films as the inside joke.
* This is the only Pixar film to actually retain its widescreen viewing format in its Blu-ray release.
* Atta, the elder ant princess, is named after the scientific genus name for the leaf-cutter ants of Central and South America.Template:Cite
* This is the first Pixar film to be produced in anamorphic widescreen aspect ratio (2.35:1); all of that company's previous films were produced in 1.85:1/1.78:1, followed by *The Incredibles* (2.40:1).
* This is the first Pixar film not to feature any humans, followed by the *Cars* series.
* This is the first Pixar film to have a music closing logo, followed by *Toy Story 2*(2005 DVD only), if not Monsters, Inc.
* In the UK, the attached short *Geri's Game* was absent from the theatrical release but was added onto the end of the VHS.
* This is the first Pixar film to have "The End" word, followed by Finding Nemo.
* This is the only Pixar film released before Disney's acquisition of Pixar that has not received a prequel or sequel.

## External Links

* IMDb Profile
* Pixar Official Site
* A Bug's Life- 2-Disc Collector's Edition DVD Official Site