A Bug's Life

**A Bug's Life** is Pixar second full length computer-animated feature film.

## Synopsis

An ant named Flik must protect his colony from a group of grasshoppers using a group of circus bugs.

## Plot

Ant Island is the home of a colony of desperate and peaceful ants, ruled by the wise queen and her oldest daughter, Princess Atta, who is very timid and nervous of her responsibilities. The grasshoppers arrive once a season to extort food from the ants, supposedly in return for protection from bigger bugs. However, while working with an invention to pick grain more efficiently, a young optimistic ant named Flik accidentally destroys the annual offering that the ants were collecting to appease the grasshoppers. In exchange for a temporary reprieve from the grasshoppers, the ants are given until the end of autumn to produce an offering of twice the usual amount. Later, while he is being admonished by Atta and the royal council of the colony, Flik proposes a plan to recruit warrior bugs to fight off the grasshoppers, much to the Queen's amusement. When Atta and the council agrees to his proposal, Flik actually believes they have accepted the merits of his plan, whereas the council actually saw it as a convenient way of simply keeping Flik from wreaking any more havoc with their food-gathering activities.

Flik finds his way to the Bug City garbage under a trailer, where he finds a group of recently fired circus performers, whose act had collapsed into chaos, and mistakes them for the warrior bugs he's seeking. The bug troupe, meanwhile, mistakes Flik for a talent agent who wants to book their act and agrees to travel with him back to Ant Island.

Both Flik and the circus troupe soon become aware of their respective mistakes. However, the rest of the ant colony and the queen had become convinced that these newcomers are indeed the warriors for which they had hoped when the Circus Bugs help Flik pull off a daring rescue of Dot, Atta's younger sister of the colony, who idolizes Flik and a wounded Francis, a ladybug performer of the Circus Bug troupe from a predatory bird. Flik was also able to gain Princess Atta's respect and apology to him in the process.

Caught between the opportunity to turn around his fortunes within the colony, and the knowledge that the bug troupe are not who they appear to be, Flik advocates building a fake bird to scare away Hopper, the leader of the grasshoppers, who is deeply afraid of birds. The ants unite behind Flik's plan until the circus ringmaster, P.T. Flea, arrives to retrieve his performers, thereby blowing Flik's cover. As punishment for deceiving the colony, Atta foolishly banishes Flik, who sadly joins the rest of the circus.

Meanwhile, at the grasshopper's home under a sombrero in a desert, Molt, Hopper's brother is tricked by other grasshoppers into trying to talk Hopper out of returning to Ant Island since they have more than enough food to last, and it will rain soon. Hopper in response shows his henchmen exactly why they are returning by burying the three who questioned him with hundreds of seeds. Saying that the ants and seeds are alike, ants may be puny by themselves, but they outnumber grasshoppers 100 to 1. They aren't returning because of food; they're returning to keep the ants from figuring out how powerful they really are.

Having wasted an enormous amount of time pursuing Flik's plan to stand up to the grasshoppers, the ants try desperately to gather enough food for a new offering, but due to the rapidly approaching winter season, they can't find enough food to meet the quota. When the grasshoppers return and are angered by the meager offering, Dot overhears Hopper's plan to squish the queen after receiving the full offering and convinces her friends to put Flik's bird plan back into action. With her wings finally grown in, she goes after Flik and convinces him and the Circus Bugs to return to save the colony from Hopper's tyranny.

With the Circus Bugs' deception and the bird springing to action, the plan nearly works, but when a confused P.T. inadvertently incinerates the bird, Hopper realizes he has been tricked and takes out his anger on the ants, but more onto his primary instigator, Flik. After absorbing a beating from Hopper's rabid, feral grasshopper Thumper and to Hopper's declaration of ants living under salvery to grasshoppers, Flik declares, in response to Hopper's claims of species superiority:

"You're wrong, Hopper. Ants are not meant to serve grasshoppers. I've seen these ants do great things, and year after year they somehow manage to pick enough food for themselves and you. So, who's the weaker species? Ants don't need grasshoppers! It's you who need us! We're a lot stronger than you say we are...and you know it, don't you?"

Indeed, Hopper's angered and worried expression leads Flik to realize that Hopper has always known how strong the ants are. However, Hopper's reaction to Flik's challenge in front of the whole ant colony, along with Princess Atta make them collectively realize that they vastly outnumber the grasshoppers, and that they needn't endure their oppression any longer. As Hopper tries to squish Flik, Atta defends him and revolts against Hopper.

The ants and the Circus Bugs rise up in a wave of fury and chase the grasshoppers, (excluding Molt) out for good, with Dot and Dim finally standing up to Thumper, but not before Hopper abducts Flik in a plan to exact revenge upon him. Flik's friends set off in pursuit of them, with Princess Atta in full admiration of Flik, rescuing him and thanks to some quick thinking by Flik, they lure Hopper to becoming devoured by a real bird and her chicks. Flik is welcomed back to the colony, and all the Circus Bugs join him in a celebration before departing from Ant Island.

## Cast

* Dave Foley as Flik
* Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Princess Atta
* Hayden Panettiere as Dot
* Kevin Spacey as Hopper
* Joe Ranft as Heimlich
* David Hyde Pierce as Slim
* Denis Leary as Francis
* Jonathan Harris as Manny
* Madeline Kahn as Gypsy
* Bonnie Hunt as Rosie
* Brad Garrett as Dim
* Michael Mchane as Tuck & Roll
* Phyllis Diller as the Queen
* Richard Kind as Molt
* John Ratzenberger a P.T. Flea
* Roddy McDowall as Mr. Soil
* Edie McClurg as Dr. Flora
* Alex Rocco as Thorny
* David Ossman as Cornelius
* David Lander as Thumper
* Jan Rabson as Axle
* Jack Angel as Thud
* Andrew Stanton as Harry
* John Lasseter as Harry's Friend
* Brian M. Rosen as Slick
* Rodger Bumpass as Bar Mosquito
* Debi Derryberry as Baby Maggots