BACKGROUND
Pixar had begun their filmmaking triumph by making one of the best animated movies of all time: Toy Story (1995). Toy Story is classed as one of Pixar’s finest movies, both for its story, its characters, and its technological feats.
But having one success is not enough for any film studio. Pixar had to keep going, they had to keep pushing the boundaries of computer animation, they had to be one of the best producers of family-friendly entertainment within quite a crowded market.
And so, Pixar set about making their second full-length feature film. This time instead of focusing on toys, something that all of us can relate to and will have fond memories of from our childhoods, Pixar went in a different direction, by focusing on something that many of us do not love, and actually some of us even fear: bugs.
A Bug’s Life had a lot to live up to after the ground-breaking Toy Story, with its sequel already in the works. This was going to be the “make-it-or-break-it” moment for Pixar, who had only just gone public as a company. Would Pixar prove to be a film studio with future potential, or would they be a “one-hit wonder”?
Luckily, A Bug’s Life was successful both critically and commercially, although having to live up to Toy Story was never going to be easy. Sadly, A Bug’s Life has not reached the heights of Pixar’s other early movie releases or even some of their later ones.
I’m one of those people that doesn’t like bugs. I find insects in general make my skin crawl, but put me anywhere near a wasp, a bee, or a spider and I will freak out. I’ve also seen way too many ants making their way into the houses I’ve lived in during the summer months that I have little to no appreciation for insects at all; they’re just gross.
That’s my perception of real-life insects, and yet, I really like A Bug’s Life. My family have always loved watching A Bug’s Life, probably because it’s really funny. It has some highly memorable quotes and brilliant voice performances, as well as a touching story. As I’ve gotten older, I still find myself laughing my head off during A Bug’s Life, and always cry at the moment where the ants stand up to Hopper; where the underdogs realise they are stronger than they thought they were.
It’s disappointing to see A Bug’s Life not being remembered in recent years, with much of its legacy long-gone and replaced with others things, be those more popular films, or new theme park attractions. What about A Bug’s Life has made it forgettable? I’d like to know the answer, because I just don’t understand it.
PLOT
A Bug’s Life begins with an opening shot of a large tree, before moving down to the ground, to “bug-level”, where we see that a colony of ants are harvesting crops to collect food, placing it on a leaf sat atop a huge stone. Princess Atta, the queen-to-be, is being trained by her mother, the Queen, so she can take over the ruling of the colony soon. She is anxious about a gap in the line of ants depositing food, after a leaf falls onto the ground, and about the annual event that they are preparing for: the arrival of the grasshoppers, who will come, eat the food, and leave, supposedly as payment for their “protection” of the ant colony.
One ant, Flik, has ideas to speed up this harvesting process, since having to do this throughout the summer means they themselves have very little time to pick their own food before “the rainy season”. He invents a machine that will harvest the crops quickly, but as he is practising using this device, he shoots one of the stalks directly onto Princess Atta, flattening her. He then does the same thing again, before realising what he’s done. Atta and the other ants angrily tell Flik to pick the grain like everybody else and he walks away, upset. Princess Dot, Atta’s little sister, follows Flik and tells him she likes his inventions and thinks he’s really smart. He tells her she’s the only person to have ever thought that. Dot feels like her and Flik are both under-appreciated, as she is a princess ant, but can’t even fly yet. Flik, using a rock and a tree as a metaphor, says that one day, Dot will grow up to be a great ant.
She doesn’t really understand what he’s talking about, but it doesn’t matter, because the signal is called, alerting the ants to the arrival of the grasshoppers. Atta tells everyone to leave any food they are holding on the Offering Stone and to make their way into the ant hill. Flik is the last one to do this, but his crops are on his invention, so he leaves the whole thing on the Offering Stone. It accidentally pings into the stone, sending all of the food into the water below. Flik is horrified and rushes to the ant hill to tell Atta.
As the ants nervously wait for the grasshoppers to leave, they overhear the grasshoppers complaining that there is no food. Everyone turns to Flik, demanding to know what he’s done. The grasshoppers crash into the ant hill and start to terrorise everyone. Hopper, the leader of the grasshopper gang, approaches the Queen and demands to know where their food is. Atta interrupts and asks if he’s sure the food isn’t up there. Hopper is thrown by this “change of management” and tells Atta that this is all her fault and orders the colony to try again. The ants complain there won’t be time for them to pick food for themselves if they do that. Hopper, to show them all who’s boss, uses a rabid grasshopper, Thumper, to threaten Princess Dot. Flik tells Hopper to leave her alone, but isn’t exactly forceful and Hopper scares Flik back in line. The grasshoppers leave, telling the ants they want double the amount of food now and that the ants had better get to it.
The next day, Flik is put on trial as the colony decide his punishment. He gets the idea that someone should go and get some “warrior bugs” so they can fight back against Hopper. Atta is disturbed by this idea, not believing that anyone can fight the grasshoppers, but she is quickly persuaded that perhaps having Flik leave the island to find these bugs would be best for the colony, so he can’t mess anything else up! Flik is given permission to go, so he sets out toward the city, despite no-one, except Dot, thinking he’ll come back alive!
In the city, a circus of bugs is performing, however, it’s a pretty bad circus. The circus is run by P.T. Flea, who keeps pushing out acts to try and get his customers to stay. He tries sending out his clowns, then his magic act, but nothing is working. P.T. then announces that they are about to perform the big finale, “Flaming Death”, where the circus performers will save someone from being burnt alive in just 15 seconds. But it all goes downhill very quickly. The timer is set off too early, no-one does their tasks properly, so P.T. ends up stuck to flypaper which then catches on fire, leaving him burnt to a crisp. He’s not dead though, and has just enough energy to fire all of the bugs, even though the fly spectators loved seeing someone almost burn to death!
Back with Flik, the city is quite overwhelming to him. He goes into a bar to look for tough guys, and who should happen to be there but the circus bugs. They are being bothered by some flies from the circus, so set about doing their “Robin Hood” act to fight them off, but once again, everything goes horribly wrong, and the bar, which is housed within a can, rolls away with everyone still in it. Flik tries to watch this spectacle but he’s pushed into the back of the crowd. As the can comes to a stop, Flik arrives just in time to see the circus bugs looking triumphant. Believing them to be great fighters, Flik begs them to come back with him to his colony, not exactly making it clear what would be expected of them. Since they are out of work and in fear of their lives from these bully flies, they go.
At Ant Island, the ants are exhausted and there isn’t enough food on the island to double Hopper’s food order. Dot has been waiting hopefully for Flik to return and on this day, he does, with “warrior bugs”. A party is held for their arrival, where it soon becomes clear that there’s been some sort of mix-up. The circus bugs tell Flik that they aren’t warriors and that they’d better go before they wind up dead from this big grasshopper-ant battle. Flik chases after them, pleading with them to stay so he doesn’t look like an idiot. Flik then sees a bird’s nest and tells everyone to run. Dot, meanwhile, has tried to fly again but falls on a dandelion seed and is swept away. Atta and the rest of the ants watch in horror as Dot is attacked by a bird. Francis, the ladybird from the circus, catches Dot, but they fall into a crack in the ground. Francis’ leg is hurt and the two are trapped. Flik and the rest of the circus bugs come up with a plan. Heimlich the caterpillar and Slim the stick insect will distract the bird whilst beetle Dim, Rosie the black widow spider, and Flik go to Dot and Francis. As per usual, this plan doesn’t work out as smoothly as hoped, but they escape the bird by flying into a row of thorny bushes. The circus bugs are now confirmed heroes.
Atta is worried she’s offended the circus bugs, because she thought they were just a bunch of clowns. She then tells Flik that Hopper is scared of birds too, which gives him an idea. He tells the circus bugs that they’ll build a bird that they can control to scare Hopper and the other grasshoppers away when they next arrive. The ants are on board with this plan and set about building this bird, hiding it in a tree, out of sight, once it’s finished.
Meanwhile, the grasshoppers have been having a great summer in their hideout in the desert. Some of the grasshoppers, including Molt, Hopper’s brother, don’t see the point in going back to Ant Island, having enough food here. Molt tells Hopper this and he is furious, telling the others that the ants outnumber them massively, and if they figure that out, then the grasshoppers lose their power. They will go back to Ant Island right now.
As the ants party away, they believe that the grasshoppers are coming – however, it is actually P.T. Flea, looking for his circus performers, since “Flaming Death” was a huge hit. This reveals to Atta and everyone else that the warriors are “just clowns”. Atta is so angry with Flik for his lies that she tells him to leave the colony and never come back. Him and the circus bugs leave. The Queen tells all the ants to pick as much food as they can now and to forget the bird plan. As the last leaf falls, the grasshoppers return as promised and Hopper is angry at the meagre offering of food they have picked. He tells the ants they aren’t leaving until every scrap of food on this island is given to them. The Queen is also held hostage. Dot and her young friends hide from the grasshoppers, overhearing Hopper’s plan to eat all the food and then squish the Queen. Dot goes for help, but is pursued by Thumper, the crazed grasshopper. He pushes her off a ledge, believing she’ll fall to her death, but she doesn’t. Dot has finally learnt how to fly! She flies off towards Flik and the others.
There, she tells Flik they need his help. Flik believes he’s a failure and that everyone is better off without him. The circus bugs try to convince Flik otherwise, but he doesn’t listen. Dot then leaves a rock next to him, and tells him to “pretend it’s a seed”, like he did to her earlier on to give her some belief in herself. Flik is now onboard and they all go back to Ant Island to fly their bird. The circus bugs distract Hopper to get the Queen to safety and then Flik and the young ants fly the bird towards him. Everything seems to be going well, until P.T. sees some of his circus bugs “injured” – it’s just berry juice – and sets the “bird” on fire. The bird crash lands, but everyone’s ok. Hopper demands to know who invented this plan. Flik says it was all his idea and is brutally beaten by Thumper. Flik tells Hopper that ants were never meant to serve grasshoppers and that they need the ants, not the other way around. Hopper turns to see all the ants linking arms in a show of unity; they won’t be going down without a fight. This is enough to scare some of the grasshoppers away, with the ants taking Hopper to the circus cannon, ready to shoot him into space.
But then, the rain starts to come down. In the chaos, Hopper pushes himself out of the cannon, grabbing Flik on the way, flying off with him. Atta and the circus bugs follow to rescue him. Eventually, Atta catches up and rescues Flik but he tells her to turn around, as he has a plan. She thinks he’s crazy but does it anyway. They find themselves by a bird’s nest in the pouring rain, with Hopper continuously beating Flik. A bird arrives. Hopper believes it to be another of Flik’s stupid pranks and goes closer to it. It turns out this bird is real – and it decides to feed Hopper to its very cute, fluffy little chicks. What a way to go…
After the rainy season, Atta is officially named Queen. The circus bugs, along with Molt, Hopper’s brother, head off on tour. They give Atta a gift of a rock, believing it to be some kind of “ant thing”, confusing everyone except Dot and Flik. As they are leaving, Heimlich emerges from his cocoon, not becoming a butterfly, but just having two tiny wings! He thinks he can fly, but the other circus bugs carry him away, as the ant colony thank them for all their help. Everyone is safe again.
CHARACTERS & CAST
Flik is the lead character of A Bug’s Life. He doesn’t fit in with the rest of the ant colony, not wanting to do what everyone else is doing just because that’s how it’s always been done. Ants are generally believed to be conformist and uniform. Flik is the complete opposite of that, opening himself up to criticism and being mocked, but that’s just how he is. Flik is very creative with all of his inventions, though this isn’t initially appreciated by the ant colony. Flik is the one who stands up to Hopper and he makes the other ants believe that they can fight the grasshoppers if they all stand together. Despite the ants generally finding him a nuisance, causing all sorts of problems for them, Flik is actually the catalyst for major change here, proving that you certainly shouldn’t judge anyone based on first impressions.
Dave Foley was chosen to be the voice of Flik. At the time, Foley was best known for being part of the comedy troupe The Kids in the Hall, which had its own sketch comedy series from 1988 to 1995. Some of his film credits include the role of Mr Jonathan Boy/All-American Boy, the Hero Support teacher, in the Disney movie Sky High (2005), as well as voice roles such as Terry in Monsters University (2013) for Pixar. On television, Foley appeared in the recurring role of Dr. Fulton in The Middle (2009-18), and was cast as Pat Hein in the Ken Jeong-created sitcom Dr. Ken (2015-17). More recently, Foley was cast as Danish Graves in Season 5 of the series Fargo (2014-present).
Princess Atta is quite high-strung. Everything panics her and makes her worried, which isn’t really a great quality to have in leadership but there you go! She is still learning, I suppose, but it is in complete contrast to her mother, the Queen, who is calm and experienced, yet also strong and capable when things do go wrong, like when Flik turns out to have lied to everyone about the identity of their “warriors”, calmly but boldly telling all the ants what they need to do next. Then you have Dot, who makes fun of her sister for being so easily stressed out, though Dot’s just a kid; she has no idea of the responsibility and pressure that is soon to be sitting on Atta’s shoulders as she’s trained to be queen. Luckily, Flik seems to be a calming influence on Atta, becoming much stronger in her opinions and actions once the two of them start to get along.
Atta was voiced by Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who at the time was cast as Elaine Benes in the sitcom Seinfeld (1989-1998). From 1982 to 1985, Louis-Dreyfus was also a cast member on Saturday Night Live (1975-present). In recent years, she was cast in the lead role of Selina Meyer in the hit political comedy series Veep (2012-19) and voiced the character of Laurel Lightfoot, Ian and Barley’s mother, in Pixar’s Onward (2020). She also voiced the part of Rochelle in the Disney film Planes (2013).
Phyllis Diller was chosen to be the voice of the Queen. Diller was one of the first female comedians to become a household name, having had roles in series such as The Pruitts of Southampton (1966-67) and performing on various variety shows such as The Andy Willams Show and The Bob Hope Show in the 1960s. A young Hayden Panettiere provides the voice of Dot. According to the Pixar team, she was the most professional young actress they’d worked with, not needing much direction and bringing lots of ideas and enthusiasm to her part. Panettiere went on to appear in movies such as Tiger Cruise (2004) and Ice Princess (2005) for Disney, as well as Bring It On: All or Nothing (2006). She also had main roles in series such as Heroes (2006-10), as Claire Bennet, and Nashville (2012-18), as Juliette Barnes. Ashley Tisdale, known for her Disney roles of Sharpay in the High School Musical series and as Maddy in The Suite Life of Zack and Cody (2005-08), apparently voiced one of Dot’s friends here, obviously when she was much younger.
For the circus bugs, there are a lot to mention here. First, we have Dim the beetle, who is quite childlike, having Rosie the black widow spider as his “tamer”, looking after him and making sure he doesn’t do anything silly or dangerous. We also have Manny the praying mantis, and his wife Gypsy the moth, who together have a magic act at the circus, claiming to be able to read minds and make things disappear. There are also the twin pill bugs Tuck and Roll who are very enthusiastic little acrobats, but are from Hungary and therefore can’t really communicate with anyone else! Then, there’s Slim the stick insect who is quite sensitive and proud, Francis the ladybird who has a bit of a temper, and the lovable Heimlich the caterpillar, who just wants to eat and become a butterfly. For me, the circus bugs really make A Bug’s Life the great film it is. Every one of them has their own personality and own ways of being funny. These characters are constant comic relief in the movie, with many quotable lines and slapstick moments.
Brad Garrett, known at the time for his role as Robert Barone in the sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond (1996-2005), voiced Dim, with Bonnie Hunt, who had starred in her own sitcom Bonnie (1995-96) before A Bug’s Life, voicing Rosie. Hunt went on to voice many roles for Disney and Pixar movies, including Sally in the Cars series and Dolly in Toy Story 3 (2010) and Toy Story 4 (2019). Jonathan Harris was chosen to be the voice of Manny, with his role as Dr. Zachary Smith in Lost in Space (1965-68) being one of his most known screen roles. Andrew Stanton, co-director of A Bug’s Life, was a very big fan of his from seeing Lost in Space as a child. The Pixar team loved hearing all of Harris’ stories from his career including his claim that Marlon Brando still owed him a dollar[1]! The role of Manny’s wife Gypsy went to Madeline Kahn, who had appeared in movies such as Blazing Saddles (1974) as Lili Von Shtupp, Young Frankenstein (1974) as Elizabeth Benning, and Clue (1985) as Mrs. White. Michael McShane, who was cast as Chris “Q” Todd in Tower of Terror (1997), voiced Tuck and Roll.
For Slim and Francis, their actors were David Hyde Pierce, who was starring as Dr. Niles Crane in Frasier (1993-2004) at the time, and Denis Leary, who went on to voice Diego the sabre tooth tiger in the Ice Age franchise. Heimlich was actually not voiced by a known actor, though his performance might suggest that it was done by a professional because it is just so hilarious. Heimlich was actually voiced by Pixar story supervisor Joe Ranft. Ranft had provided the scratch voice for the character throughout the story boarding process, but when John Lasseter’s wife heard his recording, she laughed so much that Lasseter gave the role to Ranft to perform in the movie. Ranft had been at CalArts with John Lasseter, joining Pixar in 1992. His first pieces of work included pitching and storyboarding the Green Army Men sequence for Toy Story (1995). Ranft worked on story development for all Pixar films until his death in 2005. He also voiced other characters for Pixar’s movies, including Wheezy in Toy Story 2 (1999) and Jacques the Shrimp in Finding Nemo (2003). Ranft died in a car accident in 2005, during production on the movie Cars (2006) which he co-directed[2].
Now, let’s get to the villain – and his brother. The menacing, intimidating Hopper rules both the ant colony and his own grasshopper gang with an iron fist, not allowing anyone to have their opinion and step out of line since this is his world and everyone else is just living in it. He doesn’t care about anyone else, not even his own brother, Molt, who he supposedly only hasn’t killed yet because he promised their mother on her death bed that he wouldn’t. Hopper is a very good Pixar villain, one of the best in my opinion. Molt isn’t mean and he certainly isn’t a tough grasshopper. He’s just stuck in this gang because he has nowhere to go without them – that is until the end where he is allowed to join the circus, though he’s seemingly just some sort of lackey, which is a real shame because Molt is such a sweet guy; he deserves some appreciation!
Molt was voiced by Richard Kind, who had roles in television series such as Mad About You (1992-99, 2019) as Dr. Mark Devanow and Spin City (1996-2002) as Paul Lassiter at the time of A Bug’s Life’s production. Kind went on to have the recurring role of Cousin Andy in Curb Your Enthusiasm (2000-24), and the recurring voice role of Al Tuttle in American Dad! (2005-present). For Pixar, Kind has also returned to voice other characters, such as Bookworm in Toy Story 3 (2010), Bing Bong in Inside Out (2015) and Van in Cars (2006) and Cars 2 (2011). Kind seems to have a role in the new season of Only Murders in the Building (2021-present), with that being released on 27th August 2024.
Then there’s Kevin Spacey as the voice of Hopper. Spacey had an incredible acting career, winning two Academy Awards, one for Best Supporting Actor for his role in The Usual Suspects (1995) and for Best Actor for American Beauty (1999), amongst many other awards. Spacey’s career continued with roles in 21 (2008), Horrible Bosses (2011) and its 2014 sequel, and Baby Driver (2017) and was cast as Frank Underwood in the critically acclaimed series House of Cards (2013-18). In 2017, in light of numerous sexual assault allegations, he was removed from the show and was also removed from his role in Ridley Scott’s All the Money in the World (2017) being replaced by Christopher Plummer. In recent years, Spacey has been attempting to make a comeback in the acting world, with some notable actors coming out to support him, as he was found not guilty of the sexual assault charges. It is unclear whether Spacey will be successful in his efforts to revive his career.
Now, on a lighter note, all Pixar fans will notice that I have not yet mentioned one actor who had a role in every Pixar movie up until Onward (2020), since he was the studio’s “good luck charm”. That actor is John Ratzenberger who voiced P.T. Flea in A Bug’s Life, after voicing Hamm in Toy Story (1995). The Pixar team loved how he approached all his performances, and had so many ideas on how to deliver his lines. Though some of his roles in Pixar movies are minor, Ratzenberger’s personality and humour always comes through.
MUSIC
Singer-songwriter Randy Newman returned to the Pixar Studios to write the music and compose the score for A Bug’s Life after his work on Toy Story (1995), which had received two Academy Award nominations, one for Best Song and another for Best Score. Newman is a regular contributor to the music on Pixar movies.
Pixar do not make musicals, though some of their movies do contain a few songs. In the case of A Bug’s Life, though, only one original song was written for the movie and that is “The Time of Your Life”, which appears during the End Credits, performed by Newman. This is a nice, upbeat tune to match the happy ending of A Bug’s Life but it is not one of Pixar’s best songs. I don’t feel that it reflects the overall message of A Bug’s Life, and seems to just be about living your life to the fullest, which is a positive thought but not exactly what A Bug’s Life was all about.
Having said that, I do enjoy much of Randy Newman’s score for A Bug’s Life. I particularly like “The Bird Flies” and “Ants Fight Back”, which obviously happens as the ants are fighting against the grasshoppers. I also really like the music as the ants are building the bird, which feels like the main theme of the movie, because it’s very triumphant, and the theme for the Bug City, as it matches Flik’s feeling of being overwhelmed by the noise and sounds of this bustling place.
The score was nominated for both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award in 1999, however, lost out to Shakespeare in Love (1998) and The Truman Show (1998) respectively. “The Time of Your Life” as well as the score from A Bug’s Life were both nominated for Grammy Awards in 2000, winning Best Instrumental Composition, but losing Best Song to “Beautiful Stranger” from the second Austin Powers movie. Random.
PRODUCTION
After Toy Story (1995) received critical acclaim, it was only natural that audiences were excited to see what Pixar could do next. The animators working there felt the same.
A Bug’s Life was going to be their second feature-length film, so there was a lot of pressure. They had to at least be as good as Toy Story in some ways, and better in others, if Pixar Animation wanted to prove itself as a film studio to watch. Pixar Animation as a company had gone public shortly after the release of Toy Story, meaning A Bug’s Life was going to be Pixar’s first movie since that event. The animators knew this next movie was going to be tough and challenging, and there were some concerns they may not be able to match the achievements of Toy Story.
The idea for A Bug’s Life was developed at a basic level in 1994. Pixar were toying with making an adaptation of Aesop’s fable The Ant and the Grasshopper. The Ant and the Grasshopper is about an ant spending its summer storing up food ready for the winter, whereas a lazy grasshopper spends his summer not doing anything useful. When winter comes, the grasshopper begs the ant for food, but the ant refuses to give him any, saying that the grasshopper shouldn’t have wasted his whole summer and should have planned for the future. This might be a story about the importance of hard work, but it seems a bit mean if you ask me. What happened to the importance of helping those in need, huh? But I’m not Aesop, I don’t have a ton of stories credited to me, so who cares what I think? Disney had previously adapted this fable into The Grasshopper and the Ants in 1934 as part of Disney’s popular Silly Symphonies series of animated short films.
Anyway, the general idea was: what if this scorned grasshopper rounded up a bunch of his friends so they could go and bully this ant colony? With that in mind, the first story of A Bug’s Life actually focused on Red, a red ant, who was the Ringmaster of the circus and not a part of the ant colony. Flik was still a character here though, and he would still be wanting to hire warrior bugs to fight off the grasshoppers. Red would have convinced Flik to hire his out-of-work circus performers. It soon became clear that Red as a main character was not working, because Red was not involved in the colony, and he could just leave it whenever something went wrong. Flik ended up being the focus of A Bug’s Life; he was a part of the colony and wanted to help change things for them. Andrew Stanton, the co-director on A Bug’s Life in his directorial debut, said to himself he was just going to write the script of this idea until it did or didn’t work. John Lasseter, the other co-director here, was given Stanton’s script to read and liked this new story with Flik at the heart of it[3]. Pixar Animation then pitched their idea to Disney, since they had an agreement to produce a number of films for Disney. CEO Michael Eisner liked the idea and production was greenlit.
But making a computer-animated version of the real-world from a bug’s point of view wasn’t going to be easy, nor was it going to be simple to convince audiences to watch a whole movie about “icky” bugs. As research, the team closely observed nature around them, like grassy areas, using a “bug cam” to view the world as the size of an ant. They discovered that the leaves are translucent at that level, like the whole world is full of stained-glass windows. They also studied insects up close, to see how they move, and using their characteristics to give them a personality or a purpose in the “bug world”[4]. Some of examples of these could be that big, sturdy beetle that is used as a bus in the city, Heimlich being a greedy caterpillar, since caterpillars eat a lot – remember The Very Hungry Caterpillar story? – and Rosie talking about her many dead husbands since she is a “widow” spider, and a long-standing perception is that female black widow spiders kill their mates.
To make all of this in computer animation was going to be difficult, especially as technology is always advancing and changing. The terrain in A Bug’s Life had to look realistic, with many different terrains and organic growth to represent on screen. There are many characters in A Bug’s Life, and each and every ant had to be unique. This was not an easy thing to do with crowd scenes, but a colony of ants means there had to be a lot of ants on screen. At the time, the technology apparently could not deal with crowd scenes of more than 50 characters, so that was something that had to be figured out on the job. The moment when all the ants link arms together is a huge crowd scene, but it was a big moment in the film, showing them standing united against a common enemy; it had to be in the movie[5]. A Bug’s Life was also going to be made in widescreen, giving them yet another challenge.
Over the years, Pixar has found ways of incorporating Easter eggs into their movies, with many of these recurring in every Pixar movie to date. The iconic A113, referencing the classroom that many of the animators were taught in during their time learning character animation at the California Institute of the Arts, also known as CalArts, appears in A Bug’s Life on the side of a box that Flik walks past in the city. It is also followed by 1195, which likely points to the November 1995 release date of Toy Story. The Pizza Planet truck, first seen in Toy Story, is another classic Pixar Easter egg, which can be found in A Bug’s Life next to a trailer during the scenes of Flik’s journey to the city. Another Easter egg, this time paying tribute to Disney, is that P.T. Flea’s circus wagons are boxes of Casey Jr. Cookies, which references the Casey Jr. Circus Train in Dumbo (1941). If you look closely at this box, you’ll also see that it was made by “J Grant Bakery”, referencing Disney storyboard artist Joe Grant – plus, you can read the cookies’ questionable nutritional value!
At the end of their four-year production schedule, A Bug’s Life was finally ready for its release. A couple of weeks before its release though, John Lasseter got a call from Steve Jobs, saying that they had be invited to show the movie to the President and the First Lady, those figures being Bill and Hillary Clinton in 1998. They were all invited to Camp David for the event. Andrew Stanton even stated that he could hear one of the Secret Service men stifling his laughter behind him during the screening, obviously trying to stay professional whilst he was on duty! It was a surreal, but once-in-a-lifetime experience, to end production[6].
RECEPTION
After its premiere at the El Capitan theatre on 14th November 1998, A Bug’s Life was released to the masses on 25th November 1998, during Thanksgiving weekend. It performed well during that time, ranking top of the box office and grossing $45.7 million in those five days. It went on to gross $363.3 million worldwide, with $200 million of that coming from international markets.
A Bug’s Life’s reviews were also generally positive to match the successful financial results. It was found to be funny, memorable, and technologically impressive. Although it was not considered to be better than Toy Story, it was still a successful movie from Pixar and promised audiences many more great movies to come from this studio and its animators. This was enough to take some of that pressure off; Pixar had succeeded in making another great movie after Toy Story, so they were officially not just “one-hit wonders”. Some were more critical and claimed that A Bug’s Life did not have enough charm. I disagree with this.
As is quite typical for Pixar, their movie was also released alongside one of their classic short films. In this case, A Bug’s Life was released alongside Geri’s Game. Geri’s Game is one of my favourite Pixar short films. It is about an elderly man who is playing chess in the park by himself. He takes his glasses on and off to become two different personalities, with the man without glasses being quite aggressive and cocky in his style of play. The man with glasses later proceeds to have a heart attack. The man without glasses is concerned, but he needn’t be; the “other” guy just faked it so he could turn the board around and win the game for himself. It’s quite a funny short film, but it’s actually kind of sad if you think about, having a lonely old man playing chess on his own…Geri’s Game won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 1998 and the Annie Award for Best Animated Short Subject in 1998, amongst other accolades. Geri’s Game was first released in November 1997.
A Bug’s Life was also released with outtakes, with these appearing during the End Credits. Although Pixar had originally planned to create some bloopers for Toy Story, there had been no time to do this, so the first Pixar bloopers appear in A Bug’s Life, only going on to do more bloopers for Toy Story 2 (1999) and Monsters, Inc. (2001). Since A Bug’s Life does not involve human actors – spoiler alert – these outtakes were not real and were loosely scripted, with some improvisation coming from the voice actors as well[7]. I’ve always loved bloopers on any movie or TV series, I just like to laugh, so I love all three sets of Pixar bloopers, especially as it gives us a feeling that these animated characters are in fact real actors, which is a nice twist. It might also help some kids cope with the more villainous characters, by imagining that they were just actors doing a job and aren’t scary in real life.
An alternate set of outtakes also appeared on the home video and DVD release, with Woody even making a cheeky appearance. Geri’s Game is another bonus feature found on video and DVD too. The first of the home releases was in April 1999, where A Bug’s Life became the first film to be digitally transferred directly from the original computer imagery rather than the standard film-to-tape process. This allowed the Pixar animators to reframe A Bug’s Life to fit TV dimensions, with the widescreen format still being available to watch as well. They knew that when the decision was made to make A Bug’s Life in widescreen that it would look awful on video, so time was set aside to go back into the computer, resize and readjust scenes to make sure it looked great anywhere[8].
A Bug’s Life was nominated for Best Animated Feature, Best Direction, Best Production Design, and Best Writing at the Annie Awards, but lost to The Iron Giant (1999) in all cases, which just so happened to be directed by future Pixar director, Brad Bird.
Now, I can’t just leave the release of A Bug’s Life there, because, as many people know, it wasn’t an easy atmosphere for Pixar to be releasing their second feature film. Jeffrey Katzenberg was the Chairman of Walt Disney Studios from 1984. He is credited with the turnaround of Disney Animation, from its struggles of the 1980s to its “Renaissance Era” of the 1990s. However, after rumoured rifts with CEO Michael Eisner, Katzenberg left Disney in 1994, after the release of The Lion King (1994) He went on to co-found a different animation studio, that little company called DreamWorks, supposedly planning to outdo both Disney and Pixar with his own animated movies.
Coincidentally, or perhaps not quite so coincidentally, in 1998, DreamWorks released their own computer animated movie about ants, called Antz – with a “z” because that makes it cool. Antz was released in October 1998, just a few weeks before Pixar’s A Bug’s Life. It has been said that Katzenberg stole his idea for the movie from Pixar since Katzenberg had heard John Lasseter’s initial pitch for A Bug’s Life, then called Bugs, in 1994 prior to his departure from Disney. Katzenberg says that the story of Antz actually came from a story pitch by Nina Jacobson, one of DreamWorks’ executives, and that he stole nothing.
Although Antz’ general concept is similar to A Bug’s Life, with both being about worker ants who don’t fit in with the rest of the colony, they have just as many differences as similarities. Despite both films doing well at the box office and with audiences and critics, the toxicity between the two studios was obvious to the press, as public digs were made between the feuding sides[9]. As further competition, DreamWorks then released The Prince of Egypt on 18th December 1998 to go against A Bug’s Life. This didn’t work out so well for DreamWorks though. A Bug’s Life became the highest grossing animated film of 1998, with Disney’s Mulan, released in October 1998, not featuring too far behind it.
I didn’t watch Antz as a child. I don’t know if this was one of those things where families were either “Team Antz” or “Team Bug’s Life”, but in my family, we were definitely “Team Bug’s Life”. I had seen clips of Antz on television through the years, and I wasn’t impressed by the story or the animation style. I finally watched it in full in my mid-20s and I still didn’t like it – sorry to all those Antz fans out there; it just looks so weird to me. Antz was considered to be funnier, especially for adults, than A Bug’s Life and it has an all-star voice cast, with the likes of Jennifer Lopez, Christopher Walken, Sharon Stone, Gene Hackman, and Sylvester Stallone signing up to be part of the cast. A Bug’s Life is generally seen to be the winner in terms of story and animation though, as well as doubling Antz’ box-office worldwide figure of $170 million.
LEGACY
A Bug’s Life is the only movie within what I call Pixar’s “Early Years”, from 1995 to 2005, to not receive a sequel or a prequel. In one of the outtakes for Toy Story 2 (1999), there is a jokey mention to A Bug’s Life 2, with Heimlich telling Flik he got them a part in a “2 movie” but not A Bug’s Life 2. Buzz then promptly karate chops away the leaves they are standing on. A Bug’s Life 2 has been rumoured over the years, but I doubt it will ever be made as A Bug’s Life does not have the same commercial success or merchandising possibilities as other Pixar franchises like Toy Story and Cars. Maybe it was just so good it didn’t need a sequel to overcomplicate the story and push the characters too far until it loses all sense of what made the original films great…
Just after A Bug’s Life’s 25th anniversary, National Geographic released a 10-episode documentary series in 2024 called A Real Bug’s Life, which was narrated by Awkwafina and can be found on Disney+. This series tells the stories of insects struggling to survive in different environments, like cities, farms, and rainforests. I don’t like looking at real insects so I’ll give that a miss and stick to A Bug’s Life!
At the Disney Parks, once upon a time, A Bug’s Life did have a presence, however, this presence has either already been removed or there are plans in place to do so. The longest running A Bug’s Life-themed attraction is at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Park at Walt Disney World in Florida. The park opened on 22nd April 1998 with this attraction, months before A Bug’s Life was even released in theatres.
The base of the park’s icon The Tree of Life was planned to be either a restaurant or a show, with a show based on The Lion King (1994) being initially considered. CEO Michael Eisner then thought that they could combine this show attraction with Pixar’s new movie, since both would open in 1998, and because bugs live in and around trees, so it seemed like a natural solution for this space. Imagineering consulted with Pixar so that they could use characters from the movie in this new attraction, but also created new ones specifically for the show[10]. The queue line and theatre are both situated at the base of the tree, with the design making it feel as though guests are navigating narrow tunnels and climbing over huge roots. The pre-show waiting area features posters and music parodying famous Broadway musicals, such as “My Fair Ladybug”, “Antie”, “Web Side Story” and “Beauty and the Bees”.
It’s Tough to Be a Bug is a nine-minute show which showcases the talents of different insects through a variety of acts. It is hosted by Flik, both on screen and as an animatronic from the ceiling, with Dave Foley returning to voice his character, Some of these other featured bugs include Chili the tarantula, voiced by Cheech Marin, who voiced Tito in Oliver & Company (1998); the Dung Beetle Brothers, voiced by SpongeBob himself, Tom Kenny; and Weevil Kneevil, voiced by Jason Alexander, Hugo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996). Hopper is also here to terrorise everyone, with his Audio-Animatronic figure being the most sophisticated and advanced one created by Imagineering at the time. Andrew Stanton, the co-director of A Bug’s Life, provides the voice of Hopper in It’s Tough to Be a Bug. This is a 4D show, complete with 3D “bug eye” glasses and special effects, like water sprays, pumped in smells, puffs of air, rollers in the seats, and high-speed fans to recreate the feeling of being around these bugs[11]. It even has its own Broadway musical-style song! Since this show is quite intense for children – and adults if they have a fear of creepy crawlies – guests are warned that they may not like the experience and are told to exit the show at the beginning if they don’t want to stay. I’ll admit I have been one of those people.
Although It’s Tough to Be a Bug is currently still showing, it is believed that it is likely to close soon, as a replacement based on Zootopia (2016) has already been announced by Disney. At the D23 Expo in 2024, the name of the show was announced to be Zootopia Better Zoogether and will open in Winter 2025, however, a closing date for It’s Tough to Be a Bug has still not been confirmed.
Disneyland’s Disney California Adventure Park used to have a whole area themed to A Bug’s Life. Originally, they just had It’s Tough to Be a Bug as an opening day attraction at Disney California Adventure when it opened on 8th February 2001. The park suffered from low attendance and bad reviews from the outset, leading to many changes being made in its first year or two. In October 2002, Flik’s Fun Fair opened, next to the theatre housing It’s Tough to Be a Bug, with this whole area becoming A Bug’s Land. The area consisted of Flik’s Flyers, a spinner ride, which has since been rethemed to Inside Out Emotional Whirlwind and moved to Pixar Pier; Heimlich’s Chew Chew Train, a kiddie coaster, with one of its front vehicles being moved to Pixar Studios in Emeryville in memory of Joe Ranft, the voice of Heimlich; Francis’ Ladybug Boogie, another spinning ride; Princess Dot Puddle Park water play area; and Tuck and Roll’s Drive ‘Em Buggies bumper cars. A Bug’s Land closed on 4th September 2018 to make way for Avengers Campus, which opened 4th June 2021.
With Disney California Adventure Park having Pixar Pier, this area has somewhat kept the memory of A Bug’s Life alive. For example, one of its Games of Pixar Pier is called Heimlich’s Candy Corn Toss. Lamplight Lounge, a table-service restaurant in the area, celebrates the whole catalogue of Pixar movies, so you’d think you would be able to find some sort of artwork or something from A Bug’s Life there! There is also Pixar Fest at Disneyland, which had its inaugural run in 2018 and only properly returned in 2024, so it may or may not be an annual event now, running from April to August in 2024. Perhaps surprisingly, A Bug’s Life did not feature in their live entertainment, like stage shows, parades, or fireworks shows, however, there was a photo spot area with the Casey Jr. Cookies circus wagon. Some fans of the movie were very unhappy with the lack of reference to A Bug’s Life at Pixar Fest, and rightly so, because Pixar Fest should’ve been able to celebrate ALL their movies, be they new, old, popular, or underrated. It should not have ignored Pixar’s second movie. Had A Bug’s Life not been successful, then potentially Pixar would not have been able to create the great movies that came after it.
This doesn’t get much better at Pixar Place Hotel, which was recently refurbished, changing its name from Paradise Pier Hotel and reopening in January 2024. A Bug’s Life appears to have been left out of one of their lobby murals, and the most obvious references you’re likely to find seem to be the Heimlich-inspired sofa in the lobby, and a light feature at the concierge-level club lounge, The Creators Club, that was from A Bug’s Land.
There used to be a couple of references to A Bug’s Life at Tokyo Disneyland, with A Bug’s Life having floats in the original version of Tokyo Disneyland Electrical Parade: Dreamlights, running from 2001 to 2007. The first float consisted of Tuck, Roll, Gypsy, and Francis in the circus wagon, being driven by Manny and Dim, with Slim following on behind them. The second float had Atta and Flik standing on top of a flowery hill. This A Bug’s Life section was later removed when the Dreamlights parade was revamped in 2007.
The other reference was from the live stage show One Man’s Dream II: The Magic Lives On, a sequel to the stage show One Man’s Dream, which ran at both Tokyo Disneyland and Disneyland in the late 1980s and 1990s, with both shows consisting of performances by Disney and Pixar movie characters. One Man’s Dream II ran from 2004 until 2019 at Tokyo Disneyland and featured a whole segment dedicated to A Bug’s Life. It involved the ants collecting food with Flik bringing the circus bugs to the ant colony to perform their acts. There was also a chorus line of ants to end this part of the show.
As for meet-and-greets, Flik and Princess Atta used to meet guests fairly frequently at both A Bug’s Land at Disney California Adventure and at Disney’s Animal Kingdom at Walt Disney World. For Animal Kingdom’s 25th anniversary in 2023, the pair were spotted meeting guests once more and occasionally pop up for the park’s Earth Day celebrations, though they don’t seem to have done so in 2024. At Pixar Pier at Disney California Adventure, Flik and Atta were out and about for the first Pixar Fest in 2018, but were not around in 2024. It seems that Flik and Atta are now very much rare characters, most likely to appear for Special Events, alongside some of the other movie characters like Slim, Manny, and Gypsy.
It is a shame that A Bug’s Life has been forgotten at the Disney Parks, and that is probably why the general public have also begun to forget it, unless it’s around a milestone anniversary when suddenly all the merchandise and the pins show up for a month. Many of the Disney Parks have chosen other Pixar movies as theming for their attractions, rides, and lands, with those most popular ones being Toy Story, Cars, Finding Nemo, and Ratatouille, despite the US Parks having referenced A Bug’s Life early on.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Although apparently not as popular as it once was, A Bug’s Life, I think, stands up perfectly well next to Toy Story (1995), even though critics do not seem to have agreed. For me, Pixar’s A Bug’s Life is their most hilarious movie. I think it’s highly quotable, funny for both children and adults, and it has an important message about standing up for yourself even if the odds don’t seem to be in your favour. The improvement in what Pixar could do with computer animation technology is also very impressive here, so that is another achievement.
Some might claim that A Bug’s Life is being left out of Pixar’s legacy because of its closeness to Kevin Spacey, but I don’t think that’s true because Pixar have been forgetting about A Bug’s Life for years. As evidence of this, back in 2004, when trailers began to appear for The Incredibles (2004), the titles said that this movie was from the makers of Toy Story, Monsters, Inc., and Finding Nemo, with no mention of A Bug’s Life. This led to some of the Pixar animators putting up posters and wearing t-shirts to spread the love and appreciation for A Bug’s Life once again. They also held an annual event where they did a read through of A Bug’s Life with the staff and some of the original voice cast if they were available[12]. I have no idea if this still happens, I’m going to assume not though.
Pixar’s movie slate has recently become full of sequels as Disney look to milk their most popular franchises for all they are worth. Perhaps A Bug’s Life is best staying out of the Disney corporation’s blatantly obvious ways of making a quick buck anyway.
REFERENCES
[1] Credit: Pixar, Filmmakers’ Roundtable (2009), Disney+.
[2] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘In His Own Words: Joe Ranft’, CartoonResearch.com, 7th June 2019.
[3] Credit: Pixar, Filmmakers Roundtable (2009), Disney+.
[4] Credit: Pixar, Living A Bug’s Life (1998).
[5] Credit: Pixar, The Pixar Story (2007).
[6] Credit: Pixar, Filmmakers Roundtable (2009), Disney+.
[7] Credit: Jeff Howard and Dave Neill, ‘‘A Bug’s Life’ bloopers explained by director’, LasVegasSun.com, 18th December 1998.
[8] Credit: Susan King, ‘A New Look for ‘Bug’’, LATimes.com, 22nd April 1999.
[9] Credit: Michael Lyons, ‘Small Wonder: The 25th Anniversary of “A Bug’s Life”’, CartoonResearch.com, 24th November 2023.
[10] Credit: Jim Korkis, More Secret Stories of Walt Disney World (2016), ‘It’s Tough to Be a Bug’, pp. 61-62.
[11] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘A Friday Visit with Jim Korkis: The Bugs of It’s Tough to be a Bug’, YourFirstVisit.net, date unknown.
[12] Credit: Pixar, Filmmakers Roundtable (2009), Disney+.
The Disney Purist 