(detailed information about this entry from Wikipedia)
A Bug's Life is a computer animated film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures and Buena Vista Distribution in the United States on November 14, 1998, and in the United Kingdom on 5 February 1999. It tells the tale of an oddball individualist ant who hires what he thinks are "warrior bugs" (actually circus performers) to fight off greedy grasshoppers. The film was directed by John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton.
The story of A Bug's Life is a retelling of Aesop's fable of The Ant and the Grasshopper. It is similar to the comedy ¡Three Amigos!, which is about out-of-work actors defending a town while thinking they're merely giving a performance, and it gives an obvious nod to Akira Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai (as well as its Hollywood remake, The Magnificent Seven), which is about Japanese villagers hiring a rag-tag group of swordsmen to fight off rampaging bandits.
Reviews for A Bug's Life were overwhelmingly positive at the time of the film's release, and it has remained popular since, although it is worth noting that it is the only film from Pixar not to place on IMDB's list of the top 250 films.
Plot synopsis
Flik is an oddball, an individualist and would-be inventor in a colony of ants that is oppressed by a gang of marauding grasshoppers, who arrive once a season demanding food from the ants. While working with an invention to pick fruit more efficiently, Flik accidentally destroys the offering that the ants were putting together to appease the grasshoppers. Given a temporary reprieve by the grasshoppers, the ants agree to Flik's plan to recruit "warrior bugs" to fight off the grasshoppers—Flik actually believes the plan, while the other ants see it as effectively exiling Flik.
Flik finds his way to the "big city" (The Garbage under a trailer), where he mistakes a group of circus bugs, whose act collapses into chaos, for the warrior bugs he's seeking. The bugs, meanwhile, mistake Flik for an agent who wants to book their act, and agree to travel with him back to Ant Island.
Flik eventually realizes his mistake and develops a new plan. He advocates building a fake bird to scare away Hopper, leader of the grasshoppers and deeply afraid of bug-eating birds. The ants unite behind Flik's plan until the circus' ringmaster arrives to retrieve the circus bugs, blowing Flik's cover.
The ants try desperately to pull together enough food for a new offering to the grasshopper, but it can't possibly be enough. Dot, a tiny royal ant, overhears Hopper's plan to kill the queen after the offering and gets her friends to put Flik's bird plan back in action. It nearly works, but when P.T. the ringmaster, burns the bird, Hopper knows he's been had. He's about to kill Flik when Flik says, "Ants don't serve grasshoppers! It's you who need us. We're a lot stronger than you say we are...and you know it, don't you?" The ants realize that, outnumbering the grasshoppers 100-to-1, they don't need to be oppressed by the grasshoppers anymore. They chase the grasshoppers out, but not before Hopper attempts his final vengeance. Thanks to some quick thinking by Flik, Hopper ends up being eaten by the (real) bird. Flik is welcomed back to the colony, and the circus bugs join him in a celebration.
Box office
A Bug's Life made approximately $162 million dollars in its U.S. theatrical run, easily covering its estimated production costs of $45 million. The film also earned £28,824,239 in its United Kingdom theatrical run.
Video release
The DVD of the film is the first wholly-digital transfer of a feature film to a digital playback medium. No analog processes came between the creation of the computer images and their representation on the DVD.
As well, the pan and scan or 'full screen' version of the video (on the DVD as well as VHS releases) has been reframed; rather than sacrifice image in some parts of the film, the frame has been extended or objects moved to fit the narrower aspect ratio. Pixar continued this process on its later video releases. Also, the different characters (Flik, Dot, Francis, etc.) were on one (by themselves) cover of the video cover, considered a collectible in many cases.
A laserdisc version was also released in Japan by Pioneer, one of the last.
Trivia
- At the scene where the bugs are "riding" the can you can see a Pizza Planet Cup from Toy Story.
- When the two bugs are arguing about the light you can see a Pizza Planet Truck.
- In the bloopers of "Toy Story 2", Flik was on a leaf talking about "A Bug's Life 2". Sadly, it wasn't to be.
- The Pizza Planet truck is parked next to the mobile home as Flik approaches the City.
- A Pizza Planet cup from Toy Story is seen above the bar as Flik enters.
- Woody, from Toy Story, can be spotted in an outtake during the credits.
- In one of the Outtakes at the end of the film, Flik cries out Buzz Lightyear's catchphrase "To Infinity And Beyond!".
- The names on the boxes that make up the City are all the names of the writers' kids. A few examples are: JuJu's Litter, Hannah's Bananas, and PJ Pop.
- The restaurant at Bug City is a can of "Low Fat Lard".
- The cookies from the box that that Flea's circus travels in contain 92 grams of protein per serving.
- Actor Roddy McDowall's last film.
- DVD version is first ever all-digital video transfer.
- The face of Geri from Geri's Game (a Pixar short) can be seen modeled in the tree above the ant colony.
- Woody from Toy Story appears holding the clapper in the second set of "outtakes".
- The otherwise-unintelligible pillbugs, Tuck & Roll, shout "Reuben Kincaid!" while building the bird. It's barely understandable, but shows up in the captions. Reuben Kincaid was a character in The Partridge Family.
- The circus "train" is made of boxes of animal crackers called Casey Jr. This is also the name of the circus train in the movie Dumbo.
- Atta is a genus of leaf-eating ants.
- The boxes in P.T. Flea's circus train have the name "J. Grant" on them. Joe Grant wrote Dumbo.
- This was the 1st computer generated feature film to be presented in a scope ratio of 2:35.1
- The film's plot is very similar to that of The Three Amigos. During the warriors' introduction Slim mumbles to Heimlich, "Wow, they sure are starved for entertainment" - a direct quote from the earlier film.
- A poster for Disney's "The Lion King - On Broadway" can be seen in the upper right-hand corner of the screen when Flik walks through the city traffic in Bug City.
- Dave Foley, who is Flik, originally tried out for the Slim, played by David Hyde Pierce.
- The tunnel in a tunnel joke was made in reference to Steve Jobs' (CEO of Pixar and Apple) plan for Apple's "store in a store".
- For the 1.33:1 video transfer, rather than pan-and-scan the original 2.35:1 theatrical image, Pixar actually re-used the original computer images, re-framed some scenes, and even to the point where they'd place characters to a different spot in the scene to fit into the 1.33:1 frame.
- The pickup truck to the left of the mobile home when the bug flies into the bug light is the same pizza delivery truck that Buzz and Woody climb into at the gas station in Toy Story.
- During the fake bird attack, Manny the praying mantis, voiced by Jonathan Harris, cries out "Oh, the pain!", a phrase often uttered by Dr.Harris Smith character in the TV show "Lost in Space".
- The two mosquitoes trapped in the light of the bugzapper ("Harry, don't go towards the light!" "I can't help it - it's so beautiful!") are the voices of the co-directors, John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton.
- During the first visit by the grasshoppers, Hopper mentions the "circle of life", an obvious reference to the Lion King.
- There is a 3-D movie based on this movie in Disneyland/DisneyWorld called "It's Tough To Be A Bug!" Also, Disney's California Adventure has an entire land based on this movie.
Other appearances
- The characters Flik and Hopper appear in the 3D movie attraction It's Tough To Be A Bug which can be found at the Disney's Animal Kingdom theme park in Walt Disney World, as well as at Disney's California Adventure. The Disney's California Adventure park also has an area of rides for younger kids called "a bug's land".
- Flik and Heimlich also appear in an "outtake" during the ending credits of the Pixar movie Toy Story 2. Heimlich appears alone on a leaf in one scene of that film, but is too small to easily see.
- Woody from Toy Story also appears in an outtake, holding a clapper, during the end credits.
- A scene from the film is recreated with cars in the ending credits of Cars. John Ratzenberg's character in Cars comments on the familiarity of the voice of P.T. Flea.
Voice cast
External links
Slovenski | 
English | 
Deutsche | 
Hrvatski | 
Srpski
A Bug's Life (1998) 
A Bug's Life (1998)
Allowed extensions: .jpg .png
A Bug's Life - Megaminimondo (1999) 
