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Revision as of 18:51, 14 October 2005
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" 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, 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.
Voice cast
- Flik - Dave Foley
- Hopper - Kevin Spacey
- Princess Atta - Julia Louis-Dreyfus
- Dot - Hayden Panettiere
- Queen - Phyllis Diller
- Molt - Richard Kind
- Slim - David Hyde-Pierce
- Heimlich - Joe Ranft
- Francis - Denis Leary
- Gypsy - Madeline Kahn
- Rosie - Bonnie Hunt
- P.T. Flea - John Ratzenberger
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" (a garbage dump), 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 a talent agent, 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 Hopper discovers he's been had. He's about to kill Flik when Flik says "you need us... 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, he 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 $120 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.
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 bugs 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.