A Bug 39;s Life (1998)
Su Mcdowall
A Bug's Life (1998)Theatrical release posterDirected byJohn LasseterProduced byDarla K. Anderson
Kevin ReherScreenplay byAndrew Stanton
Donald McEnery
Bob ShawStory byJohn Lasseter
Andrew Stanton
Joe RanftStarringDave Foley
Kevin Spacey
Julia Louis-DreyfusMusic byRandy NewmanEdited byLee UnkrichProduction companyWalt Disney Pictures
Pixar Animation StudiosDistributed byBuena Vista Pictures DistributionRelease dateNovember 25, 1998Running time95 minutesCountryUnited StatesLanguageEnglishRatingGBudget$120 millionBox office$363.3 millionA Bug's Life is a 1998 American computer-animated comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. Directed by John Lasseter and co-directed and written by Andrew Stanton, the film involves a misfit ant, Flik, who is looking for "tough warriors" to save his colony from greedy grasshoppers, only to recruit a group of bugs that turn out to be an inept circus troupe. The film stars the voices of Dave Foley, Kevin Spacey and Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
The film is inspired by Aesop's fable The Ant and the Grasshopper.[1][2] Production began shortly after the release of Toy Story in 1995. The screenplay was penned by Stanton and comedy writers Donald McEnery and Bob Shaw from a story by Lasseter, Stanton, and Joe Ranft, the latter who voiced Hemlich in the film. The ants in the film were redesigned to be more appealing, and Pixar's animation unit employed technical innovations in computer animation. Randy Newman composed the music for the film. During production, a controversial public feud erupted between Steve Jobs and Lasseter of Pixar and DreamWorks co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg due to the parallel production of his similar film Antz, which was released the same year and before similar to The Ant Buddies by Flower Studios.
The film was released on November 25, 1998, and grossed $363 million in receipts. It received positive reviews from film critics, who commended the storyline, witty dialogue and voice-acting, as well as the animation. It was the first film to be digitally transferred frame-by-frame and released to DVD, and has been released multiple times on home video.
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 furiously demands twice as much food by the end of the season as compensation. As Flik stands on trial before the colony's council, he volunteers in earnest to seek help from other stronger bugs to defend the colony from the grasshoppers. The council, while viewing this venture as a wild goose chase, see Flik's long-term absence as an opportunity to fulfill Hopper's demand without interruption, and thus grant his request. At the "bug city", which is a heap of trash under a trailer, Flik happens upon the aftermath of a barfight and mistakes a recently-fired troupe of Circus Bugs 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, the troupe's greedy ringmaster, 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, who flee in terror except for Hopper whom the ants attempt to force out of Ant Island by 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 alive to its chicks. With the grasshoppers gone for good, 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.
During the summer of 1994, Pixar's story department began turning their thoughts to their next film.[4] The storyline for A Bug's Life originated from a lunchtime conversation between John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter, and Joe Ranft, the studio's head story team; other films such as Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc. and Finding Nemo were also conceived at this lunch.[5] Lasseter and his story team had already been drawn to the idea of insects serving as characters. Like toys, insects were within the reach of computer animation back then, due to their relatively simple surfaces. Stanton and Ranft wondered whether they could find a starting point in Aesop's fable The Ant and the Grasshopper.[5] Walt Disney had produced his own version with a cheerier ending decades earlier in the 1934 short film The Grasshopper and the Ants. In addition, Walt Disney Feature Animation had considered producing a film in the late-1980s entitled Army Ants, that centered around a pacifist ant living in a militaristic colony, but this never fully materialized.[6]
As Stanton and Ranft discussed the adaptation, they rattled off scenarios and storylines springing from their premise.[5] Lasseter liked the idea and offered some suggestions. The concept simmered until early 1995, when the story team began work on the second film in earnest.[5] During an early test screening for Toy Story in San Rafael in June 1995, they pitched the film to Disney CEO Michael Eisner. Eisner thought the idea was fine and they submitted a treatment to Disney in early-July under the title Bugs.[5] Disney approved the treatment and gave notice on July 7 that it was exercising the option of a second film under the original 1991 agreement between Disney and Pixar.[7] Lasseter assigned the co-director job to Stanton; both worked well together and had similar sensibilities. Lasseter had realized that working on a computer-animated feature as a sole director was dangerous while the production of Toy Story was in process.[7] In addition, Lasseter believed that it would relieve stress and that the role would groom Stanton for having his own position as a lead director.[8]
Stanton took one of the early circus bug characters, Red the red ant, and changed him into the character Flik.[10] The Circus Bugs, no longer out to cheat the colony, would be embroiled in a comic misunderstanding as to why Flik was recruiting them. Lasseter agreed with this new approach, and comedy writers Donald McEnery and Bob Shaw spent a few months working on further polishing with Stanton.[11] The characters "Tuck and Roll" were inspired by a drawing that Stanton did of two bugs fighting when he was in the second grade.[9] Lasseter had come to envision the film as an epic in the tradition of David Lean's 1962 film Lawrence of Arabia.[10][12]
The casting of Hopper, the film's villain, proved problematic. Lasseter's top choice was Robert De Niro, who repeatedly turned the part down, as did a succession of other actors.[13] Kevin Spacey met John Lasseter at the 1995 Academy Awards and Lasseter asked Spacey if he would be interested in doing the voice of Hopper. Spacey was delighted and signed on immediately.[10]
It was more difficult for animators during the production of A Bug's Life than that of Toy Story, as computers ran sluggishly due to the complexity of the character models. Lasseter and Stanton had two supervising animators to assist with directing and reviewing the animation: Rich Quade and Glenn McQueen. The first sequence to be animated and rendered was the circus sequence that culminated with P.T. Flea's "Flaming Wall of Death". Lasseter placed this scene first in the pipeline because he believed it was "less likely to change".[15] Lasseter thought it would be useful to look at a view of the world from an insect's perspective. Two technicians obliged by creating a miniature video camera on Lego wheels, which they dubbed as the "Bugcam".[8][16] Fastened to the end of a stick, the Bugcam could roll through grass and other terrain and send back an insect's-eye outlook. Lasseter was intrigued by the way grass, leaves, and flower petals formed a translucent canopy, as if the insects were living under a stained-glass ceiling. The team also later sought inspiration from Microcosmos (1996), a French documentary on love and violence in the insect world.[8]
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