Pixar Month - A Bug's Life (1998)

         Hey guys, Chuck here. As we continue with Pixar Month, I'd like to talk about some behind-the-scenes history at the Disney studio. Back in the 80's, Disney was in a financial crisis, and needed new studio heads to turn the company's fortunes around. To this end, Michael Eisner joined the company as CEO, with Frank Wells as President of the Studio, and Jeffrey Katzenberg overseeing film production, particularly the animated films. This led to Disney's greatest era of film animation: the Disney Renaissance. Movies like The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, and Pocahontas were all released around this time, and were all critically and financially successful. It was also around this time that Disney made the deal with Pixar to produce their first animated feature, Toy Story. It was around this time that John Lasseter of Pixar pitched to Katzenberg the idea for Pixar's second animated feature, A Bug's Life. Unfortunately, major overhead shake-up in the wake of Frank Wells' passing led Katzenberg to be forced out of the Disney company. It is around this time that he co-founded a new film studio, Dreamworks, alongside Steven Spielberg and David Geffen. Katzenberg particularly oversaw the animation side of Dreamworks, and worked to produce their own bug movie, Antz starring Woody Allen, Sharon Stone, and Sylvester Stallone. Now, I'm not here to compare A Bug's Life to Antz, I'm just here to talk about A Bug's Life. Quick thoughts on Antz though: it sucked, moving on. Now, with all that out of the way, let's dive into A Bug's Life. 

        So, the movie opens on a colony of ants, who gather food for an annual offering to a gang of grasshoppers, who offer protection from larger bugs in exchange for the food offering. It's here that we meet the two Princesses of the ant colony, Atta and Dot. Atta is set to take over ruling the colony from her mother, the current Queen. We also met Flik, an ant who is highly inventive, and creates a machine for faster harvesting of grain for the ants. As the grasshoppers approach the colony, the ants hurry to get the food already harvested to the offering stone, and then take shelter in the anthill. Flik ultimately screws up, costing all of the food on the stone to fall into the water below the colony. The grasshoppers, furious at the lack of food, enter the anthill, with the grasshoppers' leader Hopper demanding answers. Hopper then demands double the amount of food by the end of summer, planning to return when the last leaf falls from the tree. Flik is then placed on trial by Atta and other ant leaders, who are convinced by Flik that he could find bigger bugs to sympathize with the ants' plight and fight off the grasshoppers. This is a ruse, however, as the ants want Flik gone. After flying across a basin using a piece of dandelion fuzz, Flik eventually arrive in the Bug City, hoping to find warrior bugs. 

        It is around this time that we se P.T. Flea's Bug Circus, which includes Slim the walking stick, Heimlich the caterpillar, Francis the ladybug, Manny the praying mantis, Gypsy the gypsy moth, Rosie the black widow spider, Dim the rhinoceros beetle, and Tuck and Roll the twin pillbugs. The show is a disaster, and P.T. Flea fires the entire troupe. At a local bar, the circus bug get into a brawl, and Flik hires them, thinking they're the warrior bugs he was sent to look for. Flik and the other bugs return to the colony, and ants of the colony are grateful for the "warrior bugs" coming to help them. After the truth comes out, Flik tries to convince them to help, but they refuse. It is only after a bird attacks that the circus bugs agree to help, with the plan being to build a fake bird to scare off the grasshoppers. Upon the completion of the bird, P.T. Flea arrives with an animal cracker box, looking for the circus bugs, thus revealing the truth of their nature to the colony. Atta sends Flik to go with the circus bugs, and tells him not to return. Unfortunately, Hopper and the grasshoppers arrive to put the ants in their place, believing that of a single ant like Flik can stand up to them, then teh entire ant colony could. Dot then flies to find Flik, and get his help in stopping Hopper. 

        In a last ditch effort, Flik and the circus bugs put on a show for the grasshoppers, buying time for the bird to be prepared for the move to frighten the grasshoppers away. Hopper, when learning it's a fake when P.T. Flea lights the bird on fire, then goes after Flik, only to be stopped by rainfall, which forces the grasshoppers away, and forces the ants into the anthill. Hopper goes after Flik and Atta, only for Hopper to be attacked by a real bird. The circus bugs rejoin the circus, with a group of acrobatic ants from the colony joining them, along with Hopper's idiot brother Molt. Flik is given a major leadership role in the colony, and Atta is named Queen. Heimlich evolves into a butterfly, and the movie ends happily. 

        Okay, so A Bug's Life is pretty fun. The voice cast, which includes the likes of Dave Foley, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Denis Leary, David Hyde-Pierce, Richard Kind, Bonnie Hunt, Brad Garrett, and Kevin Spacey, are all great in their roles. As Pixar's second feature, the animation is a step up from Toy Story, but not by much because it's still early Pixar animation. A Bug's Life is definitely one I enjoyed a lot more when I was younger, but haven't watched it much in my later years. However, I still enjoy it, and feel that it's easily more accessible for kids. Not quite the classic Toy Story was, I still think A Bug's Life is pretty good, and I give is a rating of 4/5. This is Chuck signing off. Join me as Pixar Month continues with a reunion with old friends with Toy Story 2.