A Bug’s Life

Movie Details:

Voice Cast & Characters:

• Dave Foley as Flik, a courageous but clumsy inventor ant wanting to make a difference.
• Kevin Spacey as Hopper, the cynical and hot-tempered leader of the grasshopper gang oppressing the ants.
• Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Princess Atta, Queen’s nervous elder daughter and Flik’s love interest.
• Hayden Panettiere as Dot, Queen’s younger daughter and Flik’s good friend.
• Phyllis Diller as The Queen, Atta and Dot’s elderly mother, who is training Atta to succeed her.
• Richard Kind as Molt, Hopper’s dimwitted yet well-mannered younger brother.
• David Hyde Pierce as Slim, a stick bug clown who often becomes a stand-in for stick-like props.
• Joe Ranft as Heimlich, a gluttonous, German-accented green caterpillar clown who desires to be a butterfly.
• Denis Leary as Francis, a hot-tempered male ladybug clown who is frequently mistaken for a female and becomes a “den mother” to the Blueberry Scouts.
• Jonathan Harris as Manny, an elderly, English-accented praying mantis magician who is Gypsy’s husband.
• Madeline Kahn as Gypsy, a moth who is Manny’s wife, and his lovely assistant in the magic acts.
• Bonnie Hunt as Rosie, a black widow spider who is Dim’s “tamer”.
• Michael McShane as Tuck and Roll, twin pillbug performers from Hungary who speak in gibberish and act as cannonballs and dancers.
• John Ratzenberger as P.T. Flea, the ringmaster of the circus troupe.
• Brad Garrett as Dim, a blue childlike rhinoceros beetle that plays the “ferocious beast”.
• Roddy McDowall as Mr. Soil, the ant colony’s resident thespian.
• Edie McClurg as Dr. Flora, the ant colony’s doctor.
• Alex Rocco as Thorny, a small, deep-voiced ant who is Atta’s assistant.
• David Ossman as Cornelius, a very old ant with a walking stick.
• David Lander as Thumper, an insane grasshopper who is Hopper’s “enforcer”.
• Rodger Bumpass as Harry Mosquito
• Ashley Tisdale as the leader of the Blueberry Scouts, a troop of ant children that Dot belongs to.
• Jan Rabson and Carlos Alazraqui as Axle and Loco, a duo of grasshoppers from Hopper’s gang.
  • Rabson also voices another grasshopper while Alazraqui voices an ant that becomes “lost” when a leaf falls on the ant line.
• Bob Bergen as Aphie, the Queen’s pet aphid.
• Jack Angel as Thud, a horsefly and bodyguard to the Fly Brothers.
• Patrick Pinney as a bug in the bar and a grasshopper from Hopper’s gang.
• Rachel Davey, Brad Hall, Jeff Pidgeon, and Phil Proctor as Hopper’s gang members.

Storyline:

In every season, greedy grasshoppers demand a share of food from a colony of ants. But one day, their annual offering is inadvertently destroyed, and the grasshoppers demand twice as much food as compensation. So the ants send a misfit ant named Flik to seek for “warrior bugs” to battle the grasshoppers, only to discover that the group of bugs he recruited are an inept circus troupe. But the bugs are the ants’ only hope to fight off their enemies.

About Movie:

A Bug’s Life is an American animated comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. It is Pixar’s second feature-length film, following Toy Story (1995). Directed by John Lasseter and co-directed by Andrew Stanton, the film features a screenplay by Stanton, Donald McEnery, and Bob Shaw, with a story conceived by Lasseter, Stanton, and Joe Ranft. The voice cast includes Dave Foley as Flik, Kevin Spacey as Hopper, Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Atta, and Hayden Panettiere as Dot.

The plot centers on Flik, a misfit ant who seeks to save his colony from a gang of grasshoppers led by Hopper. After accidentally destroying the food supply meant for the grasshoppers, Flik proposes that the ants enlist the help of “tough warriors” to defend themselves. However, he mistakenly recruits a troupe of circus bugs who are not what he expected. The story draws inspiration from Aesop’s fable “The Ant and the Grasshopper.”

Production on A Bug’s Life began shortly after the release of Toy Story. The ants were redesigned to be more appealing, and Pixar employed technical innovations in computer animation to enhance the film’s visual quality. Randy Newman composed the film’s musical score. During production, a public feud arose between Steve Jobs and Lasseter of Pixar and Jeffrey Katzenberg of DreamWorks due to the simultaneous production of Antz, which was released shortly before A Bug’s Life.

The film premiered at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles on November 14, 1998, and was released in the United States on November 25. It received positive reviews for its animation, story, humor, and voice acting. It grossed approximately $363 million at the box office against a budget estimated between $40 million and $120 million. Notably, it was the first film to be digitally transferred frame-by-frame for DVD release.

Overall, A Bug’s Life is recognized for its engaging narrative and vibrant animation style, contributing to Pixar’s reputation as a leader in animated filmmaking.

Budget & Box Office Collection: