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A Bug's Life

December 12, 2023

This article is about the film. For the video game, see A Bug's Life (video game). For the soundtrack, see A Bug's Life (soundtrack). For the Farscape episode called "A Bug's Life", see List of Farscape episodes.
"Bugs life" redirects here. For the Tierra Whack song titled "Bugs life", see Whack World.

A Bug's Life is a 1998 American animated comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures as its second feature-length film, following Toy Story (1995). Directed by John Lasseter and co-directed by Andrew Stanton from a screenplay written by Stanton, Donald McEnery and Bob Shaw and a story conceived by Lasseter, Stanton and Joe Ranft, the film stars the voices of Dave Foley, Kevin Spacey, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Hayden Panettiere, Phyllis Diller, Denis Leary, David Hyde Pierce, Joe Ranft, Jonathan Harris, Madeline Kahn, Bonnie Hunt, Brad Garrett, Michael McShane, John Ratzenberger and Richard Kind. In the film, a misfit ant named Flik, looks for "tough warriors" to save his ant colony from a protection racket run by a gang of grasshoppers. Unfortunately, the "warriors" he brings back turn out to be an inept troupe of Circus Bugs. The film's plot was initially inspired by Aesop's fable The Ant and the Grasshopper.[5][6]

A Bug's Life
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJohn Lasseter
Screenplay by
Story by
Produced by
Starring
CinematographySharon Calahan
Edited byLee Unkrich
Music byRandy Newman
Production
companies
Distributed byBuena Vista Pictures Distribution
Release dates
Running time
95 minutes[3]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$40–120 million[4][2]
Box office$363.3 million[2]

Production on A Bug's Life began shortly after the release of Toy Story in 1995. 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.

A Bug's Life 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 and became a commercial success, having grossed $363 million at the box office. It was the first film to be digitally transferred frame-by-frame and released on DVD, and has been released multiple times on home video.

Plot edit

A colony of ants, led by the elderly Queen and her daughter Princess Atta, live in the middle of a seasonally dry creekbed on a small hill known as "Ant Island". Every summer, they are forced to give food to a gang of grasshoppers, led by Hopper.

One day, a courageous but clumsy inventor ant named Flik accidentally destroys the food offering with his grain harvester. Hopper discovers this, and demands twice as much food as compensation. When Flik earnestly suggests the ants enlist the help of bigger bugs to fight the grasshoppers, Atta sees it as a way to get rid of Flik and sends him off.

Flik travels to "the city", a heap of trash under a trailer. Flik mistakes a troupe of jobless Circus Bugs for the warrior bugs he seeks. The bugs, in turn, mistake Flik for a talent agent, and agree to travel with him back to Ant Island. During a welcome ceremony after their arrival, the Circus Bugs and Flik discover their mutual misunderstandings. The Circus Bugs attempt to leave, but are pursued by a nearby bird; while fleeing, they rescue Atta's younger sister Dot from the bird, gaining the ants' respect. At Flik's request, the Circus Bugs continue the ruse of being "warriors", thus enabling them to continue enjoying the ants' hospitality. Learning that Hopper fears birds inspires Flik to build a crewed ornithopter disguised as a bird to scare away the grasshoppers. Meanwhile, Hopper reminds his gang of the ants' superior numbers, warning them the ants will rebel if not kept in line.

The ants finish constructing the fake bird. During the subsequent celebration, the Circus Bugs' old boss, P.T. Flea, arrives, seeking to rehire them and blowing their cover; the ants exile Flik and the Circus Bugs, and desperately attempt to gather food for a new offering. Hopper returns, sees the mediocre offering, and takes over the island. He then demands the ants' own winter food supply, planning to execute the Queen afterward. Overhearing the plan, Dot persuades Flik and the Circus Bugs 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., who is also fooled, sets the bird on fire. Realizing the deception, Hopper has Flik publicly beaten to teach the ants a lesson, proclaiming that the ants are lowly life forms who live solely to serve the grasshoppers. Flik asserts that Hopper actually fears the colony, because he has always known what they are capable of. This inspires the ants and the Circus Bugs to fight back against the grasshoppers, driving all but Hopper away.

The ants shove Hopper into the circus cannon to shoot him off of the island, but rain suddenly begins to fall. In the ensuing chaos, Hopper frees himself from the cannon and abducts Flik. The Circus Bugs and Atta pursue, with the latter catching up to Hopper and rescuing Flik, who lures Hopper to the real bird's nest. Believing the bird is another fake, Hopper taunts it, until it grabs him and feeds him to its chicks.

With the anthill now at peace, Flik improves his inventions to help gather food for the ants. Flik and Atta become a couple, and proceed to send Hopper's affable brother Molt and a few ants to help P.T. and the Circus Bugs on their new tour. Atta and Dot become the new Queen and Princess. The ants celebrate their victory and congratulate Flik as a hero. They then bid a fond farewell to the circus troupe.

Voice cast edit

Production edit

Development edit

 
John Lasseter, the director of A Bug's Life, at the Austin Film Festival in October 2011

During the summer of 1994, Pixar's story department began turning their thoughts to their next film.[8] 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 Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo and WALL-E were also conceived at this lunch.[9] 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.[9] 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.[10]

As Stanton and Ranft discussed the adaptation, they rattled off scenarios and storylines springing from their premise.[9] 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.[9] 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.[9] 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.[11] 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.[11] 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.[12]

Writing edit

In The Ant and the Grasshopper, a grasshopper squanders the spring and summer months on singing while the ants put food away for the winter; when winter comes, the hungry grasshopper begs the ants for food, but the ants turn him away.[9] Andrew Stanton and Joe Ranft hit on the notion that the grasshopper could just take the food.[9][13] After Stanton had completed a draft of the script, he came to doubt one of the story's main pillars – that the Circus Bugs that had come to the colony to cheat the ants would instead stay and fight.[12] He thought the Circus Bugs were unlikable characters as liars and that it was unrealistic for them to undergo a complete personality change. Also, no particularly good reason existed for Circus Bugs to stay with the ant colony during the second act.[14] Although the film was already far along, Stanton concluded that the story needed a different approach.[12]

Stanton took one of the early circus bug characters, Red the red ant, and changed him into the character Flik.[14] 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.[15] The characters "Tuck and Roll" were inspired by a drawing that Stanton did of two bugs fighting when he was in the second grade.[13] Lasseter had come to envision the film as an epic in the tradition of David Lean's 1962 film Lawrence of Arabia.[14][16]

Casting edit

The voice cast was heavy with television sitcom stars of the time: Flik was voiced by Dave Foley (from NewsRadio), Princess Atta was voiced by Julia Louis-Dreyfus (from Seinfeld), Molt was voiced by Richard Kind (from Spin City), Slim was voiced by David Hyde Pierce (from Frasier) and Dim was voiced by Brad Garrett (from Everybody Loves Raymond). Joe Ranft, member of Pixar's story team, played Heimlich the caterpillar at the suggestion of Lasseter's wife, Nancy, who had heard him playing the character on a scratch vocal track.[17]

For Hopper, the film's villain, Lasseter's top choice was Robert De Niro, who repeatedly turned the part down, as did a succession of other actors.[17] 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.[14]

A Bug's Life was the final film appearance of actor Roddy McDowall, who played Mr. Soil, dying shortly before the film's theatrical release.[18]

Art design and animation edit

It was more difficult for animators during the production of A Bug's Life than that of Toy Story, as Pixar's computers ran sluggishly due to the complexity of the character models. Lasseter and Stanton had two supervising animators, Rich Quade and Glenn McQueen, to assist with directing and reviewing the animation.[5] 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".[19] After 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, dubbed the "Bugcam".[12][20] 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.[12]

The transition from treatment to storyboards took on an extra layer of complexity due to the profusion of storylines. While Toy Story focused heavily on Woody and Buzz Lightyear, with the other toys serving mostly as sidekicks, A Bug's Life required in-depth storytelling for several major groups of characters.[15] Character design also presented a new challenge, in that the designers had to make ants appear likable. Although the animators and the art department studied insects more closely, natural realism would give way to the film's larger needs.[16] The team took out mandibles and designed the ants to stand upright, replacing their normal six legs with two arms and two legs. The grasshoppers, in contrast, received a pair of extra appendages to appear less attractive.[16] The story's scale also required software engineers to accommodate new demands. Among these was the need to handle shots with crowds of ants.[16] The film would include more than 400 such shots in the ant colony, some with as many as 800. It was impractical for animators to control them individually, but neither could the ants remain static for even a moment without appearing lifeless, or move identically. Bill Reeves, one of the film's two supervising technical directors, dealt with the quandary by leading the development of software for autonomous ants.[16] The animators would only animate four or five groups of about eight individual "universal ants". Each one of these "universal ants" would later be randomly distributed throughout the digital set. The program also allowed each ant to be automatically modified in subtle ways (e.g. different color of eye or skin, different heights, different weights, etc.). This ensured that no two ants were the same.[20] It was partly based on Reeves's invention of particle systems a decade and a half earlier, which had let animators use masses of self-guided particles to create effects like swirling dust and snow.[17]

The animators also employed subsurface scattering—developed by Pixar co-founder Edwin Catmull during his graduate student days at the University of Utah in the 1970s—to render surfaces in a more lifelike way. This would be the first time that subsurface scattering would be used in a Pixar film, and a small team at Pixar worked out the practical problems that kept it from working in animation. Catmull asked for a short film to test and showcase subsurface scattering and the result, Geri's Game (1997), was attached alongside A Bug's Life in its theatrical release.[21]

Feud between Pixar and DreamWorks edit

During the production of A Bug's Life, a public feud erupted between DreamWorks' Jeffrey Katzenberg, and Pixar's Steve Jobs and John Lasseter. Katzenberg, former chairman of Disney's film division, had left the company in a bitter feud with CEO Michael Eisner. In response, he formed DreamWorks SKG with Steven Spielberg and David Geffen and planned to rival Disney in animation.[22] After DreamWorks' acquisition of Pacific Data Images (PDI)—long Pixar's contemporary in computer animation—Lasseter and others at Pixar were dismayed to learn from the trade papers that PDI's first project at DreamWorks would be another ant film, to be called Antz.[23] By this time, Pixar's project was well known within the animation community.[24] Both Antz and A Bug's Life center on a young male ant, a drone with oddball tendencies that struggles to win a princess's hand by saving their society. Whereas A Bug's Life relied chiefly on visual gags, Antz was more verbal and revolved more around satire. The script of Antz was also heavy with adult references, whereas Pixar's film was more accessible to children.[25]

It was clear that Lasseter and Jobs believed that the idea was stolen by Katzenberg.[10][22] Katzenberg had stayed in touch with Lasseter after the acrimonious Disney split, often calling to check up. In October 1995, when Lasseter was overseeing postproduction work on Toy Story at the Universal lot's Technicolor facility in Universal City, where DreamWorks was also located, he called Katzenberg and dropped by with Stanton.[22][26] When Katzenberg asked what they were doing next, Lasseter described what would become A Bug's Life in detail. Lasseter respected Katzenberg's judgment and felt comfortable using him as a sounding board for creative ideas.[26] Lasseter had high hopes for Toy Story, and he was telling friends throughout the tight-knit computer-animation business to get cracking on their own films. He told various friends, "If this hits, it's going to be like space movies after Star Wars" for computer animation companies.[10] Lasseter later recalled, "I should have been wary. Jeffrey kept asking questions about when it would be released."[22]

When the trades indicated production on Antz, Lasseter, feeling betrayed, called Katzenberg and asked him bluntly if it were true, who in turn asked him where he had heard the rumor. Lasseter asked again, and Katzenberg admitted it was true. Lasseter raised his voice and would not believe Katzenberg's story that a development director had pitched him the idea long ago. Katzenberg claimed Antz came from a 1991 story pitch by Tim Johnson that was related to Katzenberg in October 1994.[10] Another source gives Nina Jacobson, one of Katzenberg's executives, as the person responsible for the Antz pitch.[24] Lasseter, who normally did not use profane language, cursed at Katzenberg and hung up the phone.[27] Lasseter recalled that Katzenberg began explaining that Disney was "out to get him" and that he realized that he was just cannon fodder in Katzenberg's fight with Disney.[10][24] For his part, Katzenberg believed he was the victim of a conspiracy: Eisner had decided not to pay him his contract-required bonus, convincing Disney's board not to give him anything.[24] Katzenberg was further angered by the fact that Eisner scheduled Bugs to open the same week as The Prince of Egypt, which was then intended to be DreamWorks' first animated release.[24][27] Lasseter grimly relayed the news to Pixar employees but kept morale high. Privately, Lasseter told other Pixar executives that he and Stanton felt terribly let down by Katzenberg.[24]

Katzenberg moved the opening of Antz from spring 1999 to October 1998 to compete with Pixar's release.[24][28] David Price writes in his 2008 book The Pixar Touch that a rumor, "never confirmed", was that Katzenberg had given PDI "rich financial incentives to induce them to whatever it would take to have Antz ready first, despite Pixar's head start".[24][27] Jobs was furious and called Katzenberg and began yelling. Katzenberg made an offer: He would delay production of Antz if Jobs and Disney would move A Bug's Life so that it did not compete with The Prince of Egypt. Jobs believed it "a blatant extortion attempt" and would not go for it, explaining that there was nothing he could do to convince Disney to change the date.[10][27] Katzenberg casually responded that Jobs himself had taught him how to conduct similar business long ago, explaining that Jobs had come to Pixar's rescue by making the deal for Toy Story, as Pixar was near bankruptcy at that time.[17] Katzenberg said, "I was the one guy there for you back then, and now you're allowing them to use you to screw me."[27] He suggested that if Jobs wanted to, he could simply slow down production on A Bug's Life without telling Disney. If he did, Katzenberg said, he would put Antz on hold.[10] Lasseter also claimed Katzenberg had phoned him with the proposition, but Katzenberg denied these charges later.[19]

As the release dates for both films approached, Disney executives concluded that Pixar should keep silent on the DreamWorks battle. Regardless, Lasseter publicly dismissed Antz as a "schlock version" of A Bug's Life.[21] Lasseter, who claimed to have never seen Antz, told others that if DreamWorks and PDI had made the film about anything other than insects, he would have closed Pixar for the day so the entire company could go see it.[10][25] Jobs and Katzenberg would not back down and the rivaling ant films provoked a press frenzy. "The bad guys rarely win," Jobs told the Los Angeles Times. In response, DreamWorks' head of marketing Terry Press suggested, "Steve Jobs should take a pill."[27] Despite the successful box office performance of both Antz and A Bug's Life, tensions would remain high between Jobs and Katzenberg for many years. According to Jobs, Katzenberg came to Jobs after the success of Shrek (2001) and insisted he had never heard the pitch for A Bug's Life, reasoning that his settlement with Disney would have given him a share of the profits if that were so.[29] Although the contention left all parties estranged, Pixar and PDI employees kept up the old friendships that had arisen from spending a long time together in computer animation.[19]

Music edit

Main article: A Bug's Life (soundtrack)

The film's score was composed and conducted by Randy Newman. Walt Disney Records released the soundtrack on October 27, 1998.[30] The album's first track is a song called "The Time of Your Life" written and performed by Newman, while all the other 19 tracks are orchestral cues. Although the album was out of print physically in the United States during the 2000s, in June 2018 Universal Music Japan announced that a re-mastered edition would be released on October 3, 2018, along with other soundtrack albums from the Walt Disney Records pre-2018 catalogue. The album is also available for purchase on iTunes. The time duration is 47 minutes and 32 seconds.[31]

Release edit

 
A Bug's Life crew in the Oval Office

A few days before the world premiere, the film was screened at Camp David.[32][33] A day after the screening, the crew visited the Oval Office in the White House.[32][34]

The film's world premiere was on November 14, 1998, at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles.[1] It opened at the El Capitan on November 20, 1998[35] before opening nationwide on November 25.

A teaser trailer for Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace was attached to the screenings of A Bug's Life.[36] Within a few weeks into the film's theatrical release, new outtakes were added to the theatrical prints.[37] Because the film is animated, no actual outtakes exist; they are animated specifically for the outtakes sequence.

Home media edit

A Bug's Life was the first home video release to be entirely created using a digital transfer. Every frame of animation was converted from the film's computer data, as opposed to the standard analog film-to-videotape transfer process. This allowed for the film's DVD release to retain its original 2.35:1 widescreen format.[38][39] The DVD was released on April 20, 1999, alongside a VHS release which was presented in a standard 1.33:1 "fullscreen" format. The film's fullscreen transfer was performed by entirely "reframing" the film shot by shot; more than half of the film's footage was modified by Pixar animators to fit within the film's aspect ratio. Several characters and objects were moved closer together to avoid being cut out of frame.[38] The film's VHS release was the best-selling VHS in the United Kingdom, with 1.76 million units sold by the end of the year.[40] On August 1, 2000, these editions were re-released on VHS and DVD under the Walt Disney Gold Classic Collection banner.[41]

On November 23, 1999, a 2-disc Collector's Edition DVD was released. It was fully remastered in anamorphic widescreen and has substantial bonus features. The edition was re-released on May 27, 2003, to coincide with the release of Finding Nemo. This THX-certified DVD release once again gives the option of viewing the film in Widescreen or Full Frame.[42] The second disc features numerous bonus features, such as a set-top game and a Finding Nemo featurette.[43]

On May 19, 2009, the film was released on Blu-ray,[44] and then on 4K Blu-ray on March 3, 2020.[45]

Reception edit

Box office edit

A Bug's Life grossed $371,940 at the El Capitan in its first five days before expanding nationwide.[2] The film grossed a record $45.7 million during the five-day Thanksgiving holiday weekend,[46][2] including $33.3 million for the three-day weekend,[47] ranking first at the box office, beating out Babe: Pig in the City and The Rugrats Movie.[48][49] Its five-day Thanksgiving opening gross surpassed the previous record holder held by 101 Dalmatians.[50] This record was surpassed by Toy Story 2 the following year.[51] With a total gross of $12.5 million, A Bug's Life achieved the second-highest first two-day Thanksgiving gross, behind Back to the Future Part II.[52] It managed to retain the top position in its second weekend, making $17.1 million and outgrossing Psycho.[53] During its third weekend, the film's number one spot was taken by Star Trek: Insurrection, but it still overperformed Jack Frost while earning $11.1 million.[54][55]

In its first international weekend, the film grossed $3.2 million from 5 countries, setting record openings for an animated film in Australia ($1.6 million) and Thailand ($400,000), with the latter surpassing Mulan.[56] Furthermore, it made $2 million during its opening weekend in Mexico, which was the country's second-highest at the time, after Godzilla.[57]

By late December 1998, A Bug's Life had earned over $100 million. Altogether, several in-year 1998 films combined with Titanic pulled $7 billion in North America, propelling the film industry to a record year at the box office.[58]

In February 1999, the film also had a record opening for an animated film in the United Kingdom with an opening weekend gross of £4.2 million ($6.9 million).[59] In Japan, the film ended Armageddon's 13-week-long run in the number one spot, earning $1.7 million.[60]

At the end of its theatrical run, the film grossed $162.8 million in the United States and Canada and $200.4 million in foreign countries, pushing its worldwide gross to $363.3 million, surpassing the competition from DreamWorks Animation's Antz,[2] which earned $171.8 million worldwide.[61]

Critical response edit

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 92% based on 91 reviews and an average rating of 7.9/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "A Bug's Life is a rousing adventure that blends animated thrills with witty dialogue and memorable characters – and another smashing early success for Pixar."[62] Another review aggregator, Metacritic, gave the film a score of 77 out of 100 based on 23 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[63]

Todd McCarthy of Variety wrote, "Lasseter and Pixar broke new technical and aesthetic ground in the animation field with Toy Story, and here they surpass it in both scope and complexity of movement while telling a story that overlaps Antz in numerous ways."[64] James Berardinelli of ReelViews gave the film three and a half stars out of four, saying "A Bug's Life, like Toy Story, develops protagonists we can root for, and places them in the midst of a fast-moving, energetic adventure."[65] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three and a half stars out of four, writing "Will A Bug's Life suffer by coming out so soon after Antz? Not any more than one thriller hurts the chances for the next one. Antz may even help business for A Bug's Life by demonstrating how many dramatic and comedic possibilities can be found in an anthill."[66] Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times gave the film four out of five stars, writing "What A Bug's Life demonstrates is that when it comes to bugs, the most fun ones to hang out with hang exclusively with the gang at Pixar."[67] Peter Stack of the San Francisco Chronicle gave the film four out of four stars, stating "A Bug's Life is one of the great movies – a triumph of storytelling and character development, and a whole new ballgame for computer animation. Pixar Animation Studios has raised the genre to an astonishing new level".[68]

Richard Corliss of Time magazine wrote, "The plot matures handsomely; the characters neatly converge and combust; the gags pay off with emotional resonance."[69] Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a B, saying "A Bug's Life may be the single most amazing film I've ever seen that I couldn't fall in love with."[70] Paul Clinton of CNN wrote, "A Bug's Life is a perfect movie for the holidays. It contains a great upbeat message ... it's wonderful to look at ... it's wildly inventive ... and it's entertaining for both adults and kids."[71] Michael Wilmington of the Chicago Tribune gave the film three and a half stars out of four, and compared the movie to "Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai (with a little of another art-film legend, Federico Fellini, tossed in)." where "As in Samurai, the colony here is plagued every year by the arrival of bandits."[72] On the contrary, Stephen Hunter of The Washington Post wrote, "Clever as it is, the film lacks charm. One problem: too many bugs. Second, bigger world for two purposes: to feed birds and to irk humans."[73]

Accolades edit

Main article: List of Pixar awards and nominations (feature films) § A Bug's Life

A Bug's Life won a number of awards and numerous nominations. The film won the inaugural Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Animated Film (tied with The Prince of Egypt) as well as the award for Best Family Film. It also won the Satellite Award for Best Animated Film and the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition by Randy Newman. It was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Musical or Comedy Score, the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score and the BAFTA Award for Best Achievement in Special Visual Effects.[74] In 2008, the American Film Institute nominated this film for its Top 10 Animation Films list.[75]

Legacy edit

In the years since its release, A Bug's Life has been regarded by critics and fans to be a Pixar film that, in contrast to its successors, has become largely forgotten by audiences.[76][77][78] While recognized as solidifying Pixar's success, the film has been seen as the studio's sophomore slump in the wake of the critically successful Toy Story,[76][77][79][80][81] and inhibited by being released directly before the equally revered Toy Story 2.[76] Pixar's feud with DreamWorks as a result of Antz has also been regarded as a factor in A Bug's Life's legacy.[81][82]

Critics have generally ranked A Bug's Life to be one of Pixar's weaker releases;[77][80][81][83][84] while it has been seen as "charming",[78][84] as well as an "ambitious" film[85] with pioneering animation for its time,[76][77][85] others have described it as "adequate",[83] and appealing more to a younger demographic.[84] Nonetheless, the film's characters, voice acting, and humor have received lasting praise.[77][78][79][80][85]

Media and merchandise edit

Attached short film edit

Main article: Geri's Game

The film's theatrical and video releases include Geri's Game, an Academy Award winning Pixar short made in 1997, a year before this film was released.[86]

Video game edit

Main article: A Bug's Life (video game)

A game, based on the film, was developed by Traveller's Tales and Tiertex Design Studios and released by Sony Computer Entertainment, Disney Interactive, THQ and Activision for various systems. The game's storyline was similar to the film's, with a few changes. However, unlike the film, the game received mixed reviews.[87] Aggregating review website GameRankings gave the Nintendo 64 version 54.40%,[88] the PlayStation version 51.90%[89] and the Game Boy Color version 36.63%.[90] GameSpot gave the PlayStation version a 2.7/10, concluding that it was "obvious that Disney was more interested in producing a $40 advertisement for its movie than in developing a playable game."[91] IGN gave the Nintendo 64 version a 6.8/10, praising the presentation and sound by stating "It was upbeat, cheery look and feel very much like the movie of the same name with cheery, happy tunes and strong sound effects but again criticized the gameplay by saying the controls were sluggish with stuttering framerate and tired gameplay mechanics".[92] while they gave the PlayStation version a 4/10, criticizing the gameplay as slow and awkward but praising the presentation as cinematic.[93]

Theme park attractions edit

Disney's Animal Kingdom includes the 3D show It's Tough to Be a Bug!, which also existed at Disney California Adventure from 2001 to 2018. The Disney California Adventure nighttime show World of Color features a segment that includes Heimlich the Caterpillar from the film.[94]

Former theme park attractions edit

From 2002 to 2018, A Bug's Land was a section of Disney California Adventure that was inspired by the film.

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ a b "Premiere of "A Bugs Life"". Getty Images. El Capitan Theatre. November 14, 1998. Retrieved August 26, 2023.
  2. ^ a b c d e f "A Bug's Life (1998)". Box Office Mojo. from the original on September 15, 2010. Retrieved August 20, 2016.
  3. ^ "A Bug's Life". bbfc.co.uk. British Board of Film Classification. from the original on March 2, 2016. Retrieved October 27, 2015.
  4. ^ Fabrikant, Geraldine (December 28, 1998). "'Prince of Egypt' Is No King at the Box-Office". The New York Times. from the original on May 27, 2015. Retrieved June 16, 2023.
  5. ^ a b Maslin, Janet (2016). . Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. Archived from the original on March 2, 2016. Retrieved June 16, 2016.
  6. ^ . pixar.com. Pixar. Archived from the original on December 5, 2010. Retrieved July 24, 2016.
  7. ^ Sterngold, James (December 4, 1998). "At the Movies; Bug's Word: Yaddanyafoo". The New York Times. from the original on January 29, 2014. Retrieved February 19, 2017. Tuck is older by a few milliseconds,...
  8. ^ Price, p. 157
  9. ^ a b c d e f g Price, p. 158
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h Burrows, Peter (November 23, 1998). . Business Week. Archived from the original on November 28, 1999. Retrieved March 7, 2017.
  11. ^ a b Price, p. 159
  12. ^ a b c d e Price, p. 160
  13. ^ a b Pixar Animation Studios, official website, feature films, A Bugs Life, The inspiration
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Bibliography edit

  • Price, David (2008). The Pixar Touch. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 9780307265753.

External links edit

 
Wikiquote has quotations related to A Bug's Life.
 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to A Bug's Life.

December 12, 2023
life, this, article, about, film, video, game, video, game, soundtrack, soundtrack, farscape, episode, called, list, farscape, episodes, bugs, life, redirects, here, tierra, whack, song, titled, bugs, life, whack, world, 1998, american, animated, comedy, film,. This article is about the film For the video game see A Bug s Life video game For the soundtrack see A Bug s Life soundtrack For the Farscape episode called A Bug s Life see List of Farscape episodes Bugs life redirects here For the Tierra Whack song titled Bugs life see Whack World A Bug s Life is a 1998 American animated comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures as its second feature length film following Toy Story 1995 Directed by John Lasseter and co directed by Andrew Stanton from a screenplay written by Stanton Donald McEnery and Bob Shaw and a story conceived by Lasseter Stanton and Joe Ranft the film stars the voices of Dave Foley Kevin Spacey Julia Louis Dreyfus and Hayden Panettiere Phyllis Diller Denis Leary David Hyde Pierce Joe Ranft Jonathan Harris Madeline Kahn Bonnie Hunt Brad Garrett Michael McShane John Ratzenberger and Richard Kind In the film a misfit ant named Flik looks for tough warriors to save his ant colony from a protection racket run by a gang of grasshoppers Unfortunately the warriors he brings back turn out to be an inept troupe of Circus Bugs The film s plot was initially inspired by Aesop s fable The Ant and the Grasshopper 5 6 A Bug s LifeTheatrical release posterDirected byJohn LasseterScreenplay byAndrew Stanton Donald McEnery Bob ShawStory byJohn Lasseter Andrew Stanton Joe RanftProduced byDarla K Anderson Kevin ReherStarringDave Foley Kevin Spacey Julia Louis Dreyfus Hayden PanettiereCinematographySharon CalahanEdited byLee UnkrichMusic byRandy NewmanProductioncompaniesWalt Disney Pictures Pixar Animation StudiosDistributed byBuena Vista Pictures DistributionRelease datesNovember 14 1998 1998 11 14 El Capitan Theatre 1 November 25 1998 1998 11 25 United States 2 Running time95 minutes 3 CountryUnited StatesLanguageEnglishBudget 40 120 million 4 2 Box office 363 3 million 2 Production on A Bug s Life began shortly after the release of Toy Story in 1995 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 A Bug s Life 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 and became a commercial success having grossed 363 million at the box office It was the first film to be digitally transferred frame by frame and released on DVD and has been released multiple times on home video Contents 1 Plot 2 Voice cast 3 Production 3 1 Development 3 2 Writing 3 3 Casting 3 4 Art design and animation 3 5 Feud between Pixar and DreamWorks 4 Music 5 Release 5 1 Home media 6 Reception 6 1 Box office 6 2 Critical response 6 3 Accolades 6 4 Legacy 7 Media and merchandise 7 1 Attached short film 7 2 Video game 8 Theme park attractions 8 1 Former theme park attractions 9 See also 10 References 11 Bibliography 12 External linksPlot editA colony of ants led by the elderly Queen and her daughter Princess Atta live in the middle of a seasonally dry creekbed on a small hill known as Ant Island Every summer they are forced to give food to a gang of grasshoppers led by Hopper One day a courageous but clumsy inventor ant named Flik accidentally destroys the food offering with his grain harvester Hopper discovers this and demands twice as much food as compensation When Flik earnestly suggests the ants enlist the help of bigger bugs to fight the grasshoppers Atta sees it as a way to get rid of Flik and sends him off Flik travels to the city a heap of trash under a trailer Flik mistakes a troupe of jobless Circus Bugs for the warrior bugs he seeks The bugs in turn mistake Flik for a talent agent and agree to travel with him back to Ant Island During a welcome ceremony after their arrival the Circus Bugs and Flik discover their mutual misunderstandings The Circus Bugs attempt to leave but are pursued by a nearby bird while fleeing they rescue Atta s younger sister Dot from the bird gaining the ants respect At Flik s request the Circus Bugs continue the ruse of being warriors thus enabling them to continue enjoying the ants hospitality Learning that Hopper fears birds inspires Flik to build a crewed ornithopter disguised as a bird to scare away the grasshoppers Meanwhile Hopper reminds his gang of the ants superior numbers warning them the ants will rebel if not kept in line The ants finish constructing the fake bird During the subsequent celebration the Circus Bugs old boss P T Flea arrives seeking to rehire them and blowing their cover the ants exile Flik and the Circus Bugs and desperately attempt to gather food for a new offering Hopper returns sees the mediocre offering and takes over the island He then demands the ants own winter food supply planning to execute the Queen afterward Overhearing the plan Dot persuades Flik and the Circus Bugs 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 who is also fooled sets the bird on fire Realizing the deception Hopper has Flik publicly beaten to teach the ants a lesson proclaiming that the ants are lowly life forms who live solely to serve the grasshoppers Flik asserts that Hopper actually fears the colony because he has always known what they are capable of This inspires the ants and the Circus Bugs to fight back against the grasshoppers driving all but Hopper away The ants shove Hopper into the circus cannon to shoot him off of the island but rain suddenly begins to fall In the ensuing chaos Hopper frees himself from the cannon and abducts Flik The Circus Bugs and Atta pursue with the latter catching up to Hopper and rescuing Flik who lures Hopper to the real bird s nest Believing the bird is another fake Hopper taunts it until it grabs him and feeds him to its chicks With the anthill now at peace Flik improves his inventions to help gather food for the ants Flik and Atta become a couple and proceed to send Hopper s affable brother Molt and a few ants to help P T and the Circus Bugs on their new tour Atta and Dot become the new Queen and Princess The ants celebrate their victory and congratulate Flik as a hero They then bid a fond farewell to the circus troupe Voice cast editDave Foley as Flik a courageous but clumsy inventor Argentine ant wanting to make a difference Kevin Spacey as Hopper the cynical and hot tempered leader of the Carolina grasshopper gang oppressing the ants Julia Louis Dreyfus as Princess Atta the Queen s nervous elder daughter and Flik s love interest Hayden Panettiere as Dot the 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 Laboratory stick insect clown who often becomes a stand in for stick like props Joe Ranft as Heimlich a gluttonous German accented caterpillar clown who desires to be a butterfly Denis Leary as Francis a hot tempered male nine spotted ladybug clown who is frequently mistaken for a female and becomes den mother to the Blueberry Scouts Jonathan Harris as Manny an elderly English accented European mantis magician who is Gypsy s husband Madeline Kahn as Gypsy a European gypsy moth who is Manny s wife and his lovely assistant in the magic acts Bonnie Hunt as Rosie a Western black widow who is Dim s tamer Michael McShane as Tuck and Roll twin Common pill bug performers from Hungary who act as cannonballs and dancers 7 John Ratzenberger as P T Flea the ringmaster of the circus troupe Brad Garrett as Dim a childlike European 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 Bob Bergen as Aphie the Queen s pet aphid Jack Angel as Thud a horsefly and bodyguard to the Fly Brothers Production editDevelopment edit nbsp John Lasseter the director of A Bug s Life at the Austin Film Festival in October 2011During the summer of 1994 Pixar s story department began turning their thoughts to their next film 8 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 Monsters Inc Finding Nemo and WALL E were also conceived at this lunch 9 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 9 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 10 As Stanton and Ranft discussed the adaptation they rattled off scenarios and storylines springing from their premise 9 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 9 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 9 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 11 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 11 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 12 Writing edit In The Ant and the Grasshopper a grasshopper squanders the spring and summer months on singing while the ants put food away for the winter when winter comes the hungry grasshopper begs the ants for food but the ants turn him away 9 Andrew Stanton and Joe Ranft hit on the notion that the grasshopper could just take the food 9 13 After Stanton had completed a draft of the script he came to doubt one of the story s main pillars that the Circus Bugs that had come to the colony to cheat the ants would instead stay and fight 12 He thought the Circus Bugs were unlikable characters as liars and that it was unrealistic for them to undergo a complete personality change Also no particularly good reason existed for Circus Bugs to stay with the ant colony during the second act 14 Although the film was already far along Stanton concluded that the story needed a different approach 12 Stanton took one of the early circus bug characters Red the red ant and changed him into the character Flik 14 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 15 The characters Tuck and Roll were inspired by a drawing that Stanton did of two bugs fighting when he was in the second grade 13 Lasseter had come to envision the film as an epic in the tradition of David Lean s 1962 film Lawrence of Arabia 14 16 Casting edit The voice cast was heavy with television sitcom stars of the time Flik was voiced by Dave Foley from NewsRadio Princess Atta was voiced by Julia Louis Dreyfus from Seinfeld Molt was voiced by Richard Kind from Spin City Slim was voiced by David Hyde Pierce from Frasier and Dim was voiced by Brad Garrett from Everybody Loves Raymond Joe Ranft member of Pixar s story team played Heimlich the caterpillar at the suggestion of Lasseter s wife Nancy who had heard him playing the character on a scratch vocal track 17 For Hopper the film s villain Lasseter s top choice was Robert De Niro who repeatedly turned the part down as did a succession of other actors 17 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 14 A Bug s Life was the final film appearance of actor Roddy McDowall who played Mr Soil dying shortly before the film s theatrical release 18 Art design and animation edit It was more difficult for animators during the production of A Bug s Life than that of Toy Story as Pixar s computers ran sluggishly due to the complexity of the character models Lasseter and Stanton had two supervising animators Rich Quade and Glenn McQueen to assist with directing and reviewing the animation 5 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 19 After 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 dubbed the Bugcam 12 20 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 12 The transition from treatment to storyboards took on an extra layer of complexity due to the profusion of storylines While Toy Story focused heavily on Woody and Buzz Lightyear with the other toys serving mostly as sidekicks A Bug s Life required in depth storytelling for several major groups of characters 15 Character design also presented a new challenge in that the designers had to make ants appear likable Although the animators and the art department studied insects more closely natural realism would give way to the film s larger needs 16 The team took out mandibles and designed the ants to stand upright replacing their normal six legs with two arms and two legs The grasshoppers in contrast received a pair of extra appendages to appear less attractive 16 The story s scale also required software engineers to accommodate new demands Among these was the need to handle shots with crowds of ants 16 The film would include more than 400 such shots in the ant colony some with as many as 800 It was impractical for animators to control them individually but neither could the ants remain static for even a moment without appearing lifeless or move identically Bill Reeves one of the film s two supervising technical directors dealt with the quandary by leading the development of software for autonomous ants 16 The animators would only animate four or five groups of about eight individual universal ants Each one of these universal ants would later be randomly distributed throughout the digital set The program also allowed each ant to be automatically modified in subtle ways e g different color of eye or skin different heights different weights etc This ensured that no two ants were the same 20 It was partly based on Reeves s invention of particle systems a decade and a half earlier which had let animators use masses of self guided particles to create effects like swirling dust and snow 17 The animators also employed subsurface scattering developed by Pixar co founder Edwin Catmull during his graduate student days at the University of Utah in the 1970s to render surfaces in a more lifelike way This would be the first time that subsurface scattering would be used in a Pixar film and a small team at Pixar worked out the practical problems that kept it from working in animation Catmull asked for a short film to test and showcase subsurface scattering and the result Geri s Game 1997 was attached alongside A Bug s Life in its theatrical release 21 Feud between Pixar and DreamWorks edit During the production of A Bug s Life a public feud erupted between DreamWorks Jeffrey Katzenberg and Pixar s Steve Jobs and John Lasseter Katzenberg former chairman of Disney s film division had left the company in a bitter feud with CEO Michael Eisner In response he formed DreamWorks SKG with Steven Spielberg and David Geffen and planned to rival Disney in animation 22 After DreamWorks acquisition of Pacific Data Images PDI long Pixar s contemporary in computer animation Lasseter and others at Pixar were dismayed to learn from the trade papers that PDI s first project at DreamWorks would be another ant film to be called Antz 23 By this time Pixar s project was well known within the animation community 24 Both Antz and A Bug s Life center on a young male ant a drone with oddball tendencies that struggles to win a princess s hand by saving their society Whereas A Bug s Life relied chiefly on visual gags Antz was more verbal and revolved more around satire The script of Antz was also heavy with adult references whereas Pixar s film was more accessible to children 25 It was clear that Lasseter and Jobs believed that the idea was stolen by Katzenberg 10 22 Katzenberg had stayed in touch with Lasseter after the acrimonious Disney split often calling to check up In October 1995 when Lasseter was overseeing postproduction work on Toy Story at the Universal lot s Technicolor facility in Universal City where DreamWorks was also located he called Katzenberg and dropped by with Stanton 22 26 When Katzenberg asked what they were doing next Lasseter described what would become A Bug s Life in detail Lasseter respected Katzenberg s judgment and felt comfortable using him as a sounding board for creative ideas 26 Lasseter had high hopes for Toy Story and he was telling friends throughout the tight knit computer animation business to get cracking on their own films He told various friends If this hits it s going to be like space movies after Star Wars for computer animation companies 10 Lasseter later recalled I should have been wary Jeffrey kept asking questions about when it would be released 22 When the trades indicated production on Antz Lasseter feeling betrayed called Katzenberg and asked him bluntly if it were true who in turn asked him where he had heard the rumor Lasseter asked again and Katzenberg admitted it was true Lasseter raised his voice and would not believe Katzenberg s story that a development director had pitched him the idea long ago Katzenberg claimed Antz came from a 1991 story pitch by Tim Johnson that was related to Katzenberg in October 1994 10 Another source gives Nina Jacobson one of Katzenberg s executives as the person responsible for the Antz pitch 24 Lasseter who normally did not use profane language cursed at Katzenberg and hung up the phone 27 Lasseter recalled that Katzenberg began explaining that Disney was out to get him and that he realized that he was just cannon fodder in Katzenberg s fight with Disney 10 24 For his part Katzenberg believed he was the victim of a conspiracy Eisner had decided not to pay him his contract required bonus convincing Disney s board not to give him anything 24 Katzenberg was further angered by the fact that Eisner scheduled Bugs to open the same week as The Prince of Egypt which was then intended to be DreamWorks first animated release 24 27 Lasseter grimly relayed the news to Pixar employees but kept morale high Privately Lasseter told other Pixar executives that he and Stanton felt terribly let down by Katzenberg 24 Katzenberg moved the opening of Antz from spring 1999 to October 1998 to compete with Pixar s release 24 28 David Price writes in his 2008 book The Pixar Touch that a rumor never confirmed was that Katzenberg had given PDI rich financial incentives to induce them to whatever it would take to have Antz ready first despite Pixar s head start 24 27 Jobs was furious and called Katzenberg and began yelling Katzenberg made an offer He would delay production of Antz if Jobs and Disney would move A Bug s Life so that it did not compete with The Prince of Egypt Jobs believed it a blatant extortion attempt and would not go for it explaining that there was nothing he could do to convince Disney to change the date 10 27 Katzenberg casually responded that Jobs himself had taught him how to conduct similar business long ago explaining that Jobs had come to Pixar s rescue by making the deal for Toy Story as Pixar was near bankruptcy at that time 17 Katzenberg said I was the one guy there for you back then and now you re allowing them to use you to screw me 27 He suggested that if Jobs wanted to he could simply slow down production on A Bug s Life without telling Disney If he did Katzenberg said he would put Antz on hold 10 Lasseter also claimed Katzenberg had phoned him with the proposition but Katzenberg denied these charges later 19 As the release dates for both films approached Disney executives concluded that Pixar should keep silent on the DreamWorks battle Regardless Lasseter publicly dismissed Antz as a schlock version of A Bug s Life 21 Lasseter who claimed to have never seen Antz told others that if DreamWorks and PDI had made the film about anything other than insects he would have closed Pixar for the day so the entire company could go see it 10 25 Jobs and Katzenberg would not back down and the rivaling ant films provoked a press frenzy The bad guys rarely win Jobs told the Los Angeles Times In response DreamWorks head of marketing Terry Press suggested Steve Jobs should take a pill 27 Despite the successful box office performance of both Antz and A Bug s Life tensions would remain high between Jobs and Katzenberg for many years According to Jobs Katzenberg came to Jobs after the success of Shrek 2001 and insisted he had never heard the pitch for A Bug s Life reasoning that his settlement with Disney would have given him a share of the profits if that were so 29 Although the contention left all parties estranged Pixar and PDI employees kept up the old friendships that had arisen from spending a long time together in computer animation 19 Music editMain article A Bug s Life soundtrack The film s score was composed and conducted by Randy Newman Walt Disney Records released the soundtrack on October 27 1998 30 The album s first track is a song called The Time of Your Life written and performed by Newman while all the other 19 tracks are orchestral cues Although the album was out of print physically in the United States during the 2000s in June 2018 Universal Music Japan announced that a re mastered edition would be released on October 3 2018 along with other soundtrack albums from the Walt Disney Records pre 2018 catalogue The album is also available for purchase on iTunes The time duration is 47 minutes and 32 seconds 31 Release edit nbsp A Bug s Life crew in the Oval OfficeA few days before the world premiere the film was screened at Camp David 32 33 A day after the screening the crew visited the Oval Office in the White House 32 34 The film s world premiere was on November 14 1998 at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles 1 It opened at the El Capitan on November 20 1998 35 before opening nationwide on November 25 A teaser trailer for Star Wars Episode I The Phantom Menace was attached to the screenings of A Bug s Life 36 Within a few weeks into the film s theatrical release new outtakes were added to the theatrical prints 37 Because the film is animated no actual outtakes exist they are animated specifically for the outtakes sequence Home media edit A Bug s Life was the first home video release to be entirely created using a digital transfer Every frame of animation was converted from the film s computer data as opposed to the standard analog film to videotape transfer process This allowed for the film s DVD release to retain its original 2 35 1 widescreen format 38 39 The DVD was released on April 20 1999 alongside a VHS release which was presented in a standard 1 33 1 fullscreen format The film s fullscreen transfer was performed by entirely reframing the film shot by shot more than half of the film s footage was modified by Pixar animators to fit within the film s aspect ratio Several characters and objects were moved closer together to avoid being cut out of frame 38 The film s VHS release was the best selling VHS in the United Kingdom with 1 76 million units sold by the end of the year 40 On August 1 2000 these editions were re released on VHS and DVD under the Walt Disney Gold Classic Collection banner 41 On November 23 1999 a 2 disc Collector s Edition DVD was released It was fully remastered in anamorphic widescreen and has substantial bonus features The edition was re released on May 27 2003 to coincide with the release of Finding Nemo This THX certified DVD release once again gives the option of viewing the film in Widescreen or Full Frame 42 The second disc features numerous bonus features such as a set top game and a Finding Nemo featurette 43 On May 19 2009 the film was released on Blu ray 44 and then on 4K Blu ray on March 3 2020 45 Reception editBox office edit A Bug s Life grossed 371 940 at the El Capitan in its first five days before expanding nationwide 2 The film grossed a record 45 7 million during the five day Thanksgiving holiday weekend 46 2 including 33 3 million for the three day weekend 47 ranking first at the box office beating out Babe Pig in the City and The Rugrats Movie 48 49 Its five day Thanksgiving opening gross surpassed the previous record holder held by 101 Dalmatians 50 This record was surpassed by Toy Story 2 the following year 51 With a total gross of 12 5 million A Bug s Life achieved the second highest first two day Thanksgiving gross behind Back to the Future Part II 52 It managed to retain the top position in its second weekend making 17 1 million and outgrossing Psycho 53 During its third weekend the film s number one spot was taken by Star Trek Insurrection but it still overperformed Jack Frost while earning 11 1 million 54 55 In its first international weekend the film grossed 3 2 million from 5 countries setting record openings for an animated film in Australia 1 6 million and Thailand 400 000 with the latter surpassing Mulan 56 Furthermore it made 2 million during its opening weekend in Mexico which was the country s second highest at the time after Godzilla 57 By late December 1998 A Bug s Life had earned over 100 million Altogether several in year 1998 films combined with Titanic pulled 7 billion in North America propelling the film industry to a record year at the box office 58 In February 1999 the film also had a record opening for an animated film in the United Kingdom with an opening weekend gross of 4 2 million 6 9 million 59 In Japan the film ended Armageddon s 13 week long run in the number one spot earning 1 7 million 60 At the end of its theatrical run the film grossed 162 8 million in the United States and Canada and 200 4 million in foreign countries pushing its worldwide gross to 363 3 million surpassing the competition from DreamWorks Animation s Antz 2 which earned 171 8 million worldwide 61 Critical response edit On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes the film has a rating of 92 based on 91 reviews and an average rating of 7 9 10 The site s critical consensus reads A Bug s Life is a rousing adventure that blends animated thrills with witty dialogue and memorable characters and another smashing early success for Pixar 62 Another review aggregator Metacritic gave the film a score of 77 out of 100 based on 23 critics indicating generally favorable reviews 63 Todd McCarthy of Variety wrote Lasseter and Pixar broke new technical and aesthetic ground in the animation field with Toy Story and here they surpass it in both scope and complexity of movement while telling a story that overlaps Antz in numerous ways 64 James Berardinelli of ReelViews gave the film three and a half stars out of four saying A Bug s Life like Toy Story develops protagonists we can root for and places them in the midst of a fast moving energetic adventure 65 Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times gave the film three and a half stars out of four writing Will A Bug s Life suffer by coming out so soon after Antz Not any more than one thriller hurts the chances for the next one Antz may even help business for A Bug s Life by demonstrating how many dramatic and comedic possibilities can be found in an anthill 66 Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times gave the film four out of five stars writing What A Bug s Life demonstrates is that when it comes to bugs the most fun ones to hang out with hang exclusively with the gang at Pixar 67 Peter Stack of the San Francisco Chronicle gave the film four out of four stars stating A Bug s Life is one of the great movies a triumph of storytelling and character development and a whole new ballgame for computer animation Pixar Animation Studios has raised the genre to an astonishing new level 68 Richard Corliss of Time magazine wrote The plot matures handsomely the characters neatly converge and combust the gags pay off with emotional resonance 69 Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a B saying A Bug s Life may be the single most amazing film I ve ever seen that I couldn t fall in love with 70 Paul Clinton of CNN wrote A Bug s Life is a perfect movie for the holidays It contains a great upbeat message it s wonderful to look at it s wildly inventive and it s entertaining for both adults and kids 71 Michael Wilmington of the Chicago Tribune gave the film three and a half stars out of four and compared the movie to Akira Kurosawa s Seven Samurai with a little of another art film legend Federico Fellini tossed in where As in Samurai the colony here is plagued every year by the arrival of bandits 72 On the contrary Stephen Hunter of The Washington Post wrote Clever as it is the film lacks charm One problem too many bugs Second bigger world for two purposes to feed birds and to irk humans 73 Accolades edit Main article List of Pixar awards and nominations feature films A Bug s Life A Bug s Life won a number of awards and numerous nominations The film won the inaugural Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Animated Film tied with The Prince of Egypt as well as the award for Best Family Film It also won the Satellite Award for Best Animated Film and the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition by Randy Newman It was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Musical or Comedy Score the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score and the BAFTA Award for Best Achievement in Special Visual Effects 74 In 2008 the American Film Institute nominated this film for its Top 10 Animation Films list 75 Legacy edit In the years since its release A Bug s Life has been regarded by critics and fans to be a Pixar film that in contrast to its successors has become largely forgotten by audiences 76 77 78 While recognized as solidifying Pixar s success the film has been seen as the studio s sophomore slump in the wake of the critically successful Toy Story 76 77 79 80 81 and inhibited by being released directly before the equally revered Toy Story 2 76 Pixar s feud with DreamWorks as a result of Antz has also been regarded as a factor in A Bug s Life s legacy 81 82 Critics have generally ranked A Bug s Life to be one of Pixar s weaker releases 77 80 81 83 84 while it has been seen as charming 78 84 as well as an ambitious film 85 with pioneering animation for its time 76 77 85 others have described it as adequate 83 and appealing more to a younger demographic 84 Nonetheless the film s characters voice acting and humor have received lasting praise 77 78 79 80 85 Media and merchandise editAttached short film edit Main article Geri s Game The film s theatrical and video releases include Geri s Game an Academy Award winning Pixar short made in 1997 a year before this film was released 86 Video game edit Main article A Bug s Life video game A game based on the film was developed by Traveller s Tales and Tiertex Design Studios and released by Sony Computer Entertainment Disney Interactive THQ and Activision for various systems The game s storyline was similar to the film s with a few changes However unlike the film the game received mixed reviews 87 Aggregating review website GameRankings gave the Nintendo 64 version 54 40 88 the PlayStation version 51 90 89 and the Game Boy Color version 36 63 90 GameSpot gave the PlayStation version a 2 7 10 concluding that it was obvious that Disney was more interested in producing a 40 advertisement for its movie than in developing a playable game 91 IGN gave the Nintendo 64 version a 6 8 10 praising the presentation and sound by stating It was upbeat cheery look and feel very much like the movie of the same name with cheery happy tunes and strong sound effects but again criticized the gameplay by saying the controls were sluggish with stuttering framerate and tired gameplay mechanics 92 while they gave the PlayStation version a 4 10 criticizing the gameplay as slow and awkward but praising the presentation as cinematic 93 Theme park attractions editDisney s Animal Kingdom includes the 3D show It s Tough to Be a Bug which also existed at Disney California Adventure from 2001 to 2018 The Disney California Adventure nighttime show World of Color features a segment that includes Heimlich the Caterpillar from the film 94 Former theme park attractions edit From 2002 to 2018 A Bug s Land was a section of Disney California Adventure that was inspired by the film See also edit nbsp Disney portal nbsp Film portal nbsp United States portal nbsp Animation portal nbsp Cartoon portal nbsp 1990s portalLists of animated feature films List of Pixar films List of computer animated films List of Disney animated films based on fairy tales List of films featuring insectsReferences edit a b Premiere of A Bugs Life Getty Images El Capitan Theatre November 14 1998 Retrieved August 26 2023 a b c d e f A Bug s Life 1998 Box Office Mojo Archived from the original on September 15 2010 Retrieved August 20 2016 A Bug s Life bbfc co uk British Board of Film Classification Archived from the original on March 2 2016 Retrieved October 27 2015 Fabrikant Geraldine December 28 1998 Prince of Egypt Is No King at the Box Office The New York Times Archived from the original on May 27 2015 Retrieved June 16 2023 a b Maslin Janet 2016 A Bug s Life 1998 Movies amp TV Dept The New York Times Archived from the original on March 2 2016 Retrieved June 16 2016 A Bug s Life The Tale pixar com Pixar Archived from the original on December 5 2010 Retrieved July 24 2016 Sterngold James December 4 1998 At the Movies Bug s Word Yaddanyafoo The New York Times Archived from the original on January 29 2014 Retrieved February 19 2017 Tuck is older by a few milliseconds Price p 157 a b c d e f g Price p 158 a b c d e f g h Burrows Peter November 23 1998 Antz vs Bugs Business Week Archived from the original on November 28 1999 Retrieved March 7 2017 a b Price p 159 a b c d e Price p 160 a b Pixar Animation Studios official website feature films A Bugs Life The inspiration a b c d A Bugs Life DVD Commentary a b Price p 161 a b c d e Price p 162 a b c d Price p 163 Wilmington Michael November 25 1998 A Bug s Life Chicago Tribune Archived from the original on January 4 2018 Retrieved January 7 2018 The players whose colorful members include Madeline Kahn as Gypsy the moth Michael McShane as the Hungarian pill bug brothers Tuck amp Roll and in his farewell appearance Roddy McDowall as the grandfatherly Mr Soil all help make Bug s Life special a b c Price p 172 a b A Bugs Life DVD Behind the Scenes a b Price p 173 a b c d Isaacson Walter 2011 Steve Jobs New York Simon amp Schuster p 307 ISBN 978 1 4516 4853 9 Price p 170 a b c d e f g h Price p 171 a b Price p 174 a b Price p 169 a b c d e f Isaacson Walter 2011 Steve Jobs New York Simon amp Schuster p 308 ISBN 978 1 4516 4853 9 Of Ants Bugs and Rug Rats The Story of Dueling Bug Movies Associated Press October 2 1998 Archived from the original on March 3 2016 Retrieved March 4 2010 Isaacson Walter 2011 Steve Jobs New York Simon amp Schuster p 309 ISBN 978 1 4516 4853 9 AllMusic AllMusic Archived from the original on February 15 2015 Retrieved October 9 2014 iTunes Music A Bug s Life An Original Walt Disney Records Soundtrack by Randy Newman iTunes Store October 23 2001 Archived from the original on November 6 2013 Retrieved October 21 2013 a b A Bug s Life crew roundtable A Bug s Life Blu Ray disc special Novak Matt January 29 2016 Here Is Every Single Movie Bill Clinton Watched In The White House Gizmodo Archived from the original on May 17 2022 Retrieved June 11 2022 A Bug s Life November 8 1998 Newly Released Files Show Steve Jobs Gave President Clinton Unsolicited Cabinet Recommendations Gizmodo October 23 2017 Archived from the original on June 11 2022 Retrieved June 11 2022 The photos dated November 9 1998 were taken in the Oval Office Listings Movies Openings Los Angeles Times November 15 1998 p 34 Star Wars trailer gives Bug s Life crowd a thrill The Belleville News Democrat December 1 1998 p 25 Archived from the original on October 11 2022 Retrieved October 11 2022 via Newspapers com nbsp Cox Dan December 15 1998 New Bug s bloopers look to hook auds Variety Archived from the original on February 4 2022 Retrieved February 4 2022 a b Iverson Jon February 14 1999 A Bug s Life Becomes First All Digital DVD Release Sound And Vision Archived from the original on January 8 2018 Retrieved January 6 2018 King Susan April 22 1999 A New Look for Bug Los Angeles Times Archived from the original on April 3 2022 Retrieved April 3 2022 Andrews Sam March 16 2000 Sales of DVDs Soaring in the U K Billboard Archived from the original on 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14 2023 via Newspapers com nbsp Ninth Star Trek beams up 22 4 million for No 1 spot at box office The Star Press December 14 1998 p 2 Archived from the original on September 14 2023 Retrieved September 14 2023 via Newspapers com nbsp Star Trek squashes Bug s Life at box office The Tampa Bay Times December 14 1998 Archived from the original on October 11 2022 Retrieved February 3 2022 Woods Mark December 7 1998 Bug s bags bucks Variety Retrieved August 25 2023 Woods Mark December 8 1998 Mail delivers o seas Variety Retrieved September 26 2023 Fleeman Michael December 31 1998 Hollywood s 6 9 billion year sets record The Post Crescent p 20 Archived from the original on March 31 2022 Retrieved March 31 2022 via Newspapers com nbsp Scott Mary February 12 1999 A Bug s Life Animates Record Screen International p 43 Groves Don March 15 1999 O seas loves the bard Bug s invades Japan Variety Retrieved September 13 2023 Antz 1998 Box Office Mojo www boxofficemojo com Archived from the original on 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21 2013 Retrieved October 21 2013 Corliss Richard November 30 1998 Cinema Bugs Funny Time Archived from the original on July 20 2014 Retrieved October 21 2013 Owen Gleiberman November 20 1998 A Bug s Life Review Movie Reviews and News Entertainment Weekly Archived from the original on October 21 2013 Retrieved October 21 2013 Review A Bug s Life hits a bulls eye November 20 1998 CNN November 20 1998 Archived from the original on October 22 2013 Retrieved October 21 2013 Wilmington Michael November 25 1998 Movie Review A Bug s Life Disney s Venture Into The Insect World Squashes Antz November 25 1998 Chicago Tribune Archived from the original on May 18 2014 Retrieved November 2 2013 A Bug s Life G The Washington Post November 25 1998 Archived from the original on October 3 2018 Retrieved October 21 2013 A Bug s Life Cast Crew Director and Awards Movies amp TV Dept The New York Times 2014 Archived from the original on January 24 2014 Retrieved January 13 2014 AFI s 10 Top 10 Nominees PDF Archived from the original PDF on July 16 2011 Retrieved August 19 2016 a b c d Gomez Patrick May 26 2020 A Bug s Life is the technological marvel Pixar left behind The A V Club Archived from the original on July 9 2021 Retrieved July 2 2021 a b c d e Grebey James November 24 2018 Why A Bug s Life is an underrated Pixar classic Rotten Tomatoes Archived from the original on April 1 2019 Retrieved July 2 2021 a b c Brew Simon December 5 2010 Celebrating the Pixar end credits bloopers Den of Geek Archived from the original on July 12 2021 Retrieved July 2 2021 a b Travis Ben February 3 2021 Every Pixar Movie Ranked From Toy Story To Soul Empire Archived from the original on March 1 2020 Retrieved July 2 2021 a b c Shutt Mike June 17 2015 Ranking All of Pixar s Films From Toy Story to Inside Out Comingsoon net Archived from the original on December 31 2015 Retrieved July 2 2021 a b c Frank Allegra Abad Santos Alex VanDerWerff Emily Romano Aja Wilkinson Alissa December 29 2020 All 23 Pixar 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from the original on October 29 2013 Retrieved November 29 2013 Disney Pixar A Bug s Life for PlayStation GameRankings October 31 1998 Archived from the original on November 2 2013 Retrieved November 29 2013 Disney Pixar A Bug s Life for Game Boy Color GameRankings Archived from the original on November 2 2013 Retrieved November 29 2013 Disney Pixar A Bug s Life Review GameSpot Archived from the original on March 10 2014 Retrieved November 29 2013 A Bug s Life IGN Uk ign com June 2 1999 Archived from the original on March 2 2016 Retrieved November 29 2013 A Bug s Life IGN Uk ign com November 20 1998 Archived from the original on March 2 2016 Retrieved November 29 2013 It s Tough to be a Bug Walt Disney World Resort Disney Archived from the original on January 14 2014 Retrieved January 13 2014 Bibliography editPrice David 2008 The Pixar Touch New York Alfred A Knopf ISBN 9780307265753 External links edit nbsp Wikiquote has quotations related to A Bug s Life nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to A Bug s Life Official website Official website at Pixar A Bug s Life at IMDb A Bug s Life at the TCM Movie Database A Bug s Life at The Big Cartoon DataBase A Bug s Life at AllMovie Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title A Bug 27s Life amp oldid 1189418860, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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