Cast _* Interesting Facts _* Original Story Treatment

Directed by: John Lasseter & Andrew Stanton
Written by: John Lasseter & Andrew Stanton
Original Music by: Randy Newman

Released on: November 22, 1998
Running Time: 96 minutes

Budget: $45 million officially (but $120 million rumored!)
U.S. Opening Weekend: $33.258 million over 2,686 screens
Box-Office: $163 million in the U.S., $358 million worldwide
 
 

CAST

Flik... Dave Foley (Monkeybone)
Hopper... Kevin Spacey (The Usual Suspect, American Beauty)
Princess Atta... Julia Louis-Dreyfuss (Seinfeld)
Dot... Hayden Panettiere (Dinosaur)
Queen... Phyllis Diller (Splendor in the Grass)
Slim... David Hyde Pierce (Frasier, Hercules: the TV Series, Osmosis Jones)
Rosie... Bonnie Hunt (Beethoven)
Heimlich... Joe Ranft (storyboard supervisor on Who Framed Roger Rabbit, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Toy Story, James and the Giant Peach, and Toy Story 2)
Francis... Denis Leary (The Thomas Crown Affair)
Mr. Soil... Roddy McDowall (Bedknobs and Broomsticks, this was his very last movie)

Roderick McDowall was born in London, the son of a merchant mariner father and a mother who had always wanted to be in movies. He was enrolled in elocution courses at age 5 and by age 10 appeared in his first movie, Murder in the Family (1938), playing Peter Osborne, the younger brother of sisters played by Jessica Tandy and Glynis Johns. His mother brought Roddy and his sister to the United States at the beginning of World War II where he got the part of Huw, youngest child of Welsh coal-miners, in William Wyler's (later John Ford's) How Green Was My Valley (1941), playing with Walter Pidgeon, Maureen O'Hara and Donald Crisp in the film which won that year's best film Oscar. He went on to many other child roles, in Flicka and Lassie movies until, aged 18, he moved to New York where he played a long series of successful roles on Broadway, including Shakespeare at Connecticut's Stratford Festival.  A clerical error on the part of the Academy cost McDowall an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actor for his role as Caesar Augustus Octavian, opposite Elizabeth Taylor in Cleopatra (1963).  In addition to making many more movies -including That Darn Cat! (1965) with Hayley Mills, Planet of the Apes (1968, to be followed by one sequel each year between 1970 and 1975!) as Dr. Cornelius, Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971), Funny Lady (1975), The Black Hole (1979), the hit vampire movie Fright Night (1985)-, he acted in television -for instance to voice the Matt Hatter in Batman: The Animated Series (1992)- and published five books of his own photography.  Roddy MacDowall died at his Los Angeles home, aged 70, of cancer.  His ashes were scattered in the Pacific Ocean.
 
 

INTERESTING FACTS

The original title of this project was Bugs.

A 2D bug film was reportedly in developement at Disney 6 years before A Bug's Life.

Dave Foley, who voices Flick, originally tried out for the role Slim, played by David Hyde Pierce.

  The names on the boxes that make up the City are all the names of the writers' kids. A few examples are: JuJu's Litter, Hannah's Bananas, and PJ Pop.

  The pickup truck to the left of the mobile home when the bug flies into the bug light is the same pizza delivery truck that Buzz and Woody climb into at the gas station in Toy Story (1995).

  The restaurant at Bug City is a can of "Low Fat Lard."

  The cookies from the box that that Flea's circus travels in contain 92 grams of protein per serving!

  The face of Geri from Geri's Game (a Pixar short) can be seen modeled in the tree above the ant colony.

  Woody from Toy Story (1995) appears holding the clapper in the second set of "outtakes."

  The otherwise-unintelligible pillbugs, Tuck & Roll, shout "Reuben Kincaid!" while building the bird. It's barely understandable, but shows up in the captions. Reuben Kincaid was a character in The Partridge Family (1970).

  The circus "train" is made of boxes of animal crackers called Casey Jr. This is also the name of the circus train in the movie Dumbo.

  During the credits, there are some faked "goofs" during filming such as characters bursting out laughing, accidentally knocking over the camera, etc.  One particular highlight is Flik yelling "To infinity, and beyond!"

  Additional faked goofs are being added to the movie on December 18th, 1998.  The original set of goofs had such a great reaction that Disney decided to add more for a "reward" to people that see the movie again.

  The film lists "production babies." which are supposed to be the children born to the staff members of Pixar Animation Studios during the production of the project.

  A Bug's Life marks the second time a Theme Park Attraction has been released before the film -the first was Sleeping Beauty Castle in 1955 before the movie in 1959. Inside the Tree of Life at Walt Disney World's Animal Kingdom, there is a 430-seat theater which shows a a 3-D movie, "It's Tough To Be A Bug," featuring the characters from "A Bug's Life," and features a whole new arsenal of in house effects along with the animation effects from Pixar. It is the most 4D Disney movie ever. They show butterflies flying around the theatre.

A Bug's Life was released theatrically in the widescreen aspect ratio of 2.35:1. The full-screen VHS version was digitally re-rendered shot by shot, moving characters and objects closer together where necessary, to reframe and fit them into the 1.33:1 TV screen, According to Pixar more than half the movie was recomputed after changes in the camera's field of view or movement.

  The 96-minute film's most difficult scenes took more than 100 hours per frame to render compared to the average shot that required about 15 hours, because of the complexity of the backgrounds that included rocks, blades of grass and leaves in the 130,000-frame film.

  The DVD version of A Bug's Life is the first ever all-digital video transfer.
 
 

ORIGINAL STORY TREATMENT

The Original Story Treatment of the movie was taken from the Bug's Life 2-DVD Set and transcribed by 'Pepe' for Animated-Movies.com.
 

ACT I

End of summer: A peaceful colony of black ants toils storing up food for the winter. An alarm is sounded, the ants quickly scurry for cover and hide the food they’ve been harvesting.

Suddenly, the sun is blotted out by a wave of grasshoppers that enter the colony like an unruly motorcycle gang. As the dust settles, Hopper, the leader of the gang, appears before the trembling ants. Once again, the grasshoppers have been playing all summer and neglected to save any food for winter. "Lucky for us", says Hopper, "...you busy little boy scouts have been hard at work. Tell you what, we’ll do our usual deal. You harvest for the rest of the summer, we’ll be back at the first winter frost to collect it all, and we will let you live." The ants, a timid species, are unable to defend themselves, and Hopper and his horde fly away.

Angry and frustrated, the ants hold a meeting with the wise old Queen Ant. She advises the nest to hire other bugs who are strong and clever enought to defend the ant colony from the evil grasshoppers.

The Queen’s daughter, Princess Atta, thinks this idea is too risky, and if it fails, will only further incur the wrath of Hopper. But she is overruled. Two ants are the chosen to leave the colony to scout for the greatest warriors in all bugdom.

Cut to: A spotlight, generated from a firefly, pierces the darkness to reveal a fire ant ringmaster, Red. "Ladies and gentlemen! Bugs of all ages! May I present to you... the world’s greates FLEA CIRCUS!" Red beams with the bravado as he introduces each act. The spotlight is clearly where this ringmaster ant was born to be.

The performance begins with a Ladybug family acrobatic team...

Followed by a Praying Mantis magician act, with his lovely Gyspsy Moth assistant....

A giant ferocious Rhino Beetle...

A Caterpillar clown...

...and a Black Widow Spider high-wire act...

The final act is a pair of Pillbugs being shot from a cannon.

After the finale, the lights come up, revealing an empty arena except for two drunken crickets chirping in the back, barely coherent.

The fat little flea owner, P.T Flea, calls the troupe together and announces he’s shutting down the circus.

The depressed performers are put out on the street. Red sighs, "Alright, come on. Let’s find someplace dry and figure out what to do."

Later: The bugs sit at a table in a local bug bar, drowning their sorrows. With the last of their pay, Red approaches the bar to order another round of dew. Red overhears the two scout ants sent out by the colony, attempting to recruit a tough looking wasp.

Red rushes back to his circus buddies. He suggests to the group that they pose as fighters to the scout ants. "But we can’t fight grasshoppers", replies the dim-whitted Rhino Beetle. "We won’t have to," says Red. "After we’re fat and well-rested, we’ll hightail it out of there before the grasshoppers come back." With no other options, the troupe agrees to Red’s idea.

Outside: The two scouts ants are depressed at having no luck in hiring bugs. Suddenly the circus troupe appears, marching in military formation past the scout ants. "Are you fighting bugs?" ask the scout ants. The troop performs a dangerous-looking circus routine that easily impresses the scout ants. The scout ants are conviced that they have vound the bugs they’re looking for. They make Red an offer. "We’re used to working for a lot more..." Red looks at the other bugs and smirks, "...but we’ll take it."
 

ACT II

Back at the colony: "Bugs approaching!" shouts a lookout. Worker ants drop what they’re doing and run to the base of the anthill. Quickly, the Queen and her entourage assemble. Banners are hung proclaiming "Welcome Bugs," the ant band plays, and children climb on their parents’ backs to get a better look. The colony is in a frenzy as the bugs approach.

The bug party is met with music and the cheers of a hundred ant voices. Red and the rest of the troop are in awe. Never have they played before such a huge audience, or received such an enthusiastic response. By the time the troop approaches the Queen, they have become fully infected with the euphoria of the crowd.

The Next Day: The bug troop begins their charade by putting the ant colony through mock training exercises. The ants are taught weigh lifting, juggling, acrobatic routines, tightrope walking, even how to do a decent pratfall. And through all this the ants sincerely believe they are being trained by master fighters.

Red even begins to sit in on important planning meetings with the Queen and her council, giving military advice. The only one who doesn’t buy their "military act" is princess Atta. Her first encounters with Red are terse and combative. Red decides to make it his mission to woo her to their side.

The Next Few Months: as time passes, a few snags begin to appear: the bugs grow fond of their ant comrades, impressed with their sense of community, family and hard work. Red and Atta’s animosity is beginning to turn into adoration. Atta has noticed the positive effect that Red has had on her colony, and her heart has softened to him.

Red, from the outset, realices that his romantic longings for Atta are a bad idea, but the best he can do is keep it a secret from his circus buddies.

AS the weeks pass and the weather turns cooler, the troop gets nervous and suggests to Red that they sneak out while they still can. Red, unwilling to leave Atta, keeps finding excuses for them to wait just a little longer before leaving.

The first Winter Frost: One morning, the bugs awaken to a thin film of ice covering everything. In a panic, they scramble to get their belongings and hightail it out of the colony before Hopper shows up.

Quietly, the troop tip-toes towards the front gate while the colony sleeps. They are almost home free, when a familiar high-pitched whine screams from over the horizon. The grasshoppers are back....

The troop runs for the gate, only to be confronted by Hopper himself. "Well, who do we have here?" mocks the grasshopper. Before Red can speack, one of the ants yells: "They’re the bugs that are gonna kick your butt, Hopper!" Hopper smiles and looks Red square in the face. "Is that so? You clowns gonna try to be heroes?"

In the hope of surviving, Red is about to blab their true identities when he catches Atta looking at him with pride. Unable to let his true love down, Red does what he does best: He starts talking. "That’s right, Hoppity," barks Red, "Me and my battalion of higly-skilled military technicians are here to make sure you and your harem of ugly crickets don’t step one foot into this anthill. And don’t think it’s just us you have to get past, Jiminy. You’ve also got an entire colony of ants to put up with."

From the colony walls, ants back flip, tumble, roll and swing into view in one precision movement. The grasshoppers are suddenly confronted by a wall of seemingly confident and agile ant warriors. Hopper and his men are unprepared for resistance. "Alright guys," Hopper says, "Let’s get out of here."

As the frustrated grasshoppers leave, the entire colony cheers! Red is about to faint, but is caught by the ants who pick up the circus bugs and pared them around the anthill, hailing them as heroes.

Sunset: The ants celebrate their victory by throwing a wild party. The circus bugs are the toast of the colony. Red looks for a moment alone with Atta. His conscience is getting the better of him, and he wants to tell Atta his true identity. But just as he’s about to speak...

In through the fron gate of the colony walks none other than P.T Flea, their old boss. "There you are!" cries the Flea. "They told me in town I’d find you here! I got us a gig! We’re a CIRCUS again!"

No one moves. A stony silence falls over the party. A murmur arises from the crowd. The Queen and her colony are furious, realizing that they had just put their lives in jeopardy by facing off the grasshoppers with onlyh the deluded training circus performers. The celebrating crowd, quickly turns into a lynch mob. The bug troop is picked up by the ants and thrown out of the colony.

Left with no other choice, the dejected bugs pick themselves up out of the dirt and follow P.T. Flea off into the night. Red lags slowly behind the troupe, heartbroken at losing Atta.

That evening: The Queen orders everyone to bed and enters her chambers when suddenly, she stands alone facing Hopper. "You didn’t really think I was going to leave yhour little colony alone?"

"May I remind you," says the Queen, "that you are completely sorrounded by ants in this very moment?"

Hopper chuckles, "As long as I have you by my side, your ants will do whatever I say."

The Queen is taken hostage, Hopper’s henchmen invade the anthill. Atta senses something is amiss, and escapes through a secret tunnel. Outside, she pauses to consider her options. A look of determination flashes in her eyes. She knows what she must do, and runs off to find Red and the circus bugs.

Later: Atta finally catches up to the bug troupe and explains the situation. She tells them they’ve got to go back and help. "What can we do?" says Red, "We’re just circus bugs."

Atta tells them they’re wrong. "While you were there, they had confidence in themselves. You brought that out in them. Now you’ve got to go and give it back to them!" The bugs decide she’s right, and rush down the hill towards the ant colony.
 

ACT III

Later that night the circus bugs reach the colony to discover it crawling with grasshoppers. An endless line of ants is being forced to carry food from the anthill to the grasshopper camp, located at the dam on the outermost boundary of the colony. There, Hopper is holding the Queen hostage.

From their hiding place in the bushes, Atta and the bugs overhear two guards saying that as soon as the ants have finished delivering the food, the entire colony, along with their Queen, will be slaughtered. The bugs know they must act quickly. Red has an idea.

Using Atta’s knowdlege of the anthill, the circus troupe sneaks in undetected. Down one of the passageways they come across the storerooms, where two grasshoppers stand guard. A moment later, the Caterpillar clown appears and taunts the guards by performing a funny little dance. The two grasshoppers chase after him and bump into the Rhino Beetle, who promptly lifts the guards up, spins them around and throws them agains the wall, knocking them out cold.

Now in control of the storeroom, Red instructs each bug to hide in the food. Red then rolls in the mud to disguise himself as a black ant. Next, both he and Atta hoist the bugs, hidden in the food, on their backs. They join the end of the line of ants hauling food for the grasshoppers.

The food line parades out of the anthill past the grasshopper guards. Red and Atta walk undetected into the grasshopper compound, and are led to a large arena. The ants dump their food into a big pile in front of Hopper and are then corralled to the side. Next to Hopper, penned up in a cage, is the Queen.

The grasshoppers have begun to gorge themselves on the ants’ food. Hopper taunts the Queen, "We had such a nice setup, Your Highness. It’s a shame you had to ruin it all. We’ll have to find another colony-you’ve become far more trouble than you’re worth."

Red approaches the pile of food, and whispers to the others to wait for his signal. When Red reaches the center, he dumps his food, and jumps into the spotlight. "Ladies and gentlemen!", barks Red. "Bugs of all ages! Presenting –The World’s Greatest Flea Circus!"

Right on cue, the bugs all jump out of the food, and immediately go into their old circus routines. Hopper and the Grasshoppers are taken by surprise.

"In the ring number one, the clowns!" shouts Red. The bugs perform a slapstick routine. "In ring number two, the acrobats!" Red continues, "...in Ring number three, the jugglers!" the grasshoppers, delighted at the surrpise entertainment for their banquet, laugh heartily.

Red points to the Queen and introduces the next act, "...And in ring number four, Manto the Magnificent will make this lovely lady disappear before your very eyes!"

The Praying Mantis throws a cloth over the Queen’s cage, and when he lifts it, sure enough, she’s gone!

The grasshoppers applaud, until Hopper reali zes, "They’ve got the Queen!" AT that moment, Red yells, "Now!" and all the harmless circus routines turn into deadly fighting maneuvers.

In the performance of a lifetime, the bugs knock out grasshoppers right and left.

He sight of the tiny circus troupe rescuing the Queen and taking on the grasshoppers renews the corralled ants’ sense of courage. Red now turns to his old ant comrades and shouts, "Company, assume fighting position! Go, go, go!"

He ants burst from the corral and join the bugs, instantly turning into an impressive sized army. "Get them!" screams Hopper. The grasshopper swarm attacks. Even though the grasshoppers are tough fighters, they are not match for the inventive circus tactics of the ants, led by the bug troop. Everything into play in grand style.

He grasshoppers are soon overtaken, and run out of town. But during the fray, Hopper, seeing he’s fighting a losing battle and that his gang is deserting him, grabs Atta as a hostage, and heads for the top of the dam. Red follows in pursuit, with the rest of the bugs following behind.

Red and Hopper face off atop the ant-made dam. Hopper threatens to burst the dam and flood t he anthill. As the other butgs and ants arrive, Red inches closer. Hopper warns them to stay back or else he will throw Atta off the dam. In aburst of maliciuos spite, he stomps on the dam, causing it to rupture. As the ground begins to rumble beneath them, Red shouts, "You got what you wanted! Now let her go!"

Instead, Hopper sneers at Red, and throws Atta down. Red shouts, "Nooo!" and lunges at Hopper. They both go hurtling off, as the dam crumbles beneath them.

He Spider, already anticipating Atta’s fall, spins out a makeshift web underneath. She races agains time to put the final string in place, and manages to save Atta. But when Red and Hopper hit the web, their combined weight forces them to rip right through and tumble down into the rushing flood waters.

Red and Hopper continue their fight in the white water. They jump onto leaves, twigs and anything they can find to try to stay afloat in the onrushing torrent. All the while, they are kicking and clawing at one another, each trying to knock the other off balance.

AS they go hurtling over the falls, the ants and bugs, who have been running alongside, spring into action. Forming a huge bug and ant trapeze chain, they swing across the divide and snatch Red out of mid-air, landing safely on the embankment. Hopper on the other hand, falls into the churning waters below.

He massive wave of water continues to rush forward and slams into the anthill full force, taking it down in a matter of seconds. The ants can only watch as their home of many years is washed away to nothing.

Further downstream, the bugs fish a battered and beaten Hopper out of the water. Using the Queen’s cage, they lock him up in a neat little package.
 

EPILOGUE

Next morning, sunrise: A formal ceremony is underway as the Queen and the entire colony formally thank the circus bugs by proclaiming them "honorary ants". Atta and Red announce their engagement.

Because the food had been delivered earlier to the grasshopper encampment, the ants still have plenty for the winter. Ground is broken on the ants’ new home, on which they will all happily work-together.

He ceremony concludes with a big one-gun salute as Hopper is shot out of the circus cannon, off into the horizon.