A Bug's Life

A Bug's Life is a computer animated film produced by Pixar Animation Studios. The firm was released by Walt Disney Pictures and Buena Vista Distribution in the United States on November 25, 1998, in Australia on January 12, 1999, and in the United Kingdom on February 5, 1999. It is about an individualist ant who hires what he thinks are "warrior bugs" (actually circus performers) to fight off greedy grasshoppers. The story of A Bug's Life is a parody of Aesop's fable of The Ant and the Grasshopper.

A Bug's Life was directed by John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton. It was produced by Darla K. Anderson|Darla K. Anderson and Kevin Reher. The original story was by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, Joe Ranft; the screenplay by Andrew Stanton, Bob Shaw, and Don McEnery.

Plot synopsis
Flik (Dave Foley) is an oddball, an individualist and would-be inventor in a colony of ants that is oppressed by a gang of Mafia-like grasshoppers, who arrive once a season demanding food from the ants, in return for supposed protection from "bigger bugs". While working with an invention to pick fruit more efficiently, Flik accidentally destroys the offering that the ants were putting together to appease the grasshoppers. Given a temporary reprieve by the grasshoppers, Princess Atta (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) agree to Flik's plan to recruit "warrior bugs" to fight off the grasshoppers; Flik actually believes the plan, while the other ants see it as a way of effectively exiling Flik.

Flik finds his way to the "city" (actually garbage under a trailer), where he mistakes a group of recently fired circus performers (voiced by Denis Leary, David Hyde Pierce, Joe Ranft, Jonathan Harris, Madeline Kahn, Bonnie Hunt, Brad Garrett and Michael McShane) whose act collapses into chaos, for the warrior bugs he's seeking. The bugs, meanwhile, mistake Flik for a talent agent who wants to book their act, and agree to travel with him back to Ant Island.

Flik eventually realizes his mistake and develops a new plan. He advocates building a fake bird to scare away Hopper (Kevin Spacey), the leader of the grasshoppers, who is deeply afraid of bug-eating birds. The ants unite behind Flik's plan until the circus' ringmaster, P.T. Flea (John Ratzenberger), arrives to retrieve his performers, blowing Flik's cover.

The ants try desperately to pull together enough food for a new offering to the grasshopper crew, but it can't possibly be enough. Dot (Hayden Panettiere), a tiny royal ant who idolizes Flik, overhears Hopper's plan to kill the queen (voiced by Phyllis Diller) after the offering and gets her friends to put Flik's bird plan back into action. It all nearly works, but when a confused P.T. inadvertently incinerates the bird, Hopper knows he has been tricked. After taking a beating from Hopper, Flik declares, in response to Hopper's claims of racial superiority, "Ants don't serve grasshoppers! It's you who need us. We're a lot stronger than you say we are... and you know it, don't you?" Hopper knows it. His words make the ants realize that they outnumber the grasshoppers 100 to 1, they need not be oppressed by grasshoppers ever again. They all rise up in a wave of fury and chase the grasshoppers out, but not before Hopper grabs Flik in a plan to squish him. Thanks to some quick thinking by Flik, Hopper ends up being eaten by a real bird that also inhabits Ant Island. Flik is welcomed back to the colony, and all the circus bugs join him in a celebration before departing Ant Island.

Roleplaying
A Bug's Muck, an unofficial roleplaying MUCK based on the film, opened in 1999 and ran until November 2006.