A Bug's Life

A Bug's Life is Pixar's second feature film. It was produced by Pixar Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. It was released in theaters on November 25, 1998.

Story
The plot of A Bug's Life focuses on an outcast ant named Flik who recruits a group of circus bugs to help him rid his colony of evil grasshoppers.

Plot
The grasshoppers arrive once a season to extort food from the ants, supposedly in return for protection from bigger bugs, but while working with an invention to pick grain more efficiently, an ant named Flik accidentally destroys the annual offering that the ants were collecting to appease the grasshoppers. In exchange for a temporary reprieve from the grasshoppers, the ants are given until the end of autumn to produce an offering of twice the usual amount. Later, while he is being admonished by the royal council of the colony, Flik proposes a plan to recruit warrior bugs to fight off the grasshoppers. When the council agrees to his proposal, Flik actually believes they have accepted the merits of his plan, whereas the council actually saw it as a convenient way of simply keeping Flik from wreaking any more havoc with their food-gathering activities.

Flik finds his way to the city garbage under a trailer, where he mistakes a group of recently fired circus performers, whose act had collapsed into chaos, for the warrior bugs he's seeking. The bug troupe, meanwhile, mistakes Flik for a talent agent who wants to book their act, and agrees to travel with him back to Ant Island.

Both Flik and the circus troupe soon become aware of their respective mistakes. However, the rest of the ant colony had become convinced that these newcomers are indeed the warriors for which they had hoped when the circus bugs help Flik pull off a daring rescue of Dot, a young princess ant of the colony, who idolizes Flik and a wounded Francis, a ladybug performer of the circus bug troupe from a bird.

Caught between the opportunity to turn around his fortunes within the colony, and the knowledge that the bug troupe are not who they appear to be, Flik advocates building a fake bird to scare away Hopper, 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, arrives to retrieve his performers, thereby blowing Flik's cover. As punishment for deceiving the colony, Princess Atta, the older sister of Dot and soon to be queen of the colony banishes Flik, who sadly joins the rest of the circus.

Meanwhile, at the grasshopper's home under a sombrero in a desert, Molt, Hopper's brother is tricked by other grasshoppers into trying to talk Hopper out of returning to Ant Island since they have more than enough food to last and it will rain soon. Hopper in response shows his men exactly why they are returning by burying the three who questioned him with hundreds of seeds. Saying that the ants and seeds are alike, ants may be puny by themselves but they outnumber grasshoppers a hundred to one. They aren't returning because of food, they're returning to keep the ants from figuring out how powerful they really are.

Having wasted an enormous amount of time pursuing Flik's plan to stand up to the grasshoppers, the ants try desperately to gather enough food for a new offering, but due to the rapidly-approaching winter season, they can't find enough food to meet the quota. When the grasshoppers return and are angered by the meager offering, Dot overhears Hopper's plan to squish the queen after receiving the full offering, and convinces her friends to put Flik's bird plan back into action. She goes after Flik and convinces him and the circus bugs to return to help the colony.

It all nearly works, but when a confused P.T. inadvertently incinerates the bird, Hopper realizes he has been tricked and takes out his anger on the primary instigator, Flik. After absorbing a beating from Hopper's rabid, feral grasshopper Thumper, Flik declares, in response to Hopper's claims of species superiority:

"You're wrong, Hopper. Ants are not meant to serve grasshoppers. I've seen these ants do great things, and year after year they somehow manage to pick enough food for themselves and you. So who's the weaker species? Ants don't need grasshoppers! It's you who need us! We're a lot stronger than you say we are...and you know it, don't you?"

Indeed, Hopper's worried expression leads Flik to realise that Hopper has always known how strong the ants are. However, Hopper's reaction to Flik's challenge in front of the whole ant colony make them collectively realize that they vastly outnumber the grasshoppers, and that they needn't endure their oppression any longer, and the battle for Ant Island ensues.

The ants rise up in a wave of fury and chase the grasshoppers out for good, but not before Hopper makes off with Flik in a plan to exact revenge upon him. Flik's friends, including Princess Atta, set off in pursuit, and thanks to some quick thinking by Flik, Hopper ends up being eaten by a real bird. Flik is welcomed back to the colony, and all the circus bugs join him in a celebration before departing from Ant Island.

Voice Cast

 * Dave Foley as Flik, the protagonist. An ant looking for warriors to save his colony from grasshoppers.
 * Hayden Panettiere as Dot, the tritagonist. Princess Atta's little sister.
 * Kevin Spacey as Hopper, the main antagonist. He is the leader of the grasshoppers.
 * Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Princess Atta, the deuteragonist. The heir to the throne.
 * Phyllis Diller as The Queen, Atta and Dot's mother.
 * Richard Kind as Molt, Hopper's brother and a secondary antagonist.
 * David Hyde Pierce as Slim, a walking stick in P.T. Flea's circus.
 * Joe Ranft as Heimlich, a caterpillar in P.T. Flea's circus who longs to be a butterfly.
 * Denis Leary as Francis, a bad-tempered and argumentative ladybug in P.T. Flea's circus, who is constantly mistaken for a girl.
 * Madeline Kahn as Gypsy, a gypsy moth and Manny's assistant in P.T. Flea's circus.
 * Michael McShane as Tuck and Roll, two hungarian twin pill bugs and the human cannonballs in P.T. Flea's circus.
 * Bonnie Hunt as Rosie, a black widow spider in P.T. Flea's circus.
 * John Ratzenberger as P.T. Flea, a flea and the boss of the circus troupe.
 * Jonathan Harris as Manny, a praying mantis in P.T. Flea's circus.
 * Brad Garrett as Dim, a rhinoceros beetle in P.T. Flea's circus.
 * Roddy McDowall as Mr. Soil, an ant and a thespian.
 * Alex Rocco as Thorny, a part of the Ant Council.
 * Edie McClurg as Dr. Flora, the ant doctor.
 * David Ossman as Cornelius, an elderly ant with a walking stick and Thorny's Helper.
 * Ashley Tisdale as Daisy, a leading member of the Blueberry Scouts.
 * Jack Angel as The Fly Brothers and Flies, flies who mistake Francis for a girl.
 * David Lander as Thumper, the other secondary antagonist and Hopper's aggressive pet.