The Making of A Bug’s Life

The Making of A Bugs Life

Plot

Released in the UK on 5th Feb 1999, A Bugs Life. Flik, an ant with big dreams just can’t seem to get any of his inventions right, but now he’s got to get something right because his colony is being threatened by grasshoppers. Can Flik pull of the best invention of all time? Find out in A Bugs Life.

Directors: John Lassiter and Andrew Stanton, both John and Andrew have a go at voice acting in this film. They cameo as the bugs who say “Frank don’t go towards the light” and “I can’t help it – it’s so beautiful!”

Writers: John Lassiter, Andrew Stanton and Joe Ranft

Cast

Flik was voiced by Dave Foley.

Hopper was voiced by Kevin Spacey. John Lassiter originally wanted Robert De Niro for the job but he turned the part down as did several other actors until it was offered to Kevin Spacey.

Princess Atta was voiced by Julia Louis Dreyfus. During the bloopers at the end of the film there is a scene where Princess Atta is laughing during filming with Hopper, Hopper gets so frustrated that he leaves. This was done as a nod to Princess Atta’s voice actress Julia who has been known to do this when filming the show Seinfeld.   

Atta was named after a genus of leaf cutter ant of the same name.

Dot was voiced by Hayden Panettiere. You may know Hayden as the cheerleader from Heroes.

Reportedly Ashley Tisdale from High School Musical and The Suite Life of Zac and Cody auditioned for the role.

The character of Dot was created because Andrew Stanton had just gained a daughter and so he wanted a daughter in the film.

The Queen was voiced by Phyllis Diller.

Molt was voiced by Richard Kind. Molt was created as comic relief, however he does foreshadow the ultimate demise of Hopper when he says “The bird eats the grasshopper”.

In the scene where Molt gets scared and sheds his skin from being scared of the ants, the skin that we see is the model that Pixar animators created for Molt, just before any colour was added.

Slim was voiced by David Hyde Pierce.  

Heimlich was voiced by Joe Ranft, one of the writers of the film.

Francis was voiced by Denis Leary.

Manny was voiced by Jonathan Harris.  

Gypsy Moth was voiced by Madeline Kahn. This would be Madeline’s last voice role as she sadly died a year after this movie was released of ovarian cancer.

Rosie was voiced by Bonnie Hunt.

Tuck and Roll were voiced by Michael McShane. If you want to know which bug is which, Tuck is the one with 2 eyebrows.

Andrew Stanton believes that these two characters were inspired subconsciously of a drawing he did when he was at school of two bugs fighting.  

P.T Flea was voiced by John Ratzenberger. P.T Flea is named after P. T Barnum who created the travelling circus in the 1840’s.

Dim was voiced by Brad Garret. Dim is a beetle that is in the shape of a rhinoceros. No beetle existed that looked like this but in 2016 a beetle was found that was similar and because of the fictional beetle being invented before finding the real beetle, this has now been called the “Dim” effect. 

Development

In the summer of 1994, Toy Story was in post production and they needed to think what there next feature would be. Andrew Stanton, Joe Ranft, Pete Docter and John Lassiter had a very informal meeting where they discussed ideas for upcoming features. From this meeting A Bugs Life, Toy Story 2, Monsters Inc and Wall-E were born.

A film about bugs was decided to be the next film because they knew that there technology could stretch to making realistic looking bugs. If you look at the human characters in Toy Story, they still looked a little morphed and plastic looking which is why The Incredibles was there 6th film.

Although all Pixar films are originals, A Bug’s life was inspired by the Aesop’s fable “The Ant and the Grasshopper”. It was a popular tale, even Disney had considered making a feature out of it entitled “Army Ants” back in 1988, it was going to focus on a peace keeping ant living in a world of military ants. For reasons unknown the project was never pursued by Disney, but when Jeffrey Katzenberg, the then chairman of Disney moved to work at DreamWorks, he decided to continue focusing on Army Ants because he knew that John Lassiter was working on a bug film. This meant that a month before A Bugs Life was released, “Antz” was released. Luckily A Bugs Life dominated the box office and made more than double what Antz made.

When coming up with possible title ideas they did consider calling it “Bug Story” but they felt like they would be expected to name all of their other films “…Story” and they didn’t want to be that predictable or restricted.

Release

The teaser trailer for this film was made out of animation clips made perfectly for the trailer and therefore it doesn’t appear in the film. This would go on to be a Pixar trademark.

Released just before the film was the Studio’s first pre-film short titled “Geri’s Game” which won an Academy Award.

Easter Eggs

You can spot the Pizza Planet Truck right next to the caravan where the firefly is attracted towards the light. This caravan is also the location of where Randall transports to when going into the human world in Monsters Inc.

The names of the boxes in the bug city are named after some of the Pixar’s workers, for example  “Darla” is a nod to Darla K Anderson, the inspiration for Darla in Finding Nemo.   

A113 is written on the side of the box as Flik enters Bug City. You can also see a poster advertising the theatres production of The Lion King.

When the scouts are painting Francis, they paint hidden Mickey’s on him.

There is a Wilhelm scream that can be heard, just as Hopper is about to be eaten by the real bird.

The train is called “Casey Junior” after the train on Dumbo. Also the Casey Jr Cookie Box says that it has been around since 1957, this is John Lassiter’s birth year.

In every single Pixar film, John Ratzenberger voices a character because Pixar feel as though as he is there lucky charm. In this film he is P.T Flea and it has been reported that this character is John’s favourite because he likes characters who get angry easily, he feels they are more fun to play.

Bits and Bobs

This film is dedicated to Roddy McDowall who died of lung cancer. Roddy who voiced Mr. Soil who is the trained worker who guides the other ants around the fallen leaf.