121 - A Bug’s Life

(Original Airdate - October 9th, 2019)

A Bug's Life is a 1998 American computer-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 and Julia Louis-Dreyfus. 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.^[3][4]

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.

The film was released worldwide on November 20, 1998, 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.

POEM--
"What is the meaning of A Bug's Life?
Is it working hard or avoiding strife?
Flick lives his on the edge of a scythe
while trying to impress and gain a princess wife." -Spro

LIMERICK--
"There once was an ant named Flick
Conformity, it made him so sick
So, he took a stand
with his feet in the sand
And told the grasshoppers just what they could stick [up their asses.]" -MC