A Bug's Life [Includes Digital Copy] [Blu-ray/DVD]

Overview

John Lassiter, director of Pixar's movie phenomenon Toy Story, has set new standards in computer animation with his next effort, another Disney-released children's epic entitled A Bug's Life. Blending classic Disney story-telling characters, and the mysterious underground world of bugs, he has created a film that can be enjoyed by all audiences and has created another franchise in the process. A Bug's Life is a computerized retelling of the Aesop fable The Ant and the Grasshopper, made as a cartoon short by the one-and-only Walt Disney in the mid-30's. However, A Bug's Life has modernized the story with many new twists and celebrity voices. The story focuses on a colony of ants who seasonally gather food for themselves and a wild gang of rowdy grasshoppers. When bumbling worker-ant Flik (David Foley) destroys the food supply, the angry grasshoppers, lead by the maniacally warped Hopper (Kevin Spacey) threaten to kill the ants if they don't produce a new supply of food by the time they return, an impossible feat. Flik leaves the anthill in search of help in the form of bigger bugs to wage war against the grasshoppers. What he doesn't know is he has actually discovered a group of down-on-their-luck traveling circus insects in need of a job. When the ants realize that their heroes are really circus performers (and the circus bugs realize that these grasshoppers are really big and mean) the situation goes from bad to worse. Ultimately the ants use their large numbers to overcome the grasshoppers.

Product Details

Release Date:	09/10/2019
UPC:	0786936864953
Original Release:	1998
Source:	Walt Disney Video
Language:	English
Sales rank:	14,613

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Kevin Spacey	Hopper
Dave Foley	Flik
Julia Louis-Dreyfus	Princess Atta
Richard Kind	Molt
Phyllis Diller	Queen
Denis Leary	Francis
Madeline Kahn	Gypsy
Hayden Panettiere	Princess Dot
David Hyde Pierce	Slim
Joe Ranft	Heimlich
Jonathan Harris	Manny
Bonnie Hunt	Rosie
John Ratzenberger	P.T. Flea
Brad Garrett	Dim
Mickie McGowan	Actor
Courtland Mead	Actor
Kai Wiesinger	Voices
Madeleine Stolze	Voices
Rufus Beck	Voices
Ian Odle	Voices
Fritz von Hardenberg	Voices
Ottfried Fischer	Voices
Horst Raspe	Voices
Katharina Lopinski	Voices
Hartmut Neugebauer	Voices
Kimberly J. Brown	Female Ants
Francesca Marie Smith	Female Ants
Russi Taylor	Female Ants
Kath Soucie	Ants
Michael McShane	Tuck & Roll
Roddy McDowall	Mr. Soil
Edie McClurg	Dr. Flora
Alex Rocco	Thorny
David Ossman	Cornelius
Kelsey Mulrooney	Voices
Christina Milian	Voices
Ashley Tisdale	Lead Blueberry Scout
Randy Newman	Composer

Technical Credits

Andrew Stanton

Don McEnery

Bob Shaw

Donald McEnery

John Lasseter	Director
Andrew Stanton	Director,Screenwriter
Don McEnery	Screenwriter
Bob Shaw	Screenwriter
Darla K. Anderson	Producer
Kevin Reher	Producer
Edwin Catmull	Executive Producer
Steven Jobs	Executive Producer
Mary Hidalgo	Casting
Ruth Lambert	Casting
William Reeves	Special Effects
Donald McEnery	Screenwriter
Gary Rydstrom	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

A Bug's Life, produced by the same studio and creative team responsible for Toy Story, gleefully expands the nearly limitless boundaries of computer animation with innovative imagery and sophisticated storytelling techniques. The film's protagonist is Flik (voiced by Dave Foley), a brilliant but socially awkward ant who labors to free his colony from the tyranny of thuggish grasshoppers led by Hopper (Kevin Spacey). When one of Flik's labor-saving inventions backfires and scatters an offering of grain collected to mollify the grasshoppers, our hero enlists the aid of performing insects, who impersonate fearless warriors apparently eager to do battle with the green-skinned, multi-legged bullies. Witty scripting and peppy vocal performances go a long way toward delineating the characters, and the three-dimensional Pixar animation creates the illusion that they really exist. Their fluidity of movement, coupled with the dramatic interplay of light and shadow, facilitates the willing suspension of disbelief that will enable viewers of all ages to enjoy A Bug's Life.

Barnes & Noble - Ed Hulse

Magnificently rendered by the computer-graphics company Pixar (of Toy Story fame), scored by the always-spirited Randy Newman and starring a cavalcade of impressive voices, A Bug's Life is a high point in animated family fare. It's the kind of film adults enjoy as much as, if not more than, their preschool offspring. Even the fake "outtakes" following the film are hilarious: like much of the film's humor, they aim for a surprising level of sophistication. The creators use animation not just to put a child-friendly face on some normally creepy critters, but to go where live-action can't, creating a world of shapes, colors and sounds that couldn't be accomplished otherwise. A Bug's Life was released only months after the more adult-oriented Antz; it's been suggested that the success of these films might have ominous implications for the future of traditional, hand-drawn animation. But it's not simply the computer handiwork that makes A Bug's Life so impressive -- it's the creativity.

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