A Bug’s Life is a 1998 feature-length computer-animated film about … Bugs but slightly more nuanced. The film follows Flick the ant who is always messing things up for his colony. His latest mishap was destroying the stored food that was supposed to be used to pay off the Grasshoppers and their leader Hopper. Hooper demands that the ants double the food or face annihilation. To avert disaster Flik goes on a journey to recruit warrior bugs to defend the colony!
The Story of a Bug’s Life is nothing particularly ground-breaking, it’s the typical underdog trope; in which we see a screw-up have to prove himself in a big way. Despite not being revolutionary it is a fun ride, and you don’t mind joining Flick on his Journey because the characters and the world are so fun. The colours in this movie are fantastic, the world itself is bright and the characters are too. In fact, it could be argued the best thing about this film is the characters, they almost feel as if they came from Andy’s toy box. Heimlich is fantastic, Denis Leary as Francis is genius and Tuck and Roll might just be the standouts. In some ways we were lucky this wasn’t realised a decade later because we would have definitely been given a Minions inspired spinoff.
The movie was important as it was the second feature-length film to ever come out of Pixar. Perhaps, that is the reason A Bug’s Life becomes somewhat lost in the Pixar filmography. It wasn’t the film that came first, it wasn’t the catalysed. It was just second. So let me ask you? If A Bugs Life came first, would it instead be awarded extra credit? Was A Bugs Life a victim of timing? But then you would argue that Monsters Inc, Finding Nemo, Cars and The Incredibles all came after and received sequels.
‘Inside the Ant Hill’
One of the most fascinating parts of A Bugs Life isn’t what happened on screen, it’s actually what happened behind the camera, the production of A Bug’s Life wasn’t without controversy, a public feud erupted between DreamWorks’ Jeffrey Katzenberg, and Pixar’s Steve Jobs and John Lasseter. Katzenberg worked at Walt Disney Studios from 1984 to 1994 and was one of the figureheads responsible for the Disney Renaissance, turning out classics such as Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Little Mermaid. Katzenberg was also a key player in creating the relationship between Disney and Pixar. In 1994, the position of President of Disney Animation became available and Katzenberg felt the role was his! However, CEO Eisner didn’t agree and decided not to give Katzenberg the position.
In response, Katzenberg left and he formed DreamWorks SKG with Steven Spielberg and David Geffen and planned to rival Disney in animation. It’s important to note that during this period Pixar had still not released Toy Story, however, John Lasseter was so enthusiastic about the future success of the project had already started work on a second feature-length film, a film we would go on to know as ‘A Bug’s Life’. Katzenberg stayed in touch with Lasseter after he left. In October of 1995, Lasseter who was overseeing post-production of Toy Story dropped by Dreamworks to see Katzenberg. Katzenberg asked him what he was working on next and Lasseter went on to describe A Bug’s life in detail, Lasseter trusted Katzenberg and felt he was useful for creative conversations.
So, you can only imagine how Lasseter and others at Pixar felt when they found out that Katzenberg's first project at Dreamworks would be called Antz. By this time, Pixar’s project was well-known within the animation community, similarly, people working were deep into the project. Feeling incredibly betrayed, Lasseter called Katzenberg and asked him if the news was true. Katzenberg later confirmed that it was. Katenzberg, however, denies that Antz was a stolen idea, he instead stated that the film came from a 1991 story pitch by Tim Johnson that was relayed to Katzenberg in 1994.
Katzenberg decided to push forward the release of Antz to from Spring of 1999 to October of 1998, which meant it released a month before A Bug’s Life.
David Price writes in his 2008 book The Pixar Touch that a rumor, “never confirmed”, was that Katzenberg had given PDI “rich financial incentives to induce them to whatever it would take to have Antz ready first, despite Pixar’s head start.
Steve Jobs was furious and called Katzenberg and began yelling. Katzenberg made an offer: He would delay production of Antz if Jobs and Disney would move A Bug’s Life so that it did not compete with The Prince of Egypt. Jobs believed it “a blatant extortion attempt” and would not go for it, explaining that there was nothing he could do to convince Disney to change the date. Katzenberg casually responded that Jobs himself had taught him how to conduct similar business long ago, explaining that Jobs had come to Pixar’s rescue by making the deal for Toy Story, as Pixar was near bankruptcy at that time.
As the release dates for both films approached, Disney executives concluded that Pixar should keep silent on the DreamWorks battle. Regardless, Lasseter publicly dismissed Antz as a “schlock version” of A Bug’s Life. Lasseter, who claimed to have never seen Antz, told others that if DreamWorks and PDI had made the film about anything other than insects, he would have closed Pixar for the day so the entire company could go see it. Jobs and Katzenberg would not back down and the rivalling ant films provoked a press frenzy. “The bad guys rarely win,” Jobs told the Los Angeles Times. In response, DreamWorks’ head of marketing Terry Press suggested, “Steve Jobs should take a pill”.
Tale of the Tape — A Bugs Life vs Antz
A Bugs Life 92% Critic Score and a 72% Audience Score
A Bugs Life Production Budget: $120 million — Worldwide: $363,258,859
Antz 96% Critic Score and a 52% Audience Score
Antz Production Budget: $105 million — Worldwide: $171,757,863
Both, Antz and A Bug’s Life centre on a young male, a drone with oddball tendencies that struggles to win a princess’s hand by saving their society. Whereas A Bug’s Life relied chiefly on visual gags, Antz was more verbal and revolved around satire. The script of Antz was heavy with adult references, whereas Pixar’s film was more accessible to children. Critics at the time rated both films highly, with Antz just taking the win but what about today? How do the two films hold up?
No matter, where you stand on the Antz/A Bugs Life rivalry I think we can agree that A Bug’s Life has aged far more gracefully that it’s Dreamworks counterpart. Antz is an ugly movie, maybe at the time it was a little more impressive but I can still recall fearing the character designs as a kid. A Bug’s Life, on the other hand, is far cleaner and colourful, somehow withstanding the test of time. It’s also impressive to look at how Pixar was able to develop their animation technologies and techniques from Toy Story.
The animation itself should also be applauded, from the backdrops that give you a real sense of the world from a bug’s perspective to the elements like water and fire. You can definitely see the early Pixar animation at work here and for the most part, it holds up. Randy Newman also delivers perhaps one of his strongest Pixar soundtracks for A Bug’s Life.
Can we acuminate the stress of working on A Bug’s Life to it now being an untouched and forgotten classic? Perhaps, Lasseter, Pixar and Disney want to forget that time of their working life’s and this could, in turn, be a reason we haven’t seen a sequel or spinoff TV series. I don’t have the definitive answer, it very well could be, it could be the reason neither company made a sequel… or perhaps other factors come into play, Woody Allen and Kevin Spacey anyone?
You can follow me on Instagram and Twitter @RealConnorLuke — I post film-related content, as well as news about my upcoming documentary film.
