He dislikes being thought of as weak in any way. When he is dissatisfied with the amount of offering the ants give him after a second chance, he usurps Ant Island and plots to kill the Queen after enough food has been gathered. A Bug's Life was a much more complex film than Toy Story because of the more complex character models, so Pixar's computers tended to run sluggishly for the animation process. [8][23] Jobs and Katzenberg would not back down and the rivaling ant films provoked a press frenzy. Several characters and objects were moved closer together to avoid being cut out of frame. [8][22] For his part, Katzenberg believed he was the victim of a conspiracy: Eisner had decided not to pay him his contract-required bonus, convincing Disney's board not to give him anything. "The bad guys rarely win," Jobs told the Los Angeles Times. Two technicians obliged by creating a miniature video camera on Lego wheels, which they dubbed as the "Bugcam". Running time [46][47] The film grossed $162.8 million in its United States theatrical run, covering its estimated production costs of $120 million. The first sequence to be animated and rendered was the circus sequence that culminated with P.T. [22][25] Lasseter grimly relayed the news to Pixar employees but kept morale high. These tools were based on existing "particle systems" that allowed autonomous dust and snow, which would eventually be perfected to allow up to 2 million dust particles on Wheezy's shelf in Toy Story 2 and 3 million hairs on Sulley in Monsters, Inc. DreamWorks Animation's similar film Antz was released a little more than a month before A Bug's Life. Eisner thought the idea was fine and they submitted a treatment to Disney in early-July under the title Bugs. He was voiced by Kevin Spacey. Flik and all the insects from the circus troupe gather onto a leaf right before Heimlich bites the end of it off, causing them to fall. [60] Aggregating review website GameRankings gave the Nintendo 64 version 54.40%,[61] the PlayStation version 51.90%[62] and the Game Boy Color version 36.63%. 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. 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. In the ensuing chaos, Hopper frees himself from the cannon, and abducts Flik. [52], On November 23, 1999, a 2-disc Collector's Edition DVD was released. Also, no particularly good reason existed for Circus Bugs to stay with the ant colony during the second act. The script of Antz was also heavy with adult references, whereas Pixar's film was more accessible to children. An A Bug's Life Video Game was released for N64, GBC, PlayStation, Dreamcast, and PC. [50] The DVD was released on April 20, 1999, alongside a VHS release which was presented in a standard 1.33:1 "fullscreen" format. Flea arrives, searching for his troupe, and inadvertently reveals their secret. [13] Character design also presented a new challenge, in that the designers had to make ants appear likable. [63] GameSpot gave the PlayStation version a 2.7/10, concluding that it was "obvious that Disney was more interested in producing a $40 advertisement for its movie than in developing a playable game. [59], A game, based on the film, was developed by Traveller's Tales and Tiertex Design Studios and released by Sony Computer Entertainment, Disney Interactive, THQ and Activision for various systems. [19], During the production of A Bug's Life, a public feud erupted between DreamWorks' Jeffrey Katzenberg, and Pixar's Steve Jobs and John Lasseter. [8] Another source gives Nina Jacobson, one of Katzenberg's executives, as the person responsible for the Antz pitch. In addition, Walt Disney Feature Animation had considered producing a film in the late-1980s entitled Army Ants, that centered around a pacifist ant living in a militaristic colony, but this never fully materialized. [27] Although the contention left all parties estranged, Pixar and PDI employees kept up the old friendships that had arisen from spending a long time together in computer animation. Reviews were positive. 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. 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 bugs, in turn, mistake Flik for a talent agent, and accept his offer to travel with him back to Ant Island. The release date of Antz was moved up from March 1999 to October 1998 in response to Disney's refusal. He is Hopper's younger brother and a member of the grasshoppers. Regardless, Lasseter publicly dismissed Antz as a "schlock version" of A Bug's Life. [25] He suggested that if Jobs wanted to, he could simply slow down production on A Bug's Life without telling Disney. Hopper then declares how dangerous ideas can be and that ants are mindless, soil-shoving losers, put on this earth to serve the grasshoppers. Kevin Spacey was not the first choice to voice Hopper. [22] Both Antz and A Bug's Life center on a young male ant, a drone with oddball tendencies that struggles to win a princess's hand by saving their society. John LasseterAndrew Stanton (Co-Director) However, Disney had been working on developing an ant film since 1988. For the video game, see, "Bugs life" redirects here. Hopper then sees his chance to escape and shoots himself out of the cannon towards Flik, whom he takes hostage as he flies away with him in revenge of being humiliated.