A Bug's Life

A closer look at the story

The hard-working inhabitants of Ant Island toil without rest to get ready for winter. Yet every summer much of what they gather is handed over to a swarm of greedy grasshoppers under the bully Hopper. For the peace-loving ants this arrangement has become unbearable, and Flik, an imaginative ant with an inventor's spirit, decides to rebel. Speaking up for downtrodden insects everywhere, Flik recruits a band of so-called "warrior bugs" to defend the colony against the grasshoppers, though these heroes may not turn out to be quite what he expects. Directed by John Lasseter and written by Andrew Stanton, Don McEnery and Bob Shaw, the 95-minute 1998 animated film, voiced by Dave Foley, Kevin Spacey, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Hayden Panettiere, is a witty adventure.