A Bug's Life

A colony of ants spends its summers harvesting food only to hand it over to a gang of grasshoppers led by the ruthless Hopper. When an inventive but clumsy ant named Flik destroys the offering meant for the grasshoppers, the colony is given until autumn to gather twice the usual amount. Flik volunteers to leave home and recruit fighters who can drive the grasshoppers away, but the group he brings back is a troupe of circus performers rather than warriors.

The film was directed by John Lasseter, following his work on Toy Story and arriving before Toy Story 2 in his run of features. The screenplay is by Andrew Stanton, Don McEnery and Bob Shaw, and the voice cast includes Dave Foley as Flik, Kevin Spacey as Hopper, Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Atta, Hayden Panettiere as Dot, Phyllis Diller as the Queen and Richard Kind as Molt. Production was handled by Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar, with Darla K. Anderson and Kevin Reher producing.

Made for about 80 million dollars, the film took roughly 363 million dollars worldwide, a strong return for an animated release of its time. On IMDb it holds 7.2 out of 10 from around 336,000 votes, and on TMDB 7 out of 10 from about 9,900 votes. A critics' rating of 8.2 out of 10 from 90 reviews is noticeably higher than those audience scores.