Toggle Random Buttons
TVTropes

Western Animation / A Bug's Life

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/a_bugs_life_poster.jpg
An epic of miniature proportions.
A Bug's Life (1998) is the second computer-animated film from Pixar. It's something of a twist on the fable "The Grasshopper and the Ants" meeting The Seven Samurai with a bit of ¡Three Amigos! thrown in for good measure.

The movie begins in a peaceful ant colony, which yearly is terrorized by a biker gang-esque group of grasshoppers (led by the intimidating Hopper), and the ants are forced to give them an offering of food. One year, an ant named Flik (considered a nuisance by the rest of the colony due to his inventions, which often cause more trouble than they're worth) accidentally destroys the offering. Hopper forces the ants to create a replacement offering, twice as large, giving them until "the last leaf falls" to comply. The ants, who need that time to store food for themselves to survive the winter, fear that Hopper's demand could ruin the colony. Flik volunteers to redeem himself by recruiting "tough bugs" to fight Hopper and his gang. Seeing nothing more than an opportunity to get Flik out of the way so he doesn't mess anything else up, the colony's ruler-to-be, Princess Atta, gives him her blessing.

Flik travels to "the city" (a bug city underneath a trailer), where he meets a bunch of recently-fired circus bugs. After seeing them perform, he mistakes them for warriors, and takes them back to the colony. The circus bugs are initially shocked when they find out why they're there, but eventually begin to love living in the colony, and agree to help Flik come up with a plan to defeat the grasshoppers. Will this be the invention which finally succeeds? Or will Flik's usual bad luck continue, leaving the colony to face the wrath of Hopper and his gang?

A Bug's Life, like most Pixar films, was a critical and financial success, and, with its Hilarious Outtakes, also started the Credits Gag tradition in Pixar movies.

This was Roddy McDowall's last film (and Hayden Panettiere's firstnote ).

A Bug's Life contains examples of:

  • Adaptation Expansion: This film is essentially a retelling of Aesop's "The Grasshopper and the Ants" spread out to full-feature-length. It's also something of a Deconstruction of the original fable; instead of starving to death when winter comes, normally the grasshopper mugs the ant and takes his stuff.
  • Adorkable: Flik, in spades. Especially thanks to some really wonderful character animation.
  • all lowercase letters: The title of the film was promoted as such in marketing and on the title card.
  • All of the Other Reindeer: Flik is regularly isolated by the rest of the colony. They actually cheer his departure, while he's still within earshot (though he thinks they're cheering for him), when he leaves at the start of the film to find warrior bugs in the city. This is averted by the end.
  • Always a Bigger Fish:
  • Ant War: Naturally. Once it openly starts, it ends rather quickly.
  • Anyone Can Die: Played with in-universe in the form of the junior ants. First they make a painting of the good warrior bugs and bad grasshoppers battling, and they painted one of the good guys dead because their teacher said it would be more realistic that way. Then they perform a play of the battle, in which apparently everyone dies.
  • Artistic License – Biology:
    • When Heimlich makes it out of his chrysalis the only feature changed is that he now has wings. Butterflies have 6 legs, 10 segment bodies, 4 eyes (2 compound, 2 simple), and a sucking tube rather than a mouth. Heimlech has 10 legs (which is also inaccurate for caterpillars which have 12), 11 segments (while caterpillars only have 10) and 2 eyes (caterpillars have 6), and a normal mouth. Though this was probably done for comedy.
    • Insects have six legs. The ants have four limbs. The grasshoppers have six limbs, apparently to make them more alien and less sympathetic to human audiences.
    • The ants cowered in fear of the grasshoppers instead of dismembering them and eating them as they would have done in reality. This would make for a family-unfriendly film, but the amount of spinelessness exhibited by the ants is ludicrous.
    • The existence of male workers.
    • The queen ant doesn't look anything like a real queen ant. (Antz got this one right.)
    • With the exception of flies, all the bugs have vertebrate eyes.
  • As Long as It Sounds Foreign: Tuck and Roll speak complete gibberish. While their nationality is left ambiguous in the film itself, some promotional material refers to them as Hungarian. The closed captions for the DVD don't clarify, saying "Speaking Foreign Language."
  • Asshole Victim:
    • Ironically, Hopper ends up falling victim to an actual bird in the end.
    • The three grasshoppers that question Hopper's intentions for Ant Island and attempt to pin the idea on Molt, meet a grisly end via crushing-by-seed-avalanche so that Hopper can make a point.
  • Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: The finch, from the insects' perspective. Its snorts and squawks even sound a bit like Godzilla.
  • Awesome Moment of Crowning: At the end of the film, The Queen gives her crown to Atta, thus marking her as the new queen of the colony, and Dot takes Atta's former "Princess Crown" for herself.
  • Ax-Crazy: Hopper, especially when he's pissed. Thumper in general.
  • Bad Boss: Hopper goes to punch Molt near the start and punches out another grasshopper instead. Later, he crushes three of his own grasshoppers with the grain pile to make a point about how the ants could rise up against them. He was right to worry, because at the end, they do.
  • Bamboo Technology: All of Flik's inventions, including some complex gear-based devices, are done with twigs and grass and whatnot.
  • Batman Gambit: How Flik tricks Hopper into getting himself killed. Also doubles as a Kansas City Shuffle because Flik "looked left" and Hopper "fell right".
  • Battle Discretion Shot: A couple of Thumper's punches at Flik are replaced by the crowd flinching as the sound of punches are heard.
  • Battle in the Rain: With an interesting twist—because these are tiny bugs, the raindrops are enormous and fall like bombs, complete with actual bomb stock sound effects.
  • Becoming the Mask: The circus bugs go from pretending to be warriors to fighting alongside the ant colony.
  • Beggar with a Signboard: in The City Flik encounters a bug holding a sign that reads "Kid pulled my wings off".
  • Black and White Morality: Pixar's most prominent example, particularly because Hopper is truly evil, without a Freudian Excuse or sympathetic motivations.
  • Blunt "Yes": In the outtakes.
    Hopper: Are you saying I'm stupid?
    Atta: ...YES! Ah hah hah...
    Hopper: (exasperated, close to tears) This is the fifteenth take, I cannot work like this. (walks off) I'll be in my trailer.
    Atta: I need a break.
  • Book Ends: Opens and closes with shots of the ant island from a distance.
  • Brick Joke:
    • Pretend it's a seed, okay? It also doubles as a Meaningful Echo.
    • "What's with the rock?" "Must be an ant/circus thing."
  • The Brute: Thumper. He's so vicious the other grasshoppers have to keep him on a leash much of the time.
  • Burping Contest: Between Tuck and Roll in the Hilarious Outtakes. It ends with a fart.
  • Bullying a Dragon: While the grasshoppers are much bigger than the ants, the ants are far more numerous, and by the end of the film the ants decide they've had enough, stand up to the grasshoppers, and force them to run. Hopper was cunning about this, bullying the ants to make sure they stayed intimidated, knowing that if the ants were to stand up to the grasshoppers, then there would be nothing he could do about it. Sure enough, this happens in the climax when Hopper pushes his luck too far by trying to make an example out of Flik, only for Flik to realize this in the middle of his beating with the rest of the colony watching.
  • The Cameo: Woody appears in one of the outtakes.
  • Camera Abuse: In the Hilarious Outtakes, both Heimlich and P. T. Flea hit the camera with their faces.
  • Carnivore Confusion: Tons. The spider and the praying mantis get along just fine with the other bugs, though all bugs are afraid of birds. The outtakes reveal that the bird is non-sentient (because it's a giant mechanical prop). The outtakes also show Slim (unwillingly) swallowing a bug.
  • Catch-Phrase:
    • Manny's "HOW DARE YOU!"
    • Tuck and Roll's "You fired!"
    • Molt's "Shutting up."
  • Chekhov's Boomerang:
    • A three-way one with Molt's line:
      Molt: And the birds eat the grasshoppers!
    • The heroes get attacked by a bird. And then build a massive mecha-bird. And then trick Hopper into getting eaten by a bird.
  • Chekhov's Gun: P.T. Flea's "Flaming Death" trick. Used early on to try and save the show, then used later to expose the bird as a fake, as he was unaware of the plot to use it to scare the grasshoppers away. See Unwitting Instigator of Doom below.
  • City of Gold: P.T. Flea sings "the streets will be paved with golden retrievers".
  • Convenient Cranny: The current 'gang' has to duck into a rather convenient bush to avoid a hungry bird.
  • Conservation of Ninjutsu: Averting this trope underpins the entire narrative; Flik is well aware of the fact that even the mightiest grasshopper can't defeat one hundred ants, and one grasshoppers can't defeat one thousand ants.
  • Darker and Edgier: Somewhat, at least in comparison with the first Pixar Film Toy Story.
  • Darkest Hour: The colony brought it upon themselves by ostracizing Flik and P.T. Flea's entire circus when the truth about the "warriors" was revealed. They're accepted again when they become Big Damn Heroes (P.T. Flea's circus by putting on an act for the grasshoppers and rescuing the Queen from being squished by Hopper by way of Manny's magic act, and Flik by unleashing the bird he, the circus, and the rest of the colony built to scare the grasshoppers).
  • Deadpan Snarker: Francis and Slim (helps from being voiced by Denis Leary and David Hyde Pierce respectively).
    Flik: [hanging off Slim's leg] You can't go! I'm desperate!
    Slim: Really? I couldn't tell!
  • Description Cut:
    Atta: The caterpillar's using himself as LIVE BAIT!
    Mr. Soil: How brave!
    Heimlich: AHHHH!!!!!
  • Disappeared Dad: Atta and Dot's father is nowhere to be seen but it's justified, because it's an ant colony.
  • Disappearing Box: A variation was used by Manny to help the queen escape.
  • Distressed Dude: Flik twice during the climax. First prepared to be squished by Hopper and then almost flown away/kidnapped. Princess Atta to the rescue on both occasions.
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?: Watch the first scene with Hopper and Atta. Go ahead, watch it as many times as you like. It will soon start sounding like a conversation between an abusive boyfriend and his scared-witless girlfriend.
  • Enforced Method Acting: invoked In the Hilarious Outtakes, Slim, while using a berry to represent a bloodied, pecked-out eye, actually gets the berry juice in his eye.
  • The Exile: When P.T. Flea exposes the truth, Flik and the circus bugs are exiled from the colony.
  • Eureka Moment:
    • From a discussion about birds:
      Atta: Not every bug would face a bird. I mean, even Hopper's afraid of 'em.
      Flik: Yeah, well you know it was... (beat) Say that again.
      Atta: I said, even Hopper's afraid of birds...
      (Flik sprints off, then sprints back to Atta and kisses her cheek)
      Flik: Thank you. (sprints off again)
    • Also the moment during the big confrontation when Flik realizes exactly what Hopper had been hoping the ants would never put together (namely, how badly they outnumbered the grasshoppers, rendering the latter's individual physical advantage moot).
  • Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas:
    • Apparently the only reason Hopper hasn't killed his brother Molt yet.
    Hopper: I swear, if I hadn't promised Mother on her deathbed that I wouldn't kill you, I would kill you!
    Molt: And believe me, no one appreciates that more than I do.
    Hopper: Shut up! I don't want to hear another word out of you while we're on this island. Do you understand me? [Molt whimpers] I said, do you understand me?!
    Molt: Well, how can I answer? You said I couldn't say another word! [Hopper growls with increasing rage and raises his fist] Ahh! Remember Ma!
    (Hopper spins around and punches another grasshopper to the ground)
  • Even the Dog Is Ashamed: Averted; after Flik wound up ostracized by the colony for hiring circus bugs to defend them, Dot is the only one who still believes in him - and is the one who, after hearing the Queen's life was in danger, snaps him out of his Heroic B.S.O.D..
  • Everybody Cries: Francis makes Dot and the other Blueberries cry by snapping at them over the tea party they were holding on top of him. Immediately, he feels bad over his actions and cheers the girls up with a juggling act.
  • Everything's Better with Princesses: Princess Atta and Princess Dot.
  • Exit, Pursued by a Bear: Hopper meets his fate via this trope.
  • Exposition Cut: Played for laughs. Slim says that Flik can explain on the way. It then cuts to Flik finishing his explanation to...Tuck and Roll, who don't speak a word of English.
  • Eye Cam: When Francis is chewing out the fly hecklers for assuming that he's a lady ladybug, there's a shot of him from the perspective of a fly's compound eye.
  • Family-Unfriendly Death:
    • Hopper crushing three of his gang members under a pile of grain to make a point. Even the other grasshoppers are stunned.
    • Hopper getting fed to the goldfinch's chicks. The last thing he (and the audience, mercifully) sees is one of their gaping beaks rising up to meet him...
  • Famous Last Words: "Are there a bunch of little girls in this one too? Hello, girls!"
  • Foreshadowing:
    • Hopper's speech to the other grasshoppers on why it is important that they keep the ants in their place, especially since one ant (Flik) stood up to the grasshoppers:
    Hopper: If you let one ant stand up to us, then they all might stand up. Those puny little ants outnumber us a hundred to one. And if they ever figure that out, there goes our way of life!
    • Right before Flik and the circus bugs encounter a hungry bird, you can see that there are eggs inside the nest. Later on the film, they are shown to have hatched.
  • Fantastic Racism: Hopper sees the ants as little more than slaves and has worked tirelessly to instill this sense of inferiority into those he has terrorized into submission. Heck, he seems to hold this view against all other bugs he meets, as he will not hesitate to order his men to squish them if he deems them a nuisance to himself.
  • Fly in the Soup: "Hey, waiter! I'm in my soup!"
  • Four-Legged Insect: The ants in order to be relatable and doesn't make them as unrecognizable as Rosie eg would be.
  • Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Molt is the Foolish Sibling to Hopper's Responsible.
    • Averted with Atta and Dot, though Atta is arguably more responsible due to being older than Dot.
  • For Want of a Nail: If Tuck and Roll hadn't been arguingduring the preparation for the "Flaming Death" act, the circus bugs wouldn't have been fired, Flik would likely not have met them and they wouldn't have helped the ants drive the grasshoppers out.
  • Friend to All Children: Flik. Whenever Dot is threatened by Hopper, it's him, out of all the other ants, who speaks up and orders him to leave Dot alone. He also forms a fast friendship with Dot and use her and the Blueberries to fly the bird.
    • Francis is revealed to be this as well, as he saves Dot in the riverbed sequence and later becomes the Blueberries' den mother and forms a proper bond with them.
  • Funny Foreigner: Tuck and Roll, also The Unintelligible. Heimlich, too.
  • Gentle Giant:
    • Dim, the rhinoceros beetle.
    • Molt, Hopper's dim-witted brother. He might technically be on the bad guy's side but you never see him do anything but eat and make himself look like an idiot.
  • Getting Crap Past the Radar: See here.
  • Glowing Flora: How to light the ant's cave, and thereby show the action, without inventing some ludicrous ant tech? Plenty of conveniently glowing mushrooms!
  • Good Animals, Evil Animals: Ants are good, grasshoppers are bad.
  • Go Ye Heroes, Go and Die: The little ants make an anticipatory victory mural for the circus performers. It's...not as hopeful as expected.
  • Grievous Harm with a Body: Slim, being a stick insect, is often used as a prop/weapon by the other circus bugs - both in and out of the circus. He's very unhappy about it.
  • Grimmification: Of "The Grasshopper and the Ants". What if the ant didn't want to give up his food, but the grasshopper was big enough to just take it anyway?
  • Grotesque Cute: The cute widdle fuzzy goldfinch chickies that eat Hopper alive at the end.
  • Heel–Face Turn: Molt. At first it seems as though he's fleeing Ant Island with the other grasshoppers, but in the last scene he's shown to have become a part of P.T. Flea's circus as their strongman (it's been his dream ever since he first saw it perform during Hopper's failed attempt to oppress the ants).
  • Help, I'm Stuck!: Happens to Heimlich (he yells the trope name verbatim) when he gets stuck in one of the cracks during the riverbed sequence. With the bird coming at him.
  • Heroic B.S.O.D.: Flik before the climax.
  • High Voltage Death: Implied between the bug called Harry after his encounter with the bug zapper as Flik arrives at the city.
  • Huddle Shot: Princess Atta and the council debating and ultimately deciding to let Flik leave the island.
  • Ink-Suit Actor: Subtle, but Molt sports Richard Kind's large, expressive mouth
  • Insect Gender-Bender: A film about a male worker ant, from a colony of male and female worker ants. (In real life, worker ants are all female.) Also, Princess Atta gets together with said male worker ant, rather than a winged drone.
  • Insect Queen: The ants are led by one. There is the Queen of the Ants, and later her daughter Princess Atta who is given the crown at the end.
  • Insult to Rocks: Hopper's prejudice against ants is so great, he considers calling Flik a piece of dirt an insult to dirt.
    Hopper: You piece of dirt... no, I'm wrong, you're lower than dirt—you're an ANT.
  • Intergenerational Friendship: Flik and Dot.
  • Interspecies Romance: Manny and Gypsy. (A praying mantis and a gypsy moth, explicitly stated to be husband and wife.)
  • Ironic Echo:
    • Flik, whose desperation to prove himself has slowly been turning into true self-confidence, stands up against Hopper for Princess Atta the way he did for Dot at the beginning of the movie. And this time, despite the No-Holds-Barred Beatdown he gets for it, he stays there. And goes on to defend/inspire the entire colony.
    • This:
      Hopper: Now let me tell you how things are supposed to work: The sun grows the food, the ants pick the food, the grasshoppers eat the food...
      Molt: And the birds eat the grasshoppers!
    (later)
    Princess Atta: You see, Hopper, nature has a certain order. The ants pick the food, the ants keep the food, and the grasshoppers...leave.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Francis. He really doesn't like being mistaken for being female, and comes across as crabby and callous quite a bit. Despite that, he's still good friends with the other members of the troupe, saves Dot's life and forms a bond with the Blueberries.
  • Just One Man: Sensing his fellow grasshoppers' reluctancy (due to the coming rain), Hopper initially decides to forget about the food. But recalls Flik standing up to him. The others just laugh since it was only "one ant". Using their grain storage in a visual demonstration, he shows the other grasshoppers if one "puny" ant can stand up to them, soon all of them will. He then tells them it wasn't about the food, it was about keeping the ants in place.
  • Kid-Appeal Character: Little princess Dot.
  • Large Ham: Manny "Oh the pain!". Helps his actor got famous playing one of the most famous hams in television, Dr. Smith. Heimlich is quite hammy too.
  • Last Villain Stand: After Flik leads the ants against his grasshoppers and chases them off, Hopper kidnaps Flik for revenge and ends up being chased by Princess Atta and the circus bugs.
  • Let Us Never Speak of This Again: After Flik is revealed as a liar, the queen insists that the colony hides all this and pretends it never happened, and the bugs were never here.
  • Liar Revealed: This moment happens to Flik once the colony discovers the truth about the "warrior bugs".
  • Light Is Not Good: The bug zapper, seen just as Flik is arriving at the bug city.
  • Love Epiphany: It's implied that Flik has had a crush on Atta for a long time, but soon as the Circus Bugs save Dot from the bird, Atta begins treating Flik much more respectfully, talking with him about her own personal issues, realizing that perhaps they are Not So Different, and apologizing for how she'd treated him in the past. Then she gives him his Eureka Moment, and he kisses her on the cheek before running off, leaving Atta wide-eyed and caressing the spot where he kissed her.
  • Lovely Assistant: Gypsy Moth is this to her praying mantis husband, Manny.
  • Magnificent Seven: Spoofed and subverted - the seven "heroes" are circus performers who think the ant hill wants to entertain their grasshopper guests. Also, there's nine of them (Rosie, Heimlich, Gypsy, Manny, Tuck and Roll the pillbugs, Dim, Francis, and Slim).
  • Maybe Ever After: It isn't made clear if Flik and Princess (now Queen) Atta end up together, though it can be interpreted as that from the way they hold hands as they wave good bye to the circus bugs.
  • Mean Character, Nice Actor:
    • In the Hilarious Outtakes, Hopper is a perfectly nice guy who is reduced to tears when he can't seem to do his scene with Atta properly.
    • Also in the Hilarious Outtakes, Thumper is a much less intimidating guy who asks if his screaming is okay.
  • Meaningful Echo: "You lied to us!" - Francis when the circus bugs discover that Flik's "job" is not a circus performance for the colony. The Queen says the same line when the ruse gets exposed.
  • The Millstone: Flik is this for most of the film, with a bit of All of the Other Reindeer thrown in as well.
  • Minion with an F in Evil: Molt. Ironically, his toy figure actually makes him seem menacing.
  • Misfit Mobilization Moment: After Flik's beating, the ant colony unites against the grasshoppers.
  • The Napoleon: P.T. Flea. The ringmaster of the circus bugs and the smallest of the lot (save for Tuck and Roll).
  • Never Say "Die": It is never used when the good guys are referred to (Flik asked Dim to "squish" him after he found out about the truth of the circus bugs and the grasshoppers deciding to "squish" the Queen), but the words "kill" and "die" are used in humorous contexts.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero!: Flik confusing the circus bugs as heroes and selling them as such to his people before discovering the truth. And before that destroying the offering by accident. And before that when we first see him and his invention causes the stalks of grain to land on Atta.
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain!: Molt revealing Hopper's fear for birds is what ultimately gives the bugs a hint on how to scare the grasshoppers away.
  • No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Near the climax, when Hopper lets Thumper loose on Flik, then finishes the job. It's so nasty we even see his brother Molt flinching.
  • No Name Given: The Queen
  • No-Sell: Dot, during her final confrontation with Hopper, refuses to even flinch when he flares his body and shrieks at her.
  • No, You: Flik, as part of his "The Reason You Suck" Speech at Hopper.
    Flik: Who's the weaker species? Ants don't serve grasshoppers! It's you who needs us!
  • Non-Action Guy: All the circus bugs put themselves to good use during the fight with the goldfinch...except Manny, who just sits on Dim's back and then takes some of the credit for fighting the bird. He is also the only circus bug who has wings he can use and doesn't actually use them. However, he is one of the first circus bugs to pretend to be dying during the attack, and he did prove himself useful earlier with the Disappearing Box trick.
  • Non-Mammal Mammaries: Atta's chest is curved in a way that resembles human breasts, as are several other female ants.
  • Noodle Incident:
    • Flik's Tunnel-Within-A-Tunnel Project.
    • Molt telling of Hopper's encounter with a blue jay.
    • "...And that's how my 12th husband died. So now I'm a widow. I mean, I've always been a black widow, but now I'm a black widow widow."
  • Not Afraid of You Anymore: The ants, in the climax, towards Hopper's gang.
  • Not So Different: A heartfelt conversation has Flik and Princess Atta discover that they're this.
    Atta: The whole colony... it's like, they're all watching me. Just... just...
    Flik: ... waiting for you to screw up.
  • Oblivious Guilt Slinging:
    • Atta sends Flik out to find some bugs to fight Hopper, not expecting him to actually find anybody willing to defend an ant colony (as well as just to get Flik out of the picture). When Flik returns to the colony with the "warriors", Atta, though shocked by this turn of events, decides to go along with Flik's "success" anyway. During the welcoming ceremony, Flik sincerely thanks Atta for "believing in him" and Atta smiles awkwardly.
    Flik: Thank you, Your Highness. Oh, sure, I'd like to take credit for all of this, but, well, that wouldn't be right. Because it was you, Princess Atta. You believed in me, and you sent me on my quest.
    • Later, Atta asks Flik if she can talk to him in private, leading to this exchange.
    Atta: You don't think I've offended the warriors, do you?
    Flik: What? You? No!
    Atta: Oh, good. 'Cause you see, when you first brought them here, I thought you'd hired a bunch of clowns.
    Flik: Y-Y-Ya did? (laughs nervously)
    Atta: Don't tell them I said that.
  • Oddball in the Series: It, for the most part, lacks the emotional plot lines signature of Pixar.
  • Oh, Crap!:
    • Flik's reaction as he helplessly watched the food offering tumble into the water after his harvester knocked it over.
    Princess Atta: What did you do?!
    Flik: Uh...it was an accident?
    • Flik's reaction after realizing that the warrior bugs he brought to the colony are actually circus folk.
    • Heimlich when he gets stuck in the crack in the riverbed sequence, with the bird coming towards him.
    • When the circus bugs return to the ant colony...
    Slim: We were invited by Princess Atta as a surprise for your arrival.
    (beat)
    Hopper: Squish 'em.
    (Slim and Francis gasp, while Dim tries to back away.)
    • The Grasshoppers' reaction to the Constructed Bird, and Hopper's reaction to the real one.
    • The Blueberries and Flik's reaction after P.T. sets the bird on fire with them in it.
    • The Grasshoppers' reaction as they realize that the Ants are getting pissed off at last and are about to Zerg Rush them.
    • A split-second one at the climax, where an injured Flik sees Hopper flying right at him in a rage.
  • One-Gender Race: Subverted with Francis, a male ladybug.
    First Fly: (to Francis) Hey cutie! Wanna pollinate with a real bug?!
    (Flies laugh. Francis flies up to them, eyelids batting, then...)
    Francis: SO! Being a Ladybug automatically makes me a GIRL! Is that it, fly-boy? HUH?!
    Second Fly: YIKES!!
    First Fly: She's a guy!
  • Pan and Scan: Inverted with the fullscreen version of the film. The most noticeable example is the scene where they show two young ants climbing up a leaf; in the original widescreen version you couldn't see the second ant at all, but in the fullscreen version you actually do.
  • Playing a Tree: Slim, the walking stick, constantly gets these roles in the circus acts, much to his annoyance.
  • Poor Communication Kills: Almost literally in this case. Because P.T wasn't in on the plan with the fake bird, upon seeing it, he shot fire at it, not only nearly killing Flik and the girls, but also exposing the ruse to Hopper.
  • Punch-Clock Villain: Molt. When the food's collected and the circus is performing, he happily claps and plays along, rather like a child.
    Molt: The circus, the circus, I love the circus!
  • Punctuated! For! Emphasis!:
    Francis: When your grasshopper friends get here, we are gonna KNOCK! THEM! DEAD!!!
  • Recycled In Space: Seven Samurai WITH BUGS!
  • Red Right Hand: Hopper's discoloured right eye.
  • Repulsive Ringmaster: Downplayed. While P.T. Flea isn't evil, he is certainly the most jerky out of all the Circus Bugs.
  • Ridiculously Cute Critter: From the audience's perspective, the bird's chicks look cute as all heck. From the perspective of any of the bugs, however, you're bound to hear disagreement. Especially from Hopper.
  • Right-Hand Attack Dog: Thumper to Hopper. He is also almost dog-like.
  • Right Out of My Clothes: When the ants Zerg Rush the grasshoppers, Molt gets out of there so fast he leaves his "shell" behind (that is, he molts).
  • Royals Who Actually Do Something: The Queen and Princess Atta both directly supervise the worker ants and give them directions when they don't know what to do. Princess Atta herself also becomes a Warrior Princess later in the movie, putting her flying skills to use against Hopper and his gang.
  • Rule of Drama: In-universe example. When the kid ants show a drawing of how they believe the battle between the grasshoppers and the circus artists will end, one of the kids explains that their teacher told them to portray a hero dying to add drama.
  • Scarecrow Solution: The fake bird.
  • Scavenged Punk: It drifts into this trope during the city sequence. The city is built entirely out of discarded boxes and trash with a tipped over soup can doubling as a dive bar (the countertop inside the bar is a swiss army knife). The background of the entire sequence is scattered with numerous details like this.
  • Scout Out: The Blueberry Scouts.
  • Screams Like a Little Girl: This trope applies to not Francis, ironically, but Flik. For example; when Flik shrieks upon seeing all the food falling off the offering stone or when he notices he and the circus bugs are standing by a bird's nest.
  • Shipper on Deck: The Circus Bugs are all for Flik/Atta.
  • Shout-Out:
    • The dumb, goofy Gentle Giant, Dim. Dim being really dim...
    • In the Hilarious Outtakes: "To infinity and beyond!"
    • The (failed) attempt at intimidating the flies that attempted to harass Francis, which was the reason why Flik even mistakenly believed they were warrior bugs in the first place, was a spoof on Robin Hood. Also, after they demolished the bar in their attempt to flee, Francis pulls Slim out in a parody of King Arthur pulling out Excalibur. The music that plays in that scene sounds similar to the Master Sword theme from The Legend of Zelda.
    • Hopper's demise bears some resemblance to General Woundwort's end in Watership Down.
    • This quote from Hopper.
      Hopper: (to Atta) It's a bug-eat-bug world out there, Princess, one of those 'circle of life' kind of things.
    • The fly's POV of simultaneous images of Francis yelling at him seen through his compound eyes is a nod to The Fly (1958).
    • The "Casey Junior" animal cracker box that serves as the Circus Bugs' trailer is a clever nod to the train in Dumbo.
    • One of Flik's previous disasters was his "tunnel within a tunnel", a clear reference to Steve Jobs' infamous "store within a store" concept.
    • Dim's terrifying bellow that scares off Hopper audibly incorporates the T-Rex's iconic roar from Jurassic Park.
  • Sidetracked by the Analogy: In the beginning, Dot really cannot wrap her head around the fact that Flik is pretending that the rock is a seed.
  • Sins of Our Fathers: Invoked. Flik comments that his children's children will be eternally ridiculed if the colony finds out he accidentally hired circus bugs.
    Flik: I will be branded with this mistake for the rest of my life! My children's children will walk down the street and people will point and say, "Look! There goes the spawn of Flik, the loser!"
  • Snipe Hunt: The premise. Subverted in that Flik actually finds what he was looking for... after a fashion.
  • Springtime for Hitler: Letting Flik go to find help was only supposed to keep him out of the way...
  • Summon Bigger Fish: Flik "enlists" the aid of the Goldfinch to deal with Hopper once and for all.
  • Swallowed a Fly: In one of the Hilarious Outtakes, this happens... to another, larger bug.
  • Tempting Fate:
    • Hopper assuming the bird before him is another of Flik's tricks. It doesn't end well for him.
    • Earlier on, three of Hopper's fellow minions didn't learn to keep their mouths shut when they suggest that Molt question Hopper's motives for Ant Island.
    Axel: What if Hopper doesn't like it?
    Loco: Then at least the "genius" will get smacked, and not us!
    • Also happens to Atta the beginning,
    Dot: It's not my fault, she's so stressed out!
    Atta: [sighs in frustration] I know! I know! I'm always acting like the sky is falling.
    Random Ant: LOOK OUT!!!
    (A stalk falls, landing square on top of Atta)
  • Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: Parodied and subverted with Francis, a male ladybug that has long eyelashes, full lips and a Beauty Mark.
  • Third-Person Person: Dim refers to himself this way: "Dim don't wanna go."
  • Thrown from the Zeppelin: Two grasshoppers try to convince Hopper (by using Molt) to not bother going back to collect food from the ants. Hopper makes an example out of them by crushing them under a pile of grain.
    Hopper: Anybody else wanna stay?
  • Toilet Humor: "Hey! Who ordered the poo-poo platter?" (a bunch of flies swarm over to it)
  • Tranquil Fury: P.T. Flea after being burned during the "Flaming Death" act. His line, "You're all fired" is said without him raising his voice, but you can tell by his voice just how pissed off he is.
    • Princess Atta does this twice: first, on the trial against Flik and second, when banishing Flik once the colony finds out about his mistake.
  • Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Manny and Gypsy, respectively. Not hard to see why, given that Manny is older than Gypsy and Gypsy is possibly the most attractive character in the film.
  • Unsettling Gender Reveal: "Yikes! She's a guy!"
  • Unusual Euphemism: When one of the ants says the following (also counts as a Shout-Out):
    Thorny: Jiminy H. Cricket!
  • Unwanted Assistance: Due to Flik's inventions backfiring or malfunctioning, many feel this way to him. Because of this, when on trial for what happened to the offering, Flik mentions that he only wanted to help. A member of the council then replies: "Then help us: DON'T HELP US!"
  • Unwitting Instigator of Doom: P.T. Flea does this twice: not only does he accidentally reveal the identity of the warriors, which gets them and Flik to be exiled by the colony, but later he incinerates the bird, thinking it was the real deal — however, that latter moment is subverted in that the beating Hopper dishes out on Flik in response, resulting in his Rousing Speech, actually rallies the ants into sending the grasshoppers packing for good.
  • Villainous Breakdown: Hopper breaks down when the ants stand up to the grasshoppers.
  • Visual Pun:
    • Flea circus, anybody?
    • Invoked by P.T. Flea with Slim the Walking Stick.
      Slim: You always cast me as the broom! The pole! The stick! The splinter!
      P.T. Flea: You're a walking stick! IT'S FUNNY! NOW GO!!
      Slim: You parasite.
    • When the ants rebel, Molt jumps out of his skin.
  • Welcome to the Big City: Flik doesn't get mugged or attacked (it's hardly as if he had anything on him), but he does get mocked by a couple of street performers and runs into a cricket who's lost his wings; he also gets towered over by a daddy-long-legs.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: Played straight with most of Hopper's minions, as nobody knows where they went into hiding; averted with Molt, who joins P.T. Flea's circus as its new strongman, Tiny.

Alternative Title(s): A Bugs Life

:: Indexes ::

Previous

Index

Next

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/WesternAnimation/ABugsLife