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I think there are forgettable parts of it, but I still recall some of the funny scenes and the climax is pretty creative. It’s a mid Pixar movie but still deserves its credit that Pixar wasn’t a one-trick pony following Toy Story’s massive success
Rewatched all of Hopper's scenes recently and holy shit he's amazing. Top tier dialogue and performance. It's almost too good for the character to be a damn grasshopper lol.
@@RacingSnails64he’s honestly one of my favorite actors. I don’t care what he does. I saw him in a long form interview with lex Friedman and I don’t get the vibe he’s the evil man people want to make him out to be.
Nah, Hopper is easily the best character in the movie. One of the few villains in animated movies who knows that cruelty and intimidation are the only things keeping him alive. He stands out even amongst villains from better films
Always hated "outtakes" in animated movies. Outtakes in live action are funny because they are genuine cases where the actors screwed up. Animated outtakes were deliberately made to "look" like screw ups. And yes, that was my opinion as a kid too. No, I don't know if I am fun at parties, cuz I never go.
@@PikaLink91 I mean, your opinion is your opinion, and if you just don't like something, then that's that. At least you own up to it without being an ass about it.
15:58 What's pretty jarring about this is the fact that Atta *also* lied to Flick. They sent him away just to get rid of him and never expected him to find anyone or maybe not even survive at all. Yet they act like Flick's deception is the betrayal here since he didn't want to admit he failed....on a task that Atta didn't even want him to succeed at. And I don't think Flick ever actually found out that other ants were trying to get rid of him, which seems to absolve them of any wrongdoing in how they treated him.
Yeah that would have been a good idea if that was revealed to Flick so that Atta would also be in the wrong. I don't even blame Flick for lying because he honestly tried to find help for the colony but found out too late that they were circus bugs and he had to work with what he had.
@leebulger7112 see, this point, along with the one above, are what I hated the most about that part, not to mention that Flik was forced to think his idea wouldn't work when it was actually GENIUS. Flik had the right ideology the whole time, as shown in his speech to Hopper, but everyone else (aside from Dot) wanted to keep things their way. What's even more jarring is that it detracts from that amazing heartfelt scene that Critic mentioned where Atta herself felt insecure about becoming queen.
Say what you want about him as a person but Kevin Spacey was so good as Hopper and I honestly can't think of anyone else who could've voiced the character but him. He's truly one of the best parts of the movie.
18:18 "Cool villain death?" It's downright terrifying! Birds don't have teeth, they swallow bugs whole, which means Hopper got to suffocate to death in total darkness before being digested.
It's funny and scary at the same time how terrifying some cute little birds can be, at least from the perspective of an insect. That's what's great about this film, they brilliantly showed the insect world from both its cute, funny side as well as from its brutal, scary side.
@@alysssabear Eh I wouldn't count 2 as making that mistake. There Woody was in the wrong, misled thanks to Stinky Pete about how much better life in a museum would be than being loved and played with like toys are meant to be. If anything I think the camaraderie is the strongest in 2 for that reason, feels like everyone has mutual respect for each other. As good as 3 is, I did always think the way no one believed Woody that they were meant to go in the attic felt really off. Especially after so much time has passed.
"I swear if i hadn't promised mother that i wouldn't kill you...I WOULD KILL YOU!!!" that's one of my favourite villain lines in anything. It's so evil and hilarious at the same time
@@BlackCover95 It’s kinda the whole point of the joke though. The redundancy isn’t what you expect and is what makes the joke hit. Heck, it’s what makes it a joke in the first place instead of just a threat.
This is actually one of my favorites ☹ I really have a soft spot for "brilliant but clumsy, good-hearted little guys" and Flik won me over after 30 seconds lol This particular Liar Revealed case had significance to me...because Flik is SO optimistic through the entire movie so to see him completely crushed later was very effective. It's honestly painful...and then he finally stands up to Hopper like a badass and that is a VERY underrated scene. I hope I'm not the only one who gets chills watching that moment. I absolutely love it.
FINALLY someone who's okay with this. Flik is my favorite character, maybe because I can relate to him just a little bit or at least just feel sorry for him. And the whole "liar revealed" thing doesn't really bother me, so I don't know why it bothers everyone else so much. For me, it WAS actually a big deal because one of the ants actually says "if Hopper finds out what we almost did", meaning that it was a life or death situation, and what would've been the better alternative? Finding out they didn't have warriors AFTER the grasshoppers get there? And not only that, the queen basically made him out as selfish when he was only trying to help! Flik gets such a bad rap for NO reason.
I feel like it's unfair to treat this movie like a cut-and-dry "Liar Revealed" story. It stands out from other such stories in how it was executed. For one, it begins with, not a genuine lie, but a comically two-sided misunderstanding; Flik thinks the troupe are warriors, and the troupe think he's a talent scout. These misunderstandings are revealed to their respective parties very early on in the movie, and it's worth noting that, when Flik convinced the colony the troupe were warriors, he himself had believed it at the moment, so he didn't actually lie; he was just wrong. Then, while attempting to leave the situation, which they wanted no part of, contrary to most Liar Revealed stories, they actually become heroes by saving a member of colony royalty in a genuine act of bravery. At this point, their lack of implied battle experience is technically moot, as they have demonstrated legitimate capability and bravery, so all that remains is the withholding of their circus background. And they don't really exploit the colony's adoration of them, either: sure, they bask in it, but it's out of an appreciation for finally being, well, appreciated. And then there's Flik's plan, which he has the troupe present to the colony as their own. There's no selfish reason for doing this. Flik isn't trying to maliciously deceive the others. He just wants to do right by them, and he knows that they don't have faith in him, but he sees them having faith in the "warriors", so he tries to make everyone happy while delivering on his promise. Another cliché that is avoided in this story is the return. When Flik returns to the colony, he doesn't make a big speech apologizing for his mislead, and beg for everyone's forgiveness. He goes right to _making things right,_ letting his actions speak for themselves, and demonstrating the purity of his intentions by standing up to Hopper alone, inspiring the others to join him through his selflessness. It's like a comment I saw on NC's GalaxyQuest review video said: the movie's dramatic scene isn't a "liar revealed" moment, so much as it is a hard reality check for the misled.
It wasn't technically an illusion, though, was it? He had as much power as the ants gave him, which he was well aware of, so he worked hard to maintain the status quo. The illusion was the idea that only he and the grasshoppers could protect them from outside threats, which was dispelled when not only did a diverse group of insects come to their aid, but one of their own held his ground against the real threat.
Fun Fact: When Flik enters the city, one of the billboard signs advertises the stage production of The Lion King. The Broadway show opened in 1997, a year before the release of A Bug’s Life.
@TheCatsLibrary_1 To be fair, The Lion King was the most popular cartoon movie in the late-90s. Pretty much every kid was singing "Hakuna Matata" back then, Pixar probably had that in mind when making that scene.
"Someday, I'll be a beautiful butterfly, then everything will be better." R.I.P. Joe Ranft. Also, the Circus group were gonna be the leads with Flik being the ringleader, but the crew found that the lead pretty much wouldn't have been as likable if he 100% tricked the colony til the "liar-revealed" scene.
I agree with the part of the circus bugs being unlikeable in the original treatment but I felt the liar reveal trope was justified in comparison to the final version
Another Fun Fact: There's a Director Cameo when the two mosquitoes trapped in the light of the bugzapper ("Harry, don't go towards the light!" "I can't help it - it's so beautiful!") are the voices of the co-directors.
Buddy, enough with the "Fun Facts" they are no longer 'fun' when you spit out 15 thousand of them and dominate the entirety of the comment section. Chose maybe 2 or 3 of the best fun facts and leave the rest of them on Wikipedia
@@TheKeller101 I see you also got the "fun fact" videos while browing YT shorts. Good god! that was annoying... I kept skipping as those two first words kept drilling my brain.
Yeah, Julia Louis-Dreyfuss having the giggles in the bloopers is one thing, but it's the punchline that really hits. She keeps giggling in the same scene where Hopper asks "are you saying I'm stupid?", and she does this three times. Finally, the fourth time he asks, she just blurts out "yes!" and starts cracking up
Also one thing that would've been nice? Maybe after the circus bugs save Dot from the bird, they explain the missunderstanding to the ants, but despite not being warrior bugs, the queen allows them to stay since they did risk their lives in a deadly bird attack, and when Atta admits her true reason for sending Flik away, Flik doesn't take it personally since he felt bad for embarrassing Atta in front of Hopper, and just wanted to make it right. Then when PT Flea comes to collect the circus bugs, we get this emotionally bittersweet goodbye similar to "Cars" when Lightning McQueen was forced away from Radiator Springs by the press, and we got this very sweet goodbye between Lightning and Sally. However as the Circus Bugs travel back, they begin to realize how they were truly appreciated by the ants and ditch PT Flea to go back and fight against the grasshoppers.
I get where you're coming from, but it's hard to imagine that if everything was going so perfectly smoothly with the ants that they'd WANT to go with the guy who fired them and only wants them back bc they made him money. Like, I know that you're saying the point is that they figure it out but it would feel really strange for them to seemingly believe that they have no choice but to go with him and leave the ants who presumably are still going to struggle with the bird plan without them or else there's no tension for the climax at all. And if you add reasons for them to feel like they have to that's not purely the emotions that come with the liar revealed situation, where they no longer have a place among the people who feel betrayed and lied to and have literally nowhere else to go but with the circus, like theyre forced by a contract or something, then that also needs to be resolved before they CAN go back, which drags out the entire climax either too much to make it feel like the real climax is the actual real climax, or too little to the point you can feel that it was a waste of a plot point using up time Again, I see where you're coming from with the idea of the turning point and overall message being about friendship rather than the bravery to stand up to oppressors and defend the weak, but the entire film is geared towards the latter message and I genuinely think that's why this is one of those instances where the liar revealed plot works and shouldn't be written off just bc its been done a lot 😅
Also kudos for creating the Trope name for "Liar Revealed." I did look it up and I did see that you were given partial credit for the name. For those interested: "Though the trope itself is Older Than Dirt, the trope title is at least partly cemented here vis a vis The Nostalgia Critic and other videos by Doug Walker, where Doug lists it as number 2 on his "Top Ten Worst Clichés". In other videos, he notes that he absolutely hates this type of plot for creating weak drama and very rarely sees a movie where he thinks it works (How to Train Your Dragon and Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted being notable exceptions)."
The scene with Flik and the mosquito was voiced by Rodger Bumpass who also voiced Squidward a year later when Spongebob SquarePants was first released. True fact.
Hopper was genuinly a great villain. His role was perfect. His absolute ruthlessness extending to his own men as well as his subjects. All until tge facade collapses. But he still tries to salvage it.
In recent years, there's been some pushback that Princess Atta makes this big deal out of Flick lying to the whole colony and banishing him - while totally ignoring that she lied to him first by pretending to send him on a quest, when really she was just trying to get rid of him. Not to mention he's the only ant to actually try to do something about the grasshoppers.
Hopper is definitely one of those underrated top tier Pixar villains. Being racist and ready to commit genocide on creatures that were basically smaller and weaker.
That’s the one thing this film has over Antz. The villain is way more memorable and intimidating (and funnier). The villain in Antz was just a typical grouchy general who isn’t that funny nor is he that over the top. He’s just there.
@gothicMCRgirl Pixar's A Bug's Life is basically the opposite of DreamWorks' Antz. Where Antz is a better and funnier film, A Bug's Life has a better and funnier villain. This irony just speaks for itself.
18:12 right! The only thing I remember about this movie was how cool Hopper was and how he got turned into baby food, he was so intimidating when he wanted to be. It was like a prototype for Death from Puss in Boots
This movie came out when I was in middle school, and I distinctly remember one of my teachers expressing his frustration with it after he saw it because the ants only have 4 limbs while the grasshoppers have the proper 6, he said it made him literally root for the bad guys. Personally I recognized it as a retelling of the fable of the ant and the grasshopper, except instead of the grasshopper dying because he didn't have a concept of planning for the future he decided to form a grasshopper mafia to force the ants to give him their food (which is kind of like that one episode of Futurama where Fry poorly told the story himself.)
OMG, I've been thinking the same thing myself, recently! Like, what if the grasshopper in the fable was too much of a pompous asshole to accept the consequences of his failure, so he just bullied the ant to giving him what he had?
She did have a small role in an episode of Little Bill in '99 as Mrs. Shapiro. That episode was dedicated to her, and I can't look at that In Memoriam at the end without sobbing like a damn fool.
Another Fun Fact: P.T. Flea is Pixar Legend John Ratzenberger's favorite Pixar role, because "in real life, I always get a kick out of those kinds of characters, people who just go into a rage for [no] explicable reason. He was always on edge. His blood pressure was always way over the top, and everything that he did was done in a panicked state. So it was a lot of fun to play him."
Please allow me to teach you all about a little series called Disneycember. (Okay but in all seriousness, that video WAS seven years ago, so a revisit's probably warranted, but only if Doug has anything different or to add nowadays.)
“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! It's not about food, it’s about keeping those ants in line. THAT'S why we're going BACK! Does anybody else want to stay?” ~Hopper
@ 15:02 Yhe way I interpret this scene is that they have always ruled over the ants via intimidation: once they discover that they can overpower the grass hoppers by joining forces together, the illusion of power they have over the ants is gone
Fun fact: The voice of the leader of The Blueberry Scouts is Ashley Tisdale who’s known for her many Disney projects like “The Suite Life of Zack and Cody”, “High School Musical”, and “Phineas and Ferb”.
@@billjacobs521 - Yes, it actually is interesting. Usually, children on movies are played by middle-aged women BUT on this movie a few were played by famous and future famous kid actors.
Ok correction: the colony was actually moreso pissed at Flik for lying about the BIRD idea and passing it off as the "warriors" idea, rather than the reveal of the circus bugs. Their lives were jeopardized by one of his inventions in the first place so they don't want to risk another one ruining them.
@@BluddMaridia they only did that to protect their colony. He couldn't work in the mines as punishment because... well, something catastrophic happened last time he did
As a child who was growing up when this film came out it was one of those movies I would watch again and again and to this day I can recite full scenes word-for-word from this film down to the inflections and body language. I would die happy if I can see a Bugs Life 2 get made. I can even say that the Animal Kingdom show “It’s Tough to Be A Bug” is an honorable Bugs Life 1 1/2 and it should give Disney merit to revisit the million and counting population of the colony on Ant Island again.
God... A Bug's Life was literally my favorite movie as a kid. Toy Story was cool, and the perspective of toys was great. But this was like an expansion of everything I loved about Toy Story. I wanted so much more, all we saw was a dry river bed with a tree around it and a nearby trailer (the city), and yet it felt HUGE. I would have loved to see more adventures, truly leaving the surrounding area.
This film’s performance had nothing to do with Pixar immediately doing a sequel. They were barely released a year apart, “Toy Story 2” would’ve already been in production if not nearly finished.
Exactly. Toy Story 2 was announced before this film even came out. Usually you expect this kind of crap from lesser content creators but you'd think Doug with all his experience would know that movies aren't made overnight and a simple Google search would've shown him that was wrong
Also, TS2 had a rather troubled production history, with producers and directors changing multiple times and at one point the entire film almost accidentally being deleted. Considering that, it's amazing that in the end, TS2 was so good.
yeah, i was going to mention that. not long after toy story came out c-span aired a big presentation by pixar where they talked about their history and their future. they showed off several of their classic shorts, as well as some new ones at the time like "Geri's Game", talking about it's main purpose was to test cloth physics. they also premiered the first trailer for "a bug's life", as well as the first teaser for "toy story 2". and to show how long it actually takes to make pixar films, they referenced Monster's Inc and finding nemo, (and i believe even wall-e) as future projects in early stages of pre-production. and an interesting tidbit, this was long before they joined disney officially when they were just partners, and talked about intending to do other films on their own. mentioning how they wanted to do more mature animated films in addition to the family stuff. it was actually this section of the conference (as well as the superb execution of the scene) that lead me, as i watched the incinerator scene from toy story 3, to seriously question if they were going to do it or not.
Honestly, I do quote the "I know it's a rock" moment a lot. It's a pretty good encapsulation of being frustrated by something you know is ultimately dumb that still manages to frustrate you.
I also found that "I know it's a rock" piece of dialogue pretty great - not because it's a particularly funny line, but because of the annoyed way he delivered it, revealing his frustration with his life.
I feel Bug’s Life is the most underrated Pixar movie, it’s a B tier movie, it gets too much hate! And the liar reveal is actually tolerable, it doesn’t ruin the movie.
The late Joe Ranft, one of the writers, originally just scratch-voiced Heimlich while presenting the storyboards. When an actual actor did some lines, they decided that Ranft's voice was funnier and casted him.
For those who don't know, the intro skit was the origin of Daniel the Demon Slayer. He wasn't wearing makeup, that guy just punched him in the other eye after that.
The liar revealed moment in this movie is kind of BS when you realize that Flik didn't even do anything wrong. Princess Atta was the one who told him to get warrior bugs, but she was actually lying and it was just an excuse to send him away.
Yup, that whole scene is pretty senseless. Flik basically did nothing wrong and had good intentions and it wasn't his fault that the "warrior bugs" were actually just circus performers and he just found out too late.
Which would also justify Flik leaving his colony behind and survive(while they were doomed). However, he does return. The result is that the colony adopts his ideas(the cutters). Even when wronged, he eventually forces "the world" to acknowledge him and his ideas, even if turning his back on them would have been justified.
For years, I've said "What did you put in there, oregano?" as a joke when I smell something delicious cooking in my house. For lines to be quotable they have to be memorable and applicable in real-life. There are not many lines in this movie that do the latter.
In my opinion, THE most underrated Pixar film and one of my top five from them (my others are Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, and Ratatouille). When I was a little kid, my family and I would always quote this one, with lines like "BEAOOOTYFUL BUTTERFLY" and "Where's my food?!". My dad even used to playfully nickname my mom "A Bug's Wife" ❤
Not a bad Pixar movie at all. Just kinda forgettable these days buried by the rest of the catalog. I would still put A Bug’s Life over some of the other films like Lightyear or Cars 2.
I LOVE a bugs life! Its has a great message too, that if your rulers ever take to much there is more of us then them, and they should be scared of us not the other way around.
Another Fun Fact: Andrew Stanton has said that he was the creator of Dot and that he was inspired to want a little girl in the film because he just had a newborn daughter at the time, which he said was something that John Lasseter as a father of five sons "couldn't claim to have".
Please just put all your fun facts in one comment. It not only spams up the comment section, but also makes it harder for people to find and read the fun facts.
@@AlejandroGonzalez-ej4lp - Fur Affinity played a huge role in propping up some of the earlier UA-cam stars including the AVGN, the Nostalgia Critic and my beloved hack frauds from Wisconsin
I actually like hopper as a villain because he's outside of the typical villain mold.He doesn't really have power over the ants, he has the illusion of power and that's what keeps them in line. He uses his words and his intellect to subjugate them he rarely puts a hand on them he just frightens them. Especially with that insane grasshopper. Once the illusion was broken, he has nothing.
Honestly, I was half-expecting a comedic twist where Critic would return unscathed, holding a folded piece of paper, and say, "Turns out, he had an actual message for me." Of course, the fact that the scene was played straight could in and of itself be considered a comedic twist.
I still think it's funny two rival companies went head to head to release two insect movies in one year that's hard work and dedication if i've ever seen it
@@LucyLioness100 I'm willing to bet it's because Bug Life was made by Pixar, makers of Toy Story, and because the bugs were cute looking. I liked ANTZ when I was a kid, but they were not pleasing to look at.
@@YasminJFoster Yeah, I mean it tells the exact same story with the ants being the village people, the grasshoppers being the bandits, and the circus bugs being the seven samurai that are gathered to defend the colony just like how the samurai were gathered to defend the village.
1:45 would've been funnier if when "Mic" asked "did you get his message?" Dan instead responded with, "nah, a bus hit him causing me to walk into a street lamp"
I find it funny that in a lot of the recent sketches where Doug is playing a character that isn’t him is named Daniel (which is coincidentally my first name). So there are some instances where I think for a second that the characters are talking to me. The best example was in the Spider-Man 1 review where Critic says “Daniel, how many times do I have to tell you? Students can’t teach the class.” That’s made even more funny because when I was in elementary school I would talk to the class about a topic.
Yeah, this is actually one of my favorite Pixar movies if only because it's so nostalgic for me! Also, it's pretty bizarre how Pixar has never made a sequel to it, like, you'd think they would've made one after they honed their writing skills and make a sequel that could've better than the first one. Also, I bet Doug would LOVE it if Kingdom Hearts had a Bug's Life world and they made that damn bird a boss fight lol
Another Fun Fact: The short film Geri's Game was shown before this film in theaters, at least in the United States, as the first Pixar short to precede a full-length feature film.
Then Geri came back as the toy-fixer in Toy Story 2, making it a sequel to at least two Pixar properties. Three if the Toy Story 2 blooper showing Bug's Life characters is canon.
@@wariodude128 I legit had no idea the toy-fixer was the same old man from the short. Maybe because he didn't wear glasses. It's mindboggling how it took me years to figure that out. But I doubt it's the same character as the Pixar Wiki refers to him as The Cleaner and treats him as a separate character compared to the Disney Wiki which treats these 2 as the same character.
Fun Fact: In the bloopers shown at the end of the film, Princess Atta is shown cracking up during her scene with Hopper, ruining take after take until Hopper goes to his trailer in frustration. This is a spoof of Julia Louis-Dreyfus being known to do the same.
Heck, its been a long time since ive seen an end credits with bloopers - besides Jackpot with Awkwafina and John Cena which had those and i got a good laugh. Hell, that reminded me of those times. 😅
@@benderbendingrodriguez420 I really wonder whether this is a real account at all or just an AI-genereated spam bot that just quotes random facts it finds about the film.
0:23 Deadpool & Wolverine: I'm Marvel Jesus 15:11 I mean, considering all this (recruit bug warriors) started because they wanted Flick either dead or exiled forever, whatever kept him away from them, it is kinda consistent that, their first reaction is to instantly go back to exile Flick again and considering everything he did a failure and a mistake. At least they are consistent about how much they hate Flick 15:27 TvTropes reference!
A bugs life is one of my favourite movies. Its my favourite pixar film all these years later and here’s what makes it special to me: The colours- a weird first point but I adore how colourful this insect film is and it really leaps off the big screen and makes the whole world warm and very inviting. Flik vs hopper- so flik and hopper are cliched characters (dorky inventor and a bully tyrant), but what I love is how each work against each other, flik has to leave the traditions of his life and really put himself out there to help make a difference to his colony, flik is seen as the worst by everyone on ant island and a failure and he has to believe in himself. Meanwhile hopper wants to keep dominating the ants in this tradition he enjoys and wants to keep their comfortable way of life going regardless of how it feels for everyone else. Hopper is seen as the boss and while everyone fears him they also follow what hopper says and would never speak bad of him only behind his back, wheras the ants are really savage to flik right to his face. But what I love about the dynamic is when flik and hopper interact and the two clash with flik actually standing up for the other ants even getting vicuously beaten up right in front of the other ants but flik never backs down even when he is outmatched. I love too that its when flik gets beaten up for standing up to hopper that inspires the other ants to stand up despite flik being beaten badly. Flik in general is just so likeable to me because of his enthusiasm and the fun inventions he makes but I love that he has this positive mindset even when its obvious nobody likes him because he just wants to help the colony with his inventions and ideas. The music in this film is nice and atmospheric too and of course the circus bugs are comedy gold
Are you serious?? You must have lived under a rock when it came out if you were surprised it never got a sequel. This was the most underachieving Pixar movie! Doug even said it in the video, it was very underwhelming. I’m literally shocked at how many misinformed people there are in this world when it comes to pop culture
@@chasehedges6775I’m literally shocked how many clueless and misinformed people are out there in the world. Seriously, why are there so many people incorrect about movie’s success? It’s mind boggling
The worst part is that Atta's lie was never revealed. The ants are hypocrites, they sent him on a while bug chase to get rid of him. So it's okay for them to lie but not him? They're no better than the Grasshoppers.
and I do admit I love the blooper sequences at the credits of most early Pixar movies as they are legit funny, even funnier as an adult cause of the attention to detail with behinds the scenes stuff, it makes it pretty immersive and adds to the humour, it actual was inspired for cut content in Conker's Bad Fur Day, originally they were also gonna do that blooper sequence but had to scrap a rather disturbing cutscene cause N64 wouldn't allow it and they recycled one of those bloopers to replace the scene, ending up with no blooper sequence
I disagree to a degree. They need to be entertaining. An antagonist does not need to be funny or entertaining to get the story going. A villain needs it to stand out. They need to be characterful, with a somewhat twisted perspective on things. If you are not "entertained" by a villain in some way, they become little more than a plot device(for instance Sauron. The ring has far more "personality", and Saruman is a better villain). In movies for children and families, the villain needs to be at least a little funny to work as a foil for the protagonist. In a Bug's Life, we get murder jokes.
@@fendelphiIn that case, I would say Hopper's comedic relief comes from how he interacts with his brother. It's perfectly demonstrated in their first scene together: Hopper is giving his menacing monologue on The Way Things Work Around Here, and Molt just cuts in with his amusing tangent, leading Hopper to silence him in one of the more memorably funny and quotable moments in the movie.
He's wrong btw, Toy Story 2 had nothing to do with a Bug's life! Disney was gonna make that movie with or without Pixar and were gonna send it straight to video, like they had been doing with sequels! So Pixar felt they had to get in there and make a movie so good, that it could stand alongside the original and get a theatrical release!
Hey, isn’t that the movie where Pixar and DreamWorks got a feud over a bugs movie? It apparently does because after The Lion King premiered, Jeffrey Katzenberg quit Disney after a feud with Michael Eisner and Roy E. Disney for not getting a job as new Disney president after the death of Frank Wells, even though he is not a guy suited as president. He founded DreamWorks on October 1994
NGL I feel like my family quotes this movie so much. Just off the top of my head: - "They have poopoo hands" - "First rule of leadership, everything is your fault." - "WHERE'S MY FOOD" - "I'm a beautiful butterfly."
Is A Bug's Life forgettable?
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PRETTY PLEASE, IT IS THE DAY 332 WAITING FOR THE ,,G-force " MOVIE REVIEW BY THE ,,Nostalgia Critic" HIMSELF! PLEASE SEE THIS Doug!
😡 One day you will get in the mood to review ,,G-force", it got Nostalgic Values for some!
I barely remember "A bug's life" that "Pixar's film" bomb big time usually
😕🤨😡 You want to show me is a waste of time to review it? Show it to me!!!
I think there are forgettable parts of it, but I still recall some of the funny scenes and the climax is pretty creative. It’s a mid Pixar movie but still deserves its credit that Pixar wasn’t a one-trick pony following Toy Story’s massive success
A bug’s life might not be a top-tier Pixar movie, but it DOES have a top-tier Pixar villain.
very much so
I think A Bug's Life is at least a B+ or A- movie.
And he plays the villain.
Oh, agreed! Hopper is awesome!
Both
"It's not A Bug's Life 2."
"What....what movie are we in then?"
Buzz Lightyear: *Kills both of them without thinking in Toy Story 2*
@@Tadicuslegion78 that was funny for me as a Kid
That's why we don't have a sequel.
Y'know when I was younger I thought there actually was A Bug's Life 2, mostly because of this scene.
god how funny would that be if it was in the bloopers for bugs life?
I thought was really hilarious...
Still do...
The scene where Hopper buries his henchmen alive and does his "then they all might stand up" quote STILL sticks with me after all these years.
I feel like this movie is intentionally buried because of that scene
Same. I was like "did Pixar really just have a guy execute three of his men in a kids film?"
Rewatched all of Hopper's scenes recently and holy shit he's amazing. Top tier dialogue and performance. It's almost too good for the character to be a damn grasshopper lol.
SAME
@@RacingSnails64he’s honestly one of my favorite actors. I don’t care what he does. I saw him in a long form interview with lex Friedman and I don’t get the vibe he’s the evil man people want to make him out to be.
Nah, Hopper is easily the best character in the movie. One of the few villains in animated movies who knows that cruelty and intimidation are the only things keeping him alive. He stands out even amongst villains from better films
He's such a brute that he almost feels like Darth Vader, like there should've been a higher-up to him, BUT he's also freaking smart somehow
They were bias against flick
Hopper: "Are you saying I'm stupid?"
Atta: "Yes!"
Atta's blooper remark had me dying 🤣 😂
"This is the 15th take. I cannot work like this. I will be in my trailer"
Always hated "outtakes" in animated movies. Outtakes in live action are funny because they are genuine cases where the actors screwed up. Animated outtakes were deliberately made to "look" like screw ups. And yes, that was my opinion as a kid too. No, I don't know if I am fun at parties, cuz I never go.
@@PikaLink91 I mean, your opinion is your opinion, and if you just don't like something, then that's that. At least you own up to it without being an ass about it.
Are u still saying I'm stupid? 😂😡
@@PikaLink91 Some of the Pixar outtakes were based on, or even directly from, mistakes the voice actors made while recording.
15:58 What's pretty jarring about this is the fact that Atta *also* lied to Flick. They sent him away just to get rid of him and never expected him to find anyone or maybe not even survive at all. Yet they act like Flick's deception is the betrayal here since he didn't want to admit he failed....on a task that Atta didn't even want him to succeed at. And I don't think Flick ever actually found out that other ants were trying to get rid of him, which seems to absolve them of any wrongdoing in how they treated him.
Interesting criticism.
Yeah that would have been a good idea if that was revealed to Flick so that Atta would also be in the wrong. I don't even blame Flick for lying because he honestly tried to find help for the colony but found out too late that they were circus bugs and he had to work with what he had.
@@leebulger7112 it would honestly expalin Flik's depresssion if she did accidently reveal that he wasn't supposed to come back.
@@stevenhedge2850 Your right that would justify Flick being upset as he was if not more so.
@leebulger7112 see, this point, along with the one above, are what I hated the most about that part, not to mention that Flik was forced to think his idea wouldn't work when it was actually GENIUS. Flik had the right ideology the whole time, as shown in his speech to Hopper, but everyone else (aside from Dot) wanted to keep things their way. What's even more jarring is that it detracts from that amazing heartfelt scene that Critic mentioned where Atta herself felt insecure about becoming queen.
From a bug’s perspective, Hopper’s death is one of the most disturbing deaths in Disney history.
Even can imagine getting eaten by them baby birds in that first person perspective.
Oddly, it didn't scare me as a kid. 😅
Reminds me of Eddie’s death in The Lost World where the two T-Rexs played tug with his body before he’s ripped in half
From a human perspective it was also scary
I was scared by it.
As a bug I can agree with this!
Say what you want about him as a person but Kevin Spacey was so good as Hopper and I honestly can't think of anyone else who could've voiced the character but him. He's truly one of the best parts of the movie.
At least he’s playing a villain.
All good points. I do think he’s great in this by just using his voice to carry across that fear
Weren't all of his charges dropped?
@@rogue7723 Quite Fitting.
He’s definitely talented, but I think a lot of his roles have been tainted by his controversies.
18:18
"Cool villain death?"
It's downright terrifying! Birds don't have teeth, they swallow bugs whole, which means Hopper got to suffocate to death in total darkness before being digested.
You're right, it's not cool.
It's rather hot actually
Also there were three hatchlings, and Hopper was pretty big, so I always imagined they ripped him apart before eating him. Which is just as fucked up.
Holy shit! 😳
It's funny and scary at the same time how terrifying some cute little birds can be, at least from the perspective of an insect. That's what's great about this film, they brilliantly showed the insect world from both its cute, funny side as well as from its brutal, scary side.
@@Achillez098 Plus mother birds chew the food for the baby birds and feed it to them by mouth
Toy Story literally did the "we don't believe in you" twist 4 times. Woody was abandoned by his friends FOUR times.
TBF at one point Woody should've told them to fuck off
@@DanArnets1492he did in the third one
It’s kinda funny and annoying that they haven’t learned anything and made that same mistake consistently in each movie.
@@alysssabear Eh I wouldn't count 2 as making that mistake. There Woody was in the wrong, misled thanks to Stinky Pete about how much better life in a museum would be than being loved and played with like toys are meant to be. If anything I think the camaraderie is the strongest in 2 for that reason, feels like everyone has mutual respect for each other. As good as 3 is, I did always think the way no one believed Woody that they were meant to go in the attic felt really off. Especially after so much time has passed.
@@DanArnets1492 in 4 he basically did. "I'ma stick with Bo now, but don't worry, you can have wonderful adventures with that special needs spork"
I'm a beautiful butterfly 🦋!
Hey it's you "Oh we will" XD
With those tiny ass wings!😂😂😂
I'm so high up! From up here you all look like little ants!
@@liamdude5722 LMAO!!! Right!!!
@@kimjames6028 I'm a beautiful butterfly!!
"I swear if i hadn't promised mother that i wouldn't kill you...I WOULD KILL YOU!!!" that's one of my favourite villain lines in anything. It's so evil and hilarious at the same time
Nah it ain't evil it's justified.
"And believe me, no one appreciates that more than me"
The fact that he says “kill you” twice in a row bothers me. I feel like they should have rewritten one of those.
@@BlackCover95 It’s kinda the whole point of the joke though. The redundancy isn’t what you expect and is what makes the joke hit. Heck, it’s what makes it a joke in the first place instead of just a threat.
"You mean to tell me that our entire defensive strategy was concocted by clowns?" That line cracks me up every time.
Literal clown world, amirite?
hey, we really thought flik's idea was gonna work
GASP
...oops
Well, technically 3 clowns, a magic couple, 2 acrobats and a rhinoceros-beetle trainer.
This is actually one of my favorites ☹ I really have a soft spot for "brilliant but clumsy, good-hearted little guys" and Flik won me over after 30 seconds lol
This particular Liar Revealed case had significance to me...because Flik is SO optimistic through the entire movie so to see him completely crushed later was very effective. It's honestly painful...and then he finally stands up to Hopper like a badass and that is a VERY underrated scene. I hope I'm not the only one who gets chills watching that moment. I absolutely love it.
FINALLY someone who's okay with this. Flik is my favorite character, maybe because I can relate to him just a little bit or at least just feel sorry for him. And the whole "liar revealed" thing doesn't really bother me, so I don't know why it bothers everyone else so much. For me, it WAS actually a big deal because one of the ants actually says "if Hopper finds out what we almost did", meaning that it was a life or death situation, and what would've been the better alternative? Finding out they didn't have warriors AFTER the grasshoppers get there? And not only that, the queen basically made him out as selfish when he was only trying to help! Flik gets such a bad rap for NO reason.
I feel like it's unfair to treat this movie like a cut-and-dry "Liar Revealed" story. It stands out from other such stories in how it was executed.
For one, it begins with, not a genuine lie, but a comically two-sided misunderstanding; Flik thinks the troupe are warriors, and the troupe think he's a talent scout. These misunderstandings are revealed to their respective parties very early on in the movie, and it's worth noting that, when Flik convinced the colony the troupe were warriors, he himself had believed it at the moment, so he didn't actually lie; he was just wrong.
Then, while attempting to leave the situation, which they wanted no part of, contrary to most Liar Revealed stories, they actually become heroes by saving a member of colony royalty in a genuine act of bravery. At this point, their lack of implied battle experience is technically moot, as they have demonstrated legitimate capability and bravery, so all that remains is the withholding of their circus background. And they don't really exploit the colony's adoration of them, either: sure, they bask in it, but it's out of an appreciation for finally being, well, appreciated.
And then there's Flik's plan, which he has the troupe present to the colony as their own. There's no selfish reason for doing this. Flik isn't trying to maliciously deceive the others. He just wants to do right by them, and he knows that they don't have faith in him, but he sees them having faith in the "warriors", so he tries to make everyone happy while delivering on his promise.
Another cliché that is avoided in this story is the return. When Flik returns to the colony, he doesn't make a big speech apologizing for his mislead, and beg for everyone's forgiveness. He goes right to _making things right,_ letting his actions speak for themselves, and demonstrating the purity of his intentions by standing up to Hopper alone, inspiring the others to join him through his selflessness.
It's like a comment I saw on NC's GalaxyQuest review video said: the movie's dramatic scene isn't a "liar revealed" moment, so much as it is a hard reality check for the misled.
You’re not the only one.
I love this movie and I love Flik!🤩
@@andreasmeelie1889 HE'S PRECIOUS and a great role model for kids too 👌🙂🐜
@@monsterhanna6691 IKR it's well-written imho because I can understand why both sides would be upset...but yay for more Flik fans 🙂❤🐜
Something unique about Hopper's character as a Disney villain is that he works to maintain the ILLUSION of power.
It wasn't technically an illusion, though, was it? He had as much power as the ants gave him, which he was well aware of, so he worked hard to maintain the status quo. The illusion was the idea that only he and the grasshoppers could protect them from outside threats, which was dispelled when not only did a diverse group of insects come to their aid, but one of their own held his ground against the real threat.
Fun Fact: When Flik enters the city, one of the billboard signs advertises the stage production of The Lion King. The Broadway show opened in 1997, a year before the release of A Bug’s Life.
Well said Sunset
The first Toy Story also had the family listening to Hakuna Matata. The early Pixar crew must have really liked that movie.
The Lion King's pop culture influence in the 90's was as big as Frozen's in the 2010's. As a Millennial who lived through both eras, I love it!.
@TheCatsLibrary_1 To be fair, The Lion King was the most popular cartoon movie in the late-90s. Pretty much every kid was singing "Hakuna Matata" back then, Pixar probably had that in mind when making that scene.
"Someday, I'll be a beautiful butterfly, then everything will be better."
R.I.P. Joe Ranft.
Also, the Circus group were gonna be the leads with Flik being the ringleader, but the crew found that the lead pretty much wouldn't have been as likable if he 100% tricked the colony til the "liar-revealed" scene.
I agree with the part of the circus bugs being unlikeable in the original treatment but I felt the liar reveal trope was justified in comparison to the final version
Tbf I dont think anyone made a fuss about the girl in 3 amigos "tricking" the leads
Ranft was great in this.
Another Fun Fact: There's a Director Cameo when the two mosquitoes trapped in the light of the bugzapper ("Harry, don't go towards the light!" "I can't help it - it's so beautiful!") are the voices of the co-directors.
that line is one of the only bugs life lines that lives in my head
@@Burn2themallme too
Buddy, enough with the "Fun Facts" they are no longer 'fun' when you spit out 15 thousand of them and dominate the entirety of the comment section.
Chose maybe 2 or 3 of the best fun facts and leave the rest of them on Wikipedia
@@TheKeller101 I see you also got the "fun fact" videos while browing YT shorts. Good god! that was annoying... I kept skipping as those two first words kept drilling my brain.
@@koneheadcokehead4981 didn’t know they were the directors but I still love that joke
Yeah, Julia Louis-Dreyfuss having the giggles in the bloopers is one thing, but it's the punchline that really hits. She keeps giggling in the same scene where Hopper asks "are you saying I'm stupid?", and she does this three times. Finally, the fourth time he asks, she just blurts out "yes!" and starts cracking up
Also one thing that would've been nice? Maybe after the circus bugs save Dot from the bird, they explain the missunderstanding to the ants, but despite not being warrior bugs, the queen allows them to stay since they did risk their lives in a deadly bird attack, and when Atta admits her true reason for sending Flik away, Flik doesn't take it personally since he felt bad for embarrassing Atta in front of Hopper, and just wanted to make it right. Then when PT Flea comes to collect the circus bugs, we get this emotionally bittersweet goodbye similar to "Cars" when Lightning McQueen was forced away from Radiator Springs by the press, and we got this very sweet goodbye between Lightning and Sally. However as the Circus Bugs travel back, they begin to realize how they were truly appreciated by the ants and ditch PT Flea to go back and fight against the grasshoppers.
That would be good.
@@Rock-Child You think so?
@@supermariof0521 Yeah!
I get where you're coming from, but it's hard to imagine that if everything was going so perfectly smoothly with the ants that they'd WANT to go with the guy who fired them and only wants them back bc they made him money. Like, I know that you're saying the point is that they figure it out but it would feel really strange for them to seemingly believe that they have no choice but to go with him and leave the ants who presumably are still going to struggle with the bird plan without them or else there's no tension for the climax at all. And if you add reasons for them to feel like they have to that's not purely the emotions that come with the liar revealed situation, where they no longer have a place among the people who feel betrayed and lied to and have literally nowhere else to go but with the circus, like theyre forced by a contract or something, then that also needs to be resolved before they CAN go back, which drags out the entire climax either too much to make it feel like the real climax is the actual real climax, or too little to the point you can feel that it was a waste of a plot point using up time
Again, I see where you're coming from with the idea of the turning point and overall message being about friendship rather than the bravery to stand up to oppressors and defend the weak, but the entire film is geared towards the latter message and I genuinely think that's why this is one of those instances where the liar revealed plot works and shouldn't be written off just bc its been done a lot 😅
@@pipedream2556 True
Also kudos for creating the Trope name for "Liar Revealed."
I did look it up and I did see that you were given partial credit for the name. For those interested:
"Though the trope itself is Older Than Dirt, the trope title is at least partly cemented here vis a vis The Nostalgia Critic and other videos by Doug Walker, where Doug lists it as number 2 on his "Top Ten Worst Clichés". In other videos, he notes that he absolutely hates this type of plot for creating weak drama and very rarely sees a movie where he thinks it works (How to Train Your Dragon and Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted being notable exceptions)."
The scene with Flik and the mosquito was voiced by Rodger Bumpass who also voiced Squidward a year later when Spongebob SquarePants was first released. True fact.
Hopper was genuinly a great villain. His role was perfect. His absolute ruthlessness extending to his own men as well as his subjects. All until tge facade collapses. But he still tries to salvage it.
“They come they eat they leave. They come they eat they leave.”
Working in hospitality. I can relate to this.
In recent years, there's been some pushback that Princess Atta makes this big deal out of Flick lying to the whole colony and banishing him - while totally ignoring that she lied to him first by pretending to send him on a quest, when really she was just trying to get rid of him. Not to mention he's the only ant to actually try to do something about the grasshoppers.
I 100% agree! Princess Atta is not entirely innocent, nor is the rest of the colony.
The banter between hopper and his brother are always my favorite parts of the film
Mine too
Hopper is definitely one of those underrated top tier Pixar villains. Being racist and ready to commit genocide on creatures that were basically smaller and weaker.
Antz did it better
That’s the one thing this film has over Antz. The villain is way more memorable and intimidating (and funnier). The villain in Antz was just a typical grouchy general who isn’t that funny nor is he that over the top. He’s just there.
@gothicMCRgirl Pixar's A Bug's Life is basically the opposite of DreamWorks' Antz.
Where Antz is a better and funnier film,
A Bug's Life has a better and funnier villain.
This irony just speaks for itself.
@ninjanibba4259 And funnier.
it was different for sure
A Bug's Life is the Krillin of the Pixar library, Impressive on its own merits, gets overshadowed by so many others.
good comparison
18:12 right! The only thing I remember about this movie was how cool Hopper was and how he got turned into baby food, he was so intimidating when he wanted to be. It was like a prototype for Death from Puss in Boots
This movie came out when I was in middle school, and I distinctly remember one of my teachers expressing his frustration with it after he saw it because the ants only have 4 limbs while the grasshoppers have the proper 6, he said it made him literally root for the bad guys. Personally I recognized it as a retelling of the fable of the ant and the grasshopper, except instead of the grasshopper dying because he didn't have a concept of planning for the future he decided to form a grasshopper mafia to force the ants to give him their food (which is kind of like that one episode of Futurama where Fry poorly told the story himself.)
OMG, I've been thinking the same thing myself, recently! Like, what if the grasshopper in the fable was too much of a pompous asshole to accept the consequences of his failure, so he just bullied the ant to giving him what he had?
A Sad Fact: Gypsy was Madeline Kahn's last voice role before her death in 1999 a year after this movie was released in theaters.
She did have a small role in an episode of Little Bill in '99 as Mrs. Shapiro. That episode was dedicated to her, and I can't look at that In Memoriam at the end without sobbing like a damn fool.
She was a great performer
This also had one of Roddy McDowall's last roles too.
RIP to both..
She was also Mrs.White in Clue The Movie. I got to tell you, i remember watching that movie she looks like my mom when she was young
14:42 A bug’s life is the ONLY Pixar movie that can make a murder scene intimidating AND funny
for some
*...And intimidating.*
Let's not go that far
Another Fun Fact: P.T. Flea is Pixar Legend John Ratzenberger's favorite Pixar role, because "in real life, I always get a kick out of those kinds of characters, people who just go into a rage for [no] explicable reason. He was always on edge. His blood pressure was always way over the top, and everything that he did was done in a panicked state. So it was a lot of fun to play him."
PT Flea is honestly my favorite of Ratzenberger's roles, and yeah, it's because of his rage out of nowhere moments.
2:34 "We need to spend time on good storytelling, smart surprises, and interesting characters!"
Mickey: We need to rely on our past IPs! 😂😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Not entirely a fan of that part.
@@dylansharp8471 Why though? They are making satire out of Disney. Isn't that funny to you?
Anyone forgetting, "Francis, Francis, I'm STUCK!"
"WHere are ya!!??"
"Here!"
"Where??"
"I'M the only stick with eyeballs!!"
Review Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers.
Yes!
That would be epic! Yes please, NC!
Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeesssss
OH PLEASE DO!
Please allow me to teach you all about a little series called Disneycember.
(Okay but in all seriousness, that video WAS seven years ago, so a revisit's probably warranted, but only if Doug has anything different or to add nowadays.)
“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! It's not about food, it’s about keeping those ants in line. THAT'S why we're going BACK! Does anybody else want to stay?”
~Hopper
He’s an amazing actor for both voice and love action.
"He's quite the motivational speaker, i'n't he?"
@@Blokewood3 “let’s ride!”
@@maxmeidl4909 he an amazing actor.
This is legit how the top 1% feel about the working class.
@ 15:02 Yhe way I interpret this scene is that they have always ruled over the ants via intimidation: once they discover that they can overpower the grass hoppers by joining forces together, the illusion of power they have over the ants is gone
Fun fact: The voice of the leader of The Blueberry Scouts is Ashley Tisdale who’s known for her many Disney projects like “The Suite Life of Zack and Cody”, “High School Musical”, and “Phineas and Ferb”.
Also, Dot is freaking Hayden Panettierre
That was her?!
@@monsterhanna6691 - They don't call Disney "groomers" for nothing, do they?
That fact isn't fun or interesting.
@@billjacobs521 - Yes, it actually is interesting. Usually, children on movies are played by middle-aged women BUT on this movie a few were played by famous and future famous kid actors.
Ok correction: the colony was actually moreso pissed at Flik for lying about the BIRD idea and passing it off as the "warriors" idea, rather than the reveal of the circus bugs. Their lives were jeopardized by one of his inventions in the first place so they don't want to risk another one ruining them.
well they still lied to Flik first. so they still don't have any moral high ground over him.
@@BluddMaridia they only did that to protect their colony. He couldn't work in the mines as punishment because... well, something catastrophic happened last time he did
I met the voice of Flik (Dave Foley) at Tampa Bay Comic Con he was so sweet
I remember there was a Robot Chicken skit where they brought him back to voice Flik again. That was fun.
@@AutoArtemAutoyeah that was funny
I met him too at the Fan Expo in Toronto and got my picture with him and his pals from Kids in the Hall.
@@littlereyreycool… I got a free autograph picture from him with a picture of Flik
to me he will always be the guy from newsradio
🎵It's a hard Bug's Life for us! 🎵
👍👍Annie reference
🤣🤣🤣👏👏👏
@@monsterhanna6691 👏👍
18:30
The closeups.
The composition.
The music.
The scream from Kevin Spacey Hopper.
Dare I go on?
As a child who was growing up when this film came out it was one of those movies I would watch again and again and to this day I can recite full scenes word-for-word from this film down to the inflections and body language. I would die happy if I can see a Bugs Life 2 get made.
I can even say that the Animal Kingdom show “It’s Tough to Be A Bug” is an honorable Bugs Life 1 1/2 and it should give Disney merit to revisit the million and counting population of the colony on Ant Island again.
So much of this movie is tattooed into my brain! Love seeing another kindred spirit. A bugs life is one of my favorite films period ☺️
God... A Bug's Life was literally my favorite movie as a kid. Toy Story was cool, and the perspective of toys was great. But this was like an expansion of everything I loved about Toy Story. I wanted so much more, all we saw was a dry river bed with a tree around it and a nearby trailer (the city), and yet it felt HUGE. I would have loved to see more adventures, truly leaving the surrounding area.
This film’s performance had nothing to do with Pixar immediately doing a sequel. They were barely released a year apart, “Toy Story 2” would’ve already been in production if not nearly finished.
Exactly. Toy Story 2 was announced before this film even came out. Usually you expect this kind of crap from lesser content creators but you'd think Doug with all his experience would know that movies aren't made overnight and a simple Google search would've shown him that was wrong
Also, TS2 had a rather troubled production history, with producers and directors changing multiple times and at one point the entire film almost accidentally being deleted. Considering that, it's amazing that in the end, TS2 was so good.
@@torstenscholz6243 Actually, it WAS deleted. They just lucked out, somebody had a backup at home.
yeah, i was going to mention that. not long after toy story came out c-span aired a big presentation by pixar where they talked about their history and their future. they showed off several of their classic shorts, as well as some new ones at the time like "Geri's Game", talking about it's main purpose was to test cloth physics. they also premiered the first trailer for "a bug's life", as well as the first teaser for "toy story 2". and to show how long it actually takes to make pixar films, they referenced Monster's Inc and finding nemo, (and i believe even wall-e) as future projects in early stages of pre-production.
and an interesting tidbit, this was long before they joined disney officially when they were just partners, and talked about intending to do other films on their own. mentioning how they wanted to do more mature animated films in addition to the family stuff. it was actually this section of the conference (as well as the superb execution of the scene) that lead me, as i watched the incinerator scene from toy story 3, to seriously question if they were going to do it or not.
Honestly, I do quote the "I know it's a rock" moment a lot. It's a pretty good encapsulation of being frustrated by something you know is ultimately dumb that still manages to frustrate you.
I also found that "I know it's a rock" piece of dialogue pretty great - not because it's a particularly funny line, but because of the annoyed way he delivered it, revealing his frustration with his life.
@@torstenscholz6243 Flik truly is one of us at some point in our lives and I love his character for that
I feel Bug’s Life is the most underrated Pixar movie, it’s a B tier movie, it gets too much hate! And the liar reveal is actually tolerable, it doesn’t ruin the movie.
Agreed! Although I also feel that Monsters University is equally underrated and deserves lots of love too!
yeah I enjoyed Bug's Life, I actually saw it before I saw Toy Story
correct
It’s my personal favorite Pixar film. I watch it every year to get me in the mood for summer. Never gets old!
@@xizzerinc.4667 monsters university was good for a prequel.
The late Joe Ranft, one of the writers, originally just scratch-voiced Heimlich while presenting the storyboards. When an actual actor did some lines, they decided that Ranft's voice was funnier and casted him.
For those who don't know, the intro skit was the origin of Daniel the Demon Slayer. He wasn't wearing makeup, that guy just punched him in the other eye after that.
Hopper is such a great villain ;)
Agreed
I loved how the va for Flik even voiced him in Robot Chicken
The liar revealed moment in this movie is kind of BS when you realize that Flik didn't even do anything wrong. Princess Atta was the one who told him to get warrior bugs, but she was actually lying and it was just an excuse to send him away.
Finally someone said it
I agree…I never liked that moment either
Yeah, lot of people don't get that
Yup, that whole scene is pretty senseless. Flik basically did nothing wrong and had good intentions and it wasn't his fault that the "warrior bugs" were actually just circus performers and he just found out too late.
Which would also justify Flik leaving his colony behind and survive(while they were doomed). However, he does return. The result is that the colony adopts his ideas(the cutters). Even when wronged, he eventually forces "the world" to acknowledge him and his ideas, even if turning his back on them would have been justified.
For years, I've said "What did you put in there, oregano?" as a joke when I smell something delicious cooking in my house. For lines to be quotable they have to be memorable and applicable in real-life. There are not many lines in this movie that do the latter.
Hopper is literally the *best* part of this movie, and I wish more people would see how great of a villain he is in the Pixar lineup.
In my opinion, THE most underrated Pixar film and one of my top five from them (my others are Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, and Ratatouille). When I was a little kid, my family and I would always quote this one, with lines like "BEAOOOTYFUL BUTTERFLY" and "Where's my food?!". My dad even used to playfully nickname my mom "A Bug's Wife" ❤
Okay, first off, that last part is adorable, and second, this and Ratatouille are my top favorite Pixar films, too! 😍😍😍💜💜💜
This was one of Pixar’s underrated gems, and “Time of your Life” lives in my head rent free.
Love that song.
Not a bad Pixar movie at all. Just kinda forgettable these days buried by the rest of the catalog. I would still put A Bug’s Life over some of the other films like Lightyear or Cars 2.
Same but Bugs Life, Lightyear and Cars 2 are all equally meh, IMO. Not bad just eh
I LOVE a bugs life! Its has a great message too, that if your rulers ever take to much there is more of us then them, and they should be scared of us not the other way around.
I watched this a couple of months ago for the first time and enjoyed it way more than I thought I would! Hopper's a great villain!
Classic! Hopper is one of the most terrifying villains in animation
Another Fun Fact: Andrew Stanton has said that he was the creator of Dot and that he was inspired to want a little girl in the film because he just had a newborn daughter at the time, which he said was something that John Lasseter as a father of five sons "couldn't claim to have".
interesting
Please just put all your fun facts in one comment. It not only spams up the comment section, but also makes it harder for people to find and read the fun facts.
@@CadDriftarus Will do next time
A Doug's Life
Why do I always find so many bronis on this non-broni channel?
@@AlejandroGonzalez-ej4lp - Fur Affinity played a huge role in propping up some of the earlier UA-cam stars including the AVGN, the Nostalgia Critic and my beloved hack frauds from Wisconsin
@@DanArnets1492 That is not a brony site.
9:53 the mosquito is played by rodger bumpass AKA squidward
I can't believe it has taken me 25 years to realize that the STICK insect is a STICK IN THE MUD. It's so obvious, how did I not see this before?
I actually like hopper as a villain because he's outside of the typical villain mold.He doesn't really have power over the ants, he has the illusion of power and that's what keeps them in line. He uses his words and his intellect to subjugate them he rarely puts a hand on them he just frightens them. Especially with that insane grasshopper. Once the illusion was broken, he has nothing.
"He has a message for you." I knew it was going to be a punch, I just knew it.
Honestly, I was half-expecting a comedic twist where Critic would return unscathed, holding a folded piece of paper, and say, "Turns out, he had an actual message for me."
Of course, the fact that the scene was played straight could in and of itself be considered a comedic twist.
@@deuceydee3506 Wow, your idea would have been much better than what I predicted or what they did. Good for you.
@@Myself-yf5do Um, thanks? Not sure if sarcasm...
@@deuceydee3506 Not sarcasm. I was worried you might think that. Believe me, not sarcasm.
@@Myself-yf5do You're good. It can just be hard to tell with pure text sometimes, lol
I still think it's funny two rival companies went head to head to release two insect movies in one year that's hard work and dedication if i've ever seen it
And Pixar still beat Dreamworks 😂 so Katzenberg failed that time to best his old bosses in his spite
You just know everyone had to do ridiculous overtime
DreamWorks exist just to sprite Disney and I LOVE IT
@@LucyLioness100 I'm willing to bet it's because Bug Life was made by Pixar, makers of Toy Story, and because the bugs were cute looking. I liked ANTZ when I was a kid, but they were not pleasing to look at.
@@OOLLILOLL “OVERTIME!”
- SpongeBob
This film is literally just Pixar’s retelling of Akira Kurosawa’s film Seven Samurai (1954).
Huh, I never thought about that comparison 🤔
@@YasminJFoster Yeah, I mean it tells the exact same story with the ants being the village people, the grasshoppers being the bandits, and the circus bugs being the seven samurai that are gathered to defend the colony just like how the samurai were gathered to defend the village.
2:41
*laughs while crying*
I WISH THIS WAS ONLY A JOKE.
1:45 would've been funnier if when "Mic" asked "did you get his message?" Dan instead responded with, "nah, a bus hit him causing me to walk into a street lamp"
I find it funny that in a lot of the recent sketches where Doug is playing a character that isn’t him is named Daniel (which is coincidentally my first name). So there are some instances where I think for a second that the characters are talking to me. The best example was in the Spider-Man 1 review where Critic says “Daniel, how many times do I have to tell you? Students can’t teach the class.” That’s made even more funny because when I was in elementary school I would talk to the class about a topic.
Yeah, this is actually one of my favorite Pixar movies if only because it's so nostalgic for me!
Also, it's pretty bizarre how Pixar has never made a sequel to it, like, you'd think they would've made one after they honed their writing skills and make a sequel that could've better than the first one.
Also, I bet Doug would LOVE it if Kingdom Hearts had a Bug's Life world and they made that damn bird a boss fight lol
Another Fun Fact: The short film Geri's Game was shown before this film in theaters, at least in the United States, as the first Pixar short to precede a full-length feature film.
I remember that short as it played after the credits in the greek VHS tape.
Then Geri came back as the toy-fixer in Toy Story 2, making it a sequel to at least two Pixar properties. Three if the Toy Story 2 blooper showing Bug's Life characters is canon.
@@wariodude128 In the Al's Toy Barn store, you can also briefly see characters from A Bug's Life as plastic toys.
@@wariodude128 There was also a scene in TS2 where plastic toys of A Bug's Life characters appear in Al's Toy Barn.
@@wariodude128 I legit had no idea the toy-fixer was the same old man from the short. Maybe because he didn't wear glasses. It's mindboggling how it took me years to figure that out. But I doubt it's the same character as the Pixar Wiki refers to him as The Cleaner and treats him as a separate character compared to the Disney Wiki which treats these 2 as the same character.
Fun fact, This was Hayden Panettiere's first ever major role, she was just nine.
4:21 I'd hate to be that ant in front of Heimlich. 😅
Fun Fact: In the bloopers shown at the end of the film, Princess Atta is shown cracking up during her scene with Hopper, ruining take after take until Hopper goes to his trailer in frustration. This is a spoof of Julia Louis-Dreyfus being known to do the same.
Heck, its been a long time since ive seen an end credits with bloopers - besides Jackpot with Awkwafina and John Cena which had those and i got a good laugh.
Hell, that reminded me of those times. 😅
Hopper saying he's going to his trailer and that he can't work like this is the one part of the movie I remember
it does feel very reminiscent of her Seinfeld bloopers with Michael Richards (though Richards was angrier).
He says that in the video but thanks for the copy/paste of IMDB trivia
@@benderbendingrodriguez420 I really wonder whether this is a real account at all or just an AI-genereated spam bot that just quotes random facts it finds about the film.
Streaming service be like:
You liked A Bug's Life
You may also like The Human Centipede
😂😂😂😂
Not to mention the Human Centipede has two more sequels while A Bug's Life only had one.
Boy howdy. 😅
_tries to get the waiter's attention by blinking in morse code_
@@dastvan8002 I got something in my eyes
wow its been awhile since I've heard red flags
You Should do Top 11 Pixar Bloopers
0:23 Deadpool & Wolverine: I'm Marvel Jesus
15:11 I mean, considering all this (recruit bug warriors) started because they wanted Flick either dead or exiled forever, whatever kept him away from them, it is kinda consistent that, their first reaction is to instantly go back to exile Flick again and considering everything he did a failure and a mistake.
At least they are consistent about how much they hate Flick 15:27 TvTropes reference!
Also is Elemental transpart
5 year old me: Hopper is a monster
25 year old me: Kevin Spacey is a monster
For some reason, the "Do I look stupid to you" outtake was the scene in this movie that stuck with me the most.
A bugs life is one of my favourite movies. Its my favourite pixar film all these years later and here’s what makes it special to me:
The colours- a weird first point but I adore how colourful this insect film is and it really leaps off the big screen and makes the whole world warm and very inviting.
Flik vs hopper- so flik and hopper are cliched characters (dorky inventor and a bully tyrant), but what I love is how each work against each other, flik has to leave the traditions of his life and really put himself out there to help make a difference to his colony, flik is seen as the worst by everyone on ant island and a failure and he has to believe in himself. Meanwhile hopper wants to keep dominating the ants in this tradition he enjoys and wants to keep their comfortable way of life going regardless of how it feels for everyone else. Hopper is seen as the boss and while everyone fears him they also follow what hopper says and would never speak bad of him only behind his back, wheras the ants are really savage to flik right to his face. But what I love about the dynamic is when flik and hopper interact and the two clash with flik actually standing up for the other ants even getting vicuously beaten up right in front of the other ants but flik never backs down even when he is outmatched. I love too that its when flik gets beaten up for standing up to hopper that inspires the other ants to stand up despite flik being beaten badly.
Flik in general is just so likeable to me because of his enthusiasm and the fun inventions he makes but I love that he has this positive mindset even when its obvious nobody likes him because he just wants to help the colony with his inventions and ideas.
The music in this film is nice and atmospheric too and of course the circus bugs are comedy gold
This is a great film from Pixar.
I am surprised that they didn’t make a sequel to A Bug’s Life.
Nah, it was meh
They felt the story was completed. But I’d like to have seen more bug adventures
Hello there
Are you serious?? You must have lived under a rock when it came out if you were surprised it never got a sequel. This was the most underachieving Pixar movie! Doug even said it in the video, it was very underwhelming. I’m literally shocked at how many misinformed people there are in this world when it comes to pop culture
@@chasehedges6775I’m literally shocked how many clueless and misinformed people are out there in the world. Seriously, why are there so many people incorrect about movie’s success? It’s mind boggling
Pixar's first "liar revealed" story. The quickest way into the Critic's heart.
Haha good one 😂
Doug wasn’t bald when he started NC, but he lost a hair for every liar revealed and misunderstanding cliche he got.
Yeah and it's going into his heart like a knife
@@ANDCFC95 That's actually pretty ironic for someone like him.
The worst part is that Atta's lie was never revealed. The ants are hypocrites, they sent him on a while bug chase to get rid of him. So it's okay for them to lie but not him? They're no better than the Grasshoppers.
and I do admit I love the blooper sequences at the credits of most early Pixar movies as they are legit funny, even funnier as an adult cause of the attention to detail with behinds the scenes stuff, it makes it pretty immersive and adds to the humour, it actual was inspired for cut content in Conker's Bad Fur Day, originally they were also gonna do that blooper sequence but had to scrap a rather disturbing cutscene cause N64 wouldn't allow it and they recycled one of those bloopers to replace the scene, ending up with no blooper sequence
The VHS version has a blooper removed in later versions. With Hopper and Molt that had me rolling even as an adult. "I said DO you understand me?!"
Basically, 7 Samurai if Bugs
A better Seven Samurai remake than that Rebel Moon garbage that was released.
i thought the movie was based off of the grasshoper and ant story
@@roninwarriorsfan Both, technically
I’m glad I wasn’t the only one to realize this
@@roninwarriorsfan both
oh thank GOD I am not the only one terrified of that damn bird
Interesting fact: as of 2024, this is actually Pixar’s oldest movie to NOT have a sequel or spin-off of any kind.
Yup, and #2 is "Ratatouille", 9 years later
0:57 The pearl harbor joke was fire.
the fact that you didn't end this video with bloopers is a missed opportunity.
3:31 to get to the review
Another Fun Fact: The fly's POV of simultaneous images of Francis yelling at him seen through his compound eyes is a nod to The Fly (1958).
Not all villains have to be funny Doug
Exactly.
I disagree to a degree. They need to be entertaining. An antagonist does not need to be funny or entertaining to get the story going. A villain needs it to stand out.
They need to be characterful, with a somewhat twisted perspective on things. If you are not "entertained" by a villain in some way, they become little more than a plot device(for instance Sauron. The ring has far more "personality", and Saruman is a better villain).
In movies for children and families, the villain needs to be at least a little funny to work as a foil for the protagonist. In a Bug's Life, we get murder jokes.
@@fendelphiIn that case, I would say Hopper's comedic relief comes from how he interacts with his brother. It's perfectly demonstrated in their first scene together: Hopper is giving his menacing monologue on The Way Things Work Around Here, and Molt just cuts in with his amusing tangent, leading Hopper to silence him in one of the more memorably funny and quotable moments in the movie.
He's wrong btw, Toy Story 2 had nothing to do with a Bug's life! Disney was gonna make that movie with or without Pixar and were gonna send it straight to video, like they had been doing with sequels! So Pixar felt they had to get in there and make a movie so good, that it could stand alongside the original and get a theatrical release!
I can't believe the NC missed the part where this was inspired by The Seven Samurai (which also inspired The Magnificent Seven. All great films)
That opening skit has to be one of the most accurate portrayals of Disney I’ve ever seen lmao 🤣
and Disney will never learn
@@gryphonofmight Nor Hollywood.
Hey, isn’t that the movie where Pixar and DreamWorks got a feud over a bugs movie?
It apparently does because after The Lion King premiered, Jeffrey Katzenberg quit Disney after a feud with Michael Eisner and Roy E. Disney for not getting a job as new Disney president after the death of Frank Wells, even though he is not a guy suited as president. He founded DreamWorks on October 1994
yes it was
7:34 kinda like the director
NGL I feel like my family quotes this movie so much. Just off the top of my head:
- "They have poopoo hands"
- "First rule of leadership, everything is your fault."
- "WHERE'S MY FOOD"
- "I'm a beautiful butterfly."