A Bug's Life

A Bug's Life is a 1998 American computer-animated comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. Directed by John Lasseter and co-directed and written by Andrew Stanton, the film involves a misfit ant, Flik, who is looking for "tough warriors" to save his colony from greedy grasshoppers, only to recruit a group of bugs that turn out to be an inept circus troupe. The film stars the voices of Dave Foley, Kevin Spacey and Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

The film is inspired by Aesop's fable The Ant and the Grasshopper. Production began shortly after the release of Toy Story in 1995. The screenplay was penned by Stanton and comedy writers Donald McEnery and Bob Shaw from a story by Lasseter, Stanton, and Joe Ranft, the latter who voiced Hemlich in the film. The ants in the film were redesigned to be more appealing, and Pixar's animation unit employed technical innovations in computer animation. Randy Newman composed the music for the film. During production, a controversial public feud erupted between Steve Jobs and Lasseter of Pixar and DreamWorks cofounder Jeffrey Katzenberg due to the parallel production of his similar film Antz, which was released the same year.

The film was released on November 25, 1998, and grossed $363 million in receipts. It received positive reviews from film critics, who commended the storyline, witty dialogue and voice-acting, and the animation, although some compared it unfavorably to Antz. It was the first film to be digitally transferred frame-by-frame and released to DVD, and has been released multiple times on home video.