Bugs vs Flowers

Bugs and Flowers is a 1994 Comedy-Drama-Musical animated American-Canadian movie produced by Universal Cartoon Studios, Cinar and DiC Entertainment. It is directed by Lillian Rainbow, animated by Don Bluth, and stars the voices of Andrea Libman, Christopher Plummer, Amy Green, Kristin Fairlie, Michael Wildshill, Tara Strong, and Michelle Pfeiffer. The film revolves around a shy Caterpillar and surviving in a forest full of mean flowers and later teams up with a courageous Ladybird.

Bugs and Flowers premiered on April 1, 1994 (no, it’s not an April fools joke) by Universal Studios and was met with mixed reception. However, many say it’s one of the better Universal Animation Studio films. Especially considering the fact that a few months later, The infamous “The Land Before Time 2: The Great Valley Adventure” came out.

Plot
The film starts in a happy forest filled to the brim with flowers all happy to know that they are bug-free. At least, they were before a Butterfly named Beauty (Tara Strong) noticed one of them, A rose, to be a nice spot to lay her eggs. The rose, named Madison, appeared to be irritated and began to rapidly shake her body to get the unwanted guest off. Beauty was irritated and decided to leave. However, she did leave one of her eggs behind. Frightened by this, the flowers wanted to do away with the egg. One flower, a Sunflower named Sunnie didn’t want them to kill the egg because he wanted to nourish it. Furious by this, the roses then persecuted him for that reason and kicked him out of the forest. But as soon as he was kicked out, the egg hatched into a tiny larva; A female one. The larva, who named herself Glitter, wanted to be loved. But the flowers, who were anti-bug were disgusted by her and wanted to kick her out. As defenseless as she was, a noble Ladybird (named Sir Bug) saved her from the evil flowers and wanted to take care of her. So the two go to his home. During the process, a Morning Glory, named Gloria begins to spy on them.

After Gloria’s mission, she returned to the flower forest to tell them that the larva is at some Ladybird’s tree. Shocked by this, the flowers went to the tree one by one. But as soon as the two (Glitter and Sir Bug) settled down, the flowers begin to set the tree ablaze. Sir Bug, who was angered by the flower’s actions scolded them for hating on bugs. The Flowers didn’t listen and continued to harm them. But as soon as they tried to kill them with flames, a bee, named Lulu arrived and wanted to see if she could suck their nectar up.

The flowers were horrified and demanded an explanation. Lulu then explains that without her, then they would be all fat and could die. After hearing that, the flowers got more scared by the bugs. During the process, Glitter, who was in her final molt, began to act well, like a Teenager! So she dealt with the flowers herself. Especially, the main culprit behind this, Madison the Rose. Madison was horrified and disgusted by her and Glitter began to jump on another flower, this time a Daisy named Daisy. Daisy was shocked to see Glitter on her lower left leaf and thought that Glitter eating it felt strangely good. Daisy wanted the others to come and try, but they refuse. Shortly afterward, Glitter appeared to be tired and rested on Madison. Madison then woke her up and took her off. Glitter then became very mad at Madison and got into a fight against her. Madison ultimately won but Glitter went back to Sir Bug’s home.

At that point, he was rather surprised that the flowers haven’t given up at that point. On top of that, he also noticed that her skin was slowly turning pink. Concerned by this, he took the rest of the flowers himself. During the battle, Glitter felt more and more drowsy before seeing her larva body one last time as she transformed into a Pupa. Sir Bug then later became aware of Glitter’s transformation and wanted to see her. When he left, the flowers returned in peace. Except for Daisy.

Later that day, Sir Bug’s friend, two Mantis Nymphs named Univer and Madeline arrived. The flowers were more horrified than before because now they had two bugs to deal with! Daisy was pleased to see the two mantises appearing. Univer wanted to see who was behind this insect-hating non-sense and the flowers didn’t answer his question. Madeline, his twin sister replied that it was the wicked-looking rose who could be behind this. The two twins then approached Madison the Rose and wanted to see why they hate insects so much. She still didn’t answer. The two didn’t really want to risk it and decided to head to Sir Bug’s home.

Where they discovered a strange-looking pink pod. Univer thought that it was an alien. But as soon as they rested, they heard a loud shake. It was Browser the Ocelot! Browser always wanted to know why the flowers hated the insects so much. Madison completely ignored his question and Browser hissed at her. After a long week later, the mantis twins practicing hunting, Sir Bug watching his favorite shows and Browser treating the trees as his personal scratching posts, Glitter emerged from her pink pupa as a beautiful butterfly.

Also on the same day, Madison shrieked as she begins to wither away. Lulu makes a comeback saying that she deserved it for being a jerk to others. Until they saw Madeline the mantis eating a rather funny-looking pest, an Aphid. Madison, while withering gave her last apologies to the bugs before her head falls off. The flowers begin to mourn her loss. Glitter then gives them hope as she said that hopefully that she’ll return as a nicer flower when she returns next spring. A few months later, Madison returned but less of a jerk. Univer and Madeline were shocked to find out. But after her revival, Madison became more tolerant of the bugs and is thankful for them. Browser arrives at the last minute to realize that Aphids were the main reason the flowers were so mean to the insects. Glitter then laid eggs of her own later that day and everyone rejoiced. But that rejoicing later turned to sorrow when they found out that she died after laying the eggs. After seven days of sadness, the eggs hatched, revealed to be all girls, 20 of them.

Sir bug was shocked to find out that there were no boys among the eggs. As soon as the 20 larvae were born, Madison promised that she and the rest of the flowers would take care of them.

Voice Cast

 * Andrea Libman - As Glitter.


 * Christopher Plummer - As Sir Bug


 * Amy Green - As Lulu


 * Kristin Fairlie - As Madison and Daisy


 * Michael Wildshill - As Sunnie and Browser the Ocelot


 * Tara Strong - As Univer, which is a joke on Universal Studios.


 * Michelle Pfeiffer - As Madeline

Additional voices
TBA

Development
The movie’s origins started as early as June 1989. When Lillian, who was only 13, made a short story about Flower and Insects being rivals with each other. When she turned 18 in November 1993, Universal Cartoon Studios, Cinar, and DiC Entertainment all joined together created the movie. But originally, the movie started production in 1986 as a movie based on “The Sneeches” (Though The Sneeches would later get an adaptation in 1997 by DiC under their Disney ownership) but the concept got pulled in favor for The Land Before Time. In 1993, the movie underwent a major overhaul. With The sneeches being replaced by Bug-hating flowers who constantly get to see them every day. Oddly enough, the film was originally a TV special set to air on Fox before they made it a movie last-minute.

Casting
During the movie’s production, various cast members from DiC’s “Madeline” and Universal’s “An American Tale” voiced most of the cast.

Animation and Design
During the film’s early days, the flowers looked more sinister and almost nightmarish while Madeline and Univer were originally both firefly larvae and Browser was originally a wolf. The film’s animation was first produced by Cinar in 1992.

Release
Bugs and Flowers was released on April 1, 1994, by Universal Studios and was met with a mixed reception. Despite the mixed reception, it grossed $47 million for its $39 million budget. Critics praised the film for its animation but criticized it for having a similar premise to 20th Century Fox’s “The Caterpillar Girl”.

Video Game
In 1995, the movie got a video game adaptation for Sega 32x, PlayStation, Gameboy and PC. The game got positive Reception.

Home Media
The film got a VHS release in 1996 by MCA/Universal Home Video and Viz Video. It was the last movie released to VHS in 1996. In European territories, the film was released by CIC Video in 1997.

Awards
The film was nominated for “Best Animated Picture” but lost to Disney’s The Lion King.