Plot Summary

Based on Aesop’s famous fable ‘The Ant and the Grasshopper’, A Bug’s life tells the tale of a colony of ants who seasonally gather food for themselves and a vicious gang of grasshoppers. When the colony’s usual troublemaker Flik accidentally destroys the food supply; the angry leader of the grasshoppers, led by maniacally warped Hopper threatens to kill the ants if they do not provide a new supply of food by the time they return, an impossible task.

Flik leaves the colony with the hope that he will find other warrior bugs to help wage a war against the grasshoppers, he stumbles across a group of bugs who unbeknownst to him, are suffering from their own form of bad luck. This group also believe that Flik is a talent agent and they agree to travel back to Ant Island with him.

When the group become aware of the war they abandon Flik in fear but re-join the colony when they save the Queen’s daughter Dot from a bird attack. This attack inspires Flik to devise a new plan in building a fake bird to scare away Hopper and his gang, however when the circus ringmaster arrives searching for the bugs the colony reject Flik and he finds himself banished by Princess Atta, heir to the throne of Ant Island and who is also Flik’s love interest.

Meanwhile with Flik banished the ants desperately try to gather enough food for the grasshoppers but are unable to do so in the short space of time. Dots mistakenly overhears Hopper’s plan to kill the queen and frantically looks for Flik to convince him to return and use his fake bird. The bird is almost a success until it is accidentally set on fire; Hopper orders an attack on Flik. Before he proceeds to kill him, Princess Atta defends Flik encouraging the rest of the colony to fight against the grasshoppers eventually scaring them off with Hopper finding himself facing his death in an ironic way.