A Bug's Life/YMMV

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• Awesome Music: Randy Newman's Copland-esque score is fit for an epic of miniature proportions.
• Ear Worm: The little flute-sounding song that some ants are performing for the circus bugs.
• Ensemble Darkhorse:
  • PT Flea absolutely steals the show whenever he shows up. Most of it comes from John Ratzenberger's hilarious and bombastic performance, but it also helps that his Jerkass moments are balanced by moments of tenderness and bravery, giving him a surprising amount of depth for such a sleazeball.
  • Heimlich, for being one of the movie's funniest characters and having some of the best non-Hopper lines.

"Francis, leave them alone! They are poo-poo heads!

• • Molt, who gives PT and Heimlich serious competition in the funny department. Not only that, but his friendly, easy-going demeanor and Richard Kind's performance make him genuinely endearing despite his allegience to the bad guys, which is why very few fans mind his Heel Face Turn at the end.
• Evil Is Cool: Despite the movie being overshadowed by Pixar's other greats, Hopper is often considered to be among the company's best villains (and post-merger, one of Disney's better villains) thanks to his terrifying presence, no-nonsense approach to villainy, and plethora of great lines.
  • Thumper is this to a lesser extent. He's probably even freakier than Hopper thanks to his deranged wildman behavior, yet it makes him quite the effective threat himself.
• Evil Is Sexy: Hopper's got quite the fangirl following despite being a scary grasshopper. You can thank his voice, domineering attitude, and smooth-talking skills for that.
• Fandom Rivalry: It has one with Antz, because both are animated bugs movies released in 1998. Antz is more adult-oriented while A Bug's Life is more family-friendly.
• Foe Yay Shipping: Hopper and Flik. Some people couldn't explain why they kept watching their No-Holds-Barred Beatdown scene repeatedly when they were children, they sure can as they got older.
• Genius Bonus: Those familiar with black widow spider mating habits might view some of Rosie's lines in a different light. See also Getting Crap Past the Radar.
• Harsher in Hindsight: The many sexual assault allegations Kevin Spacey has been hit with from 2017 onwards give Hopper's scenes with Atta even squickier subtext than before.
• Magnificent Bastard: As much of a malicious scumbag as he is, you certainly can't say that Hopper's plan isn't effective. Despite being vastly outnumbered by the ants, he and his grasshoppers have managed to cow them into submission purely through his intimidating presence, knowledge of psychological warfare, and threats of brutal physical violence should they ever even think about standing up to him. While he ultimately loses in the end and loses hard, it's mainly due to Molt and the other grasshoppers running their mouth and compromising his carefully-laid plans with their blabbering as opposed to anything he himself does wrong.
• Moral Event Horizon: He had been extorting food from the ants for years, but Hopper crosses this when he decides he's going to murder the queen.
• Needs More Love: In the Pixar Canon, this film seems to be the most forgotten.
  • In the documentary The Pixar Story John Lasseter, and many of the other animators give off a sense that this movie is an Old Shame. One of the animators explained that they spent more time trying to make the movie better than Toy Story, instead of simply trying to make the film good in its own right.
  • It worked out in the end, despite a couple of cold hard truths. This particular movie is very touching.
• Overshadowed by Controversy: One of the reasons why the film is still talked about is the production feud between it and Antz.
• Values Resonance: Thanks to attention being drawn to workplace abuse and the imbalance of power between workers and the corrupt corporate executives calling the shots in the new '10's, many disgruntled members of the workforce have come to find the ants' struggles against their grasshopper overlords even more poignant than before, especially the scene where Flik finally stands up to Hopper, and encourages his fellow ants to do the same.
• Viewer Gender Confusion: Francis. While he makes it perfectly clear that he's a guy and has a very manly voice, it doesn't stop viewers from calling him "she" purely on reflex.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: The computer animation was a step up from the first Toy Story and still holds up.
• What Do You Mean It's Not Political?: Hopper's speech about "keeping those ants in line." It's been regarded as a metaphor for everything from the distribution of wealth to the alleged "New World Order."
• The Woobie: Flik. So many things go wrong for the poor guy that it's hard not to want to give him a hug.
  • Ditto for Molt. While he's working for the bad guys, he's a bonafide Nice Guy who just wants to appease his violent, hateful psychopath of a brother, and is verbally and nearly-physically abused for his trouble.

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