A Bug's Life
Every season, a colony of ants are expected to harvest food for a Mafia-like bunch of grasshoppers. One ant, Flik, is an inventor whose creations usually do more harm than good. While trying out a mechanical harvester, he drops his machine and on auto-pilot, it knocks the pile of food into a stream just before the grasshoppers arrive. Their leader, Hopper, gives the ants the rest of the season to make good on what they owe, but orders a double ration of food after Flik stands up to him in defense of the Queen's youngest daughter Dot. Flik is admonished by the colony's royal council. When Flik suggests that he try to recruit some "warrior bugs" to fight the grasshoppers, Princess Atta (Dot's older sister and the eventual successor to the Queen) allows him to do so, but only to keep him out of the way.
Reaching the insect "city," built from discarded boxes and cans, Flik encounters a troupe of unemployed circus bugs whose latest performance has just ended in disaster, and mistakes them for the warriors he needs. At the same time, they believe him to be a talent scout who wants to book their act on the island. They return to the colony, much to Atta's surprise, and are immediately greeted as heroes who can end the grasshopper threat. Atta soon becomes suspicious after almost overhearing a conversation where both Flik and the troupe realize their mistakes. However, after they band together to save Dot from a hungry bird, she begins to think that the troupe may be able to stop the grasshoppers after all. She also starts to find herself falling in love with Flik. And the feeling is very mutual.
At the grasshopper gang's hideout, Hopper's brother Molt suggests that they not go back, since they have more than enough food stored up and the weather will soon turn bad. Hopper reminds him and the whole gang that if they do not keep the ants living in fear, the ants might use their superior numbers ("a hundred to one," he estimates) to run the grasshoppers out of the colony for good. The gang sets out for the island to collect their due. When Flik discovers that Hopper is afraid of birds (due to him almost getting eaten by one a few years ago), he proposes that the colony build a model bird to scare him away. The ants put their food-gathering work on hold to carry out this project, but as they finish, circus ringmaster P. T. Flea arrives looking for his missing performers and accidentally exposes the truth. Upset at Flik's deception, Atta orders him exiled from the colony, while the other ants hide the bird and rush to collect whatever food they can for Hopper. They are unable to meet the double quota he set, and when the gang arrives, he takes over the anthill and forces the ants to bring him all the food on the island.
Dot overhears the gang's plans to kill the Queen once they have all the food, and she catches up with Flik and the troupe. She persuades them to return and put the bird plan into action, with help from her and some of the other young ants. The model frightens the gang, who almost retreats until P. T. intervenes and sets the model on oil and fire. Enraged, Hopper sends his crazed assistant Thumper to injure Flik, but Flik is still able to stand up and rally the other ants, saying that the grasshoppers depend on the extorted food for their own survival. The entire colony swarms against the gang, forcing all except Hopper to leave. However, a thunderstorm begins, causing panic among the ants. Hopper grabs Flik and flies off, intent on killing him. Atta rescues Flik, and the two lure Hopper towards the bird’s nest. Hopper corners Flik and starts strangling him, revealing his intention of returning to the colony with more grasshoppers. Flik is saved when the bird appears, picks up Hopper and feeds him to its chicks.
Later, the colony adopts Flik's harvester to speed up grain collection. Atta becomes the new queen, passes the princess crown to Dot and chooses Flik as her mate. As the troupe leaves, Slim the stick insect notices that they've forgotten Heimlich the caterpillar, who emerges from the chrysalis in which he has encased himself. He pops out with a tiny pair of butterfly wings, far too small to lift him off the ground, but he's picked up by Francis the ladybug and Manny the praying mantis, and the troupe (with Molt, acting as a road crew assistant) departs with the colony’s thanks. Dot joined by Queen Atta and Flik (who are shown holding hands) wave goodbye. The shot then pulls out to reveal that "Ant Island" is a small area in the forest surrounded by a little stream.
