We Love A Bug's Life

Year after year, the ants of Ant Island gather food for themselves and for a gang of grasshoppers. Most of the Islanders are comfortable with their routine lives, but there's one ant who doesn't quite fit in: Flik, an inventor who's always trying out new ideas and making odd contraptions. Unfortunately, most of his inventions seem to backfire. He's not a very popular fellow.

The colony has even less of a reason to like Flik after he accidentally loses all the grasshoppers' food. Hopper, the leader of the grasshoppers, orders the colony to gather twice the usual amount of food by the end of the summer--a quota the ants will never be able to meet without starving during the winter.

The ants feel like they don't have a choice, but Flik has an idea: They could convince some tough bugs to fight the grasshoppers, freeing them from Hopper's tyranny forever. Flik volunteers to find such bugs. The colony is only too happy to let him go, because they expect him to fail and would like to get rid of him for a while.

To their surprise, Flik returns with warrior bugs! Unfortunately, he doesn't realize that these "warriors" are actually fired circus performers who've mistaken him for a talent scout.

Once Flik and the circus bugs realize there's been some terrible miscommunication, Flik has to do what he can to salvage the situation and convince them to keep up the "warrior" charade. In the meantime, he comes up with another plan to drive off Hopper's gang.

But Flik's plan requires team effort, and the only reason the colony believes in it is because they think the "warriors" came up with it. Flik knows that if they learn the truth, they'll lose faith and the plan will never work.