#Joe Ranft | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

loveaetingkids · 7 months

Note

Can I please have some facts about Coraline?

Wow,I never thought someone would be interested! I gathered a few fun facts,and while I’m sure they’re easy to spot, these are fun to tell to the new viewers:

•To start it off,the movers who were unpacking Coralines family furniture were modeled and named after Joe and Jerome Ranft,who worked on Nightmare Before Christmas:

•The dollar that was handled over to them has the image of Henry Selick on it,director of Coraline:

•Wybie Lovat is not part of Neil Gaiman’s novel-he was created so that Coraline won’t talk to herself( in the book we read about her thoughts,but it’s much harder to do so in film).

•The medal of Mr Bobynsky is real one: it was awarded to the Chornobyl disaster liquidators(fun fact:the power plant is called ChOrnobyl, not ChErnobyl since it was built in Ukraine,so Ukrainian spelling style applies). His exposure to radiation explains Bobynsky’s blue skin and unwell mind:

•The “jumping mice” are also real.They are native to the south of United States:

•During Coralines first encounter with Other Mother,when she asks Beldam what rain is she talking about,we see a quick appearance of lightning which looks suspiciously like a hand. This is not a coincidence, as the hand is closely associated with the witch (this sign appears in the cup during the foreshadowing of Spink and Forcible; her severed hand chases the heroine at the end of the movie):

•It’s a pretty well known fact,but on the cake itself we see that “home” in “Welcome home” has an “o” written with a double loop,which according to pseudoscience called graphology means that the person who wrote it is lying.Thus,Coraline is welcomed but it isn’t her home:

•Here’s my own little theory: each time Coraline crawls through the tunnel to another world, it dims,until all the colors disappear and the true essence of the pathway is revealed - a cobweb with children’s toys in it(a trap for kids).Now it might be just a trick of light,but it’s interesting to think about nevertheless:

•The audience gets hints of Beldams fairy/witch nature throughout the film; the first time is when Coraline finds a well surrounded by a circle of mushrooms, which in the beliefs of many people was associated with fairies who lured people into them(sounds familiar?).The second time is when she was given a stone with a hole in it by Spink and Forcible.This rock is often called Hag stone,and is believed to serve as a protection against evil spirits.It is also believed that you can see through the guise of a witch by looking through the hole(exactly what Coraline did to find the eyes of missing children):

•Now,the bug theme in Coraline is really prevalent,and later in the movie we can see that Other Mother is heavily associated with spiders.Meanwhile Coraline has similar thing going on-she wears hairpin resembling dragonfly,who are known for eating spiders.Because of this,the game of predator and prey is turned on its head:

That’s it for now,hope these were interesting for you!

#kashtan answers #shower thoughts #coraline #laika #studio laika #laika movies #theories

31 notes · View notes

90smovies · 1 year

Photo

#Beauty and the Beast 1991 #Beauty and the Beast #Disney #Pizza Hut #Gary Trousdale #Kirk Wise #Jeanne Marie Leprince de Beaumont #Linda Woolverton #Brenda Chapman #Chris Sanders #Burny Mattinson #Kevin Harkey #Brian Pimental #Bruce Woodside #Joe Ranft #Tom Ellery #Kelly Asbury #Robert Lence #90s

78 notes · View notes

skullsemi · 2 years

Text

Swabbies (1989)

One of the many un-released Disney animated featurette that never got completed. Swabbies (also called "Production 2532"), was going to be released in 1989.

Before the short The Prince and the Pauper (1990) was released, Disney was producing a Mickey, Donald and Goofy short called Swabbies, following the style of the live-action film Stripes (a classic Bill Murray/Harold Ramis comedy, by Columbia Pictures, 1981).

Swabbies was the second in what was supposed to be a number of half hour projects to get the classic Disney characters definitely back in the spotlight, the first one being Sport Goofy in Soccermania, released in 1987.

The Plot of Swabbies

The story found our heroes, Mickey, Donald and Goofy out of work, out of luck and in need of a job. They end up enlisting in the Navy and going to boot camp with Pete as their exasperated drill instructor and then meet their feminine counterparts, Minnie, Daisy and Clarabelle who are all WAVEs (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service). Once they put to sea, they encounter a submarine full of the Beagle Boys, who all spoke a Russian sounding gibberish (they were still in the Cold War in those days). Mickey and friends coming out on top in the end.

The entire film was storyboarded, recorded and even an animatic was created. Complete model sheets of all the characters were printed up and layout as well as some animation had begun before it came to an abrupt halt.

It was to be produced by Tad Stones and directed by Darrel Van Citters. Some more talent involved was Ed Gombert, Joe Ranft and Michael Giaimo on story, Kelly Asbury and Fred Cline in layout, Chris Buck, Toby Shelton and Ed Gombert on animation, model sheets by Chris Buck and Mike Gabriel.

References:

https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Swabbies

https://web.archive.org/web/20111205112854/http://animationarchive.net/Deleted%20Movies/Swabbies/

See more of the original art on here.

I also traced the original model sheets and painted them to be easier to visualize, you can see it here.

68 notes · View notes

kylesvariouslistsandstuff · 1 year

Text

Why I'm Looking Forward to ELEMENTAL...

This has been on my mind lately, as ELEMENTAL is inching closer to release.

I've been reading it everywhere... Something to the tune of: Pixar has lost its touch, its soul, they've been going downhill, etc. etc.

I get intense deja vu whenever I read a sentence like that...

Because around this very same time, a DECADE ago, in the year 2013... Pixar was also going downhill, they sold out, they lost their touch, their soul, Disney was poisoning them now that they owned them, blah blah blah-

And this was back when they had only released two movies in a row that didn't live up to the imaginary thing that is called "Pixar standards": Those very movies were CARS 2 and BRAVE. A prequel to MONSTERS, INC. was just a month away at this same time in 2013, which ended up getting a similar reception from these skeptics... We knew a FINDING NEMO sequel was in the works, in addition to a few originals. They didn't have high hopes for the studio's future.

When INSIDE OUT came out in summer 2015, after a whole calendar year without a Pixar movie, it was declared a comeback. But later that year, during the holiday season, THE GOOD DINOSAUR came out, and it was all "Pixar is dead!" again. People were freakin' hyperbolic, I tell 'ya... Strangely, I do remember that nonsense somewhat dying down once FINDING DORY came out, the following summer in 2016. As if they either accepted that their favorite studio was no longer going to make movies that they wanted to see, or they found something else to latch onto... and subsequent complain about that thing, too. Maybe the return of STAR WARS was enough of a distraction for these nerds? That's the king of complainer-heavy franchises right there!

So, I'm old enough to remember when Pixar was going downhill. It seemed like they've been going downhill, huh? Ten years of going downhill? Where does the hill end? Is it a very steep hill... Is it a cliff? Are they tumbling down Mount Everest or something?

But what's particularly alarming to me is this... There's a good-sized gaggle of people who genuinely want... John freakin' Lasseter to come back to Pixar and be their leader again!

Yet back in 2013, according to people who were insisting that Pixar was done for, it was *Lasseter* that was the problem.

That he was ruining Pixar with his dictatorial way of running things, his aggressive franchising of CARS, firing directors off of their movies, and mandating every director there except his favorites (Pete Docter, Andrew Stanton, Lee Unkrich, Brad Bird) to make the movies the way HE wanted them to be made. That he was their worst director, as CARS and CARS 2 "proved" that... Though apparently the guy never directed TOY STORY 1 & 2, and A BUG'S LIFE. (Oh, but that one sucked, too. Apparently. Also, Lasseter pretty much stole CARS wholesale from Jorgen Klubien. To me, Klubien and the late Joe Ranft are very much the directors of that film.)

Now a lot of this is true, Lasseter was a micromanager indeed. He removed a lot of up-and-coming directors at Pixar that didn't meet his "criteria", and this was true even before The Walt Disney Company bought Pixar and made him supreme leader. He screwed over Jorgen Klubien and essentially erased him from the creation of CARS, a movie he pitched and blueprinted and mapped out. Jan Pinkava was booted off of RATATOUILLE, but did receive co-director credit in the end. He also wasn't quite thrilled about then-outsider Brad Bird coming into Pixar with a superhero action picture, but Steve Jobs had Brad Bird's back and eventually, Lasseter was all-in on Bird. Then once he took over? Brad Lewis, Brenda Chapman, even veteran Bob Peterson, all fired from their movies. An unnamed director got booted off of MONSTERS UNIVERSITY as well, Gary Rydstrom got taken off of NEWT, and the studio ended up canning that film anyways.

Nothing was done about this, as Pixar scored box office hit after box office hit, and sometimes Oscars to go with that... Nothing was done, until Lasseter was rightfully outed for sexual harassment during the Me Too movement in late 2017. With that, Pete Docter assumed his Chief Creative Officer role in mid-2018. Ever since Pete took over, not a single movie made at Pixar since then lost its director, and to me... All the newer films feel quite unique to one another, and feel like the visions of their respective directors. They have gotten one Oscar since then, for SOUL in 2020, LUCA and TURNING RED were nominated in their respective years. Only LIGHTYEAR lost money at the box office, had a hard time appealing to audiences, and got a slightly more mixed reception from critics. Everything else is a COVID case... Not that box office and Oscars mean anything, but under Lasseter they seemed to easily rack those things up regularly. With one or two major exceptions here and there. Just an observation, that's all.

So now... They want him back? Am I reading that right? But they all insisted that he had to go, and that the 2010s Pixar was all bad original movies (save for INSIDE OUT and COCO) and "unnecessary" sequels. Keep in mind, these same people *demanded* an INCREDIBLES sequel from Pixar... And the Venn Diagram of folks who disliked INCREDIBLES 2 that never shut up about how "bad" it was and those who demanded that the sequel be made in the first place is probably a circle.

These same complainers clamor for the Pixar of yore, the studio during its so-called halcyon days... And yet they're dismissive of the new movies they make that are trying new things (the old Pixar of 2003-ish would've never greenlit LUCA or TURNING RED)... And the movie that's going back to the classic "what-if" premises that directors Lasseter/Docter/Stanton/Unkrich indulged in? Oh, it's "generic Pixar", "it looks like a parody of Pixar", "it's as if an AI generated a Pixar movie"...

What do they want, then?

If they make a movie that's just like TOY STORY or FINDING NEMO or RATATOUILLE or UP, it'd be written off as "trying to replicate the past". If they do something new and fresh, it's "mid" or whatever, "go back to what you did best."

This studio has released 26 films, and in a month, 27. Not all of them are going to appeal to you anyways. They have yet to make a movie that I myself personally dislike, but that's just me.

I sometimes think that Pixar's earliest films hit these particular folks hard because they were made during a time when American feature animation was in a weird state. That initial "Renaissance" period wore off, Disney was having trouble, other studios were releasing 2D films that flopped and got bad critical scores, and it seemed like Pixar (and some early DreamWorks) hit that sweet spot. Nowadays, everyone's making big animated movies, and there's innovation happening elsewhere as well. New Pixar movies share the space with films like INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE, PUSS IN BOOTS: THE LAST WISH, THE MITCHELLS VS. THE MACHINES, Guillermo del Toro's PINOCCHIO, etc. etc. We also have a wider Internet than ever before, streaming, whole libraries at your fingertips... Maybe back in 2003, you had so-so internet connection and a PC with a boxy monitor, and it seemed like Pixar was the only game in town.

But also, early Pixar was smaller, much more tight-knit you could argue. Ostensibly, it was a bunch of nerds riding around on scooters and wearing Hawaiian shirts, like the place was a blast to be at, each new movie of theirs a test for them, it was them going big or going home. Every new movie of theirs seemed like a pending flop... that defied all expectations, each movie worked on critics and audiences. Their contract back then sucked, and they weren't allowed to make sequels to their movies, TOY STORY 2 was strongarmed into being a Pixar-made sequel and not the direct-to-video B-team picture it was originally meant to be. There's definitely a particular feeling, an early-era excitement to the stretch of films made from 1995 to around 2004, and after the Disney buyout, Pixar's atmosphere is no longer the chimp and the wacky guys on scooters. In reality, Pixar was always cutthroat. Lasseter was always egotistical (again, just ask Jorgen Klubien), it was a studio and a business just like everything else. There also exist people who are not in love with that studio, and maybe only enjoy a handful of the movies they made during their so-called heyday.

I've long loved Pixar films. MONSTERS, INC. was the movie that made me a fan of theirs, though I had seen their first three films made before that. I've seen all of their movies in theaters except the three movies that went straight to Disney+ during the pandemic. That being said, I am able to differentiate a studio from its filmmakers. Early Pixar is largely the work of Lasseter, Docter, Stanton, and Unkrich. Or what I like to call "Team TOY STORY". Lasseter directed TOY STORY, everyone else listed were a major part of that movie, and were a major part of TOY STORY 2 as well. Unkrich co-directed TOY STORY 2, MONSTERS, INC. and FINDING NEMO. Andrew Stanton co-directed A BUG'S LIFE and then was main director on FINDING NEMO - which he conceived, Pete Docter conceived and directed MONSTERS, INC. They're all John's guys, his buddies, his magic circle, or as Jorgen Klubien put it in an interview with the Skull Rock Podcast: His knights of the round table, "The Beatles of Pixar"... Then there was Brad Bird. Again, a relative outsider, didn't get the warmest welcome, but became a solid part of Lasseter's circle because he had backup, and his movie ended up being a big hit. Team TOY STORY and Brad Bird were "early Pixar": A bunch of liked-minded guys out of Cal-Arts in their 30s and 40s with a lot of creative freedom making the animated movies they wanted to see, and using cutting-edge and always-evolving technology to make them.

But those days were over after Lasseter took complete control and solidified his Brain Trust. Who knows how a movie like BRAVE would've been received in 2012 had he not fired Brenda Chapman from it, the very movie she conceived based on her motherhood. Better? Worse? Same goes for Bob Peterson, what would his GOOD DINOSAUR have been? It was always *very* telling to me that the post-2010 Pixar movies everyone seemed to agree on being pretty good were the movies directed by Pete Docter (INSIDE OUT, SOUL) and Lee Unkrich (COCO)... and that everything else was subpar. But... They'd either say those movies stunk because Lasseter controlled them too much, or they were just bad because they weren't made by their favorite directors.

And that was even more evident to me after Lasseter was sent packing. ONWARD, Dan Scanlon's first original Pixar movie after directing MONSTERS UNIVERSITY, was "good but not Pixar good" at best, and the same non-criticism was thrown at Enrico Casarosa's LUCA as well. There is no such thing as "Pixar good", you actually mean "I don't like it as much as the movies made by Team TOY STORY." You like those select few directors, then, not the studio itself. And that's fine! The studio is merely the building where these movies are made, it's not the author of the movies... That'd be like calling ABBEY ROAD your favorite Abbey Road Studios album, not your favorite Beatles album.

Also worth noting: Brad Bird had directed THE IRON GIANT before coming to Pixar, and he's directing RAY GUNN for Skydance Animation - with Lasseter as his boss again, may I add. He's the only person in the original Pixar director lineup of filmmakers to have directed an all-animated feature somewhere else. Pete Docter's only animated movies are Pixar films, ditto John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, and Lee Unkrich's.

Lasseter's no longer at Pixar, Pete Docter likely is done with directing after SOUL, Andrew Stanton hasn't directed there since 2016 and likely won't be back for a long while because he's trying to do more live-action stuff, Lee Unkrich straight up retired, and Brad Bird - again - is off at Skydance.

I don't really subscribe to the whole collective thing. The original appeal of Pixar, to me, was it being a place where directors could come in, pitch a wild idea, and make that wild idea a movie that Disney or the other studios at the time wouldn't have made. Problem was, it looked that way on paper. In reality, it was Lasseter's show. It's not anymore, and Docter is not like Lasseter, he wants the people at Pixar to tell their stories... THEIR way. That's very exciting to me, and I feel it has shown in a lot of their most recent films.

This is why I'm interested in seeing ELEMENTAL, I'm game to see what director Peter Sohn has in store. He previously directed THE GOOD DINOSAUR, which he took over from Bob Peterson of course, but this is his movie from the ground up. He has said that it is based on his experiences as a son of Korean immigrant parents in New York, his coming of age in the 1980s, but told using people made of the four elements living in a city based around said elements. I'm there for the personal story more so than the premise, but from what I've seen of the movie itself, it's fascinating seeing characters where every part of them moves. Flowing water, ever-burning fire, etc. They're very very animated. This must've been a lot of work!

Anyways, ELEMENTAL... When do the tickets go on sale? I'm looking forward to it, I hope I enjoy it!

16 notes · View notes

tenderlysharpmidain · 2 years

Text

Prompt: hyperdetailed photorealism maximalism, rococo flowermaiden close-up, serene atmosphere nature environment, in the style of Joe Ranft, Raphael, Mucha, Sargent, Studio Ghibli —aspect 2:3 --testp --creative --upbeta --upbeta

@ MeliKoala

midjourney

#midjourney

17 notes · View notes

321spongebolt · 2 years

Text

Kingdom Hearts: “A Bug’s Life” world idea (Ant Island)

In honor of the 20th anniversary of “Kingdom Hearts” coming in 2 months, let us now discuss my other world proposal for “Kingdom Hearts”, “A Bug’s Life”. This is another Disney Renaissance movie a lot of people forgot about, but I grew up with that movie. Following Chicken Little as a summon in “Kingdom Hearts 2”, the worlds of “Toy Story”, “Monsters Inc.”, and the Marvel Studios animated movie, “Big Hero 6” being featured worlds in “Kingdom Hearts 3”, and of course, the appearance of Wreck-it Ralph in “Kingdom Hearts 3” and “Kingdom Hearts Union χ[Cross]”, “A Bug’s Life” can be another great Pixar film to use in a future “Kingdom Hearts” installment.

STORY ("ANT ISLAND")

FIRST VISIT

As day turns to night, once the circus closes, Sora arrives as an insect (I don’t know what bug form he should be to be honest) and bumps into Flik (Dave Foley). After introductions, Sora tags along with Flik to search for bigger bugs to fight Hopper and the grasshoppers, which was what the Ant Council allowed Flik to do. Flik tells Sora the details as they explore the city. When they make it to the bar where the Circus Bugs (Brad Garrett as Dim, Bonnie Hunt as Rosie, Jerome Ranft, filling in for his late brother, Joe Ranft as Heimlich, Jeff Bennett as Slim, Nick Jameson as Francis, Kath Soucie as Gypsy, Jim Cummings as Manny, and Ian McShane as Tuck and Roll) drown their sorrows after being fired by P.T. Flea (John Ratzenberger). The two flies show up with Thud, and the Circus Bugs perform their “Robin Hood” act. Sora later jumps in when Heartless appear, and fights them all while protecting the Circus Bugs.

When the Heartless have been defeated, Flik follows the can where it rolled to, and Flik is impressed by Sora’s act of heroism, and for protecting the Circus Bugs so they too could fight the Heartless. Flik immediately hires Sora as his first line of defense, and the Circus Bugs fly back to Ant Island with Flik riding on Dim’s back. The ants are afraid at first, but they slowly come out and cheer for Flik. Dot comes out to hug Flik, and Princess Atta (either Julia Louis-Dreyfus or Jodi Benson) sees Flik from far away, starting to worry that Flik shouldn’t have come back that fast.

The Queen (Tress MacNeille, filling in for the late great Phyllis Diller) welcomes Sora and the Circus Bugs to Ant Island, and the Circus Bugs sneak off while Flik gives a “thank you” speech to Princess Atta for making this all possible. Sora tries to talk to the Circus Bugs about why they’re leaving, and Francis explains that Flik lied to them about killing grasshoppers, which wasn’t what they said they would do. Francis does, however, still thank Sora for helping him with those flies. Later, as Princess Atta starts acting suspicious about Flik, who has wandered off to look for his new friends, the Circus Bugs put Flik down to where the Bird’s nest is, and runs away screaming “AAH! RUN!”.

Heimlich responds “Boy, he runs fast for a little guy.”, and the bird appears, screeching at the bugs. Tuck and Roll shout “Tweet-tweet! Tweet-tweet!” and the Circus Bugs run for dear life. However, Francis rescues Dot after letting go of the dandelion she was riding on, and Francis hurts his leg. Thankfully, the boss fight begins as Sora takes on the Bird by himself.

After defeating the Bird, Sora climbs on Dim’s back as Rosie uses her webs as a net to carry Francis and Dot. In response to his pain, after Dot touched his foot, Francis’ wings pop open while shouting “Aah! My leg!”, and accidentally cuts the webs with his wings closing. The next phase of the Bird boss has Sora shoot magic spells at the Bird (Similar to the Dark Baymax boss fight in “Kingdom Hearts 3″).

After completing phase two, Sora, Flik, Dot, and the Circus Bugs land on a few leaves from behind a thorny vine. The Bird tries to use its talons to perch on it, but the Bird screeches in pain and flies away. The ants cheer for the Circus Bugs, and they are taken to the emergency cave where Francis rests his foot. Dr. Flora (Edie McClurg) watches over him and Sora.

Princess Atta comes in to privately apologize to Sora for doubting him, and after rescuing her younger sister, he’s always welcome in Ant Island. Later, she has a private talk with Flik, who admits that she feels uncomfortable about her position when she’ll become the new queen. Flik responds that it’s like they’re waiting for her to screw things up. Upon hearing this, Princess Atta feels terrible for she treated Flik all those years. She tells him, “Flik, I owe you an apology.”. Flik replies “For what?”, and the princess continues, “For lying to you. I only sent you on that mission so you wouldn’t screw things up with Hopper. But after seeing you and friends out there, I was wrong about you. I haven’t really nice to you and... I’m sorry.”. When Atta mentions how even Hopper is afraid of birds, another idea hatches in Flik’s head, and runs off, but rushes back holding Atta’s hand saying “Thank you” and kissing her cheek, before running off again. Princess Atta feels better knowing Flik was able to forgive her.

Flik tells Sora and the Circus Bugs his new plan to build a fake bird to scare away the grasshoppers. This can be a fetch quest for Sora and Flik, who have to collect certain materials to build the bird. They also have to fight a few Heartless and Nobodies. After collecting what they need, Sora, Flik, and the Ants prepare to build the bird. As Atta gives the signal to hoist the bird into the tree, a giant heartless boss shows up, much to the horror of the ants. Sora assures them all they’ll take care of it, and this is where the boss battle comes in. Sora and Flik have to defeat the Heartless boss so the ants can successfully get the bird in the tree. If the heartless cuts the vine, the fake bird will fall and easily break apart.

Sora and Flik defeat the Heartless boss, and the fake bird is successfully inside the tree, with Tuck and Roll popping out of the beak shouting “YOU’RE FIRED!” and the ants cheering for both the bird and for Flik and Sora. Then Sora says goodbye to the bugs and leaves.

SECOND VISIT

The last leaf has fallen and the grasshoppers fly through the foggy weather to Ant Island. The ants run faster than usual with the food they collected, and Atta and the Queen start to panic. They see a shadowed figure that Sora calls a Heartless, and starts to wonder what Sora would do. Fortunately, they see it was just Sora and are both relieved. Sora wonders why everyone is so frantic, and Atta could step in saying “I feel like this is all my fault”. The Queen, however, tells her oldest daughter, “No, sweetheart, it’s not your fault. I was the one who banished Flik first. I was the one who approved of the bird in the first place, even though we shouldn’t be talking about it. I even let you lie to Flik about finding warriors. If anyone’s to blame for all this, it’s me.”. After hearing all this, Sora is understandably angry at them. And both Princess Atta and The Queen don’t blame Sora calling them out for their actions. However, the grasshoppers show up walking slowly. And Hopper (Andrew Stanton) appears, throwing the food from the Offering Stone at the ants in disgust for not collecting double the amount of food he was promised. After shouting “NOT ONE ANT SLEEPS UNTIL WE GET EVERY SCRAP OF FOOD ON THIS ISLAND!”, Sora could come out standing up to Hopper similarly to how Flik stood up to him earlier, when Dot was about to be fed to Thumper (growls by Frank Welker). Molt (Richard Kind) even tries to talk Sora out of yelling at Hopper at how he shouldn’t make him even more angrier.

Hopper orders Thumper to follow that keyblade wielder and squish him like Hopper will when he will squish the Queen later tonight. Dot overhears this, and bumps into Sora. Dot helps lead Sora out of Ant Island safely, but they bump into Thumper, who lets out a roar, scaring Dot away. Sora has a boss encounter with Thumper, and after he’s defeated, Thumper flies away roaring that he’ll be back for vengeance. Sora runs to the edge of Ant Island and looks around calling for Dot, thankfully, he sees Dot slowly float upwards with her wings now big enough to allow her to fly. Sora can learn the Glide ability here if you wanted to.

After flying through the sky, Sora and Dot see the Circus Bug wagon, with P.T. Flea at the top while singing to himself about how he’ll be the richest flea in the land. The Circus Bugs are lamenting inside the wagon itself, with Flik being the most upset for lying to the colony and getting banished for Francis accidentally letting the truth come out. He suddenly breaks out of his upset when he hears Sora and Dot’s voices catch his antennas. Sora and Dot tell Flik and the Circus Bugs Hopper’s plan, and the Circus Bugs remember the bird. Flik, however, denies that it’ll never work as he starts to blame himself for being the cause of every bad thing that happens whenever he does good things. Sora would tell Flik that he told Princess Atta and the Queen how he felt, and how Flik shouldn’t give up because he’s been banished, but it isn’t enough. Then Dot gets an idea to use the same metaphor Flik showed her earlier in the film, by telling Flik to pretend the rock is a seed. Flik soaks in what Dot asked, and he remembers exactly what he told Dot, which finally lightens up his mood. He hugs Dot and tells everyone that it’s time to unleash the bird. The Circus Bugs trick P.T. Flea, and Rosie webs him up.

At this point, we have a stealth mission where Sora and Flik must guide Dot and the Blueberry Scout Troops to the tree without being spotted. This way, they can launch the bird without the grasshoppers knowing, including Hopper. Then, we have a mini-game where the goal is to scare away a certain wave of enemies ranging from grasshoppers, heartless, and nobodies. Once they are defeated, P.T. Flea is knocked out of the wagon, and does the Flaming Death act on the bird, setting it ablaze. After crash-landing, Sora uses a either a blizzard or water-based ability (whichever you prefer) to douse the flames.

Hopper bellows whose idea was this, and Flik announces that the bird was his idea. Princess Atta, in shock, responds “Flik, you came back.”. In response, Flik says, “Of course I did, you’re highness. I wasn’t gonna let the grasshoppers torture you.”. The second boss encounter with Thumper commences, and it is much harder than the original fight. After defeating Thumper again, Hopper is angry at Sora for intervening. Sora tells Hopper he was gonna squish the Queen, and the ants gasp in horror. Dot tells her mother “It’s true!”, and Hopper says “I hate it when someone gives away the ending.”. Only instead of Flik, he instead punches Sora and calls him dirt, and then an ant. He tells the ants “Let these two be an example to ALL you ants! Ideas are dangerous things! You are mindless, soil-shoving losers, put on this Earth to serve us!”.

Flik, with his last breath tells Hopper he’s wrong, and that ants aren’t meant to serve grasshoppers. Flik gets back on his feet and says “I know what ants are like, Hopper. They’ve been mean to me. They refused to give my ideas a chance. And they lied to me as I have to them!”. While Atta and all the other ants that were mean to Flik earlier hear what Flik is saying, they drop their heads in shame, realizing that Flik isn’t wrong about how they treated him. However, this wasn’t a personal attack. Some of the ants, raise their heads up again when they hear Flik continue, “But deep down, I know there is some good in them.”. Then Sora helps out Flik with calling out Hopper for how he’s much worse, and how it’s really the grasshoppers who should be serving the ants.

Princess Atta steps in front of Flik boldly, and the other ants and Circus Bugs take one step forward. Then she echoes the same words Hopper told her earlier, “First rule of leadership, everything is your fault.”. Hopper is taken aback by this, and Princess Atta continues, “You see, Hopper, nature has a certain order. The ants pick the food, the ants keep the food, and the grasshoppers... leave!”. The Queen orders the ants to attack, and Molt jumps out of his skin, running away in fear.

Similar to the wave of heartless battle in “Kingdom Hearts 2”, Sora and Flik fight off the grasshoppers. Then, when they stuff Hopper into the cannon, it starts raining. The ants run into the anthill for shelter and protection, but a raindrop hits Dim, and Hopper rolls himself to where Dim will land, launching himself out of the cannon and snatching Flik in the process.

Sora and Princess Atta rescue Flik from his clutches and flies them to the Bird’s nest. After breaking free from the raindrop they were trapped in, the boss fight with Hopper begins. Sora and Flik fight Hopper as Atta watches with worry, and Sora was able to gain the upper hand and defeat him. Sora and Flik tricked Hopper by sending him to the real Bird, and the bird snatches Hopper, feeding him to the Bird’s three chicks who just hatched from their eggs.

The next day, all the ants are shown trying out Flik’s grain harvester invention, which indeed turned out to be useful for cutting down entire stalks. All the Circus Bugs and their newest member, Molt say goodbye to the ants and Sora, and The Queen takes off her crown, passing the torch to Princess Atta, who finally feels confident to accept her new position, with Dot ending up wearing Atta’s old tiara in turn. Shortly after, Flik comes back to present Sora a new keyblade he had just crafted as a little parting gift (You decide what Flik’s keyblade for Sora should be called). As for Heimlich, he just popped out of his cocoon, fulfilling his dream to be “a beautiful butterfly”, despite his wings being too small. The Circus Bugs say goodbye, and the Queen thanks Sora for all he’s done for the Colony. After Sora seals the keyhole for Ant Island, The Queen says goodbye to Sora, and Sora leaves, ending the world, “Ant Island”.

And that’s how I would have “A Bug’s Life” executed in “Kingdom Hearts”. If anyone wants to suggest revisions, feel free to leave a comment.

#321SPONGEBOLT's Ideas #kingdom hearts #Kingdom Hearts Series #a bug's life

3 notes · View notes