Word: pixar
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...colony of peaceful, industrious little creatures is ripped off by marauders from afar. Ants and grasshoppers. That too. But in conspiratorial hindsight one might see A Bug's Life, the first feature from John Lasseter and his Pixar whizzes since their 1995 computer-generated hit Toy Story, as the company's rearview metaphor for its battle with DreamWorks' Antz. That similar computer-animated cartoon was conceived after the Pixar pic but released before it. It's bug-eat-bug in Hollywood's animation wars...
That might be an appropriate warning to all the other movies contending for children's movie money in this kid-glutted holiday season: with a brand loyalty earned every day for years on Nickelodeon, The Rugrats Movie has a chance to torpedo the competition. Will Disney-Pixar's entomological epic A Bug's Life run for cover under the nearest anthill? Will Babe: Pig in the City, the squeal--sorry, sequel--to the 1995 surprise hit, turn out to be so much baloney? In December, will The Prince of Egypt prove to be a hit of less than biblical proportions...
Coincidence? That depends on whom you ask. Pixar head Steven Jobs was said to be "furious" when he found out that DreamWorks was working on a movie about ants. It is an open secret that in background sessions with reporters at numerous publications, he has been complaining that Katzenberg swiped the idea for Antz on his way out the door from Disney in 1994 or sometime thereafter. Katzenberg's camp angrily denies that he ever heard of the Bugs project while at Disney and says that in fact the idea for Antz was pitched to Katzenberg by a DreamWorks executive...
...plans by slotting A Bug's Life for November, directly against Prince of Egypt. Disney had completely underestimated the phenomenon Toy Story would be, but it was expecting great things from A Bug's Life. It had its McDonald's meals and its merchandise deals all lined up. Pixar has alleged that Katzenberg was so intimidated that he offered to cancel Antz if Disney would move A Bug's Life away from Prince of Egypt. DreamWorks denies that, but Katzenberg eventually shifted Prince of Egypt to what he thought would be a safer date...
Disney studio chief Joe Roth insists he isn't bugged by the DreamWorks strategy. "I think Antz will come out and do fine, and I think Bug's Life will come out and do fine," he says. But Disney and Pixar apparently are not speaking with one voice on this topic. In fact, Jobs has irked his Disney partners by speaking to reporters without consulting them. Roth has asked Jobs to tone down his anti-DreamWorks rhetoric, without much luck. Jobs declines to comment...