20 Mind-Blowing Facts You Never Knew About Pixar
6. A Former Disney Employee Made Antz To Compete With A Bug's Life
Ever find it odd that Disney and Dreamworks both released animated insect movies within a month of each other? Well that was far from a coincidence.
Dreamworks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg was a former employee of Disney who left the studio on bad terms after a feud with Michael Eisner in 1994. The following year Pixar began working on A Bug's Life. One day, Pixar's John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton decided to pay a visit to Katzenberg. As a bunch of friends catching up, they told Katzenberg all about their insect movie that they'd have out in a few years.
And then Dreamworks quickly began production on Antz, an animated insect movie of their own. Lasseter was rightfully angry, while Katzenberg claimed it was a totally original idea. Sure it was, buddy. With Disney and Pixar now aware of what Dreamworks was doing, Katzenberg actually offered his animators bonuses if they could get Antz into theaters before A Bug's Life.
Antz ended up getting released in October 1998, a month ahead of A Bug's Life.
Pixar's was clearly the superior film though, and luckily the box office numbers reflected that. To this day, Antz isn't really a film that people remember with as much fondness as they do A Bug's Life. Serves you right, Dreamworks.