INTERVIEW: Spiders, fireflies, beetles … oh my! ‘A Real Bug’s Life’ returns
Photo: A hibiscus harlequin bug is pictured on set during an outback shoot for the “Tiny Heroes Down Under” episode of A Real Bug’s Life in Melbourne, Australia. Photo courtesy of National Geographic / Rob Morgan / Provided by press site with permission.
A Bug’s Life is one of the most beloved Pixar films in history, and the animated exploration of the bug world continues to influence Disney and its many associated brands. Take, for example, A Real Bug’s Life, a documentary series from National Geographic that is currently airing on Disney+. A second set of five episodes recently premiered on the streamer, featuring stories about spiders, fireflies and beetles. Oh my!
Awkwafina narrates the show, which this season heads across the globe, from the beaches of Malaysia to the forests of the Smoky Mountains in the American South, and everywhere in between. Bill Markham serves as producer of A Real Bug’s Life, and Dr. Martha Holmes is the executive producer.
“There are a countless number of insects,” Holmes said during a recent Zoom interview.
“I think 90 percent of the animals on the planet are insects, so that’s about 9 million known insects,” Markham echoed. “There’s definitely a lot more series we can be making on this, but I think right from the beginning, National Geographic and Disney wanted to make this a big push. They saw the value of it, so it was always the plan to make 10 episodes in total. One of them is ‘Bee-hind the Camera,’ but there are nine incredible adventures with bugs and one behind-the-scenes episode. It was always the plan to make this number, but they didn’t want to spoil the public all at once. So they put them out in two batches, and we’re very excited about them. I think the shows in season two, we did a lot of learning from season one as we were making them, and I think they’re my favorites.”
For the producing team, narrative was key when showcasing the various bugs of the animal kingdom. They weren’t interested in hunting down the rarest species or showcasing the most unusual behaviors. Instead, they were focused on how these bugs can relate to humanity, hopefully with the inspiration factor that leads to humanity saving these bugs and their habitats.
“Narrative was definitely key,” Markham said. “We wanted to tell really engaging stories. Character was also high, high on the list. These needed to be relatable characters. Traditionally people wanted to shoot a film with furry mammals, but we wanted bugs that could be engaging, the jumping spiders with their big eyes, the animals which can move their heads around like humans can, so we can look into their eyes and see reflections of ourselves really. So that was really important. We didn’t go for super-rare behaviors. We needed to choose animals that were readily film-able, so we didn’t spend a lot of time chasing our tail or chasing bugs through the forest. … It wasn’t a series that wanted to get behaviors that had never been seen before. It was a series that went out to get bugs in a way that no one had ever seen them before and get people to fall in love with them.”
Falling in love with bugs, such as beetles and spiders, might seem like a tall order for a TV series. But the exquisite footage that is captured in A Real Bug’s Life does have a powerful effect on the audience. It’s hard not to find these bugs fascinating and certainly worthy of protecting.
“The critical thing was the relatability of the stories,” Holmes said. “So in the forest, it’s about finding love, and bugs go about it in very odd ways. .. So we all want to find love in our lives. We want to grow up. We want to have a new home. … Actually they’re relatable stories for humans but told in a fun bug way, so basically it’s the same for all animals across the planet. They want to have a secure family, grow up safely, find food, find a mate and be for themselves. It’s what we humans do.”
Markham admitted that his favorite character in the entire series — five episodes in season one and five episodes in season two — is the luna moth. The species is described at length in the “Love in the Forest” episode.
“There’s a lot of luna moths in America,” he said. “A lot of people don’t really like moths, but actually when we get into that moth’s tale and up close and look at his lovely, fluffy features, we realize we can all relate to this guy. This is his first night out looking for a girlfriend. … Well, I can relate to it, so we had a lot of fun with that.”
A Real Bug’s Life shows off these unique insects and spiders, but the series is also meant to change people’s perceptions. Holmes and Markham take that responsibility quite seriously.
“I think it’s really, really important and beholden on us as natural history filmmakers not to say that everything is perfect because we all know it’s far from perfect, and we’d be ducking a responsibility if we didn’t have an element of it in our shows,” Holmes said. “But insects are absolutely key to the function of the planet. They’re pollinators. They clean up. They’re food for so many birds and other animals. So we’d be screwed without them, so we couldn’t really do a series without shedding a light on that.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Season two of A Real Bug’s Life is now streaming on Disney+. Click here for more information.
