Well, here's a quick rundown on the ABL players. They done good, so I felt they had to be showed off. ;) Flik's is the longest, for self-explanatory reasons. Now, we have here...
Interview With Some Cast and Crew
Flik: Dave Foley
I'll try keeping this as unbiased as possible... Dave and Flik: The Freakish Theory ABL chat transcript with Dave
Dave was born January 4, 1963 in Toronto, Canada. He has two little boys, Basil and Ned, but, he's divorced from his wife Tabitha Southney. As a teenager, he had problems in school, due to the fact that he has dyslexia, so he dropped out at age 17 to pursue comedy (I'd suggest you stay in school. ;). He and Kevin McDonald started the critically-acclaimed "The Kids in the Hall". That show ran five years, and afterwards he went on to star in the critically-acclaimed "Newsradio".(Can he pick em' or what?) While on Newsradio he starred in the movie "A BUG'S LIFE"! He was also in "Blast from the Past" and "Dick". He's finished filming "Monkey Bone", so go see him in that, in January or February 2001. NBC has cancelled Newsradio >=(, so please watch it in synidication. It truly defines comedic greatness.
Dave also provides one more thing ABL can lord over Antz with -- you can't drool over Woody Allen. ;)
Dave Quotes
"I came in to read for the part of Flik originally because I just wanted to meet the guys who created Toy Story. I didn’t really expect them to hire me. I wondered if there had been some mishandling of the tapes. I made sure I spoke in my worst nasal drone but they still wanted me."
"We (Flik and I) both have the same eyes. We both have an annoying voice, but Flik has much more energy than I’ll ever have."
On Flik and Z: "Yes, continuing the famous show business rivalry between myself and Woody Allen."
Atta: Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Louis-Dreyfus was born on January 13, 1961. She became interested in acting at a very early age, and later joineed the Second City troupe. She then went on to Saturday night live, then to ::trumpet fanfare:: "Seinfeld". And she's won an Emmy. n.n Besides the movie "ABL", she's been in "Deconstructing Harry", "Hannah and her Sisters", and "Father's Day". She has been branded with the name Elaine for life. ;) She has two sons, Henry and Charlie, with her husband, Brad Hall. She's cool, so you have to like her. ;p
Julia Quotes
Julia's head is larger than those of her co-workers: "The big head? It's gigantic! We measured the widths of our faces in rehearsal one day, and I came out ahead of the entire cast. I'm the shortest person with the widest face."
Hmmm...
"But he (Winston) was ghostbuster. They just didn't give him enough to do. He would have been great ghostbuster if they had given him great ghostbuster job and said, 'Go do that and be successful with it.' "
"My name is Julia, I'm 5'3", I've gone from a 7 1/2 to an 8 shoe."
On playing Atta: "I didn't realize how much fun this role would be, but it turned out to be a riot."
Hopper: Kevin Spacey
Kevin Spacey was born on July 26, 1959. He started his career on the stage, and went on to bigger and better things ;), like "Lost in Yonkers"(for which he got a Tony), "Hurlyburly", "Albino Aligator"(which he directed). And he got an Academy Award for his performance in "Usual Suspects"! Cool, cool. He also won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in "American Beauty". Kevin on ABL
Note: Am I the only one that noticed that they used the song "Baba O' Riley" by The Who in the "American Beauty" trailer AND in the "A Bug's Life" trailer? I guess, probably, huh?
Kevin Quotes
On film of him recording Hopper's voice and unconsciously acting out the role with his body: "That is a piece of film I never want to see. That is blackmail stuff."
"I'm a Bugs Bunny kind of guy. He gets away with everything. He tweaks authority. People know they can never really get mad with him."
Watching ABL: "Hopper does get his come-uppance in the end. I went and saw it at the El Capitan here with about ten of my friends and it was so great because when Hopper gets eaten, the whole audience cheered, all the kids were like, ‘Yeah!’"
Interviewer asks, "Did you feel bad?"
Kevin gives a big smile. "Oh, it was the greatest!"
Dot: Hayden Panettiere
Hayden Panettiere was born on August 21, 1989. This girl has a big TV career. She had her first commercial when she was TWELVE MONTHS OLD! Then she was on "One Life to Live" for three years. She's been in movies too, of course, like the obvious ABL, plus "The Object of My Offection" and "Message in a Bottle". You can also hear her singing commercial jingles on TV. She was also in the mini-series, "Too Rich: The Secret Life of Doris Duke". Aaawww, she's so cute...I'm telling ya', it's type-casting.
Hayden Quotes
On the ABL crew: "They don't act like adults most of the time, really, they act like kids."
Francis: Denis Leary
Denis Leary was born on August 18, 1957. He started his career doing stand-up, then he got a role in the off-Broadway "No Cure for Cancer". MTV then hired him to do promotional spots, and several movie roles followed. He's been "The Sandlot", "Suicide Kings", and "Small Soldiers". He also filmed the movie, "Do Not Disturb". He can now be seen starring in the ABC series, "The Job". He and his wife have a son, Jack, and a daughter, Devin.
Denis Quotes
Being asked why people should watch his special: "'Cause if they don't, I'll take a hostage."
"My 5-year-old son thinks everybody who vaguely resembles me is me -- anyone blond with an angular face. So, he thinks Arnold Schwarzennegger is me, which is something I'm not going to tell him the truth about until he's about 10."
"Francis is a ladybug and he's a guy. So it's the eternal search for self and low esteem and high esteem and settling into liking the fact that he's a ladybug."
Slim: David Hyde Pierce
David Hyde Pierce was born on April 3, 1959. This one has won quite a few Emmys. He's got a really full plate- first he was on Broadway in "Beyond Therapy", then he went to off-Broadway, then regional theatre before he landed his role on "Frasier". They actually cast him as the brother partly because he LOOKED like Kelsey Grammer. That's weird... Well, he's been in his share of movies, including "Addams Family Values" and "Nixon". His first movie was "Bright Lights, Big City". (I almost wrote "Bright Lights, Bug City") He's in L.A. now, as most celebs are. He also appeared in "Osmosis Jones" and "Chain of Fools".
An ABL Interview with David
David Quotes
On Slim: "It was me and better than me and more than me, because it had more hands than I do."
Being asked what got him started in acting: "Ah, some genetic flaw I guess."
ABL : "I really got to see this whole movie evolve in a very small way. And, of course, the biggest shock and the biggest thrill was to see the finished product at a screening, and I was just in awe."
Heimlich: Joe Ranft
I do not know when Joe Ranft was born.
This guy is a Disney/Pixar storyman! He studied animation for two years before he joined the Disney animation team in 1980. He was a writer on "The Lion King", "Toy Story", and "A Bug's Life". He did storyboards and was a story supervisor for "Toy Story", "Who Framed Roger Rabbit", "James and the Giant Peach", etc. And he throws in additional voices when they're needed. ;) In the case of "A Bug's Life", he would read the part of Heimlich when they were working out the script, and they loved him so much they cast him. He had a small line in "Toy Story", too, as the toy binoculars. He and his wife, Sue, have two kids- a son, Jordon, and a daughter, Sophia.
Joe Quotes
"Heimlich is a big fat Bavarian caterpillar who loves to eat. He wants to live in Oktoberfest all the time. He's a really happy character, especially when there's food around."
"Recording a voice is fun to do and a real release compared to doing hundreds and hundreds of drawings on tight deadlines. When I was growing up, I was really into sleight-of-hand magic, and creating characters that think and live and breathe is like the ultimate illusion. I'm still astonished by it."
Rosie: Bonnie Hunt
Bonnie Hunt was born on September 22, 1964. She worked as a nurse at Northwestern University Hospital while performing with the Second City troupe. Her first movie was "Rainman". Then she was in "Dave" (*squeal*), "Beethoven", and before you know it, she's doing "Jumanji" and "Jerry Maguire". She had her own little show- "Bonnie" - on CBS, but it was cancelled. That probably means the show was great. ;) Bonnie loves animals, incidentally. ;) She also appeared in "Random Hearts" and "Return to Me". She's in Los Angeles (where else?) with her husband, J. Murphy.
Bonnie Quotes
Making ABL: "You kind of just show up and help bring their imagination to life as best you can through your voice. Then the animators find a little bit of your personality and maybe some of your mannerisms and put them into this bug."
"Rosie is a great character. She has some issues that she's working on. If there were such a thing as bug therapy, she'd be in it."
"I think that human behavior is the funniest thing in the world, and if you stay true to the human behavior of the character -- you always win."
P.T. Flea: John Ratzenberger
John Ratzenberger was born on April 6, 1947. Although he has done many, many movies, he is probably best known as "that guy from 'Cheers'", where he played Cliff. C. Clavin Jr. He attended Sacred Heart University, where he was an English major. He was also in the drama club, and won leading roles in "West Side Story" and "Waiting for Godot". After four years he left the school. He worked as a blacksmith(?), carpenter, and on an oyster boat for two years, before he moved to London for a visit and decided to stay for ten years. There he performed with an improvisational theatre group, Sal's Meat Market. He won many movie roles there, including "The Empire Stikes Back"(coolness) and "Superman". Back in the U.S. he won many roles on T.V. He still did movies, including "TOY STORY". To clear this up, he was HAMM, NOT HAM. ;) He reprised the Hamm role (no pun intended ;)) in "Toy Story 2", and it was great! He and his wife, Georgia, have a son, James John, and a daughter, Nina.
John Quotes
"P.T. Flea is an excitable little fellow. He's got a lousy little circus and he just wants to be the richest, most powerful circus entrepreneur ever. That's his driving force."
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