Was A Bug's Life not as successful as people thought it would be upon it's release in 1998?

[DodgerGirl]

When Disney/Pixar released A Bug's Life to theaters during Thanksgiving 1998 did people think that it wouldn't do just as great as Toy Story was in 1995? Because I never knew why Disney/Pixar chose to create a movie featuring insects but I think of all the early Disney/Pixar movies A Bug's Life was destined to be a success because it seemed to have the most merchandise deals of any movie in history with tie-ins from McDonald's and Sears I think that is what made A Bug's Life due for success in theaters. But when Dreamworks opened Antz at the same time that A Bug's Life was in theaters I think the success of Antz really hurt A Bug's Life and that's why the box-office numbers for A Bug's Life tumbled. But when you have a cast of sitcom stars voicing the insects like Dave Foley of Newsradio as Flik David Hyde Pierce from Frasier you can see why A Bug's Life was an animated insects comedy but I think having Kevin Spacey voice Hopper was a somewhat crowning achievement for Disney/Pixar. But now it seems that A Bug's Life is forgotten of the Pixar movies because you hardly hear much about it more than Toy Story Cars and Monsters Inc. Was A Bug's Life overshadowed by Dreamworks film Antz in theaters and that's why A Bug's Life is the forgotten Pixar film now?

 

[DodgerGirl]

In my eyes Disney/Pixar wanted to create their version of the classic fable The Grasshopper And The Ant and if you watched A Bug's Life many times you can also see that Pixar took inspiration from the Martin Short Chevy Chase/Steve Martin movie Three Amigos because A Bug's Life is the insects version of Three Amigos. And also if you look at the Bug City scene when Flik enters the city it's an insects version of Las Vegas. But I mainly think when Antz was released by Dreamworks Dreamworks had wanted to copy Disney/Pixar with an insect themed movie of their own which is why they created Antz because seeing how A Bug's Life worked for Disney/Pixar Dreamworks was jealous of Disney/Pixar so they created their own answer which was Antz. But today you don't see merchandise of A Bug's Life or anything related to A Bug's Life except for the A Bug's Land at DCA that's no longer there but it seems as I mentioned that A Bug's Life has been forgotten by Pixar because I think it was a hit but somehow least talked about today