Bug City | |
---|---|
Genre | Nature documentary |
Directed by | David Yarnell |
Presented by |
|
Country of origin | United States |
Original language | English |
Production | |
Running time | 25 minutes |
Production company | Schlessinger Media |
Original release | |
Release | October 13, 1998 |
Bug City is a 1998 educational children's series hosted by entomologist Art Evans, actress Christina Ricci and the puppet character "Bugsy Seagull", voiced by Chuck McCann. It was released on VHS by Schlessinger Media.
The series was developed by Schlessinger Media as a series of educational videos for children about insects. [1] Dan Markim, then vice president of Schlessinger, came up with the concept for the series while developing the 1996 documentary Alien Empire , about insects, for Time Life. He noted that despite being developed for an adult audience, Alien Empire's subject matter was especially popular with children. Bug City was also partly intended to capitalize on the success of the 1998 animated films A Bug's Life and Antz . [2]
Three 25-minute videos were released on VHS on October 13, 1998. A further ten-episode series was released for use in classrooms. [2] The videos were hosted by entomologist Art Evans, who was director of the Insect Zoo at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, [3] Christina Ricci and a puppet character called "Bugsy Seagull" voiced by Chuck McCann, [4] which provided comic relief. [5] The series focused on the lifecycles and attributes of different species of insects, as well as ways to safely handle them. [6] The series made use of microscopic photography of insects. [7]
The series received mostly positive reviews, with praise for Evans' work as host and the educational content of the videos, but criticism for Ricci's role as host. Lynne Heffley of Los Angeles Times wrote that "Evans’ commentary and the up-close photography are a fascinating window on a world of leaf-cutters, masters of camouflage, astounding life cycles, defense mechanisms and survival techniques." [8] John W. Shearin of Emergency Librarian praised Evans' presentation skills and the series' educational value, but was critical of Ricci's performance, describing her as seeming "disinterested and only moderately prepared". [9] Amy Kulcak, in a review for Common Sense Media, also praised the subject matter and Evans' presentation, while criticizing Ricci and the character of Bugsy Seagull as "boring". [10]
The boll weevil is a beetle that feeds on cotton buds and flowers. Thought to be native to Central Mexico, it migrated into the United States from Mexico in the late 19th century and had infested all U.S. cotton-growing areas by the 1920s, devastating the industry and the people working in the American South. During the late 20th century, it became a serious pest in South America as well. Since 1978, the Boll Weevil Eradication Program in the U.S. allowed full-scale cultivation to resume in many regions.
Antz is a 1998 American animated adventure comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation and Pacific Data Images and released by DreamWorks Pictures. It was directed by Eric Darnell and Tim Johnson from a screenplay by Todd Alcott, Chris Weitz, and Paul Weitz. The film features the voices of Woody Allen, Sharon Stone, Jennifer Lopez, Sylvester Stallone, Christopher Walken, Dan Aykroyd, Anne Bancroft, Danny Glover and Gene Hackman. Some of the main characters share facial similarities with the actors who voice them. The film involves an anxious worker ant, Z (Allen), who falls in love with Princess Bala (Stone). When the treacherous scheming of the arrogant officer General Mandible (Hackman) threatens to wipe out the entire worker population, Z must save the ant colony from the flooded tunnel and strives to make social inroads.
Hemiptera is an order of insects, commonly called true bugs, comprising over 80,000 species within groups such as the cicadas, aphids, planthoppers, leafhoppers, assassin bugs, bed bugs, and shield bugs. They range in size from 1 mm (0.04 in) to around 15 cm (6 in), and share a common arrangement of piercing-sucking mouthparts. The name "true bugs" is often limited to the suborder Heteroptera.
Christina Ricci is an American actress. Known for playing unusual characters with a dark edge, Ricci works mostly in independent productions, but has also appeared in numerous box-office hits. She is the recipient of Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild, and Primetime Emmy Award nominations.
Christian Kane is an American actor and singer-songwriter. His television roles include Lindsey McDonald in Angel, Eliot Spencer in Leverage and its spin-off Leverage: Redemption, Jacob Stone in The Librarians, and Abe "High Wolf" Wheeler in Into the West. His cinematic filmography includes Just Married, Taxi, and Secondhand Lions.
Laura Catherine Schlessinger, commonly known as Dr. Laura, is an American talk radio host and author. The Dr. Laura Program, heard weekdays for three hours on Sirius XM Radio, consists mainly of her responses to callers' requests for personal advice and often features her short monologues on social and political topics. Her website says that her show "preaches, teaches, and nags about morals, values, and ethics." She is an inductee to the National Radio Hall of Fame in Chicago.
William Morton Wheeler was an American entomologist, myrmecologist and professor at Harvard University.
A Bug's Life is a 1998 American animated comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures as its second feature-length film, following Toy Story (1995). Directed by John Lasseter and co-directed by Andrew Stanton from a screenplay written by Stanton, Donald McEnery and Bob Shaw and a story conceived by Lasseter, Stanton and Joe Ranft, the film stars the voices of Dave Foley, Kevin Spacey, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Hayden Panettiere. In the film, a misfit ant named Flik, looks for "tough warriors" to save his ant colony from a protection racket run by a gang of grasshoppers. Unfortunately, the "warriors" he brings back turn out to be an inept troupe of Circus Bugs. The film's plot was initially inspired by Aesop's fable The Ant and the Grasshopper.
Rachael Harris is an American actress and comedian. She is known for her numerous acting roles, such as starring as Dr. Linda Martin in the Fox/Netflix series Lucifer, as Nora Parker in the Disney+/Hulu series Goosebumps (2023), her role in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid film series, and as a guest star on numerous TV shows.
Cricket-spitting is a sport wherein contestants place a dead cricket in their mouth, and then spit it as far as they can. The contestant who can spit the cricket the farthest is declared the winner.
The Royal Entomological Society is devoted to the study of insects. Its aims are to disseminate information about insects and improving communication between entomologists.
The Peloridiidae or moss bugs are a family of true bugs, comprising eighteen genera and thirty-four species. They are small, ranging in length from 2 to 4 mm, rarely seen, peculiarly lumpy, flattened bugs found in Patagonia, New Zealand, eastern Australia, Lord Howe Island, and New Caledonia. Peloridiids are found amongst mosses and liverworts, commonly in association with southern beech forests. They have become known as moss bugs for their habit of feeding on mosses. Almost all Peloridiidae species are flightless, except one. Their present distribution suggests they have existed since before the breakup of Gondwana. They are the only living members of the suborder Coleorrhyncha, which first appeared in the Upper Permian, over 250 million years ago.
Brian McCann is an American actor, comedian and writer. He is best known for his sketch comedy work on the late-night talk show Late Night with Conan O'Brien and more recently on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien and Conan.
May Roberta Berenbaum is an American entomologist whose research focuses on the chemical interactions between herbivorous insects and their host plants, and the implications of these interactions on the organization of natural communities and the evolution of species. She is particularly interested in nectar, plant phytochemicals, honey and bees, and her research has important implications for beekeeping.
Zachary Adam Gordon is an American actor. He rose to prominence by playing Greg Heffley in the original three films of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. Gordon then went on to play Tate Wilson in Good Trouble and Jason Cohen in Dead of Summer.
Jeffrey Patrick Kinney is an American author and cartoonist. He is best known for creating, writing and illustrating the children's book series Diary of a Wimpy Kid. He also created the child-oriented website Poptropica.
Elwood Curtin Zimmerman was an American entomologist best known for his two multivolume series: Insects of Hawaii published by the University of Hawaiʻi Press and Australian Weevils published by Australia's CSIRO.
Cathy Camper is an Arab-American artist, librarian and author of books for children and teens. She wrote Bugs Before Time, illustrated by Steve Kirk, and the graphic novel series Lowriders in Space, illustrated by Raúl the Third. She has also exhibited seed art, entering work in the Minnesota State Fair's Crop Art show starting in 1989. Her portrait of James Brown was featured in Simple Times: Crafts for Poor People by Amy Sedaris.
Arthur V. Evans is an American entomologist and author, focusing on beetle taxonomy.
Alien Empire was a documentary television series about insects produced by the BBC, and first broadcast by PBS in 1996. It was subtitled Inside the Kingdom of the Insect.