A Real Bug's Life

Cutting-Edge Filming Tech in Micro Worlds

- By Lindsey Feth

Inspired by Disney and Pixar's A Bug's Life, the Disney+ Original series by National Geographic, A Real Bug's Life, takes viewers on an extraordinary journey through nine micro bug worlds across the globe. With the help of cutting-edge filming technology, the series shows the mindblowing behaviors of bugs both near and far. The family-friendly series, narrated by Awkwafina, premiered exclusively on Disney+.

Innovation & Tech Today spoke with producer Bill Markham and director of photography Nathan Small, who both had pivotal roles in making the new series. In addition to digging into the process of making A Real Bug's Life, we explored the special tech used to capture film, unexpected challenges while filming in microenvironments, and the importance of teaching the next generation about these tiny creatures.

Innovation & Tech Today: What inspired the creation of this series? How did that concept come to life?

Bill Markham: It's a funny story. There was a rumor that A Bug's Life 2 was coming out. Someone in the office said, "Why don't we make A Real Bug's Life?" This was in Bristol at our production company.

So we wrote to National Geographic. They wrote back over the weekend and said they'd like to do that. That was the starting point.

Then we had to work out actually what that meant. We had to find a series of stories where we engaged with individual bugs. We needed to find out what their lives were like, what terrible disasters could befall them, and how they got out of these deep holes they found themselves in. The storytelling evolved and then realized we wanted Awkwafina to bring it all to life.