The Ant and the Grasshopper (TV series)

The Ant and the Grasshopper is an American animated comedy adventure streaming television series loosely based on one of Aesop's Fables of the same name for Netflix. It premiered on November 23, 2029 on Netflix. The series has received critical acclaim for its animation, humor, story and voice acting. In December 2029, Netflix renewed the series for a second season which will be titled The Ant and the Grasshopper: Electric Bugaloo.

Premise
In a tiny town called Bugtropica in Central Park, Wilbur, a young scout ant finds a picnic basket that fell from the sky. The rest of ant colony also saw it and start carrying off the spoils of the picnic to store for the winter season. Hops, a lazy grasshopper claims that the basket came from the human city called New York City and convinces them the humans have better food. He guides him to the city against ant wizard, Ronin's wishes. A swarm of fierce hornets led by Draven has already set their sights on the loot and would stop at nothing to steal it from them. After sliding down an embankment inside the basket and into a stream, Hops and Wilbur, accompanied by two honeybees named Bernard and Beatrice, Wilbur's larvae sister names Lily, and a crew of friendly insects, set sail across all around New York City on a hair-raising adventure against hornets, other insects, animals, and even humans and pest exterminators to gather as much food for the winter as possible.

Main

 * Neil Patrick Harris as Hops, a lazy yet free-spirited and intelligent grasshopper who would rather spend the summer singing and playing his fiddle than work all day and never worries about tomorrow. But when the winter season arrives, he finds itself dying of hunger and understands why Wilbur and the ants work hard during the summer.
 * Elijah Wood as Wilbur, a timid yet inventive and hard working scout ant who is always well prepared and afraid of the outside human world, until Hops guides him through New York City. Wilbur always works so hard all the time but he does learn how to have fun most of the time.
 * Narrated by Ringo Starr

Insects

 * J.K. Simmons as The Thief, a cockroach who follows Wilbur and Hops and steals food from human kitchens and other insects.
 * Liam Neeson as Draven, the leader of the hornets and the main antagonist who pursues Tack, Hops, and the others and wants to kill them and steal the picnic basket of food.
 * Beyoncé as Queen Anastasia, the queen ant beloved by the colony and Wilbur's crush.
 * Will Forte as Bernard, a cautious honeybee who is Beatrice's love interest/boyfriend and Tack and Hops' best friend.
 * Ozioma Akagha as Beatrice, a positive, enthusiastic, peppy, and adventurous honeybee who is Bernard's love interest/girlfriend.
 * Julia Roberts as Cassandra, a teacher ant, Wilbur's mother figure, and Ronin's girlfriend who is fascinated by the humans.
 * Nicolas Cage as Ronin, an eccentric wizard ant, Cassandra's boyfriend, and Wilbur's mentor who originally had a strong hatred for the humans, especially towards Hops who have been in contact with humans. Until he learned humans are not so bad after all.
 * Matthew Broderick as Bob, a sensible yet adventurous cockroach.
 * Richard Dreyfuss as Flyer, a crazy, self-centered bluebottle fly.
 * Max Casella as Cecil, a timid yet creative caterpillar (later butterfly) with big dreams.
 * Nick Kroll as Stripes, one of the swarm of hornets.
 * Andy Dick as Drone, a dirty and dusty hornet.
 * Amanda Leighton as Lily, Wilbur's out-going and adventure-loving little larvae sister.
 * Tara Strong as Nat and Kat, mischievous identical twin houseflies.
 * Regina King as Krissa, a forager ant and Fungus' love interest/girlfriend.
 * Bruce Campbell as Fungus, a scout ant and Krissa's love interest/boyfriend.
 * Gillian Jacobs as Dahlia, a sweet natured damselfly, and Bob's romantic interest.
 * Jane Leeves as Mrs. Lydia, a lovely ladybug.
 * Susan Sarandon as Willow, a sassy black widow spider, who chose Flyer as her romantic interest rather than lunch.
 * David Thewlis as Brian, a worrywart earthworm.
 * Bob Joles as Antony, Wilbur's father and skilled farmer. He is overprotective and cautious.
 * Miriam Margolyes as Queen Bernadette, the queen bee. Margolyes also voices the glowworm.
 * Aziz Ansari as Sal, a slug, Slime's best friend and caretaker of the pods.
 * Chris O'Dowd as Slime, a snail, Sal's best friend and fellow caretaker of the pods.
 * Wang Leehom as Mantis, a wise preying mantis.
 * Wally Wingert as Head council red ant.
 * Kevin McDonald as Head council orange ant.

Humans

 * Tony Hale as Dominic Rowe, a local pest exterminator and the secondary antagonist.
 * Zac Efron as Shawn, a 15-year old hardworking boy and Lisa's older brother who befriends the bug gang.
 * Quinn Copeland as Lisa, Shawn's 10-year old sister who is fascinated with insects.
 * Michelle Williams as Janice, Shawn and Lisa's mother.
 * Carol Burnett as Mrs. Hera, Shawn's paranoid neighbor who becomes suspicious of the bug gang running around her house and stealing her food.

Development
The initial idea for the series originated in 2017 during Brandon Greene's High School years at McNair. In 2026, when he was fresh off of Zippy: The Movie, he pitched the idea project to different studios. It was originally going to be live action film with computer animated insects. The insect characters were going to have no dialogue at all. Just a narration from former Beatles member, Ringo Starr and only the humans talking in a style akin to a nature documentary to make it different from other animated bug films. Executives wanted a cute story of insects talking to make it appealing for kids. In 2027, Greene moved the film to the small screen on Netflix because no one would think this would become a money making machine and turned it into a 2D animation. He borrowed elements from other animated bug films such as: A Bug's Life, Antz, Bee Movie, The Ant Bully, and James and the Giant Peach.

On April 29, 2027, Netflix announced it had given the production a series order consisting of thirteen episodes. At the same time, Deadline Hollywood reported that production on the series will take three years and is expected to be the most expensive animated program to make with each episode costing five to six million dollars. Production companies involved in the series include Warner Bros. Animation, A Very Good Production, A Stern Talking To and Gulfstream Television. Animation services are provided by Chromosphere Studio, Deluxe Animation Studios, Folimage, Snipple Animation Studios, Tonic DNA and Yowza! Animation. The series was originally slated to premiere in the fall of 2028 before receiving its fall 2029 premiere window. On December 20, 2029, Netflix renewed the series for a second season. The second season is expected to air in 2031.

Casting
On February 19, 2029, the cast of the series was announced with Elijah Wood and Neil Patrick Harris voicing the lead roles while Beyoncé, Will Forte, Ozioma Akagha, J.K. Simmons, Liam Neeson, Nicolas Cage, Matthew Broderick, Julia Roberts, Richard Dreyfuss, Zac Efron, Nick Kroll, Michelle Williams, and Tony Hale would have supporting roles. They kept Ringo Starr as the narrator.

Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the series holds an approval rating of 100% with an average rating of 8.46/10, based on 8 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "Critics love its animation, as the way it plays with expectations. With goofy jokes and surprising wham, you may just love this adaptation." Metacritic assigned the series a score of 89 out of 100, based on 4 reviews, signifying "universal acclaim".

Accolades
In 2030, the series won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Casting for an Animated Series or Special.

Trivia

 * The Series was viewed it as " A Bug's Life meets Antz sprinkled with Bee Movie and The Ant Bully" and named it "by far the most entertaining of this summer's new offerings".
 * The series was originally going to have no dialogue from the insects.
 * It was originally going to be live-action/CGI film.