A Real Bug's Life (2024) s01e05 Episode Script
Land of Giants
1
♪
♪
After three months underground,
transforming from egg to adult,
this little beetle
is stepping outside
for the very first time.
♪
She's all alone.
And after months without food,
very, very hungry.
But that's the least
of her problems.
Whoa!
Now she must brave
a land full of giants.
[elephant trumpets]
The African savanna is home
to more large animals
than anywhere else on Earth.
Which makes it super dangerous
if you're living
under their feet.
♪
She's on a mission
to find food.
♪
And to help her, she has these:
supersensitive antennae
that can smell breakfast
over half a mile away.
[squish]
Mmm, delicious.
Yep, she's a dung beetle.
But a half-mile trek
on beetle legs
is equivalent to hiking
from Manhattan to Connecticut.
Time to open her shiny case.
♪
Okay.
So she's not an early morning
kind of beetle.
And when it's cold
♪
she struggles to get going.
But now those false starts
have warmed her flight muscles
up to 95 degrees,
she's got this.
♪
"Hey, how you doin'?"
"Looking good down there."
♪
At 20 miles an hour,
she's off to a flying start.
♪
"Behind ya!"
But when you live
among ginormous animals,
it's sure to be a bumpy ride.
"Hope no one saw that."
[elephant grumbling]
Wherever giants roam,
bugs better be on guard.
Especially if you're one
of the tiniest on the savanna.
♪
Meet this elderly acacia ant.
♪
She's three months old--
nearly 90 in human years.
But no chance of slowing down
just yet.
♪
She's working harder than ever,
as a super nanny
to her baby sisters.
♪
A hundred larvae and pupae
need cleaning, feeding
and protecting
now more than ever.
Her family's house, this
swollen, hollow acacia thorn,
has cracked in the heat.
♪
And the scorching sun
will cook the babies alive.
♪
But not on this
babysitter's watch.
♪
Time to move out.
♪
Thankfully the 65 sisters
she lives with
are all on hand to help.
And there's an empty house
just down the branch.
♪
One baby down, 99 more to go.
♪
House move complete.
Nice work, ladies.
And still in the same
friendly neighborhood.
All across this acacia tree,
living in hundreds
of other thorns,
she has 10,000 sisters.
The tree not only
houses everyone,
it provides them all with food.
Sweet, sugary nectar. Mmm-mm.
But there's no such thing
as a free lunch.
In return
for board and lodging,
this gentle nanny
turns fearless security guard.
♪
Fighting off any intruders
that could harm the tree.
♪
This tiny ant is brave enough
to take on bugs
50 times her size.
♪
But now, heading her way,
a much bigger threat.
[grumbling]
An elephant,
hungry for breakfast.
[grumbling]
Speaking of breakfast,
after a bumpy start,
our dung beetle's
getting closer.
♪
"'Scuse me. Coming through."
♪
Made it.
Just in time for a jumbo
portion of the daily special.
She's starving,
but she can't eat yet.
The brunch crowd's arriving.
♪
In the next 15 minutes,
4,000 beetles could turn up.
She has some
serious competition.
Better make that
breakfast to-go.
Shape it into a ball,
ready to roll away,
so she can enjoy
her delicious poop in peace.
One beetle can only pack away
so much dung.
But there are billions of them
on the savanna,
and they have a huge impact.
In one park alone,
over 400 tons of dung
can get dumped every day.
Dung happens.
Without these
prolific poo-eaters,
the plains would be
knee-deep in the stuff.
Plants would suffocate,
and animals would have
nothing to eat.
♪
She's an expert
in waste management,
but there are other
important jobs to do.
There are gardeners
to cut the grass.
Recyclers to clear dead wood.
Pollinators to keep
plants growing.
All-important pest control.
[grumble]
And everyone is
someone else's dinner.
[birds chirping]
Forget the big guys,
it's the little guys
that make this place go round.
♪
Her first ball of dung.
♪
She's on a roll.
[grumbling]
Oh, crap.
♪
Up against the largest
land animal, no bug is safe.
♪
The elephant is headed straight
for our old timer's tree.
♪
[grumble]
She's so short-sighted,
she can't see more than
a few inches ahead.
[grumbling]
But she can feel
through her feet,
and she's picking up bad vibes.
[grumbling]
Mammoth monster incoming.
[grumbling]
♪
Strange time to twerk.
But each booty shake
sends out alarm pheromones
which basically
tell everyone toattack!
♪
[elephant roars]
♪
[roar]
While she hurries
back to the babies,
others rush to the front line.
♪
These daring fighters will do
anything for their family,
even enter the biggest nose
on the planet.
♪
Inside the trunk,
they make tiny cuts
with their minuscule jaws.
♪
And if that doesn't hurt,
this will.
[squirting]
A squirt of burning toxins
into the open wounds.
[squirt]
[trumpets]
Ouch!
[trumpets]
[squirting]
They're a courageous team,
but not invincible.
[crash]
[grumbling]
♪
Fighting off the giant
of all giants
comes at a massive cost.
♪
The tough shell of the thorn
saved her life.
♪
But not all of her sisters
were so lucky.
♪
Some are too badly injured
to save.
♪
As always,
her concern is the babies.
She prioritizes the oldest with
the best chance of surviving.
♪
Gently cradling it
in her powerful jaws.
♪
The longer the babies are
exposed to the midday sun,
the worse their chances.
♪
She's exhausted.
But she must get the brood
back to their tree,
or they won't survive.
♪
[elephant grumbles]
♪
Yeah, you go, girl!
Well, being trotted on
by an elephant
is one way to find out
what you're made of.
The hard outer casing
that protects her
and her delicate wings
has made beetles the most
successful bugs on the planet.
One in every three insects
is a beetle.
Go, beetles!
Take two.
♪
Now to get away
from the rowdy mob
and enjoy this culinary treat.
The quickest route out of here
is in a straight line.
But when you're small,
the savanna's
one big obstacle course.
Thankfully, this girl's
not only tough,
she's super strong.
This is equivalent to a human
pushing a pickup truck.
And she's upside down,
going backwards!
♪
She can push 50 times
her body weight.
Elephants can only push
twice theirs.
Just sayin'.
♪
When she's thrown off track,
she does what we all do:
uses her GPS.
She takes a mental note
of the sun's position,
compares it to the last time
she looked.
♪
And this way, she keeps going
in the same direction.
♪
Which right now,
is straight towards trouble.
♪
Bat-eared foxes
on the hunt for bugs.
♪
With ears that big, not much
slips under their radar.
♪
Lucky for her,
there are tastier termites
to distract them.
♪
At least for now.
♪
By late afternoon,
predators are getting hungry.
Not a great time to be an ant,
exposed on the ground.
Vulturine guinea fowl.
[chirping]
Big, brash,
and extremely peckish.
♪
Carrying extra weight
slows our ant down.
But she would never
abandon a baby.
♪
Gotta keep going
while she still can.
♪
Ants need to be warm
to stay active.
And it's getting colder
by the minute.
[thunder]
As the temperature drops,
our beetle is running
out of energy, too.
And now she has no sun
to guide her.
♪
Those bug-eating foxes
are still lurking.
[thunder]
But there's a more
immediate threat.
[thunder]
A dung ball thief.
Why make your own, when you can
steal someone else's?
♪
[thunder]
♪
[thunder]
♪
Take that.
She's not giving up
her precious ball that easily.
But neither is her rival.
♪
[thunder]
♪
Our dung beetle is defeated.
All that effort,
and nothing to show for it.
♪
Maybe inexperience
lost her her meal.
♪
[thunder]
But it also saved her life.
♪
Cold and tired,
all she can do is
hunker down for the night
and try to stay safe.
♪
[elephant trumpets]
[grumbling]
As morning begins to warm up,
so does our ant.
♪
At last, home is in sight.
♪
Well, she can smell it
at least.
But there's one more obstacle
in her way.
♪
No, not that one.
♪
This.
A minefield
of treacherous traps.
And the engineers
of these death pits?
Ant lions.
Supervillains
of the ant world.
♪
Fall in, and it's almost
impossible to get out.
♪
Not only is it steep
♪
but on loose sand,
it's hard to get traction.
♪
Especially when you're being
pelted by your enemy.
♪
Death is by lethal injection
of venom.
Being sucked dry
then tossed aside.
♪
For our ant,
with her precious cargo,
the chances are even worse.
♪
Through extraordinary grit
and determination,
she's made it.
Now, for the final push.
Get that baby home
before the day
gets even hotter.
♪
Almost there.
♪
After all she and her sisters
have been through,
there's no smell like home.
♪
It's a warm welcome
from her family.
But there's no time
to socialize.
♪
Finally, the babies are safely
inside another new home.
♪
This is her parting gift
to her family.
♪
Her three-month lifespan
is reaching its end.
But thanks
to her monumental efforts,
the next generation will still
be here when she's gone.
♪
As for her sisters,
well, the day's not over yet.
When you live
in a land of giants,
the work never stops.
Gotta keep fighting
to protect the family tree.
♪
♪
Our beetle also
survived the night.
♪
But still has no dung ball
to speak of.
♪
Back to square one.
♪
Or is she?
♪
Mmm, something smells good,
and it's not just food.
♪
This is no rival.
This is a male
looking for love.
♪
And, man, those pheromones
are hard to resist.
Well, that,
and the offer of dinner.
♪
It's been a tough first day
above ground,
but she's proven
that if you're determined,
there is a way to thrive
on the African savanna.
♪
And if you're clever,
there's a way to get around
without doing any work.
♪
She won't go hungry anymore.
And once she's eaten her fill,
what remains of this ball
will become a nursery
for one precious egg.
She'll stick around to nurture
her baby to adulthood,
when it, too, will be ready
to venture
into this land of giants.
[trumpets]
[grumbling]
Giants that only survive
because of all
the incredible bugs,
who together maintain
this remarkable land
that all creatures,
big and small, call home.
♪
On second thoughts,
why settle down now?
♪
This girl's adventure
is only just beginning.
♪
♪
♪
After three months underground,
transforming from egg to adult,
this little beetle
is stepping outside
for the very first time.
♪
She's all alone.
And after months without food,
very, very hungry.
But that's the least
of her problems.
Whoa!
Now she must brave
a land full of giants.
[elephant trumpets]
The African savanna is home
to more large animals
than anywhere else on Earth.
Which makes it super dangerous
if you're living
under their feet.
♪
She's on a mission
to find food.
♪
And to help her, she has these:
supersensitive antennae
that can smell breakfast
over half a mile away.
[squish]
Mmm, delicious.
Yep, she's a dung beetle.
But a half-mile trek
on beetle legs
is equivalent to hiking
from Manhattan to Connecticut.
Time to open her shiny case.
♪
Okay.
So she's not an early morning
kind of beetle.
And when it's cold
♪
she struggles to get going.
But now those false starts
have warmed her flight muscles
up to 95 degrees,
she's got this.
♪
"Hey, how you doin'?"
"Looking good down there."
♪
At 20 miles an hour,
she's off to a flying start.
♪
"Behind ya!"
But when you live
among ginormous animals,
it's sure to be a bumpy ride.
"Hope no one saw that."
[elephant grumbling]
Wherever giants roam,
bugs better be on guard.
Especially if you're one
of the tiniest on the savanna.
♪
Meet this elderly acacia ant.
♪
She's three months old--
nearly 90 in human years.
But no chance of slowing down
just yet.
♪
She's working harder than ever,
as a super nanny
to her baby sisters.
♪
A hundred larvae and pupae
need cleaning, feeding
and protecting
now more than ever.
Her family's house, this
swollen, hollow acacia thorn,
has cracked in the heat.
♪
And the scorching sun
will cook the babies alive.
♪
But not on this
babysitter's watch.
♪
Time to move out.
♪
Thankfully the 65 sisters
she lives with
are all on hand to help.
And there's an empty house
just down the branch.
♪
One baby down, 99 more to go.
♪
House move complete.
Nice work, ladies.
And still in the same
friendly neighborhood.
All across this acacia tree,
living in hundreds
of other thorns,
she has 10,000 sisters.
The tree not only
houses everyone,
it provides them all with food.
Sweet, sugary nectar. Mmm-mm.
But there's no such thing
as a free lunch.
In return
for board and lodging,
this gentle nanny
turns fearless security guard.
♪
Fighting off any intruders
that could harm the tree.
♪
This tiny ant is brave enough
to take on bugs
50 times her size.
♪
But now, heading her way,
a much bigger threat.
[grumbling]
An elephant,
hungry for breakfast.
[grumbling]
Speaking of breakfast,
after a bumpy start,
our dung beetle's
getting closer.
♪
"'Scuse me. Coming through."
♪
Made it.
Just in time for a jumbo
portion of the daily special.
She's starving,
but she can't eat yet.
The brunch crowd's arriving.
♪
In the next 15 minutes,
4,000 beetles could turn up.
She has some
serious competition.
Better make that
breakfast to-go.
Shape it into a ball,
ready to roll away,
so she can enjoy
her delicious poop in peace.
One beetle can only pack away
so much dung.
But there are billions of them
on the savanna,
and they have a huge impact.
In one park alone,
over 400 tons of dung
can get dumped every day.
Dung happens.
Without these
prolific poo-eaters,
the plains would be
knee-deep in the stuff.
Plants would suffocate,
and animals would have
nothing to eat.
♪
She's an expert
in waste management,
but there are other
important jobs to do.
There are gardeners
to cut the grass.
Recyclers to clear dead wood.
Pollinators to keep
plants growing.
All-important pest control.
[grumble]
And everyone is
someone else's dinner.
[birds chirping]
Forget the big guys,
it's the little guys
that make this place go round.
♪
Her first ball of dung.
♪
She's on a roll.
[grumbling]
Oh, crap.
♪
Up against the largest
land animal, no bug is safe.
♪
The elephant is headed straight
for our old timer's tree.
♪
[grumble]
She's so short-sighted,
she can't see more than
a few inches ahead.
[grumbling]
But she can feel
through her feet,
and she's picking up bad vibes.
[grumbling]
Mammoth monster incoming.
[grumbling]
♪
Strange time to twerk.
But each booty shake
sends out alarm pheromones
which basically
tell everyone toattack!
♪
[elephant roars]
♪
[roar]
While she hurries
back to the babies,
others rush to the front line.
♪
These daring fighters will do
anything for their family,
even enter the biggest nose
on the planet.
♪
Inside the trunk,
they make tiny cuts
with their minuscule jaws.
♪
And if that doesn't hurt,
this will.
[squirting]
A squirt of burning toxins
into the open wounds.
[squirt]
[trumpets]
Ouch!
[trumpets]
[squirting]
They're a courageous team,
but not invincible.
[crash]
[grumbling]
♪
Fighting off the giant
of all giants
comes at a massive cost.
♪
The tough shell of the thorn
saved her life.
♪
But not all of her sisters
were so lucky.
♪
Some are too badly injured
to save.
♪
As always,
her concern is the babies.
She prioritizes the oldest with
the best chance of surviving.
♪
Gently cradling it
in her powerful jaws.
♪
The longer the babies are
exposed to the midday sun,
the worse their chances.
♪
She's exhausted.
But she must get the brood
back to their tree,
or they won't survive.
♪
[elephant grumbles]
♪
Yeah, you go, girl!
Well, being trotted on
by an elephant
is one way to find out
what you're made of.
The hard outer casing
that protects her
and her delicate wings
has made beetles the most
successful bugs on the planet.
One in every three insects
is a beetle.
Go, beetles!
Take two.
♪
Now to get away
from the rowdy mob
and enjoy this culinary treat.
The quickest route out of here
is in a straight line.
But when you're small,
the savanna's
one big obstacle course.
Thankfully, this girl's
not only tough,
she's super strong.
This is equivalent to a human
pushing a pickup truck.
And she's upside down,
going backwards!
♪
She can push 50 times
her body weight.
Elephants can only push
twice theirs.
Just sayin'.
♪
When she's thrown off track,
she does what we all do:
uses her GPS.
She takes a mental note
of the sun's position,
compares it to the last time
she looked.
♪
And this way, she keeps going
in the same direction.
♪
Which right now,
is straight towards trouble.
♪
Bat-eared foxes
on the hunt for bugs.
♪
With ears that big, not much
slips under their radar.
♪
Lucky for her,
there are tastier termites
to distract them.
♪
At least for now.
♪
By late afternoon,
predators are getting hungry.
Not a great time to be an ant,
exposed on the ground.
Vulturine guinea fowl.
[chirping]
Big, brash,
and extremely peckish.
♪
Carrying extra weight
slows our ant down.
But she would never
abandon a baby.
♪
Gotta keep going
while she still can.
♪
Ants need to be warm
to stay active.
And it's getting colder
by the minute.
[thunder]
As the temperature drops,
our beetle is running
out of energy, too.
And now she has no sun
to guide her.
♪
Those bug-eating foxes
are still lurking.
[thunder]
But there's a more
immediate threat.
[thunder]
A dung ball thief.
Why make your own, when you can
steal someone else's?
♪
[thunder]
♪
[thunder]
♪
Take that.
She's not giving up
her precious ball that easily.
But neither is her rival.
♪
[thunder]
♪
Our dung beetle is defeated.
All that effort,
and nothing to show for it.
♪
Maybe inexperience
lost her her meal.
♪
[thunder]
But it also saved her life.
♪
Cold and tired,
all she can do is
hunker down for the night
and try to stay safe.
♪
[elephant trumpets]
[grumbling]
As morning begins to warm up,
so does our ant.
♪
At last, home is in sight.
♪
Well, she can smell it
at least.
But there's one more obstacle
in her way.
♪
No, not that one.
♪
This.
A minefield
of treacherous traps.
And the engineers
of these death pits?
Ant lions.
Supervillains
of the ant world.
♪
Fall in, and it's almost
impossible to get out.
♪
Not only is it steep
♪
but on loose sand,
it's hard to get traction.
♪
Especially when you're being
pelted by your enemy.
♪
Death is by lethal injection
of venom.
Being sucked dry
then tossed aside.
♪
For our ant,
with her precious cargo,
the chances are even worse.
♪
Through extraordinary grit
and determination,
she's made it.
Now, for the final push.
Get that baby home
before the day
gets even hotter.
♪
Almost there.
♪
After all she and her sisters
have been through,
there's no smell like home.
♪
It's a warm welcome
from her family.
But there's no time
to socialize.
♪
Finally, the babies are safely
inside another new home.
♪
This is her parting gift
to her family.
♪
Her three-month lifespan
is reaching its end.
But thanks
to her monumental efforts,
the next generation will still
be here when she's gone.
♪
As for her sisters,
well, the day's not over yet.
When you live
in a land of giants,
the work never stops.
Gotta keep fighting
to protect the family tree.
♪
♪
Our beetle also
survived the night.
♪
But still has no dung ball
to speak of.
♪
Back to square one.
♪
Or is she?
♪
Mmm, something smells good,
and it's not just food.
♪
This is no rival.
This is a male
looking for love.
♪
And, man, those pheromones
are hard to resist.
Well, that,
and the offer of dinner.
♪
It's been a tough first day
above ground,
but she's proven
that if you're determined,
there is a way to thrive
on the African savanna.
♪
And if you're clever,
there's a way to get around
without doing any work.
♪
She won't go hungry anymore.
And once she's eaten her fill,
what remains of this ball
will become a nursery
for one precious egg.
She'll stick around to nurture
her baby to adulthood,
when it, too, will be ready
to venture
into this land of giants.
[trumpets]
[grumbling]
Giants that only survive
because of all
the incredible bugs,
who together maintain
this remarkable land
that all creatures,
big and small, call home.
♪
On second thoughts,
why settle down now?
♪
This girl's adventure
is only just beginning.
♪