Mr. Soil quotes from A Bug's Life (1998)

View Quote Do not panic. Do not panic! We are trained professionals. Now, stay calm. We are going around the leaf.

View Quote Oh, nonsense. This is nothing compared to the twig of '93.

View Quote That's it. That's it. Good! You're doing great! There you go. There you go! Watch my eyes. Don't look away. And here's the line again.

View Quote Good job, everybody!

View Quote I don't think we need to involve the queen in this. She's got enough on her plate already: training her daughter.

View Quote What do you think you're doing?!

View Quote Then help us. Don't help us.

View Quote Ludicrous!

View Quote He looks absolutely ferocious!

View Quote I tell you a tale of heroes so bold, who vanquished our grasshopper enemies of old.

View Quote [First lines; The movie begins as the line of ants marches to the stone; one ant spots a shadow moving across the ground. He looks up and gasps. A leaf is falling from the overhead tree]
Scared Ant #1: [gasps] No, no, no, Oh, no. Oh, no.
[the leaf lands in front of one of the worker ants in the food line]
Scared Ant #1: I'M LOST!! Where's the line?! It just went away! What do I do?!
Scared Ant #2: Help!
Scared Ant #3: We'll be stuck here forever!
Mr. Soil: Do not panic. Do not panic! We are trained professionals. Now, stay calm. We are going around the leaf.
Scared Ant #1: Around the leaf. I-I-I don't think we can do that.
Mr. Soil: Oh, nonsense. This is nothing compared to the twig of '93. [gestured for the line of nervous ants to come towards him] That's it. That's it. Good! You're doing great! There you go. There you go! Watch my eyes. Don't look away. And here's the line again.
Scared Ant #1: [gleeful shout] Thank you! Thank you, Mr. Soil!
Mr. Soil: Good job, everybody!
Dr. Flora: Oh, my. There's quite a gap, Mr. Soil. Shouldn't we tell the queen?
Mr. Soil: I don't think we need to involve the queen in this. She's got enough on her plate already: training her daughter.
Dr. Flora: Oh, yes, Princess Atta. The poor dear.

View Quote Princess Atta: Oh... Wind's died down. They'll be here soon.
Queen: Just be confident, dear. You'll be fine.
Princess Atta: Ah! There's a gap. There's a gap in the line! What are we gonna do?!
Thorny: It's okay, Your Highness. Gaps happen. We just lost a few inches, that's all.
Princess Atta: Oh, right. [hovers over Thorny's shoulder]
Thorny: Your Highness, I can't count when you hover like that.
Princess Atta: Oh, of course. I'm sorry. [chuckles] Go ahead.
Queen: Guys, go shade someone else for a while. Okay, Atta. Now what do we do?
Princess Atta: Oh! Don't tell me. I know it. I know it. What is it?
Queen: We relax!
Princess Atta: Right.
Queen: Oh, it'll be fine. It's the same, year after year. They come, they eat, they leave. That's our lot in life. It's not a lot, but it's our life. [laughs. Atta laughs too] Isn't that right, Aphie? Oh, you're such a cute little aphid. [As she sets Aphie down, the two ant boys pop out of a hole in the ground]
Reed: Ditch Dot!
Grub: Yeah, yeah!
Dot: Hey, come back here! [tries to hover after the boys. But drops to the ground]
Queen: Dot!
Dot: Yes, Mother.
Queen: What did I tell you about trying to fly?
Dot: Not until my wings grow in.
Queen: Right.
Dot: But, Mom...
Princess Atta: Dot, you're a young queen ant, and your wings are too little to be...
Dot: I was talking to Mother! You're not the queen yet, Atta!
Queen: Now, Dot, be nice to your sister.
Dot: It's not my fault she's so stressed out.
Princess Atta: [sighs] I know, I know. [sighs] I'm always acting like the sky is falling.
Mr. Soil: [Off-screen] Look out! [A huge stalk of grain falls on top of her]
Queen: Atta!
Thorny and Dr. Flora: Princess Atta! Princess Atta!
Dr. Flora: Hey! Stop that!
Mr. Soil: What do you think you're doing?!
Dr. Flora: You could have killed somebody over here!
Flik: [looks up and gasps, running over] I'm sorry! I'm sorry!
Thorny: [annoyed] Oh, it's Flik.
[Cornelius groans]
Flik: I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! Please forgive me! I'm sorry! [The council members lift the stalk, freeing Atta; Flik exclaims] Princess Atta!
Princess Atta: Flik, what are you doing?
Flik: Oh... Oh, this? This is my new idea for harvesting grain! No more picking individual kernels! You can just cut down the entire stalk!
Princess Atta: Flik, we don't have time for this.
Flik: Exactly! We never have time to collect food for ourselves, because we spend all summer harvesting for the Offering! But my invention will speed up production.
Princess Atta: [groans] Another invention?
Flik: Yeah, and I've got something for you, too. [Picks up a blade of grass and folds it into a cone]
Princess Atta: [sighs] Flik!
Flik: Since you're gonna be queen soon, you could use this to oversee production. [borrows a dewdrop from Dr. Flora's flower] Dr. Flora, if I may.
Dr. Flora: [gasps] Oh!
Princess Atta: This is all very nice, but...
Thorny: What?
Flik: Just an ordinary blade of grass and a bead of dew, right?
Princess Atta: Flik, please.
Flik: Wrong! It is, in fact... [drops the dewdrop in the middle of the blade] A telescope!
[Dot and Queen laugh]
Princess Atta: It's very clever, Flik, but...
[Flik peers at Atta through the telescope]
Flik: Hello, princess! My, aren't you looking lovely this morning! Not, of course, that you would need a telescope to see that...
Thorny: [swipes the telescope from Flik and throws it near Dot's feet] All right, listen! The Princess doesn't have time for this! You wanna help us fill this thing?! Then get rid of that machine, get back in line, and pick grain, like everybody else!
Cornelius: Like everybody else!
Princess Atta: Please, Flik. Just go.
Flik: I'm sorry. I was... I was really just trying... [Thorny and Cornelius gesture pointing for Flik to go] Trying to help.
Cornelius: "Harvester"! Why, we've harvested the same way ever since I was a pupa.

View Quote [Later, Atta banging a gavel inside a large courtroom with the Queen and the Council of Elders]
Princess Atta: Flik, what do you have to say for yourself?
Flik: Sorry. I-I'm sorry for the way I am. I didn't mean for things to go so wrong. I...especially didn't want to make you look bad, Princess.
Princess Atta: Well, Flik, you did.
Flik: I was just trying to help.
Mr. Soil: Then help us. Don't help us.
Flik: Help? Help? Help?
Princess Atta: Flik, you are sentenced to one month digging in the tunnels.
Thorny: Uh, excuse me, Your Highness. Need I remind you of Flik's tunnel-within-a-tunnel project?
Flik: Helpers to help us. That could... That's it! We could...
Thorny: It took the whole engineering department two days to dig him out. Send him to Health and Ant Services.
Dr. Flora: Heavens, no!
Flik: We could leave the island. The riverbed's dry right now. We could just walk right across the riverbed. We could go get helpers. We could! We could leave, sure. We could go find helpers to help us. It's perfect!
Queen: Perfect? What's so perfect?
Flik: Your Highness, don't you see? We could send someone to get help!
[Ant council gasps]
Princess Atta: Leave the island?
Queen: Why didn't I think of that? Oh, because it's suicide!
Thorny: She's right. We never leave the island.
Cornelius: Never leave!
Thorny: There's snakes and birds and bigger bugs out there!
Flik: Exactly! Bigger bugs! We could find bigger bugs to come here and fight and forever rid us of Hopper and his gang!
Mr. Soil: Ludicrous!
Dr. Flora: Who would do a crazy thing like that?
Flik: I'll volunteer. I'd be very happy to volunteer.
Queen: [laughs] You got a lot of spunk, kid, but no one's gonna help a bunch of ants.
Dr. Flora: At least we could try. Oh, I-I could... I could travel to the city. I could search there!
Princess Atta: If you went, you'd be on that silly search for weeks.
Thorny: Royal huddle. [whispering] Great idea, princess. It's perfect.
Cornelius: Exactly.
Princess Atta: Wait a minute. What did we just decide here?
Mr. Soil: To let Flik leave.
Cornelius: While we keep harvesting to meet Hopper's demands.
Dr. Flora: You see? With Flik gone, he can't...
Princess Atta: He can't mess anything up! [After talking with the Council] Flik, after much deliberation, we have decided... to grant you your request!
Flik: Really?
Queen: Really?
Princess Atta: Uh, really.
Flik: Oh! Thank you, princess. Thank you so much for this chance. I-I-I won't let you down, I promise, I promise, I promise, I promise.
Princess Atta: Yeah, yeah, that's fine, that's fine. No, forget it, forget it.
Flik: But I should probably help repair some of the damage before I go, don't you think...
Ant Council: No! No, no!
Princess Atta: Just go. Just go.
Cornelius: Just leave!

View Quote Princess Atta: You mean, you're not warriors?
P.T. Flea: Are you kiddin'? These guys are the lousiest circus bugs you've ever seen, and they're gonna make me rich!
Thorny: You mean to tell me that our entire defensive strategy was concocted by clowns?!
Francis: Hey, hey, hey, hey. We really thought Flik's idea was gonna work.
[All ants gasp and angrily turn to Flik, while the fireflies put a spotlight on him]
Francis: [realizes his mistake] Oops.
Princess Atta: [sternly] Tell me this isn't true.
Flik: No, you don't... You don't...
Mr. Soil: This couldn't have happened at a more inopportune time! The last leaf is about to fall!
Dr. Flora: We haven't collected any food for the grasshoppers!
Thorny: If Hopper finds out what we almost did--
Queen: [angrily] Hopper is NOT going to find out. We're going to hide all this and pretend it never happened. [angrily points to the Circus Bugs] You bugs were never here, so I suggest you all leave.
Flik: [gets in front of the Circus Bugs] But the bird! The-the-the bird will work!
Queen: I never thought I'd see the day when an ant would put himself before the rest of his colony.
Flik: [shocked] What?
Queen: The point is, Flik, you lied to us.
Flik: No, no, no, no! I just--
Princess Atta: [walks to Flik, hurt with disappointment] You lied, Flik. You lied to her. You lied to the colony! You lied to ME! And like an idiot, I believed you.
Flik: But I was just afraid that if you knew I'd gotten circus bugs. [looks at Princess Atta, still mad, sighs sadly] I just wanted to make a difference.
Princess Atta: I want you to leave Flik, and this time, don't come back.
[Flik sadly hangs his head in sadness; Dot gasps and Aphie whimpers. Flik & the Circus Bugs then sadly leave]
P.T. Flea: Tough crowd. [Snaps the reins and the wagon rolls off] Yee-haw!
Dot: [sadly tries to run after her friend and the bugs. But the mother stops her and holds her back as Flik and the bugs leave] Flik.