- "Someday, I will be a beautiful butterfly, and then everything will be better."
- —Heimlich to Manny
Heimlich with his new wings, now a butterfly.
Heimlich is a character in A Bug's Life.
A Bug's Life[]
Heimlich is an obese lime caterpillar with a German accent who works as a clown in P.T. Flea's circus troupe. He is very gluttonous and always seems to be eating. Even during a performance, he offered to help finish one of the audience's candy corns. The fly refused, but then it turned out that he got the candy corn anyway. He then later calls the flies out as Francis argues with them.
Heimlich screaming.
At the beginning of the film, he says that he dreams of being a beautiful butterfly. He also at one point turns a sickly grayish green color when he sees the mural of him being sliced in half and killed in the battle against the grasshoppers. At the end of the film, he pops from his cocoon, squeezes out (having only turned blue), and sprouts a pair of tiny wings, finally a butterfly, but still remains flightless (due to his obesity and he apparently didn't stay in the cocoon long enough), and it takes the efforts of Francis, Manny, Flik, and a few other ants to get him up in the air. Whilst a caterpillar, Heimlich was carried by the rhino beetle, Dim, for transport.
Personality[]
Heimlich is shown to have a gluttonous appetite and is seen eating almost all the time, especially while helping the ants construct a bird to scare Hopper and his gang. Although brave, he still shows fear when a real bird nearly eats him. Also, when Hopper shouts at the approaching circus wagon, he frightens Heimlich who says he thinks he's going to wet himself.
Trivia[]
- Heimlich appears in Toy Story 2.
- He appears close-up in an outtake of the film, alongside Flik, where they express their excitement about the making of a sequel to their film, but Heimlich tells Flik that the film is a sequel that is not for A Bug's Life.
- Heimlich is also present during the film; he is seen crawling along some branches just before Buzz Lightyear chops through them.
- While Buzz is looking for Woody at Al's Toy Barn, he passes by toys of Heimlich and other characters from A Bug's Life.
- Heimlich also appears in a McDonald's commercial for A Bug's Life, where he eats the film and Flik angrily chews him out for ruining it.
- Heimlich is the second Pixar character voiced by the late Joe Ranft, after Lenny.
- His gluttonous appetite and obesity may be a reference to the children's book The Very Hungry Caterpillar by the late Eric Carle.
- Heimlich isn't a meetable character in theme parks, but he is a robotic character in the Pixar Play Parade in Disney California Adventure located in Los Angeles and Anaheim, California, and is part of the ride "Heimlich's Chew-Chew Train" in A Bug's Land. His theme park robots were voiced by John Ratzenberger. He also appeared in Disney on Ice's 100 Years of Magic from 1999 to 2004.
- Heimlich appears in World of Color.
- The behind-the-scenes footage of Monsters, Inc. shows various beta deigns for Boo: including one featuring Boo wearing a shirt with an image of Heimlich on it.
Gallery[]
