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"You fired!"
—Tuck and Roll reiterating what P.T. Flea said to them
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Tuck and Roll are main characters in A Bug's Life.

A Bug's Life[]

Tuck and Roll are Hungarian twin pillbugs. They occasionally argue, but are usually the best of friends. They act as cannonballs in P.T. Flea's circus troupe. They are supposed to be the main part of the Flaming Death act, but their arguing and fighting results in the act going totally out of control and everybody being fired. However, they don't seem to understand this and remain cheerful even at the Bug Bar. They also appear to like the sound of the catchphrase: "You fired!", since they continuously repeat it throughout the film after P.T. Flea says it to them, much to Rosie's irritation.

Upon Flik's travel to Ant Island, he tells Tuck and Roll all about fighting Hopper and the grasshoppers, but they don't understand a word he says and just smile and nod. They are also the only ones who cheer for the preschool show, as they don't know what's going on because they don't understand English.

In the final act, it is Tuck and Roll's petty fighting and bickering that amuses Hopper, resulting in him relenting and watching the circus act long enough for the rescue of the Queen and the fake bird to be readied. In the final fight with Hopper, Tuck manages to pull off one of Hopper's antennae and uses it during the final show before they leave Ant Island.

Personality[]

Tuck and Roll do not speak or understand English. In fact, the language they speak is in Hungarian. However, they only speak these English words: "Hey!", "Tweet-tweet! Tweet-tweet!", "You fired!" and "Charge-a!".

Trivia[]

  • In the DVD commentary for A Bug's Life, Andrew Stanton mentions that after designing Tuck and Roll, he coincidentally found an old drawing he did as a kid of characters that looked just like them, so he believed that it may have come out of his subconscious.
  • There has always been some confusion as to which character is which, but the set of bean bag dolls of the characters that were made by Disney for the film, Disney Pixar Character Encyclopedia and Disney Who's Who actually reveal this. Tuck is the one with two eyebrows, and Roll is the one with a unibrow. It's also said that Roll has a deeper voice in the film, while Tuck has a slightly higher tone.
  • According to the official website for A Bug's Life and Pixarpedia, Tuck and Roll are of Hungarian origin.
  • Tuck and Roll make a cameo on Al's painting from Toy Story 2.
  • Despite their name, pill bugs are not insects, but a type of terrestrial crustacean. This makes Tuck and Roll unique among the circus' other members, as the rest of the troupe consists of six insects (Francis, Slim, Heimlich, Dim, Manny, and Gypsy) and one arachnid (Rosie).
  • Paralleling this, Hungarian, which the two speak, is also a unique language in that it is not Indo-European like the ones surrounding it, but Finno-Ugric.
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