Weird 2D animated bug movie, possible lost media

Question

This movie has plagued my mind ever since I’ve seen it. I’ve racked my brain for years trying to remember what it was called.

• What Is It: 2D Animated Movie
• What It Is Not: A Bug’s Life or Minuscule: Valley of the Lost Ants. It is also not any 3D bug movie. I don’t think it’s any anime either, because it was in English and the mouth movement matched up pretty well
• What Made It Memorable: A scene where a ladybug is trying to feed her grub child by saying their food is good, then it ends up eating all the food and the grub cries.
• When Did I See It: I was young, but not too young as to not forget about it, so probably like 2008-2010
• How Old Was It: I remember this one scene near the end featuring a live action woman, and the effect of putting the woman in with the animation was quite dated, so probably an older film.
• Part Of A Series: I don’t think so.
• Plot: A group of bugs led by a blue bug of some type (don’t remember which bug it was) has to save their home? from an evil swamp creature or something.
• Details:
  • The blue bug played some kind of instrument through out the film.
  • The above mentioned “ladybug eats all of baby’s food” scene
  • A scene near the end where the blue bug is separated from the group after fighting with the villain I suppose, he’s on a boat in a lake surrounded by possibly sharp vines. I think it was supposed to be a sacrifice or something. Then a live action woman illuminated by light appeared before him and told him to play his instrument, and then I guess he broke out of the thorn lake area
  • The villain in his lair, a rotten tree stump, screaming in pain as he dies from something, don’t remember what. His little sidekick is then happy and quickly leaves(?)

If anyone could find this thing I’d be so happy. Years of wondering would finally be over.

Answer 1

You might be remembering the 2001 Brazilian animated movie O Grilo Feliz. The English-language version is titled The Happy Cricket. It is mostly 2D animation with some 3D mixed in.

Wikipedia description:

The Happy Cricket (Portuguese: O Grilo Feliz) is a 2001 Brazilian animated fantasy film directed by Walbercy Ribas. The film is about Christopher, a happy, singing, guitar-playing, and music-loving cricket who must rescue his friends from the evil and music-hating monitor lizard, King Wartlord, and save Linda the Night Star from that villain's grasp.

You can easily find The Happy Cricket on YouTube, but I cannot find an official version, so I will not provide a direct link to a video.

Here is how The Happy Cricket matches up with your memories:

The blue bug played some kind of instrument through out the film.

The main character is a blue cricket who plays guitar.

The above mentioned “ladybug eats all of baby’s food” scene

This is a partial match. The scene starting at about 0h04m10s shows a mother caterpillar (not ladybug) feeding her grub. The mother eats all but one spoonful and the grub cries.

A scene near the end where the blue bug is separated from the group after fighting with the villain I suppose, he’s on a boat in a lake surrounded by possibly sharp vines. I think it was supposed to be a sacrifice or something. Then a live action woman illuminated by light appeared before him and told him to play his instrument, and then I guess he broke out of the thorn lake area

This is a partial match. The muse star is seen as a dancing woman at around 0h47m45s.

The villain in his lair, a rotten tree stump, screaming in pain as he dies from something, don’t remember what. His little sidekick is then happy and quickly leaves(?)

This is a partial match. At about 1h15m25s, the heroes hand the star gem over to the villain and charge the gem by playing a tune on the guitar. The villain is ecstatic and in his revelry he stumbles toward the edge of the stump where the rotting wood breaks away and he plummets to his doom, screaming all the way down to a fire below.

This film also had a computer-animated sequel in 2009 called The Happy Cricket and the Giant Bugs.

Answer 2

Is this The Happy Cricket?

When you wrote that the bug had an instrument, I thought it had to be a cricket.

This movie was made in 2001, and I've never seen it - So I'm combing through the sparse free material on the movie.

Here's your blue bug with an instrument:

Here's a grub-like creature with some food:

Here's your swamp monster villain:

Here's the "Night Star", a woman in an entirely different animation style: