A Bug’s Life: That Other Movie about Ants (Part 3)

Interesting and likeable characters make Pixar stories worth watching, so let’s look at them:

The Elder Ants work together as one entity that knows more than you whippersnappers. The ones with actual roles in the colony—the Queen, Thorny the line supervisor and Mr. Soil the disaster specialist are assertive and confident. Dr. Flora apparently works in Ant Services, whatever that is. She and Cornelius have nothing to do in the film, but they both have seats on the Ant Council. Cornelius interests me more than he deserves to. I had to confirm his name by reading the cast list using process of elimination. He has literally no role other than acting old and peevish. It’s as if he just hangs around the leaders as a friend—you know, like the kind of people that like to hang around leadership to feel important. He has less function to the colony than Flik, yet he has more clout than Flik, chiefly because of his age. That really says something about what defines status in the ant colony.

The elder ants coddle the Queen’s daughter, Atta, while she watches them make most of the decisions. Princess Atta goes from helpless to helpful in the course of the movie. She doesn’t see how effective or useful Flik’s inventions are at first. As his inventions and plans begin to work, though, she becomes impressed and inspired to lead the colony without elderly advice. At the movie’s high point Atta pursues Hopper in flight when he abducts Flik. Flik and Atta do start to like each other during the movie, but their attraction thankfully doesn’t become the focus on the film. Instead it’s one of those cases where romance happens naturally as the characters go about their lives. Their chemistry is more believable that way.

The ants harvest grain for a gang of grasshopper bandits led by Hopper. He’s quite a villain.  He talks down to the ants, warning them of “insects out there who will take advantage of you.” Manipulation! He’s the one taking advantage of them. Not to mention he’s a liar. The city ants barely notice Flik when he ventures there, despite his conspicuous look. Hopper also explains that ants naturally serve grasshoppers, but none of the other grasshoppers really care whether the ants provide grain or not. They rough up the ants because they’re following Hopper’s lead.

Hopper doesn’t have much respect for his fellow grasshoppers, either. Some grasshoppers dare ask him why they bother harassing the ants when they already have plenty of food for themselves. Hopper responds by burying them in a huge pile of grain. We never see them climb out from under it. He’s not allowed to hurt his brother, Molt, thanks to his mother’s dying wish, and so when Molt riles him up he punches some random henchman instead. Does it weaken Hopper’s character that he’s true to his mother? Maybe, but without that quirk he’s 100% mean, and a little out of place for the mood of the movie.

I might as well discuss Hopper’s brother, Molt. He’s completely harmless, offsetting his brother’s nastiness and revealing that not all grasshoppers think they’re bosses of everything. He has a short attention span, and doesn’t seem to understand how serious some situations are. As Hopper tries to instill fear on the ants, Molt reminds everyone about birds and the one that almost ate Hopper. On the surface it looks like Molt is a pointless character, but by the end of the movie he joins the circus bugs as a roadie:

Molt: (sings) The circus! The circus! I love the circus!

That shows further that grasshoppers didn’t play villains in the movie just because they’re grasshoppers. Lots of groups get upset when movies portray them unfavorably, so it’s nice to know Pixar doesn’t condone bugism. It’s also interesting that Molt brings up the one thing Hopper fears, and Flik uses that info to affect the second half of the film.

It wouldn’t be fair for me to gloss over Thumper, the rabid grasshopper. I’m at a loss as to his story. The grasshoppers keep him on a leash because he acts like a wild animal, but why? Parental issues? Do Grasshoppers catch rabies? Is he mentally disabled and lash out at things out of frustration? I guess grasshoppers don’t have anything they could use in real life like aphids or anything like that. Kind of a shame.

Everyone in A Bug’s Life is affected by Flik. He stands out from the colony, and it’s his own fault. All he wants is to make a difference. It’s a credit to the writers that he never tries to explain why making a difference is important. It would have turned the movie into a “life lesson,” and would have insulted the audience’s intelligence. Plus, Flik wants to make a helpful difference, not just to validate his individuality. He’s proud to be an ant, and his inventions are attempts to improve the ant way of life. Nothing works at first, though. Thorny and Hopper both order him to get “back in line" at different points. Flik seems so helpless when others push him around. That’s why it’s so powerful when he stands up to Hopper at the end. The grasshoppers kicked him around leaving him badly beaten, but he stands back up, and with little strength, gasping for air, he calls Hopper’s bluff:

Flik: We’re a lot stronger than you say we are. And you know it, don’t you?

He found his strength by seeing how hard his colony works and how willingly they step up to their challenges. The colony in turn draws strength from him when they hear his words of praise for them. He has the same effect on the Circus Bugs. This connection takes up the span of the movie, so we hardly notice it as it happens.

We meet Atta before her younger sister, but I tend to think of Dot as the second most important protagonist in the movie. She and Flik share their frustrations about being kicked around well before Princess Atta reveals her insecurities. The movie also spends as much time developing her story as they do with Flik’s. Dot also articulates best how we’re supposed to feel about Flik:

Dot: (giggles) You’re weird, but I like you.

When she gets into trouble the circus bugs scramble to her rescue under Flik’s direction. (Since she’s played by Hayden Panettiere I’ll go ahead and say it: Save Dot, save the world.) But she got into trouble because she was concerned enough about Flik to follow him secretly. Then there’s my favorite visual moment in the entire film: Flik is riding away with the circus in exile from the colony. No one can console him. This is where Dot changes from helpless to helpful. She tries to encourage him to return to save the queen, but he refuses. Then Dot picks up a rock from the ground. The look on her face is amazingly precise. It says “I don’t know how this would work, but he tried to cheer me up with it, so it’s the best idea I have.” She sets the rock next to Flik:

Dot: Pretend that’s a seed, okay?

That does the trick. With Flik back to his senses she leads the Blueberry Scouts as they help bring Hopper down. One of the smallest characters plays one of the biggest roles in the Revolution.

The Circus Bugs have followed their dreams and have nothing to show for it—so they get along naturally with Flik. They are literally much more colorful than the ants, have much more personality, and play more essential roles than the Elder Ants. Francis the manly ladybug helps sell their act to the ant colony, and sees Dot falling from a dandelion soon enough to catch her. Manny the Shakespearean mantis uses his transformation act to whisk the Queen away to safety. Slim the underworked stick bug, fakes out the grasshoppers with fake wounds from the fake bird. Heimlich the obese caterpillar, probably the least useful, gets used as bait to lure the real bird away from Dot and Francis. Gypsy the glamorous moth distracts the bird so the rest can escape, and helps Manny in the transformation act. Rosie the kind black widow spins a net to airlift Dot and Francis, and ties the joints together on the fake bird. The Queen stows away inside Din the bulky beetle, a strong workhorse. Tuck and Roll the immigrant pill bugs are obnoxious but their bickering keeps the grasshoppers interested enough in the circus to let them stay, enabling the Queen’s rescue.

Lastly, we have P.T. Flea (It’s John Ratzenberger!) the circus ringleader. He fires everyone because their demands and quirks cause the show to fall apart.

From there his character helps move the story along because he has no clue what’s going on in any scene he appears in. While the Ants celebrate the fake bird’s completion he bursts in looking for his old circus team, exposing the “warrior bugs” as phonies. The scandal leaves Flik to ride off with the circus. When P.T. first sees the fake bird scaring the grasshoppers he sees the fake wounds on the circus bugs and sets the fake bird on fire, thinking he’s protecting his cast. It’s kind of curious that the first time he played “Flaming Death” it was to save the circus show and the second time it makes everything fall apart.


...Well, that takes care of the characters. Next time we'll wrap up with talk about the soundtrack, and then some final thoughts about what the movie seems to be saying overall. End of part 3.