Anticapitalist? (spoilers)

You're totally right... There's always some big message in almost every Pixar Movie! (just think about Wall E)

"That's marxist dialectics for ya..."

And yet, Marxism wasn't enough to save them from the grasshoppers. Without creativity and individual initiative, they would have been screwed. So there you go. A balanced perspective.

Rather than anti-capitalist, it felt more like anti-dictatorship at the best.

Remember, the ants and grasshoppers weren't in some business deal nor the part of some corporation. The grasshoppers didn't pay the ants any salary nor did they allow the ants have a freedom of speech most of the time.

The grasshoppers ruled through fear over the ants. Somehow I don't believe corporations would rule over their employees up to the extent of the grasshoppers. Dictators rule with fear.

Hopper can be seen as the insect version of Stalin.

Let the world change the punishment for sexual-related crimes to execution

No. It's pro-capitalism. The grasshoppers where obviously on welfare.

Yes this movie is definitely possible to view as an anti-caplitalism film. But I am not sure that was what was intended, maybe it is a marxist movie by "accident"?


Regarding some ansers to the original question: Most people can't define marxism if their life dependen on it.

Flik's speech was definitely very anti-Capitalist in nature. I noticed this too. But the filmmakers, i'm sure, didn't intend it that way. Wasn't this a Disney movie? Disney is infamously reactionary with its politics. Walt himself participated in McCarthy's Red Scare, and he's generally thought to have been a Fascist-sympathizer.

But anyway. The relationship between the grasshoppers and ants was more like an imperialist state/puppet state relationship, but since the purpose of imperialism is to acquire wealth or resources, it's very similar to the relationship between the bourgeoisie and proletariat. Because imperialism directly comes out of the nature of exploitative class society, the relationship between imperialist nations and exploited nations is a fairly direct reflection of the relationship between the parasitic exploiting classes and the oppressed toiling masses within nations. The grasshoppers were like capitalists. They didn't produce anything themselves; they relied on the labor of others to produce for them while they basked in a relaxed, luxurious lifestyle. So the ants didn't own their own labor; the ants' labor was owned by the grasshoppers. The ants had to produce for this parasitic ruling class that produced nothing itself. And while the bourgeois grasshoppers were vastly outnumbered by the proletarian ants, the ants were conditioned to think of this as the natural order of things (think of the bullsh!t "human nature" argument people use to condemn Communism and justify Capitalism). Then Flik (who could be seen as almost a sort of Marx or Lenin, albeit a goofy version) comes along with this idea that the ants, being the ones who lived in the anthill and worked on their island, being the ones who produced the food, should therefore be the owners of their island (factory) and everything their labor produces within it. Definitely a Communist argument.

Of course the fact that the ants had their own hierarchical system sort of undermines this, which is why I say it's more like a national rebellion against an oppressing empire. But there are definitely a lot of similarities anyway, aside from that part. Though again, i'm sure that's unintentional on the part of the filmmakers.

"Couldn't care less" = "don't care at all"
"Could care less" = "care at least a little"

No. It can be seen as either anti government or anti mafia. The ants work to provide food for themselves, are forced to set aside some for the grasshoppers, and in return the grasshoppers protect the ants from other creatures and don't destroy them. The food is equivalent to protection money business owners pay so that the mafia doesn't destroy their businesses, or taxes paid by almost everyone so that the government doesn't imprison them. This isn't about capitalism, or workers and their bosses.

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