MovieChat Forums > A Bug's Life (1998) Discussion > The Plot

The Plot

posted 14 years ago by Eels25
1 reply | jump to latest

Just to give this some perspective: I'm about to graduate from college and up until an hour ago I hadn't seen this movie since I was about ten or eleven (I'm 21 now). I forget how the conversation was started but I was with a bunch of friends and Pixar came up. The inevitable, of course, happened and we ranked our favorites. I put this near the bottom of the list but not because I felt it was a particularly bad movie. Remember, I hadn't seen it for years and I was working off my memory of the movie.

But I didn't remember having any particular problem with the movie. In fact, I remembered really liking the movie. I think it might have ranked pretty close behind Toy Story 2 as my favorite Pixar movie back in the day. But wow...that's changed. Now before I go any further know that I still don't think this is a bad movie. Pixar, in my opinion, has failed to make a bad movie--Cars felt sort of forced and I hate Larry the Cable Guy but it still worked for me overall.

So I just re-watched this less than thirty minutes ago and it occurred to me that the plot doesn't make a lot of sense. Why would millions of ants be afraid of a group of grasshoppers? Sure they were bigger than them but to be such smart bugs the ants were pretty stupid throughout. And for a movie that I remembered as upholding individuality and creativity, both were stifled throughout. Take for example Flik, the main character. He is laughed at by his fellow ants, called a jerk for inventing things that don't work and waste everyone's time. Yet his inventions work. Everything he makes and plans throughout the movie work. And the rest of the ants continue to treat him like a black sheep until he saves them from themselves.

And this irritates me because I really wanted to love the movie. I wanted to re-watch this and rekindle those old feelings I had as a kid watching it for the first time. I mean, several things about it are working fantastically. Flik is a great hero and the circus bugs are awesome. But it's so unfair how Flik is treated throughout for being a valuable member of the ant society. And how the rest of the ants use the invention they slighted earlier in the film because, shocker, it WORKS, absolutely slays me.

I'm looking over this and I'm sort of coming off as trollish toward the movie and I don't mean to. The plot is just a little underwritten. This movie certainly feels like a movie made more for little kids than for older kids and adults. I should stop writing because this has become a tome but anyone hit me up with a response if you bothered to read this far, I'd appreciate it.

These strange things happen all the time...

[–] asavarna 14 years ago

Hey.. you do have some decent points there and you sure did not sound like a troll. :) Here are my views:

Do you remember the old queen saying it was their way of life? The oppression of the ants by the grasshoppers probably came along from way back in time. We don't know how it really started as it isn't addressed in the movie, but looking back at history, you do have a bunch of sailors from a small island ruling over entire nations right? It probably started out slowly and before the ants knew it, they were a 'colony' being used by grasshoppers to gather food.

As for their aversion to Flik's invetions-its in our nature to shun things we don't understand. He wanted to do things differently and in a group of people who are being oppressed, someone who stands out is always perceived as a threat for the fear of things going wrong and landing the entire group into trouble (The Stanford prison experiment could be looked at for reference although I couldn't be too sure-I am not a psychology student)
Flik also seemed a little clumsy (when he accidentally knocks off the entire offering or when the stalks land on princess Atta because he hasn't really thought of a safe way of disposing off the stalks after harvesting all the grains) so most likely his ideas were seen more as a nuisance than help. Remember that the bird was also his idea but it was accepted because it seemed to come from a credible source-the warrior bugs. And the moment they realized that it was Flik's, they disregarded it thinking it would be a failure.

They only accepted his ideas towards the end when they saw for themselves that the bird was a success (it lighting up on fire was just a situational hazard) or that he could stand up to Hopper.
Hope that helps. I really like this movie and I hope you will be able to enjoy it as well. :)