Whoa, where’d all these views come from?! You know what? It doesn’t matter. I’m just glad you guys found me and I hope you’ll stick around by subscribing, because I’ve got a lot of future videos coming down the pipe!
I always appreciated this movie's whole "power in numbers" message. I love how Hopper straight-up admits that the ants could indeed fight back and drive them off but they don't have the courage to.
Hopper is a very smart villain, if he wasn’t the size of a bug and was given actual powers, he would be an actual threat. He knows the powers of numbers He know all it takes is one voice to break his chains He is extremely ruthless but also has a code of honor
You are now making wish for a movie where Marvel's Ant-Man fights Hopper after a Pym Particle makes the Grasshopper human sized, and becomes a supervillain.
well...code of honor might be a bit of a stretch... but he does understand he must balance brute force with something to 'offer' one might say he knows he needs to have an..accord.. that others will vaule.
It's worth noting that a grasshopper changes into a locust, if, and ONLY IF, they become a swarm. It's a strange phenomenon, but grasshoppers have caused some of the flashiest invasions in history. They've been a threat even to the human beings within the ecosystem. Hopper is in a chilling, yet ironic position as a grasshopper, because grasshoppers in numbers are terrifying. *If given the opportunity...if Hopper and his clan lived long enough and multiplied....they might have actually been a threat to the entire ecosystem.*
Something tiny and not really that significant that I still love is that Flik and Hopper both come to the decision to use a small object as a metaphor for small things eventually becoming important. For Hopper, it's this scene, when he uses the grain as metaphor being powerful in their numbers. For Flik, it's when he uses a rock as a metaphor for a seed growing into a tree, which is also a metaphor for Dot growing into a queen. These two don't really interact much, so small things like this can work on giving them a connection. They both understand things the same way, but also very differently. I love it when heroes and villains have things in common like that.
I’ve been saying that for years. The scene shows you that flik and hopper are both as clever as each other. They both know how to imagine things and tell their story to those around them using those imaginary concepts. It’s setting up the fact that anything that hopper can think of, flick will eventually think of himself. So if Hopper knows that the ants are more powerful than the grasshoppers, eventually flik Will know it too.
“The one with the alleged sex pest?” “No, the other one with the alleged sex pest.” I swear to god, that actually just occurred to me as I clicked on this video. It started with me thinking “wait, wasn’t Kevin Spacey the villain in Antz? No, it’s Gene Hackman, Spacey played the villain in the other film…heeeeeyy…”
@@nicholastosoni707 Ha! Maybe that’s why I was confused. You know, despite being a shitty human being, I do firmly believe that Spacey was by far the best live action Lex Luthor we’d ever had.
I do think A Bug’s Life is underrated too, I remember watching this movie all the time when I was a kid. Sure it has the typical liar reveled story thrown in, but a lot of the elements, like hopper, still work.
It's interesting that you pointed out the rabbid grasshopper being used like an attack dog, cause when I was a kid, I understood that the bugs are supposed to be like people, so that scene really made me uncomfortable, just the idea of a group of "people" using a deranged and mentally unhinged "person" as a scare tactic.
I just like how Monsterful Media let the scene with Hopper and his crew play out and then pause it, and is quiet for a few seconds then quietly says "Jesus." It's honestly funny🤣🤣
3:45 a trivia, a coincidence, a little something that made this bit doubly funny for me: in polish dubbing same actor, who did Hades in "Hercules"- also did Hopper
Finally, someone made a video about that scene. One of the most comprehensive yet summarized viewpoints of Marxism. It couldnt be more succinct than Hoppers speech.
The reason this movie never really worked for me, is as a child, I watched a group of ants dismember a cricket, and take it piece by piece into the ant hill. Some of the legs were still twitchy going in. I just kept waiting for one of the ants to bite a grasshopper and say "hey, these guys are edible!" and end the movie that way. I mean, as tough as the movie made them appear, grasshoppers are prey, ants are predators.
Maybe it was hearing it using a VHS tape on a glass screen TV, but I never even noticed the sounds of the grasshoppers' screams while getting crushed by the grains. Great video.
I remember this movie very well, it was one of my favorite animated movies as a kid. Heck, I even remember playing the PS1 game over and over again. Just like you, it's been a while since I last saw it, but it's still a movie I have fond memories of. This scene certainly stuck out to me, though I doubt I fully appreciated the gravity of the situation at the time.
As the saying goes - there's strength in numbers Hopper is unique because he is fully aware that the ants can overpower them, but uses fear and intimitation to "keep them in line" There's nothing more scary than a villain that knows what stands up against them but can actually uses his intellegence to figure out how to be a threat
Awesome. Great choice. I love it. In most other villainous scenes people pick villains with redeeming qualities, OSP Castlevania, a couple on Lex Luthor. Also the scenes break immersion with some extra powers and fictional design. A bugs life in its art causes the viewer to not have this immersion initially. Nothing about it was analogous to reality until Hopper was introduced. This is a true villain, with real world associations that are analyzed very cohesively in fun ways. I would put this video in the top tier of submissions. Competing for first.
"Sorry if I got a little too political for ya." What are you apologizing for? This movie is literally politics. That's the point of the whole plot. If people can't handle that then the movie isn't for them.
It's cool to see essays on movies that have been swept away. But it's weird to see creatures like these be thrusted into a hierarchy as portrayed in video. Hopper's gang truly are banditos, hence their retreat to a sombrero. In the insect eat insect world of the movie, the ants maintain a small polity under their queen and a council of elders, the grasshoppers are not governors and therefore are not elites, much like the classics that inspired A Bug's Life, they are archetypical thugs. Hopper is much like the khans of history-those who extract tribute come and go; the poetic class-based retribution you seek is littered throughout history and movie captures that well.
Yeah exactly. I think OP is more or less projecting his own political interpretation onto what is essentially a group of bullies who come in and shakedown an already functioning society
It's the most one can hope for with the the former stories of the two harvest creatures in memory. Thanks for the effort and humor in this presentation.
I cannot look at the caterpillar from the Bug’s Life the same. ever since that Rick and Morty episode where a slugs planet was going to be destroyed by a meteor which summer ends up saving.
I feel like the grasshoppers more so represent slavemasters and the ants are slaves. They claim it's for the benefit of ant-kind, but we see that they're willing to leave them with little to no provisions, force them to work no matter what, and essentially own them. When a grasshopper is telling the queen what to do, what are you if not a slave? They have no rights in this situation, and retaliation would mean death. Hopper says they would lose their way of life if they don't keep the ants in line. The slaves finally revolt against their masters and are free to pursue their lives as ants. That's my takeaway,
The funny thing is about this movie is that, despite getting ant biology seriously wrong, ants absolutely clap grasshoppers IRL, like many other bugs who cross ants learn the hard way why numbers + organisation > individual badasses. Same for bees too. Likewise, humans are pretty pathetic physically speaking. We can endurance run, but pound for pound we are not very strong animals. And yet, we are the apex predator, we turned wolves into puppies just to add insult to injury. We can do this because we can organise. So don't take it from an animated movie peasants, look to nature and see how nobody fucks with the bee hives and ants nests without finding out. BE ORGANISED..
I think there's something important to remember when talking about the greedy, fat-cat antagonists seen in too many movies to count: These studios and creative individuals all end up working for a company at the end of the day, so you have to wonder... Why would a company endorse a movie with such an anti-capitalist message? It's actually really simple; It's framed as such a caricature of the real deal that it feels like an utter fairytale. *Surely*, there aren't people as bad as Hopper, so this story is just hyperbole for the sake of weaving an engaging narrative. However, the second that you make Hopper pretend to sympathize for the ants, pretend to care about their needs, and have him frame any bare-bones support he might provide as a blessing, then it starts drawing parallels to real-world CEO's and it becomes a little too scary for the higher-ups. It gets even scarier for them if Hopper is shown to think of himself as a good person, just taking what is due to him for his hard work and writing off the people he hurts as lazy and inferior. Waternoose from Monster's Inc is probably one of the only antagonists I know of that fits this mold. He cares about Sully to a certain extent, and he seriously regrets banishing him and Mike, but only because of the value he's ascribed them based on their performance. At the end of the day, he supports the *very* fucked up things that Randal does because he feels he has to for the sake of the company, and that is incredibly real, especially for a kids movie. I fear that we may never see a character like Waternoose in popular media again, because if we keep seeing these 3-dimensional, corrupt CEO's, I think more people would start to look beyond the theater screen and question the power structure that we live under.
i remember this movie, hopper was a legit villain. villains always have motives that are like "omg symphatize with me 😢😢😢" while it's fine. But hopper is actually scary because of the power he holds, not only physical. But he rules through fear, it's probably the start of me liking mafia type characters. His motive is to live and live only, he's willing to go to extremes to keep him and his kind to be alive. Anything that gets in the way would get punished. Awesome villain, because his motives align with us. To survive, it's just that he does it differently.
first of - thanks a lot for reminding me of that scene. it is soo much simpler than most if not all more recent cg szenes. but it hits with just so much more force and conveys so much more. towards the point your making at the end. i think your wide off. you even preface it with all the details about where the story is derived from and then you wonder of to the contrived. was the 7 samurai a analogy for the oppression via the ruling class, or was the western you refferenced? 7 samurai is placed in the sengoku perioud, where the absence of the ruling classes could cause as much or more problems for the population than their presence. (and the same was and is true across history, where ever there is bunches of armed men and a break down of civil order) likewhise the western scenario rather demonstrates the affects of the lack of propper governance and order - in which's absence "might makes right" seems to become the order of business. as far as the story goes all the aspects about a bug's life that might be taken for marxist propaganda just as well, if not more so can be applied to argue the point of the movie being anti communist/russian propaganda that signifies the struggle of the former warsaw pact countries had to put up with - but this would be more contrived than it being a retelling of the stories listed prior. or it could be a metaphor for the struggle of every and any people who fell victim to the predations of a violent and authoritarian outside group that only extracted resources, afterall we humans do have a very violent history in which every people was at times victim of, or oppressor to, some other people. - but that as well would be more contrived than it being a retelling of the stories listed prior. To return to the point of there being so many grasshoppers in the world..... history rather lools like as if marxist rethoric has an uncanny tendency to end up being the rethoric of future grasshoppers.
Hopper (me anyway) hard the darkest arc if all Disney villains. Control through fear, killing his own mean, treating to feed a child to an animalistic psychopath, attempting to kill royalty, relaxing on a bullet of all things, the getting ripped apart and eaten alive by baby birds.
if that one grasshopper is meant to be a locust then it's more like a human-zombie situation than a goofy-pluto situation. but since they didn't say anything about avoiding turning into locusts as motivation for why they wanted the food. so idk.
I think you missed something about hoppers introductory scene. At first, hopper only demands that they get as much food as usual, but as soon as Flick stands up to him, he DOUBLES the demand. He knows they won't be able to do that. Hell, he knew they wouldn't be able to get as much as usual before the end of the summer. He doubled the demand as punishment at the expense of the ENTIRE colony for the actions of ONE ant. One single ant standing up against him. This causes all the other ants to fight against Flick, instead of fighting the grasshoppers. Also I did read this film as "grasshoppers are the gov and food is the tax" and I still agree with almost everything you said. Things don't have to be black and white. Just cause we disagree on some things doesn't mean we can't be on the same page. We're still all in the same boat.
I will forever love bugs life! They can't take us all if we fight together!!! This counts for disadvantage communities and countries that need more reasources! 7:00
As far as politics are concerned, it's not really a Marxist proposition to support the ants. They live in a monarchy. The question is more about populism vs elitism. The grasshoppers ('the elite') run the show and feed off the ants ('the populace'). In my opinion, it sort of falls out of the left/right paradigm in the US as elitism exists above the normal political battles.
The "communist agenda" in this movie is a bit of a short-sighted take: As already pointed out, the ants already own the means of production. *But* they are also self-organised, self-sufficient and from all we can see have no rival opponents, so the scenario is already setting up the grasshoppers as a force that came into a functional society to extract ressources. Oh. And there is also the fact the ants are a *actual monarchy(!)* Even better: A single exceptional individual uses his craftsmanship and engineering skills and in the end is elevated to basically the second to the new queen. Entrepreneur meets prince. If this had a sequel with another ant nation, we would look at a industrial juggernaut colony, supported by allied foreign mercenaries (the circus) crushing the other tribes with superior numbers and technology. Back to the grasshoppers: The grasshoppers do have no function, nor a place inside the ants economic or social structure and haven't even taken actions to undermine the local monarchy. It is very much a very hands-off foreign occupation. With all that being said: It's such a simplified scenario, that a whole host of interpretations can be attempt, but in the end it's not that different from the Stephen King-esce scene of the "Nerd" group banding together to throw rocks at the bullies to drive them off.
CAn't edit my last reply for some reason. You made my very point not mometns after I wrote that one, which I find funny. :) Furthermore, "we're a lot stronger than you say we are...and you know it, too," is the principle behind the second amendment. (Bet you didn't think we'd go to THAT bit of politics, did you?) The notion that the "ruling class" or "big government" or just "the mob" has a harder time dealing with the masses they oppress if the masses can rise up is exactly why the second amendment exists: imagine if the ants were all armed and knew how to fight, and had a culture that said "we protect what's ours." Think the grasshoppers would've gotten nearly as far?
The thing that gets Hopper though, isn't the ants, it's the bird. And unlike Hopper or the ants, it isn't given human traits, it's more like a force of nature. As such, I see the story as more karmic in nature than as a story about revolution.
“That would be an interesting argument to make, I don’t think it is as obvious as the other one.” - talk to more people and you will realize it really was obvious.
Its a really good scene, I feel like the communism bent is legit but also just one take of it Its a good conversation about power and resisting it There is also that interesting effect of how flick as an inventor originally wants to use his tools to improve life for the ants, however in a world where the only thing the ants focus on is making enough food to support themselves and their overlords that kind of creative thinking is stymied and demonized, of course flick does screw up and gets the food lost, its that interesting effect where Flick is the one at fault because an idea of his had unforseen consequences, however if he had just knuckled under the nest would have starved and they would have kept on with that way of life, Flick makes numerous mistakes and their not all justifiable or even excusable, however he does grow from his mistakes and models for both the ants and the circus bug's that you need to stand up for yourself, Bullies and Tyrants will wear any flag and spout any cause but having friends and wanting to do more than just keep your head down or give up at the first failure is a powerful message
Seeing the ants as the proletariat and the grasshoppers as the bourgeoisie seems to be missing the forgest for the trees imo. I think the much more obvious connection to make is slavery. In the south and in Haiti, slaves outnumbered their masters massively, to a ratio of 10:1 in some cases, and so the slave holders would use fear and denegration to keep the slaves in line. If one slave stood up they would be made an example of to stop others from doing the same.
Killing the queen/threatening dot is kind of an allegory. It doesn't matter what you do as long as it pisses people off enough to openly rebel. If someone irritates the oppressor into doing something stupid then you win. If he doesn't then you also win because people lose respect/fear. Essentially, oppression is not sustainable because of this mechanic. Thus why oppressors today shift blame and make up threats to justify their actions.
Speaking as a capitalist, the grasshoppers are an excellent example of government bureaucrats, just who don't offload their threats of violence to a bureaucratic system. They're lazy, they don't contribute anything to society, and they make demands of the labor of the people they pretend to serve while looking down on them. They're a better example of old-school aristocracy or nobility in late-stage decadence, OR (what they more closely map to) a post-anarchic warlord band. But in the end, they are the antithesis of capitalism and the net result of socialism in practice: an oligarchy of the powerful who decide who gets the fruits of the labor of the masses. And, lo and behold, it's they who get the largest concentration per capita, while the proles work and slave away to produce it for them. Edit: I literally wrote this moments before you pointed out you could have the argument that way. :D
@@Snake_G. ah yes well that makes sense... _"If socialists understood economics, they wouldn't be socialists."_ -Frederick Hayek You truly are one of their "Koristne Budale"
@@barthalamewburt3912 and you're adding exactly what to the conversation? Oh right absolutely nothing. Maybe you can do what absolutely none of your 'comrades' have been able to do and tell me what product the grasshoppers were freely selling to the ants? Because this story more accurately resembles the elite vs the workers under a communist state than anything even remotely capitalist You guys hate Jeff Bezos so much just don't shop with Amazon, he can't FORCE you to give him your money or labor. Now guys like Stalin, Mao, etc on the other hand...
Another thing you might have not caught is Hopper Is a locust while the other grass hoppers are regular grass hoppers. Both are the same species but when in groups they transform into more violent dangerous version of them selves.
I don't see Communism in this at all, the Ants are already a fully functioning society with a hierarchical structure. The Grasshoppers do not "rule" them, and the ants are not rising up against their own system. I would say it is more like a Protection racket, or as @Normal Man posted, " Also reminds me of the Viking raids and the practice of paying them off with the Danegeld to avoid being plundered" There is really no political statement being portrayed at all for anyone other than ideologically possessed, hyper political. Sometimes a story is just a story about good vs evil.
That one line made me wonder, how long have the Grasshoppers been exerting their power over the Ant Colony? Did Hopper take over this job from his Mother & this has been going on for generations? It would make sense given that older individuals in the Ant Colony such as The Queen & Cornelius are familiar with the situation.
@@And-ur6ol There are people in prison IRL that have done heinous shit that makes Hopper seem like a saint in comparison, that still swear by their moms.
@@KoopaXross moms wield power, no doubt. one of my favourite anecdotes from history, is how a roman general (pre-Caesar) was about to march on Rome (he was in little asia at the time), and then the other senators got his mother to write to him, telling him that he could foget making himself dictator, after which he relented. I should add that before his mom, other senators had beeen writing him to stand down, but without luck. so the power of a mother saved rome a civil war.
Can we just acknowledge how absolutely brutal this movie was? First with Hopper threatening to have a CHILD devoured in front of a crowd, then the three guys being crushed to death by the grains, and then at the end the villain get shredded to pieces by three birds. It's a type of animated massacre that I miss on newer movies, it's that kind of nightmare you learn to appreciate the more you rewatch the movie.
@@MonsterfulMedia yeah. Funny to think I remember watching all these scenes as a kid and seeing nothing "wrong" with it, like: "hey, those three just died by being buried, the bad guy is really bad", and I only understand how violent this is nowadays. I honestly feel like what made older Pixar writers special was that they knew how little the children watching understood about what was going on at the screen, and how the visuals, directing and soundtrack were what really built the vibe that could make any thing more/less impactful. For instance, I was never shocked by the on-screen deaths in Bug's Life or The Incredibles, but the menacing atmosphere of the barracuda scene in Finding Nemo and the off-screen deaths that happen afterwards always terrified me beyond belief.
Real life is cruel-er than movie so it only make sense. If hopper represents capitalist, not too far off, especially considering that irl companies traffic kids to clean knives and regularly come in contact with chemicals at the slaughter house.
@@Susan-vn4ez yes, that makes sense. Man, I wish more Disney and Pixar movies could depict this kind of horrifying realism nowadays, no wonder the scenes in the older films are shocking to us, it's just not what we've come to expect from those studios after so long.
You usually have bad guys that get defeated because of their arrogance or the false belief that nothing can stop them, making them overlook the one element that can seal their doom. But Hopper? He was completely aware that the ants could easily trump him and his gang if he allowed them to gain enough awareness of their strenght in unity and numbers, and did all he could to strike fear in the ants as much as possible, so to avoid any kind of rebellion from them. And indeed, even tho' Flik got intimidated by Hopper the moment he spoke up about the injustice the first time, it was enough to eventually spark in the ants the will to fight. Hopper's fears became true, despite everything he did. His modus operandi is scarily realistic, and this is why he's among the most disturbing Pixar Villains.
In the end Flix barely beat Hopper. Flix knew of the bird and lead Hopper to it's nest. He was taking a risk cause the bird could have taken him instead of Hopper.
@@saphiriathebluedragonknight375 I mean, on the other hand, Flik's method of beating Hopper was proof that Hopper truly wasn't any stronger than the ants. No matter how much Hopper thought he was above other insects, both he and Flik could never deny that none of them can overcome beasts even higher on the food chain than them - beasts like the bird. In a way, Hopper's death was the result of him refusing to accept that he could never truly be on top, since higher predators like the bird are proof that he objectively is no higher than even the weakest ant.
It's true. Way back when, and even today's world, slave uprisings need to be put down quickly before they become a threat. Anyone ever work in retail? Don't let the paycheck sway you, it's mistreatment over coercion.
Ironically his savvy thinking was what lead to his downfall. Had he not tried to make an example by killing the ant queen the ants wouldn't rise up and him thinking the bird was a second fake bird was what killed him.
Hopper had an enormous effect on me as a child as well. I still remember hearing him tell the princess, "First rule of leadership: EVERYTHING is your fault." and even as a child I realized Hopper was different from other villains. Instead of being cartoonishly evil, he spoke harsh truths.
@@krofgninut5984 Same. Helped that my father made that abundantly clear in regards to responsibility. It might not be your "fault" but is still your responsibility.
@@tgbluewolf Instead, the instant he hears about dissent, he baits them by pretending to agree with them, kills them horribly to make a point and cows the rest into continuing with tormenting the ants. Fear doesn't fix the problems within the group; they just manifest again once the fear factor wears off via courage or something even scarier.
@@tgbluewolf When in the movie does things go wrong with his swarm other than the end, and when that happens, where does he deny responsibility? Disclaimer: This never happened.
My headcanon is that hopper didn't kill The little girl but only threatened her because he didn't want the ants to get too angry at them and start to revolt. He knew to retain power he needed to only threaten her.
I think its not just because of the anger. Its a hostage situation, a vulnerability. If you have a hostage, you can threathen to harm them, but you cant threathen to kill them convincingly, because if you kil them you lose all your bargaining power. As long as the ants arent aware that he isnt going to kill her, the baby is useful to him. And after they do figure it out and the baby is no longer useful, he can always just kill then to stamp out that smidge of hope that "oh he isnt going to do that, we are safe".
"GET. BACK. IN. LINE." Hoppers so assured of himself; his physical presence and confidence make hundreds of ants cower in the presence of one grasshopper.
Hopper's a good actor because he's not as confident as he pretends to be. He's aware that his power is an illusion but he's very good at maintaining that illusion.
@@tomnorton4277 yeah since Hopper act's more like a bully not only to the ants, but to his own goons as well to keep everyone in line and thinking he could get rid of them without a second thought
Taking real life into factor, one grasshopper would get torn to pieces by a swarm of ants. Must be pretty hard to walk around with the balls Hopper is carrying.
He's probably the most lawful evil you can get. He knows he's in the wrong, he sticks to his word and upholds his end of the bargain, and he's fully aware that he can be bested but he keeps at it anyways. Edit: Did not even notice the other reply lmao, but it goes to show it's a common sentiment ig.
Molt wasn’t originally Hopper’s brother but the writer thought it wouldn’t make sense if a non sibling would get away with al his foolishness in front of Hopper
Abraham makes a point. The only reason Hopper isn't Pure Evil is that he is honorable, as he kept his promise to not kill Molt despite really wanting to do so.
Hell, to look at it from a wider angle, Hopper isn’t even specifically a symbol of capitalism or big government, but the concept of exploitation in general, and that no matter who you are, there will always be people who will try to take advantage of you. That is a simple fact of life. What you must be able to determine is whether the other party is actually doing as they promised.
Agreed. The politics don't really apply beyond oppressor vs oppressed, which is very basic and has no loyalty to any "party", despite what op seems to think
This is accurate. OP brushes off the fact that the ants own all their shit and are actually having it stolen from them like it's not a legitimate talking point. Hopper is a Mob Boss not an entrepreneur
@@proantagonist5042 they did keep their mouth shut by sending his brother, but hopper earned villain points by figuring out it out and punishing the appropriate bugs.
There's an interesting detail at the start there when the grasshoppers break into the nest, one that shows how smart Hopper is as a villain. Who does he focus on when he gets in? He doesn't jsut kick around and yell at some random workers. No, he goes straight for the heirs to the throne, Princess Atta and Dot, both of whom he absolutely terrorizes. All the while, he completely ignores the actual queen. Hopper is intimidating the next generation into compliance.
First, he walks around while all the workers back up out of his path, just to flex his domination. He even pauses and changes direction for the hell of it.
Hopper's very tactical in the way he employs intimidation. He thinks several steps ahead in regards to maintaining his power, so it's only when something that he couldn't account for, like the bird at the end, gets involved that he's defeated. Actually, even after his gang abandoned him, Hopper was still pretty damn dangerous. His power wasn't completely fake because when push came to shove, he was still quick witted enough to take advantage of the sudden rainstorm to not only escape from the cannon but go straight for Flick, the one ant who tipped the power balance. If not for the bird's intervention, he would have killed the only ant who was brave enough to stand up to him without an army backing him up. I'm sure Princess Atta would have continued to stand up to him, if only to honour Flick's memory, because she outright threw herself between Hopper and Flick before Hopper could crush him, but the rest of the colony don't have the guts to fight back unless they're attacking in a group. Granted, killing Flick would have been a bit of a gamble because it would have resulted in a martyrdom but it also would have robbed the colony of their hero. A detail I love is the blink and you miss it moment where Dim jumps away from a drop of rain and Hopper glances up at him. In just a split second, he comes up with a plan to get out of the canon by simply rolling underneath Dim before he lands which simultaneously shoots him directly towards Flick. Hopper can think several steps ahead whilst also being intelligent enough to come up with plans on the fly, so without the intervention of the bird, I don't think the ants could have defeated him. At best, they could only have caused him to retreat for a while.
Not gonna lie, Hopper was the only character from Bug's Life whose name I remembered. He's actually a really good villain in that he's not blind to obvious disadvantage of numbers. He knows the grasshoppers are bigger and more imposing than the ants, and uses it to intimidate them into line. Unlike the other grasshoppers, he knows what'll happen if the ants catch on, and he's determined to make sure it doesn't happen.
What I like about him is that most villains are either written to be sympathized with or they dance around being evil/writers make them so over the top shitty to others that it just becomes a joke. Hopper isn't like that. He's written like a real person - explosive, hot-headed, but he doesn't act like an asshole 100% of the time to get the point across that he's a villain.
Man, Hopper's a really good villain. He wasn't just your bland, full of hubris, want all the power type of villain. He actually has the brain to know and admit that they are outnumbered by the ants and can beat them any day of the week. He knew how to use his menacing character to exude fear and power to those under him, not just for himself but also for the survival of his species. In other words, he's quite a deep villain and I love that. Glad to see more people now appreciate him and this movie.
Hopper discovering the power of humanity it's something terrific that works at the same time. Just imagine if one day, animals start to think beyond themselves like we humans did hundreds of millions of years ago.
I think its just very realistic depiction of the "elites". They know, they know they're dividing the masses, manipulating them into believing this is what we workers are meant to do, they're here feed the rich. Thats why big companies are so afraid of employees starting unions.
I've had my own "Once they realise they outnumber us" moment in real life. A while working at a warehouse as a labourer we had one member of the office staff that really used to lord it over us that they were in charge, even though they literally weren't and our floor supervisor outranked them. But one day they rest of the office were out and they were put in full control and boy did they ever let us know it, hounding us and micromanaging and criticizing us all day. Just after lunch they got us warehouse staff together to tell us how were were reflecting badly on their abilities as (temporary) boss and how we're all too lazy to be anything decent other than labourers. Well that one line was the last straw for me and everyone else as ALL of us, unprompted, took a step forward at the same time to protest. And I guess the sight of a half dozen pissed off blokes advancing on them made that office worker realise they were VERY outnumbered, as they quietly apologised and quickly retreated to the office and remained there the rest of the day.
Lol nice, kudos to you guys for standing up for yourselves! Sorry to hear you had such a bad boss though. I'm in a bit of a similar situation myself right now unfortunately, at my current job working in fast food (I won't say where exactly for privacy reasons). My old manager was so nice but then she got transferred and my new manager is just like your floor supervisor, constantly hounding me and micromanaging and criticizing me for not doing things perfectly or exactly the way they want me to. I can't stand it, I dread going to work now. I come home exhausted not only from the demands of the job itself, but also the constant eroding of my self-confidence by my manager. It's hard to explain exactly, but there's something about constantly being "corrected" and talked down to that's somehow physically draining in addition to being mentally taxing. It's like I'm being sapped of my will to live. I plan on getting out soon, as soon as I can find another job, but for now it really sucks and I think it's a shame because the place where I work used to be a pretty decent place as far as fast food restaurants go.
@Silent Solitude Would it make the story more realistic if I added that this person went right back to their old habits the next day and continued to be a dickhead for the remainder of their time at the company?
Honestly, the most apparent connection wasn't marxism or libertarianism. It was something like Attila the Hun. A foreign force people invade another and the invaded have to pay off their invaders to spare themselves only to encourage additional invasions. Like you said, the ants own the means of production. The actual monarchy analogy or 1% lives in there but as the queen and princess. While the Grasshoppers are a completely separate group from the already existing society with its own class structures. The Grasshoppers are their own people with no connection to the ants. They don't manage or directly rule them. They just occasionally show up and muscle around demanding to be paid off to leave or else.
@@lioraselby5328 If the Grasshoppers stayed I could see that but it doesn't appear that they actually care about taking over the place or even running it. The ants royal family runs everything and still has luxury and servants, but they have to keep paying off the Grasshoppers or else.
@@JP-rf8rr that’s literally how imperialism worked irl though! British India is a good example. Many Indian nobles were still allowed to rule their local kingdoms as long as they bent the knee to the Governor-General. And those princes definitely still lived in luxury. In fact some of them even were entitled to cannon salutes from the British military!
@@lioraselby5328 But the east Indian company stayed put. Built base of operations. And while many princes were allowed to rule, they had british overseers within India to react towards anything they did. If the Grasshoppers Kept a fraction of their people at the ant colony permanently (their own houses and everything) watching the queen and her progress THEN it would be a good analogy.
Something that I really love about Hopper is that he isn't bad because he's wrong. He's worse because he's absolutely right. The power of a group can outweigh that of others. But Hopper is also fully aware that it's not just the masses that make the difference, because they come from somewhere: individuals. In Men In Black, agent K explains to the new recruit why people couldn't handle truth. One person is smart, the hurd is dumb. People being free to think for themselves get ideas to defy the big power, the crowd just follows like a bunch of animals. The same way Flick managed to motivate the ants to fight back, Hopper did it to control them, so even on opposite sides, both still fall on the same position, just different messages. It gets even more complex when you consider Flick's journey, because he was the lowest outcast, seen as the pariah and banished by the highest individual of the society, which only answered to one higher power: Hopper. The fact Flick was banished to eventually create a solution against Hopper shows that him being an individual in his own colony defied its own power, where both Hopper and Flick basically changed who rules the ants. So... if you think about it, Hopper basically forced the group to accept this individual, almost congratulating him for not being like them. The idea of fear spreaded the grasshoppers, while the idea of bravery united the ants. I ain't even talking about politics or any sort of sociological ideology. These are just what happened in the movie, simply amazingly deep adult writing for a kids animation.
An individualist message like that would never be in a movie made today sadly. It's also going a bit far to compare it to a marxist uprising. for one thing the chance of a lasting improvement resulting from that are always 0.00% If you eat the rich, it's the equivalent of eating the entire worlds food supply for lunch. you destroy the job creators, and organizers who had set up companies and infrastructure to make the world work. things might seem better for up to a week but you just bought yourselves a century of dark ages. If you don't want to feel oppressed by those you work for, then support seperation of private business and politics. lobbying and the crazy agenda of certain politicians are how it got as corrupt as it is now.
@@zeehero7280 The rich don't create jobs, they just vacuum up the wealth and create pointless vertical hierarchies to justify their obscene paychecks while their workers starve. Meanwhile, the people who actually know how the orgainization works are stuck at the bottom living on scraps. And that's not even taking into account that most of the big name "Marxist" uprisings were hijacked by authoritarians who turned their nations into State Capitalist nightmares. Stalin and Mao ultimately ran their respective countries like corporations with the Politburo as the Board of Directors. There were still clear vertical hierarchies and a handful of fat parasites getting fat off of everyone's hard work. Not to mention their penchant for genocides runs counter to the intersectionality Communism and Socialism need to thrive.
Ehh it's not an individualist message it's a humanist message about using unity to overcome oppression. I hate this false dichotomy of individualism and collectivism we can and should have both.
@@zeehero7280 I think you're over estimating the importance of the rich & conflating them with organizers. The rich are predatory/parasitic by nature, if they weren't they wouldn't be rich. They need to extract more value than they put in to profit, that's basic economics. They claim ownership of ideas & land, and use their resources to legitimize the claims. They destroy the lives of others to enforce their rule(whether weeding out competition or thru exploitation) & sometimes just because they can. Organizers are important to help manage this increasingly complex world, but they are not always the rich. Organizers need to be kept in check, because they are inherently in a powerful situation. Power with no repercussion, inevitably leads to abuse. People have lived on Earth for a lot longer than we've had civilization. The way we live today isn't eternal, nor should we expect it to be. You're right tho, in that political reform would lead to a more stable transition. However, it's precisely because its the safest option for the people that it is hemorrhaged the most by those in power.
This particular scene made me rewatch the movie so many times my sibling shudders at the mention of it. The look on Hopper's face as the grain falls is just... so good. I like that he is actually written as smart and competent, but too egoistical to cut his losses and leave before it's too late.
I loved that scene! It signe handedly and logically explained why rulers can be cruel or do 'stupid' things that just upsets people. "Its not about food. Its to keep these ants in line!"
That scene is brilliant in every way. Hopper swears to his mother that he won't kill his brother, but it doesn't stop him from killing "lesser" grasshoppers or other bugs. Not even the tyrant respects his fellow tyrants. I hate that problems like this are considered "too political". It's the reality of our world and we should talk about it, not just as rich vs poor, but as the self-serving vs the protective. Right now we're seeing this the workplace, in healthcare, and on a global level. Even better, other grasshoppers are supporting the ants against those keeping them tied down. It's a nice change of story.
It's not the reality of our world, The Grasshoppers really don't benefit from the ants and the ants own the means of production, arguably it's the poor versus the rich story in reverse to an extent or it could just be seen as a simple anti-bullying message. But more on that larger numbers doesn't automatically mean an Advantage most of the time,also with the whole rich vs poor narrative well there is abuse that does happened another problem is not teaching the poor how to take care of themselves, how to manage money and getting the maximum benefits ect.
Oh for sure there's quite a few reeeeal greedy grasshoppers out there, some real stinkers, but then there's these grasshoppers over here that never really did anything wrong... they just dressed up like a jester and danced for a bit while the ants willingly threw them food, then there's the grasshoppers that shoveled right alongside the ants and did better, then got more food because they were exceptional workers. Some ants sit there and get free food by doing nothing, while others do very little. Other ants try to find faults with the ants around them, and blame said faults on what species of ant they're looking at, or even what insect they're looking at. Some very stupid ants get the idea that doing so takes down the grasshoppers specifically, when in reality it only helps that species of ant get more food for no reason. If society's issues were just "ant v grasshopper" then they would've been solved already.
@@eagle162 The poor are poor because the system is designed to produce poor people as wealthy people take advantage of poor people. Teaching the poor how to budget doesn't actually solve anything.
Hopper is one of my favorite villains due to how shockingly true to life his actions are. The whole reason he believes in what he does is due to a traumatic event in his life, he was almost eaten by a bird and he never wants to feel powerless again, so he bullies people smaller and weaker then him to feel empowered. How many people in real life are similar to Hopper? They felt powerless earlier in life so they become a try hard pushing others around to feel empowered, it's a never ending cycle. Even his really brutal death is poetic in itself, once again he's in the mouth of a bird only this time he's not getting out alive. All that effort to feel empowered by pushing around smaller beings, just to be effortlessly picked up and killed by things bigger then him, Hopper really is an underrated villain.
I actually feel bad for Hopper at the end. Can you imagine how terrified he must have been? Being eaten alive would be horrifying on its own but in his last moments, he was no doubt remembering the bird that scarred him. It's a horrible way to die and they got away with it in a children's movie.
I always much preferred this movie to Antz, I was working at a video store when they hit home release, and the public felt the same way. They would sadly rent Antz, only if a Bug's Life was all rented out. Good analysis.
Both films are entertaining but yeah, I’ve always preferred A Bug’s Life. The characters are a lot more likeable and the general art direction is stronger. Antz can be a pretty mean spirited film by contrast.
@@SaberRexZealot A lot of Woody Allen's work is that way. It's a cynical new yorkers perspective, neurosis was like his catchphrase. Only worth revisiting now if you're studying film history, tbh. But darkly funny, too.
My theory on how this started is that at some point, probably generations before the film, the Grasshoppers were a mercenary army that the Ants hired to defend their territory in exchange for a share of their harvest and overtime this relationship grew increasingly exploitative to the point that the Ants were effectively enslaved. This is the fate of damn near every nation that relied on mercenaries to protect them instead of raising their own army.
![Why Hopper is a Fantastic Villain [A Bug's Life]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/QNx3u5G_B5I/mqdefault.jpg)
Whoa, where’d all these views come from?! You know what? It doesn’t matter. I’m just glad you guys found me and I hope you’ll stick around by subscribing, because I’ve got a lot of future videos coming down the pipe!
you kidding me? this is good stuff, keep on the good work!
algorithm decided to shine a light
Yup
Scene had a huge impact on me too at 12 years old. The scene comes to mind every time our government lies, cheats and kills.
We needed more of our socialist propaganda fix 😌
I always appreciated this movie's whole "power in numbers" message. I love how Hopper straight-up admits that the ants could indeed fight back and drive them off but they don't have the courage to.
Power in numbers. Vision of one.
"TWEET TWEET!!"
Mob violence is how some of the worst regimes in history took power
Kind of like the Kulacks in the Ukraine...
@@gusmc2220 what? Are you insane?
Hopper is a very smart villain, if he wasn’t the size of a bug and was given actual powers, he would be an actual threat.
He knows the powers of numbers
He know all it takes is one voice to break his chains
He is extremely ruthless but also has a code of honor
Like president snow from the hunger games, voldemort from harry potter, the thing all tyrants fear is those that they oppress fighting back.
You are now making wish for a movie where Marvel's Ant-Man fights Hopper
after a Pym Particle makes the Grasshopper human sized, and becomes a supervillain.
well...code of honor might be a bit of a stretch... but he does understand he must balance brute force with something to 'offer' one might say he knows he needs to have an..accord.. that others will vaule.
Hopper would be a politician if he was a human character.
It's worth noting that a grasshopper changes into a locust, if, and ONLY IF, they become a swarm.
It's a strange phenomenon, but grasshoppers have caused some of the flashiest invasions in history. They've been a threat even to the human beings within the ecosystem.
Hopper is in a chilling, yet ironic position as a grasshopper, because grasshoppers in numbers are terrifying. *If given the opportunity...if Hopper and his clan lived long enough and multiplied....they might have actually been a threat to the entire ecosystem.*
Something tiny and not really that significant that I still love is that Flik and Hopper both come to the decision to use a small object as a metaphor for small things eventually becoming important. For Hopper, it's this scene, when he uses the grain as metaphor being powerful in their numbers. For Flik, it's when he uses a rock as a metaphor for a seed growing into a tree, which is also a metaphor for Dot growing into a queen. These two don't really interact much, so small things like this can work on giving them a connection. They both understand things the same way, but also very differently. I love it when heroes and villains have things in common like that.
That is an excellent observation!
I’ve been saying that for years. The scene shows you that flik and hopper are both as clever as each other. They both know how to imagine things and tell their story to those around them using those imaginary concepts. It’s setting up the fact that anything that hopper can think of, flick will eventually think of himself. So if Hopper knows that the ants are more powerful than the grasshoppers, eventually flik Will know it too.
“The one with the alleged sex pest?” “No, the other one with the alleged sex pest.” I swear to god, that actually just occurred to me as I clicked on this video. It started with me thinking “wait, wasn’t Kevin Spacey the villain in Antz? No, it’s Gene Hackman, Spacey played the villain in the other film…heeeeeyy…”
And they're both Lex Luthor.
@@nicholastosoni707 Ha! Maybe that’s why I was confused. You know, despite being a shitty human being, I do firmly believe that Spacey was by far the best live action Lex Luthor we’d ever had.
I do think A Bug’s Life is underrated too, I remember watching this movie all the time when I was a kid. Sure it has the typical liar reveled story thrown in, but a lot of the elements, like hopper, still work.
Spacey delivers a villain speech like no other. That he's such a ghoul in real life kind of enhances it.
It's interesting that you pointed out the rabbid grasshopper being used like an attack dog, cause when I was a kid, I understood that the bugs are supposed to be like people, so that scene really made me uncomfortable, just the idea of a group of "people" using a deranged and mentally unhinged "person" as a scare tactic.
I just like how Monsterful Media let the scene with Hopper and his crew play out and then pause it, and is quiet for a few seconds then quietly says "Jesus." It's honestly funny🤣🤣
imagine how op wasps are in this universe
3:45 a trivia, a coincidence, a little something that made this bit doubly funny for me: in polish dubbing same actor, who did Hades in "Hercules"- also did Hopper
Finally, someone made a video about that scene. One of the most comprehensive yet summarized viewpoints of Marxism. It couldnt be more succinct than Hoppers speech.
The reason this movie never really worked for me, is as a child, I watched a group of ants dismember a cricket, and take it piece by piece into the ant hill. Some of the legs were still twitchy going in. I just kept waiting for one of the ants to bite a grasshopper and say "hey, these guys are edible!" and end the movie that way. I mean, as tough as the movie made them appear, grasshoppers are prey, ants are predators.
7:25 YEAH, IT'S MOMENTS LIKE THIS THAT MADE THOSE THREE HOURS ON THE CROSS ALL THE MORE EXCRUCIATING.
"Eat the Rich" to quote It'sAGundam "you couldn't afford the calories"
I actually still love this movie. It really does hold up on animation, Voice Acting and its message
woah why doesnt this have more views? Great video!
Hopper was always a scary villain. But his ending was also sooo terrifying
Maybe it was hearing it using a VHS tape on a glass screen TV, but I never even noticed the sounds of the grasshoppers' screams while getting crushed by the grains. Great video.
I remember this movie very well, it was one of my favorite animated movies as a kid. Heck, I even remember playing the PS1 game over and over again. Just like you, it's been a while since I last saw it, but it's still a movie I have fond memories of. This scene certainly stuck out to me, though I doubt I fully appreciated the gravity of the situation at the time.
As the saying goes - there's strength in numbers
Hopper is unique because he is fully aware that the ants can overpower them, but uses fear and intimitation to "keep them in line"
There's nothing more scary than a villain that knows what stands up against them but can actually uses his intellegence to figure out how to be a threat
Awesome. Great choice. I love it.
In most other villainous scenes people pick villains with redeeming qualities, OSP Castlevania, a couple on Lex Luthor. Also the scenes break immersion with some extra powers and fictional design.
A bugs life in its art causes the viewer to not have this immersion initially. Nothing about it was analogous to reality until Hopper was introduced.
This is a true villain, with real world associations that are analyzed very cohesively in fun ways.
I would put this video in the top tier of submissions. Competing for first.
5:00 Not even Goofy-Pluto, it's just plain slavery. Like, with chains and all. In a Pixar movie. It's unbelievable.
Today I learned Kevin Spacy voiced Hopper.
It can also been seen as life under Communism, the people uprising is something that the CCP fears most.
"Sorry if I got a little too political for ya."
What are you apologizing for? This movie is literally politics. That's the point of the whole plot. If people can't handle that then the movie isn't for them.
It's cool to see essays on movies that have been swept away. But it's weird to see creatures like these be thrusted into a hierarchy as portrayed in video. Hopper's gang truly are banditos, hence their retreat to a sombrero. In the insect eat insect world of the movie, the ants maintain a small polity under their queen and a council of elders, the grasshoppers are not governors and therefore are not elites, much like the classics that inspired A Bug's Life, they are archetypical thugs. Hopper is much like the khans of history-those who extract tribute come and go; the poetic class-based retribution you seek is littered throughout history and movie captures that well.
Yeah exactly. I think OP is more or less projecting his own political interpretation onto what is essentially a group of bullies who come in and shakedown an already functioning society
It's the most one can hope for with the the former stories of the two harvest creatures in memory. Thanks for the effort and humor in this presentation.
I do what I can with what I’ve got.
I cannot look at the caterpillar from the Bug’s Life the same. ever since that Rick and Morty episode where a slugs planet was going to be destroyed by a meteor which summer ends up saving.
I feel like the grasshoppers more so represent slavemasters and the ants are slaves. They claim it's for the benefit of ant-kind, but we see that they're willing to leave them with little to no provisions, force them to work no matter what, and essentially own them. When a grasshopper is telling the queen what to do, what are you if not a slave? They have no rights in this situation, and retaliation would mean death. Hopper says they would lose their way of life if they don't keep the ants in line. The slaves finally revolt against their masters and are free to pursue their lives as ants. That's my takeaway,
7:08 what I love about this scene is that he didn't even change his tone or raised his voice when killing his men
Grasshoppers are literally feudal lords, there really isn't any other accurate way to compare them.
Mafia protection racket.
@@SukatoKjolen
Honestly they're kind of the same thing conceptually.
The funny thing is about this movie is that, despite getting ant biology seriously wrong, ants absolutely clap grasshoppers IRL, like many other bugs who cross ants learn the hard way why numbers + organisation > individual badasses. Same for bees too.
Likewise, humans are pretty pathetic physically speaking. We can endurance run, but pound for pound we are not very strong animals. And yet, we are the apex predator, we turned wolves into puppies just to add insult to injury. We can do this because we can organise.
So don't take it from an animated movie peasants, look to nature and see how nobody fucks with the bee hives and ants nests without finding out. BE ORGANISED..
I think there's something important to remember when talking about the greedy, fat-cat antagonists seen in too many movies to count: These studios and creative individuals all end up working for a company at the end of the day, so you have to wonder... Why would a company endorse a movie with such an anti-capitalist message? It's actually really simple; It's framed as such a caricature of the real deal that it feels like an utter fairytale. *Surely*, there aren't people as bad as Hopper, so this story is just hyperbole for the sake of weaving an engaging narrative. However, the second that you make Hopper pretend to sympathize for the ants, pretend to care about their needs, and have him frame any bare-bones support he might provide as a blessing, then it starts drawing parallels to real-world CEO's and it becomes a little too scary for the higher-ups. It gets even scarier for them if Hopper is shown to think of himself as a good person, just taking what is due to him for his hard work and writing off the people he hurts as lazy and inferior. Waternoose from Monster's Inc is probably one of the only antagonists I know of that fits this mold. He cares about Sully to a certain extent, and he seriously regrets banishing him and Mike, but only because of the value he's ascribed them based on their performance. At the end of the day, he supports the *very* fucked up things that Randal does because he feels he has to for the sake of the company, and that is incredibly real, especially for a kids movie. I fear that we may never see a character like Waternoose in popular media again, because if we keep seeing these 3-dimensional, corrupt CEO's, I think more people would start to look beyond the theater screen and question the power structure that we live under.
These characters can also be applied to non corporations such as governments or abusive family members
It has always been funny that they made baby birds the deadliest beings in the movie.
i remember this movie, hopper was a legit villain. villains always have motives that are like "omg symphatize with me 😢😢😢" while it's fine. But hopper is actually scary because of the power he holds, not only physical. But he rules through fear, it's probably the start of me liking mafia type characters. His motive is to live and live only, he's willing to go to extremes to keep him and his kind to be alive. Anything that gets in the way would get punished.
Awesome villain, because his motives align with us. To survive, it's just that he does it differently.
first of - thanks a lot for reminding me of that scene.
it is soo much simpler than most if not all more recent cg szenes. but it hits with just so much more force and conveys so much more.
towards the point your making at the end.
i think your wide off. you even preface it with all the details about where the story is derived from and then you wonder of to the contrived.
was the 7 samurai a analogy for the oppression via the ruling class, or was the western you refferenced?
7 samurai is placed in the sengoku perioud, where the absence of the ruling classes could cause as much or more problems for the population than their presence. (and the same was and is true across history, where ever there is bunches of armed men and a break down of civil order)
likewhise the western scenario rather demonstrates the affects of the lack of propper governance and order - in which's absence "might makes right" seems to become the order of business.
as far as the story goes
all the aspects about a bug's life that might be taken for marxist propaganda just as well, if not more so can be applied to argue the point of the movie being anti communist/russian propaganda that signifies the struggle of the former warsaw pact countries had to put up with - but this would be more contrived than it being a retelling of the stories listed prior.
or it could be a metaphor for the struggle of every and any people who fell victim to the predations of a violent and authoritarian outside group that only extracted resources, afterall we humans do have a very violent history in which every people was at times victim of, or oppressor to, some other people. - but that as well would be more contrived than it being a retelling of the stories listed prior.
To return to the point of there being so many grasshoppers in the world..... history rather lools like as if marxist rethoric has an uncanny tendency to end up being the rethoric of future grasshoppers.
I hardly care how rich someone is, it's about what you do with your hoard.
Hopper (me anyway) hard the darkest arc if all Disney villains. Control through fear, killing his own mean, treating to feed a child to an animalistic psychopath, attempting to kill royalty, relaxing on a bullet of all things, the getting ripped apart and eaten alive by baby birds.
i didnt remember this scene and i really liked the analysis you gave on it
A bug's life is such an under rated movie
Unlike you I forgot everything about this movie. It's nice to revisit this now thanks
"It's not always about the food spiderman, it's about keep them in line"
if that one grasshopper is meant to be a locust then it's more like a human-zombie situation than a goofy-pluto situation. but since they didn't say anything about avoiding turning into locusts as motivation for why they wanted the food. so idk.
Never paid much attention till I got older, but Hopper looks more like a Locust. Explains the larger size and higher aggression.
I saw it as more of a vassal state being forced into giving tribute
You should do more long form videos man, think you have the knack for it
That's funny: whenever I think of this scene, I remember the "baseball" scene from The Untouchables.
I don't think more equality equals communism
I like the why he told the other grasshoppers they could all get jumped.
I think you missed something about hoppers introductory scene.
At first, hopper only demands that they get as much food as usual, but as soon as Flick stands up to him, he DOUBLES the demand.
He knows they won't be able to do that. Hell, he knew they wouldn't be able to get as much as usual before the end of the summer. He doubled the demand as punishment at the expense of the ENTIRE colony for the actions of ONE ant. One single ant standing up against him.
This causes all the other ants to fight against Flick, instead of fighting the grasshoppers.
Also I did read this film as "grasshoppers are the gov and food is the tax" and I still agree with almost everything you said.
Things don't have to be black and white. Just cause we disagree on some things doesn't mean we can't be on the same page. We're still all in the same boat.
I will forever love bugs life! They can't take us all if we fight together!!! This counts for disadvantage communities and countries that need more reasources! 7:00
I remember seeing this when I was younger and that scene was stuck in my head for ever and it still is.
As far as politics are concerned, it's not really a Marxist proposition to support the ants. They live in a monarchy. The question is more about populism vs elitism. The grasshoppers ('the elite') run the show and feed off the ants ('the populace'). In my opinion, it sort of falls out of the left/right paradigm in the US as elitism exists above the normal political battles.
9:26 There's another clear parallel to be made here, but this is RUclips, so go ahead and figure it out on your own.
The "communist agenda" in this movie is a bit of a short-sighted take:
As already pointed out, the ants already own the means of production. *But* they are also self-organised, self-sufficient and from all we can see have no rival opponents, so the scenario is already setting up the grasshoppers as a force that came into a functional society to extract ressources. Oh. And there is also the fact the ants are a *actual monarchy(!)* Even better: A single exceptional individual uses his craftsmanship and engineering skills and in the end is elevated to basically the second to the new queen. Entrepreneur meets prince. If this had a sequel with another ant nation, we would look at a industrial juggernaut colony, supported by allied foreign mercenaries (the circus) crushing the other tribes with superior numbers and technology.
Back to the grasshoppers:
The grasshoppers do have no function, nor a place inside the ants economic or social structure and haven't even taken actions to undermine the local monarchy. It is very much a very hands-off foreign occupation.
With all that being said: It's such a simplified scenario, that a whole host of interpretations can be attempt, but in the end it's not that different from the Stephen King-esce scene of the "Nerd" group banding together to throw rocks at the bullies to drive them off.
Kevin Spacey must love playing villains because they let him reveal some of his true nature
My nephew loves this movie, along with Moana and the good dinosaur.
Doesn't have to be viewed hrough the left right dynamic. The throughline is this: coercion is immoral.
Disney villains of kids content back then hit different.
CAn't edit my last reply for some reason. You made my very point not mometns after I wrote that one, which I find funny. :)
Furthermore, "we're a lot stronger than you say we are...and you know it, too," is the principle behind the second amendment. (Bet you didn't think we'd go to THAT bit of politics, did you?)
The notion that the "ruling class" or "big government" or just "the mob" has a harder time dealing with the masses they oppress if the masses can rise up is exactly why the second amendment exists: imagine if the ants were all armed and knew how to fight, and had a culture that said "we protect what's ours." Think the grasshoppers would've gotten nearly as far?
The thing that gets Hopper though, isn't the ants, it's the bird. And unlike Hopper or the ants, it isn't given human traits, it's more like a force of nature. As such, I see the story as more karmic in nature than as a story about revolution.
This needs a sequel
Thumper takes up space I'm my head till this day and I'm 32
That speech Is properly the reason gen z throws riots no cap
Nice video my buddy thought you had way more subs for a sec well here’s to one more 🍻
“That would be an interesting argument to make, I don’t think it is as obvious as the other one.” - talk to more people and you will realize it really was obvious.
This was my absolute favourite film as a kid
Its a really good scene, I feel like the communism bent is legit but also just one take of it
Its a good conversation about power and resisting it
There is also that interesting effect of how flick as an inventor originally wants to use his tools to improve life for the ants, however in a world where the only thing the ants focus on is making enough food to support themselves and their overlords that kind of creative thinking is stymied and demonized, of course flick does screw up and gets the food lost, its that interesting effect where Flick is the one at fault because an idea of his had unforseen consequences, however if he had just knuckled under the nest would have starved and they would have kept on with that way of life, Flick makes numerous mistakes and their not all justifiable or even excusable, however he does grow from his mistakes and models for both the ants and the circus bug's that you need to stand up for yourself,
Bullies and Tyrants will wear any flag and spout any cause but having friends and wanting to do more than just keep your head down or give up at the first failure is a powerful message
Seeing the ants as the proletariat and the grasshoppers as the bourgeoisie seems to be missing the forgest for the trees imo. I think the much more obvious connection to make is slavery. In the south and in Haiti, slaves outnumbered their masters massively, to a ratio of 10:1 in some cases, and so the slave holders would use fear and denegration to keep the slaves in line. If one slave stood up they would be made an example of to stop others from doing the same.
Killing the queen/threatening dot is kind of an allegory. It doesn't matter what you do as long as it pisses people off enough to openly rebel.
If someone irritates the oppressor into doing something stupid then you win. If he doesn't then you also win because people lose respect/fear.
Essentially, oppression is not sustainable because of this mechanic. Thus why oppressors today shift blame and make up threats to justify their actions.
Speaking as a capitalist, the grasshoppers are an excellent example of government bureaucrats, just who don't offload their threats of violence to a bureaucratic system. They're lazy, they don't contribute anything to society, and they make demands of the labor of the people they pretend to serve while looking down on them. They're a better example of old-school aristocracy or nobility in late-stage decadence, OR (what they more closely map to) a post-anarchic warlord band.
But in the end, they are the antithesis of capitalism and the net result of socialism in practice: an oligarchy of the powerful who decide who gets the fruits of the labor of the masses. And, lo and behold, it's they who get the largest concentration per capita, while the proles work and slave away to produce it for them.
Edit: I literally wrote this moments before you pointed out you could have the argument that way. :D
I totally agree with you.
Exactly.
Thus movie is a bit of a fever dream, and I think it's the reason why caterpillars always have German accents in my mind now.
Unitil today, I never considered that he killed those 3, I assumed he just injured them under there which I suppose it possible
Thanks!
Lmfao you gave him money to push communist propaganda at you?
That is beyond ironic!
@@gusmc2220 No push needed.
@@Snake_G. ah yes well that makes sense...
_"If socialists understood economics, they wouldn't be socialists."_ -Frederick Hayek
You truly are one of their "Koristne Budale"
@@gusmc2220 sounds like you need a big ‘ol kiss, boy.
@@barthalamewburt3912 and you're adding exactly what to the conversation? Oh right absolutely nothing.
Maybe you can do what absolutely none of your 'comrades' have been able to do and tell me what product the grasshoppers were freely selling to the ants?
Because this story more accurately resembles the elite vs the workers under a communist state than anything even remotely capitalist
You guys hate Jeff Bezos so much just don't shop with Amazon, he can't FORCE you to give him your money or labor.
Now guys like Stalin, Mao, etc on the other hand...
I loved this, can't wait to see more stuff from you man!
Thanks!
Another thing you might have not caught is Hopper Is a locust while the other grass hoppers are regular grass hoppers. Both are the same species but when in groups they transform into more violent dangerous version of them selves.
I don't see Communism in this at all, the Ants are already a fully functioning society with a hierarchical structure. The Grasshoppers do not "rule" them, and the ants are not rising up against their own system. I would say it is more like a Protection racket, or as @Normal Man posted, " Also reminds me of the Viking raids and the practice of paying them off with the Danegeld to avoid being plundered" There is really no political statement being portrayed at all for anyone other than ideologically possessed, hyper political. Sometimes a story is just a story about good vs evil.
the fact that Hopper's mom had to have him swear not to kill his brother is hilarious to me
I find it more interesting that Hopper apparently loved his mother enough to keep his promise.
He maybe evil, but he respect the person who take care of him 😊❤
That one line made me wonder, how long have the Grasshoppers been exerting their power over the Ant Colony? Did Hopper take over this job from his Mother & this has been going on for generations? It would make sense given that older individuals in the Ant Colony such as The Queen & Cornelius are familiar with the situation.
@@And-ur6ol There are people in prison IRL that have done heinous shit that makes Hopper seem like a saint in comparison, that still swear by their moms.
@@KoopaXross moms wield power, no doubt.
one of my favourite anecdotes from history, is how a roman general (pre-Caesar) was about to march on Rome (he was in little asia at the time), and then the other senators got his mother to write to him, telling him that he could foget making himself dictator, after which he relented.
I should add that before his mom, other senators had beeen writing him to stand down, but without luck.
so the power of a mother saved rome a civil war.
Can we just acknowledge how absolutely brutal this movie was? First with Hopper threatening to have a CHILD devoured in front of a crowd, then the three guys being crushed to death by the grains, and then at the end the villain get shredded to pieces by three birds. It's a type of animated massacre that I miss on newer movies, it's that kind of nightmare you learn to appreciate the more you rewatch the movie.
Kids dig a little darkness sometimes.
@@MonsterfulMedia yeah. Funny to think I remember watching all these scenes as a kid and seeing nothing "wrong" with it, like: "hey, those three just died by being buried, the bad guy is really bad", and I only understand how violent this is nowadays. I honestly feel like what made older Pixar writers special was that they knew how little the children watching understood about what was going on at the screen, and how the visuals, directing and soundtrack were what really built the vibe that could make any thing more/less impactful. For instance, I was never shocked by the on-screen deaths in Bug's Life or The Incredibles, but the menacing atmosphere of the barracuda scene in Finding Nemo and the off-screen deaths that happen afterwards always terrified me beyond belief.
Real life is cruel-er than movie so it only make sense. If hopper represents capitalist, not too far off, especially considering that irl companies traffic kids to clean knives and regularly come in contact with chemicals at the slaughter house.
@@Susan-vn4ez yes, that makes sense. Man, I wish more Disney and Pixar movies could depict this kind of horrifying realism nowadays, no wonder the scenes in the older films are shocking to us, it's just not what we've come to expect from those studios after so long.
This is something Puss in boots 2 excelled at. They werent afraid to tackle PTSD & a villain with an intimidating presence and design
You usually have bad guys that get defeated because of their arrogance or the false belief that nothing can stop them, making them overlook the one element that can seal their doom.
But Hopper? He was completely aware that the ants could easily trump him and his gang if he allowed them to gain enough awareness of their strenght in unity and numbers, and did all he could to strike fear in the ants as much as possible, so to avoid any kind of rebellion from them. And indeed, even tho' Flik got intimidated by Hopper the moment he spoke up about the injustice the first time, it was enough to eventually spark in the ants the will to fight. Hopper's fears became true, despite everything he did.
His modus operandi is scarily realistic, and this is why he's among the most disturbing Pixar Villains.
In the end Flix barely beat Hopper. Flix knew of the bird and lead Hopper to it's nest. He was taking a risk cause the bird could have taken him instead of Hopper.
@@saphiriathebluedragonknight375 I mean, on the other hand, Flik's method of beating Hopper was proof that Hopper truly wasn't any stronger than the ants. No matter how much Hopper thought he was above other insects, both he and Flik could never deny that none of them can overcome beasts even higher on the food chain than them - beasts like the bird. In a way, Hopper's death was the result of him refusing to accept that he could never truly be on top, since higher predators like the bird are proof that he objectively is no higher than even the weakest ant.
It's true. Way back when, and even today's world, slave uprisings need to be put down quickly before they become a threat. Anyone ever work in retail? Don't let the paycheck sway you, it's mistreatment over coercion.
@@mrreyes5004 **"The world's smartest man, poses no more threat to me, than does its smartest termite."**
Ironically his savvy thinking was what lead to his downfall. Had he not tried to make an example by killing the ant queen the ants wouldn't rise up and him thinking the bird was a second fake bird was what killed him.
Hopper had an enormous effect on me as a child as well. I still remember hearing him tell the princess, "First rule of leadership: EVERYTHING is your fault." and even as a child I realized Hopper was different from other villains. Instead of being cartoonishly evil, he spoke harsh truths.
Me too; that particular line always stuck with me as a fundamental truth about the realities of leadership.
And just like in reality, he's hypocritical: HE'S a leader, but he doesn't take responsibility for the things that go wrong with his swarm.
@@krofgninut5984 Same. Helped that my father made that abundantly clear in regards to responsibility. It might not be your "fault" but is still your responsibility.
@@tgbluewolf Instead, the instant he hears about dissent, he baits them by pretending to agree with them, kills them horribly to make a point and cows the rest into continuing with tormenting the ants. Fear doesn't fix the problems within the group; they just manifest again once the fear factor wears off via courage or something even scarier.
@@tgbluewolf When in the movie does things go wrong with his swarm other than the end, and when that happens, where does he deny responsibility? Disclaimer: This never happened.
My headcanon is that hopper didn't kill The little girl but only threatened her because he didn't want the ants to get too angry at them and start to revolt. He knew to retain power he needed to only threaten her.
But he actually doesn’t kill dot…
@@arianabell9351 That's what they said
@@arianabell9351 I think he missed an "intend" so that Hopper never planned on killing her.
I think its not just because of the anger.
Its a hostage situation, a vulnerability.
If you have a hostage, you can threathen to harm them, but you cant threathen to kill them convincingly, because if you kil them you lose all your bargaining power.
As long as the ants arent aware that he isnt going to kill her, the baby is useful to him. And after they do figure it out and the baby is no longer useful, he can always just kill then to stamp out that smidge of hope that "oh he isnt going to do that, we are safe".
"They come, they eat, they leave" will be in my brain forever.
It's so eerie!
This may or may not have become my motto while working in the service industry.
@@GlenLauderdale They come, they eat, they use the wifi for 3 hours, they leave.
Anyone who works in a restaurant who sees a Karen on a regular basis and just pray they don’t cause a scene
That’s how the Mongols ruled Asia with their Vassal states
"GET. BACK. IN. LINE."
Hoppers so assured of himself; his physical presence and confidence make hundreds of ants cower in the presence of one grasshopper.
He reminds me of a teacher who once pulled that one on me when I cut the line at lunchtime
Hopper's a good actor because he's not as confident as he pretends to be. He's aware that his power is an illusion but he's very good at maintaining that illusion.
@@tomnorton4277 yeah since Hopper act's more like a bully not only to the ants, but to his own goons as well to keep everyone in line and thinking he could get rid of them without a second thought
Taking real life into factor, one grasshopper would get torn to pieces by a swarm of ants. Must be pretty hard to walk around with the balls Hopper is carrying.
I just wanted to say hopper seems like a man of his word, since he swore on his mothers deathbed he wouldn't lay a finger on his brother
Lawful evil
He's probably the most lawful evil you can get. He knows he's in the wrong, he sticks to his word and upholds his end of the bargain, and he's fully aware that he can be bested but he keeps at it anyways.
Edit: Did not even notice the other reply lmao, but it goes to show it's a common sentiment ig.
how many grasshoppers are apart of hoppers gang anyway
Molt wasn’t originally Hopper’s brother but the writer thought it wouldn’t make sense if a non sibling would get away with al his foolishness in front of Hopper
Abraham makes a point. The only reason Hopper isn't Pure Evil is that he is honorable, as he kept his promise to not kill Molt despite really wanting to do so.
Hell, to look at it from a wider angle, Hopper isn’t even specifically a symbol of capitalism or big government, but the concept of exploitation in general, and that no matter who you are, there will always be people who will try to take advantage of you. That is a simple fact of life. What you must be able to determine is whether the other party is actually doing as they promised.
It's a bug's life hermano
Agreed. The politics don't really apply beyond oppressor vs oppressed, which is very basic and has no loyalty to any "party", despite what op seems to think
This is accurate. OP brushes off the fact that the ants own all their shit and are actually having it stolen from them like it's not a legitimate talking point. Hopper is
a Mob Boss not an entrepreneur
Hopper is a Mad Max villian with brains.
@@iggytheincubus the oppressor vs oppressed perspective is the basis of Marxism tho
The grasshoppers who got rained by that grain really begged for it to stop before silence. Godamn that is dark.
That’s why you keep your mouth shut when you’re in a gang..
Eh, just sounds like they got knocked out, or too hard to hear rather than killed.
@@FalonGrey it’s a more powerful scene if they died.
Art and life, which imitates which???
@@proantagonist5042 they did keep their mouth shut by sending his brother, but hopper earned villain points by figuring out it out and punishing the appropriate bugs.
There's an interesting detail at the start there when the grasshoppers break into the nest, one that shows how smart Hopper is as a villain. Who does he focus on when he gets in? He doesn't jsut kick around and yell at some random workers. No, he goes straight for the heirs to the throne, Princess Atta and Dot, both of whom he absolutely terrorizes. All the while, he completely ignores the actual queen.
Hopper is intimidating the next generation into compliance.
First, he walks around while all the workers back up out of his path, just to flex his domination. He even pauses and changes direction for the hell of it.
Just like the leftists.
And he also comes up with the "external enemy threat"
Hopper's very tactical in the way he employs intimidation. He thinks several steps ahead in regards to maintaining his power, so it's only when something that he couldn't account for, like the bird at the end, gets involved that he's defeated. Actually, even after his gang abandoned him, Hopper was still pretty damn dangerous. His power wasn't completely fake because when push came to shove, he was still quick witted enough to take advantage of the sudden rainstorm to not only escape from the cannon but go straight for Flick, the one ant who tipped the power balance. If not for the bird's intervention, he would have killed the only ant who was brave enough to stand up to him without an army backing him up. I'm sure Princess Atta would have continued to stand up to him, if only to honour Flick's memory, because she outright threw herself between Hopper and Flick before Hopper could crush him, but the rest of the colony don't have the guts to fight back unless they're attacking in a group. Granted, killing Flick would have been a bit of a gamble because it would have resulted in a martyrdom but it also would have robbed the colony of their hero.
A detail I love is the blink and you miss it moment where Dim jumps away from a drop of rain and Hopper glances up at him. In just a split second, he comes up with a plan to get out of the canon by simply rolling underneath Dim before he lands which simultaneously shoots him directly towards Flick. Hopper can think several steps ahead whilst also being intelligent enough to come up with plans on the fly, so without the intervention of the bird, I don't think the ants could have defeated him. At best, they could only have caused him to retreat for a while.
@@tomnorton4277 a very precise noticement
Not gonna lie, Hopper was the only character from Bug's Life whose name I remembered. He's actually a really good villain in that he's not blind to obvious disadvantage of numbers. He knows the grasshoppers are bigger and more imposing than the ants, and uses it to intimidate them into line. Unlike the other grasshoppers, he knows what'll happen if the ants catch on, and he's determined to make sure it doesn't happen.
What I like about him is that most villains are either written to be sympathized with or they dance around being evil/writers make them so over the top shitty to others that it just becomes a joke.
Hopper isn't like that. He's written like a real person - explosive, hot-headed, but he doesn't act like an asshole 100% of the time to get the point across that he's a villain.
Also how can you not remember the name of *hopper*
the grass *hopper*
Man, Hopper's a really good villain. He wasn't just your bland, full of hubris, want all the power type of villain. He actually has the brain to know and admit that they are outnumbered by the ants and can beat them any day of the week. He knew how to use his menacing character to exude fear and power to those under him, not just for himself but also for the survival of his species. In other words, he's quite a deep villain and I love that. Glad to see more people now appreciate him and this movie.
Hopper discovering the power of humanity it's something terrific that works at the same time.
Just imagine if one day, animals start to think beyond themselves like we humans did hundreds of millions of years ago.
I think its just very realistic depiction of the "elites". They know, they know they're dividing the masses, manipulating them into believing this is what we workers are meant to do, they're here feed the rich. Thats why big companies are so afraid of employees starting unions.
I've had my own "Once they realise they outnumber us" moment in real life. A while working at a warehouse as a labourer we had one member of the office staff that really used to lord it over us that they were in charge, even though they literally weren't and our floor supervisor outranked them. But one day they rest of the office were out and they were put in full control and boy did they ever let us know it, hounding us and micromanaging and criticizing us all day. Just after lunch they got us warehouse staff together to tell us how were were reflecting badly on their abilities as (temporary) boss and how we're all too lazy to be anything decent other than labourers. Well that one line was the last straw for me and everyone else as ALL of us, unprompted, took a step forward at the same time to protest. And I guess the sight of a half dozen pissed off blokes advancing on them made that office worker realise they were VERY outnumbered, as they quietly apologised and quickly retreated to the office and remained there the rest of the day.
There's so much a person can stand
Props to you guys for standing up!
There are always "ants" willing to throw their fellow ants (you and your colleagues) under the bus, if it means getting their way - Very unpleasant..
@@Zetsuubou yep, specially when specific ants are promised to become a grasshopper after betrayal.
Lol nice, kudos to you guys for standing up for yourselves! Sorry to hear you had such a bad boss though. I'm in a bit of a similar situation myself right now unfortunately, at my current job working in fast food (I won't say where exactly for privacy reasons). My old manager was so nice but then she got transferred and my new manager is just like your floor supervisor, constantly hounding me and micromanaging and criticizing me for not doing things perfectly or exactly the way they want me to. I can't stand it, I dread going to work now. I come home exhausted not only from the demands of the job itself, but also the constant eroding of my self-confidence by my manager. It's hard to explain exactly, but there's something about constantly being "corrected" and talked down to that's somehow physically draining in addition to being mentally taxing. It's like I'm being sapped of my will to live. I plan on getting out soon, as soon as I can find another job, but for now it really sucks and I think it's a shame because the place where I work used to be a pretty decent place as far as fast food restaurants go.
@Silent Solitude Would it make the story more realistic if I added that this person went right back to their old habits the next day and continued to be a dickhead for the remainder of their time at the company?
Honestly, the most apparent connection wasn't marxism or libertarianism. It was something like Attila the Hun. A foreign force people invade another and the invaded have to pay off their invaders to spare themselves only to encourage additional invasions. Like you said, the ants own the means of production. The actual monarchy analogy or 1% lives in there but as the queen and princess. While the Grasshoppers are a completely separate group from the already existing society with its own class structures. The Grasshoppers are their own people with no connection to the ants. They don't manage or directly rule them. They just occasionally show up and muscle around demanding to be paid off to leave or else.
Also reminds me of the Viking raids and the practice of paying them off with the Danegeld to avoid being plundered
I see it more as a metaphor for imperialism tbh.
@@lioraselby5328
If the Grasshoppers stayed I could see that but it doesn't appear that they actually care about taking over the place or even running it. The ants royal family runs everything and still has luxury and servants, but they have to keep paying off the Grasshoppers or else.
@@JP-rf8rr that’s literally how imperialism worked irl though! British India is a good example. Many Indian nobles were still allowed to rule their local kingdoms as long as they bent the knee to the Governor-General. And those princes definitely still lived in luxury. In fact some of them even were entitled to cannon salutes from the British military!
@@lioraselby5328
But the east Indian company stayed put. Built base of operations. And while many princes were allowed to rule, they had british overseers within India to react towards anything they did. If the Grasshoppers Kept a fraction of their people at the ant colony permanently (their own houses and everything) watching the queen and her progress THEN it would be a good analogy.
Something that I really love about Hopper is that he isn't bad because he's wrong. He's worse because he's absolutely right.
The power of a group can outweigh that of others. But Hopper is also fully aware that it's not just the masses that make the difference, because they come from somewhere: individuals.
In Men In Black, agent K explains to the new recruit why people couldn't handle truth. One person is smart, the hurd is dumb. People being free to think for themselves get ideas to defy the big power, the crowd just follows like a bunch of animals.
The same way Flick managed to motivate the ants to fight back, Hopper did it to control them, so even on opposite sides, both still fall on the same position, just different messages.
It gets even more complex when you consider Flick's journey, because he was the lowest outcast, seen as the pariah and banished by the highest individual of the society, which only answered to one higher power: Hopper.
The fact Flick was banished to eventually create a solution against Hopper shows that him being an individual in his own colony defied its own power, where both Hopper and Flick basically changed who rules the ants.
So... if you think about it, Hopper basically forced the group to accept this individual, almost congratulating him for not being like them. The idea of fear spreaded the grasshoppers, while the idea of bravery united the ants.
I ain't even talking about politics or any sort of sociological ideology. These are just what happened in the movie, simply amazingly deep adult writing for a kids animation.
An individualist message like that would never be in a movie made today sadly. It's also going a bit far to compare it to a marxist uprising. for one thing the chance of a lasting improvement resulting from that are always 0.00%
If you eat the rich, it's the equivalent of eating the entire worlds food supply for lunch. you destroy the job creators, and organizers who had set up companies and infrastructure to make the world work. things might seem better for up to a week but you just bought yourselves a century of dark ages.
If you don't want to feel oppressed by those you work for, then support seperation of private business and politics. lobbying and the crazy agenda of certain politicians are how it got as corrupt as it is now.
is that osama bean laden
@@zeehero7280 The rich don't create jobs, they just vacuum up the wealth and create pointless vertical hierarchies to justify their obscene paychecks while their workers starve. Meanwhile, the people who actually know how the orgainization works are stuck at the bottom living on scraps.
And that's not even taking into account that most of the big name "Marxist" uprisings were hijacked by authoritarians who turned their nations into State Capitalist nightmares. Stalin and Mao ultimately ran their respective countries like corporations with the Politburo as the Board of Directors. There were still clear vertical hierarchies and a handful of fat parasites getting fat off of everyone's hard work. Not to mention their penchant for genocides runs counter to the intersectionality Communism and Socialism need to thrive.
Ehh it's not an individualist message it's a humanist message about using unity to overcome oppression.
I hate this false dichotomy of individualism and collectivism we can and should have both.
@@zeehero7280 I think you're over estimating the importance of the rich & conflating them with organizers. The rich are predatory/parasitic by nature, if they weren't they wouldn't be rich. They need to extract more value than they put in to profit, that's basic economics. They claim ownership of ideas & land, and use their resources to legitimize the claims. They destroy the lives of others to enforce their rule(whether weeding out competition or thru exploitation) & sometimes just because they can.
Organizers are important to help manage this increasingly complex world, but they are not always the rich. Organizers need to be kept in check, because they are inherently in a powerful situation. Power with no repercussion, inevitably leads to abuse.
People have lived on Earth for a lot longer than we've had civilization. The way we live today isn't eternal, nor should we expect it to be. You're right tho, in that political reform would lead to a more stable transition. However, it's precisely because its the safest option for the people that it is hemorrhaged the most by those in power.
This particular scene made me rewatch the movie so many times my sibling shudders at the mention of it. The look on Hopper's face as the grain falls is just... so good. I like that he is actually written as smart and competent, but too egoistical to cut his losses and leave before it's too late.
I loved that scene!
It signe handedly and logically explained why rulers can be cruel or do 'stupid' things that just upsets people.
"Its not about food.
Its to keep these ants in line!"
That scene is brilliant in every way. Hopper swears to his mother that he won't kill his brother, but it doesn't stop him from killing "lesser" grasshoppers or other bugs. Not even the tyrant respects his fellow tyrants.
I hate that problems like this are considered "too political". It's the reality of our world and we should talk about it, not just as rich vs poor, but as the self-serving vs the protective. Right now we're seeing this the workplace, in healthcare, and on a global level. Even better, other grasshoppers are supporting the ants against those keeping them tied down. It's a nice change of story.
It's not the reality of our world, The Grasshoppers really don't benefit from the ants and the ants own the means of production, arguably it's the poor versus the rich story in reverse to an extent or it could just be seen as a simple anti-bullying message.
But more on that larger numbers doesn't automatically mean an Advantage most of the time,also with the whole rich vs poor narrative well there is abuse that does happened another problem is not teaching the poor how to take care of themselves, how to manage money and getting the maximum benefits ect.
"No offense but... that sounds like some fucking commie gobbledygook." - Norm McDonald
Oh for sure there's quite a few reeeeal greedy grasshoppers out there, some real stinkers, but then there's these grasshoppers over here that never really did anything wrong... they just dressed up like a jester and danced for a bit while the ants willingly threw them food, then there's the grasshoppers that shoveled right alongside the ants and did better, then got more food because they were exceptional workers. Some ants sit there and get free food by doing nothing, while others do very little. Other ants try to find faults with the ants around them, and blame said faults on what species of ant they're looking at, or even what insect they're looking at. Some very stupid ants get the idea that doing so takes down the grasshoppers specifically, when in reality it only helps that species of ant get more food for no reason. If society's issues were just "ant v grasshopper" then they would've been solved already.
@@eagle162 The poor are poor because the system is designed to produce poor people as wealthy people take advantage of poor people. Teaching the poor how to budget doesn't actually solve anything.
@@TheCabalOnMars Way to miss the point by a thousand miles.
Hopper is one of my favorite villains due to how shockingly true to life his actions are. The whole reason he believes in what he does is due to a traumatic event in his life, he was almost eaten by a bird and he never wants to feel powerless again, so he bullies people smaller and weaker then him to feel empowered. How many people in real life are similar to Hopper? They felt powerless earlier in life so they become a try hard pushing others around to feel empowered, it's a never ending cycle. Even his really brutal death is poetic in itself, once again he's in the mouth of a bird only this time he's not getting out alive. All that effort to feel empowered by pushing around smaller beings, just to be effortlessly picked up and killed by things bigger then him, Hopper really is an underrated villain.
I actually feel bad for Hopper at the end. Can you imagine how terrified he must have been? Being eaten alive would be horrifying on its own but in his last moments, he was no doubt remembering the bird that scarred him. It's a horrible way to die and they got away with it in a children's movie.
I always much preferred this movie to Antz, I was working at a video store when they hit home release, and the public felt the same way. They would sadly rent Antz, only if a Bug's Life was all rented out. Good analysis.
Thank you so much!
Both films are entertaining but yeah, I’ve always preferred A Bug’s Life. The characters are a lot more likeable and the general art direction is stronger. Antz can be a pretty mean spirited film by contrast.
@@SaberRexZealot A lot of Woody Allen's work is that way. It's a cynical new yorkers perspective, neurosis was like his catchphrase. Only worth revisiting now if you're studying film history, tbh. But darkly funny, too.
I don't think it even needs to be said, of course everybody preferred this movie over Antz. Personally though, I hated Bugs Life as kid.
It's funny that at one point Disney was the one getting the short end of the stick when releases coincide.
My theory on how this started is that at some point, probably generations before the film, the Grasshoppers were a mercenary army that the Ants hired to defend their territory in exchange for a share of their harvest and overtime this relationship grew increasingly exploitative to the point that the Ants were effectively enslaved. This is the fate of damn near every nation that relied on mercenaries to protect them instead of raising their own army.
And if your nation has necromancers you can raise that army in more ways than one!
This sounds like it came from Metal Gear Solid.
@@gamechanger8908 and sounds like what the Senator would say
@@ultimateloser3411 Could have gone pro
Like what happen in the middle east, the us basiclly got them by the ball just because their people ask for help.