The Philosophy of Pixar: A Bug's Life

A Bug's Life has a strong Marxist theme to it. Marxism deals with class struggles and a rallying cry from the oppressed masses against the bourgeoisie. The ants represent the proletariat. Their only valuable resource is their physical labor since they are uneducated. In fact, the grasshoppers and Hopper especially is against allowing the ants to start thinking for themselves. Near the end of the movie he tries to put Flik back in his "place" by saying, "Let this be a lesson to all you ants: ideas are very dangerous things. You are mindless, soil-shoving losers put on this earth to serve us!" Hopper is smart enough to know that if the ants realize that there are more of them than the grasshoppers, they could easily overpower them. Hopper recognizes the danger of ideas and knowledge. In order to keep class struggles from occurring you need to keep knowledge away from the masses.

At the beginning of the movie Flik is disillusioned with how the power dynamic is situated. He decides to rise against the grasshoppers and travels to the big city to find heroes to fight the grasshoppers. At this point of time, Flik is still afraid of the grasshoppers and does not think that he can rise up against them himself. Hopper perfectly encapsulates the bourgeoisie as he uses fear as a tool. His companion, Thumper, is used as a scare tactic. He sics Thumper on the ant princess, Dot, and it finally inspires the ants to rise against Hopper. Dot represents the innocent party of the proletariat who is hurt the most by the bourgeois. The hurting of the innocent becomes a rallying cry of the ants, as they finally realize that they greatly outnumber the grasshoppers. They discover that the grasshoppers are scared of them. In the finale Flik summarizes the class struggle debate by saying, "Ants are not meant to serve grasshoppers. I've seen these ants do great things, and year after year, they somehow manage to pick enough food for themselves and you! So who's the weaker species? Ants don't serve grasshoppers! It's you who need us! We're a lot stronger than you say we are. And you know it, don't you?"

A Bug's Life shows the struggle of the working man classes against the entitled rich. It tells of the power of fear mongering, and how knowledge and ideas can be very influential. It's the story of the revolution and redemption of the every day man.

Image result for a bugs life

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Philosophy of Pixar: Brave

Image
"Brave" is Pixar's feminist take on a traditional Disney princess movie. Something that makes "Brave" stand out from a traditional princess movie is the lack of a romantic prospect or subplot. The movie instead focuses on the relationship between Merida and her mother, Elinor. This movie was very progressive as it focused on a female relationship that did not revolve discussing men or being witty sidekicks. It shows the generation gap between Merida and her mother. Merida refuses to be given away in marriage and proudly proclaims that "I'll be shooting for my own hand". Merida does not fit in the traditional roles of ancient Scotland. She places her bow on the table, climbs dangerous cliffs, and excels at archery. At one point, Merida literally breaks out of her antiquated gender roles as she rips her stifling dress in order to shoot her bow. Elinor represents the older generation that does not understand why progress would be needed when she is ...
Read more

The Philosophy of Pixar: Up

Image
"Up" is one of my all time favorite movies. The montage of Carl and Ellie's love story leaves me in tears every single time I watch it. This movie I feel is the most human of all of Pixar's movies, even though it features a house lifted by balloons. This movie expertly weaves through the joy and heartbreak that comes with life. The annoyances of present struggles and the fears of the future. After Carl loses Ellie, he becomes a grumpy old man. The house that he and Ellie built together has come to symbolize her. It embodies her spirit with the mural she painted on the wall and her armchair. When Carl is forced to move from his house, he simply can't move as that means letting go of Ellie. So, he does the rational thing and literally moves his house. Throughout their childhood Paradise Falls has come to represent their dream. When Ellie dies before they are able to visit it, Carl decides to take her to Paradise anyway. Along the way he meets Russell, an adorable ...
Read more

The Stories that Bind Us

Image
"The Stories that Bind Us" was an article written for the New York Times by Bruce Feiler. The thesis of the paper states that knowing about your family and your family history makes you more resilient. There are different kinds of family narratives that are commonly used in a family structure. The first is an ascending family narrative. This is shown in the song "Started From the Bottom, Now We're Here". This is when the family says that they started with nothing and grew into the family structure that they have today. The second is a descending family narrative. Where they say that they used to have it all, but descended into the family they have today. The healthiest narrative according to Feiler is the oscillating family narrative. This narrative mixes the ups and downs of the family's history. They are very insistent that they got to where they are today by having strong family bonds. I am very lucky to have a strong family. I was able to answer all t...
Read more