A Bug's Life Characters:
The Grasshoppers
The Grasshoppers in A Bug's Life are some tough characters. They are like a formidable motorcycle gang ruling through force and intimidation. They eventually learn that they cannot reign over the ants in this way any longer once the ants gather the courage to stand up to them and fear them no longer. Who are these bad boys?
Hopper
The huge, intimidating, angry leader of the grasshopper gang, Hopper is blind in his right eye (it's cloudy looking) from a bird attack. Because of this, Hopper is very afraid of birds. His ambition is to keep control over the hundreds of ants in the colony on Ant Island for his benefit.
With mafia-like bullying, he forces the ants to give the grasshoppers food twice a year so that they can relax and enjoy their lives; Hopper gets massages and hangs out in a hideout somewhere in the desert.
The other grasshoppers he rules over are nothing but dumb goons; Hopper seems to be the cleverest in the bunch. He knows that their dominance over the ants is an illusion, especially when he lectures his brother Molt about returning even if they don't need to. "If we let one ant stand up to us, then the other ants, who outnumber us 100 to 1, will all stand up to us."
When the grasshoppers return to Ant Island, they see that the food offering is far less than what they expected. Hopper then takes over Ant Island and threatens to kill the Queen.
This sets the plan using the model bird into action to bombard Hopper and the other grasshoppers. He soon discovers that it's a fake, and wants to get Flik when he realizes it was Flik's idea.
In A Bug's Life, Flik and the other ants attack Hopper and stuff him in the circus cannon, but at that moment, it begins to rain, causing panic among the ants as they scurry for shelter. Hopper gets out and kidnaps Flik, who is soon saved by Princess Atta. Clever thinking on Flik's part leads Hopper next to a bird's nest where Hopper is picked up by a mother bird and is fed to her chicks.
Molt
Molt is Hoppers younger, very chatty brother. Hopper despises Molt greatly because of Molt's incompetence and and even had to promise their mother not to kill him! Molt appoints himself as Vice President of the gang by virtue of his brother being the leader. Despite being a part of the gang, Molt's a good guy deep down and at the end of A Bug's Life, Molt joins the circus to be the strong man.
Thumper
This is one scary grasshopper! Thumper is more like a wild, viscious attack dog than an insect: he's uncontrollable and crazy, but will do Hopper's bidding at the snap of a finger.
He regularly beats and brutalizes any bug who disobeys Hopper. Thumper also likes to just frighten other bugs to death and enjoys the threats Hopper makes to other bugs.
At one point in A Bug's Life, Thumper tries to scare Princess Dot yet again, but Dot has since built up courage in herself. She stands up to Thumper and punches him then tells him to go home. This angers Thumper even more as he roars at Dot, but Dim the giant Circus beetle comes up from behind and roars back like a dinosaur and that finally makes Thumper back down.
The funny part about Thumper happens at the end credits. It shows him as an actor portraying his part as a scary and crazy character. He's actually an articulate and intelligent actor pondering some techniques he can use to be even more frightening. It was such an opposite of how he played in A Bug's Life which made it a hilarious outtake!
Axel
A rather minor grasshopper character who is easy to overlook, Axel is the one who comes up with the idea not to return to Ant Island. He's sneaky about it, though, and convinces Molt to suggest the idea to Hopper, as Axel believes he'll get walloped a good one by Hopper if he were to voice his opinion.
Loco
Loco is Axel's buddy and he joins Axel in convincing Molt to present the idea of not returning to Ant Island as his own. Both Loco and Axel are a bit cowardly when they act this way and they got what was coming to them when Hopper found out and buried the two of them in a pile of nuts at the end of A Bug's Life.
All movie stills are copyright Pixar/Disney
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