- “Now let me tell you how things are supposed to work: The sun grows the food, the ants pick the food, the grasshoppers eat the food...”
- ―Hopper to Princess Atta
The Grasshoppers are insects led by Hopper and the primary antagonistic group of Disney•Pixar's 1998 animated feature film A Bug's Life. They are notorious in bullying the ants into collecting food for them. When they are not terrorizing the insects of Ant Island, the grasshoppers are seen in Hopper's Hideout.
Background
Under the tyranny of Hopper, the ant colony annually collects food for the grasshoppers during the springtime. If the food is not sufficient enough for the grasshoppers or if the food for the Offering Stone is lost, the ants receive consequences from the grasshoppers and their leader Hopper for the loss of their food. However, during Flik's plans to find tougher bugs to fight against the grasshoppers, Flik managed to devise a strategical plan to fight against them along with the whole ant colony and the Circus Bugs. Thanks to this, the battle was successful and the ants no longer collected food for the grasshoppers as they were all banished from Ant Island with Hopper eaten alive by a bird.
Members
- Main article: Hopper
An unusual duo of grasshoppers who are from Hopper's gang, Axle and Loco have a different size comparison. Loco is well-built with a long face and taller than his companion Axle who is shorter with a wider face and one of his antennae cut in half. During Hopper's plan to take over Ant Island, he buries the duo, along with a third unnamed grasshopper, in a large pile of grain to make a point on how the ants will soon realize their better advantage over the grasshopper gang if left unchecked. Despite this, the aforementioned duo weren't killed by the incident, as they can both be later seen a handful of times along with the others, most recognizably during the plan to scare off the grasshoppers with help from the Circus Bugs, where Axle and Loco are seen enjoying the performance while Flik and The Blueberries are in the background sneaking up a tree to the fake bird.
Loco is voiced by Carlos Alazraqui and Axle is voiced by the late Jan Rabson.Role in the film
After Flik causes all the food for the grasshoppers to fall into the water, a gang of grasshoppers begins to descend downward toward the ant colony, attacking them for losing their food. Hopper then warns the ants that if the last leaf falls and the ants do not collect twice the amount of food that was anticipated, the grasshoppers plan to take over Ant Island.
Later in Hopper's Hideout, after spending a vacation there, Hopper intends to travel back to Ant Island to get food before winter, despite the initial dissent of three of his cronies Axle, Loco, and another unnamed grasshopper. After the last leaf falls during Flik's wrongful banishment by Atta and her mother during the climax of the film, the grasshoppers take complete control of Ant Island upon finding that the food offering is much less than desired and demand every last scrap of food on the island until the ant colony finally fights back and take their island back in which they retreat (without Hopper) defeated. After this, it is unknown what became of the grasshoppers or where they escaped to; however, Hopper is devoured by the bird's chicks after Flik and Princess Atta lure him to her nest, and Molt moves to Bug City and joins P.T. Flea's circus act.
Trivia
- They are based on the bandits from Seven Samurai and The Magnificent Seven, with Hopper being the equivalent of Calvera from the latter movie.
- While the entire gang appears to number 21 grasshoppers including Hopper himself and the four other named members (Molt, Thumper, Axle, and Loco), certain scenes, mostly at their hideout, hunch that there may be even more.
- The closest real-life equivalent to them is the Euthystira brachyptera, belonging to the Acrididae family.
Gallery
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