Atta is the primary female character and the deuteragonist of Disney•Pixar's 1998 animated feature film A Bug's Life. She is the princess and then later queen of the ant colony.
Princess Atta is the crown princess ant, the eldest daughter of the Queen of the ant colony, and heir to the throne of Ant Island. During the opening of the film, she is close to inheriting the crown from her elderly mother. She is very nervous throughout the film, regarding her new-found responsibilities, and often worries about what the rest of the colony thinks about her.
Personality
Regarding her upcoming ruler status of the colony, Princess Atta is incredibly nervous and worries about every detail about the flow of the colony. She is obsessed with perfection, hoping this trait will make her more likable with her subjects. Atta especially worries about the food offering to Hopper and the other grasshoppers. However, as the film progresses, she becomes a bit more relaxed through the words of her mother and her blossoming relationship with Flik, both of which seem to calm her down.
Role in the film
During the film, it is shown that she scolds her little sister Dot (along with her mother) for trying to fly before her wings grown in while she gets bigger. Atta is preparing to succeed her mother as Queen of the ant colony by assisting with leading the food collection for the grasshoppers, which makes her very nervous. She has a small crush on Flik, but it is not obvious at the beginning of the film, as she does not show much appreciation for him at all, especially when she gets crushed by a stalk that Flik has cut down with his latest invention. When Flik accidentally destroys a pile of food gathered for the grasshoppers, causing Hopper, leader of the grasshoppers, to double the amount of food offering the ants must gather before the next autumn, Atta initially sentences Flik to dig in the tunnels for one month but comes to accept his decision of going to the city to recruit some warrior bugs (assuming that Flik will not be around to cause any more trouble).
When Flik returns to the island with the circus troupe he has mistakenly recruited, Atta becomes suspicious of the circus bugs and demands Flik to tell what is happening about them. However, after witnessing a nearly deadly bird attack in which Flik and the circus bugs save the life of her little sister Dot, Atta sees that the circus bugs may be warriors and warms up to them as she apologizes to Flik for mistreatment. When Atta tells Flik that Hopper is afraid of birds, Flik kisses her and she is touched, and this gives him and the circus bugs an idea to build a makeshift bird that can be controlled from the inside. Atta consents to this plan and announces to the ants that they will work together to scare away Hopper should he return to the island.
While the ants build the bird model, Atta starts to realize Flik's love for her when she notices him staring at her in a different way and her feelings for him seem to grow slightly stronger. She later thanks Flik for finding the "Warrior Bugs," getting her antennae tangled with Flik's in the process. However, when P.T. Flea arrives and exposes the truth about the circus bugs, Atta becomes disappointed in Flik, and seeing him through his craziness and lies, she selfishly and wrongfully has him banished which would later put herself, the queen and the colony in grave danger, something Atta would come to regret. After that, she orders the ants to gather up whatever food they can find on the island, but they are unable to satisfy the quota demanded by Hopper, which leads to him taking control of the island. Atta realized in horror she had made a fatal mistake banishing Flik and the circus troupe.
That night, Flik (who has secretly returned to the island upon hearing from Dot that Hopper is going to squish her mother after all the food on the island has been gathered) exposes the truth behind Hopper's need for the colony, and reveals Hopper's evil plan, shocking the whole colony, especially Atta; Dot takes the opportunity to tell her that he's not lying. Atta and all the other ants listen to Flik's speech despite being beaten by Thumper thanks to P.T. Flea's interfering, and they all become astonished to realize what the grasshoppers have been putting them up to. When Flik is about to be killed by Hopper, she rushes into his defense. In support of what Flik has said, Atta demands that the ants pick up the food, keep the food, and the grasshoppers leave, causing the entire colony to chase away the grasshoppers. She helps Flik up, expressing her pride in him for his bravery and outspokenness, showing she has forgiven him. When Flik is kidnapped by Hopper, who is attempting to fly away with him, the circus bugs attempt to chase, but they only get his antenna, but Atta rescues him from Hopper. Under Flik's instruction, she takes him across the stream where the bird's nest is located and watches worriedly as he deals with Hopper. The bird catches Hopper, who had mistaken her for another fake bird and taunted her, which causes her to shriek angrily at him. Atta pulls Flik to safety, and they hide while cringing as the bird lowers Hopper into her chicks' beaks and putting his reign of terror and insult on the ant colony to an end.
At the conclusion of the film, when the circus bugs are about to leave the island, she thanks them for giving back the colony's hope, dignity, and lives and receives a rock, which has magically appeared by Manny's tricks, as a gift. When the ants applaud Flik for his heroism, Atta shows her love for him by kissing him. The Queen then gives her crown to Atta as she is made the new Queen. Atta tosses her own tiara to Dot. As Flik says good-bye to his friends, Atta and Dot fly him to a tree root for a better view. There, Atta holds hands with Flik, her chosen mate, as they, along with Dot, wave goodbye to the departing circus troupe.
In real life, the Queen of the Ant Colony would be the mother of all the ants in the colony since the duty of a queen ant in nature is to lay the eggs that will form the colony. So, while Atta and her sister Dot are princesses as the only daughters of the Queen in A Bug's Life, in real life, Atta and Dot would be just two among several other ants of the queen's offspring.
Atta is named after the genus of ant of the same name. Ants of the genus Atta are leaf-cutter ants.
Her name is also the Norwegian word for eight.
She and Dot are the first Pixar characters to be Princesses, followed by Merida, although Merida is officially a Disney princess.
In the bloopers, Dr. Flora accidentally calls Atta "Princess Abba". Abba is a reference to the Swedish band of the same name.
Also during the bloopers, it is shown she "stuffed up" quite a lot of takes. Whether it be bursting out laughing while trying to say a line, tripping over the set, or getting her antenna caught on Flik's.
She is the first Pixar character voiced by Julia Louis-Dreyfus, the second being Laurel Lightfoot in Onward.
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