12/14/2023 0 Comments Stick bug from bugs lifeAdditionally, the setting, in the desert, inside a sombrero, plays on stereotyped images of Mexican culture. The implication here is that the mosquitoes are Mexican, and the representation of a blood-sucking insect as Mexican, by an American company and for a Western audience, creates a parallel with the anti-immigration ideology that Mexicans are stealing the jobs of Americans here they are literally parasites. “La Cucaracha” is played by a band of mosquitoes, and the grasshoppers eat out of what appears to be an empty tequila bottle, being served by mosquitoes, who they address in broken Spanish. While the ants gather food, the grasshoppers spend the summer season in a sombrero, evidently in the middle of the desert. This creates a picture of them as buffoons with funny accents they are seen as backwards in comparison to Western characters and the Western audience to which this film is aimed. They are one of the few insects on the protagonists’ side who have more than four legs, most are humanized and have only four limbs the additional limbs help in reducing them to a lesser status. The pillbugs’ status as foreigners is a running joke no one understands them, they make comments out of turn and without context, and have little understanding of serious events happening around them. They have thick eyebrows and speak a foreign language, which appears to have Slovak origin, while all other characters speak English with American accents (with the exception of the praying mantis). The two pillbugs in the troupe are presented as buffoons. This adds up to create an Orientalist image of the Asian mystic, with Westerners portraying the apparent exoticism and mystery of Asia (Said, 1978). In fact, the audience is introduced to the character while he is in a trance. Additionally, throughout the film the praying mantis speaks slowly and gives advice in such a way as to paint him as the stereotypical wise old man a la Confucius. Throughout his act he calls on the spirits, noting that this magic comes from “the mysterious region of uncharted Asia,” emphasizing an Orientalist mind frame of exoticism and mysticism towards the Far East. In the circus troupe’s act, a praying mantis does a disappearing act using an empty Chinese take-out container. It presents problematic scenes in terms of gender and race, but also presents empowering moments for women. In this movie, an ant named Flik, the main character, hires a crew to take care of the grasshoppers, not realizing that they are actually a circus troupe. It follows the “ants and the grasshopper” narrative from Aesop’s Fables, in which the ants gather food all year to prepare for winter, and the grasshopper takes the food from them. A Bug’s Life is a Disney/Pixar film made in 1998.
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