According to IMDB, the 1998 Disney film “A Bug’s Life” is about “[a] misfit ant, looking for ‘warriors’ to save his colony from greedy grasshoppers, recruits a group of bugs that turn out to be an inept circus troupe (Pixar, 1998).” The children’s film is about more than that however, “A Bug’s Life” is about a group of bugs trying to change the deeply-ingrained culture of an already present society.
The story displays culture in what the ant colony believes about their relationship with the grasshoppers. The definition of culture is “shared beliefs, values, and practices, that participants must learn” (Openstax 2014). In “A Bug’s Life”, one of the main antagonists of the movie explains the norm in his evil monologue. Hopper says “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…” (Pixar, 1998). This is not only what Hopper believes, but what the rest of the colony believes, as they adhere to this observation, and therefore instruction, to the letter, not as individuals, but as a group. When someone stands out from that culture, then the rest of the colony either forces
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Culture lag could be defined as “the gap of time between the introduction of material culture and nonmaterial culture’s acceptance of it” (Openstax 2014). Princess Atta, being a representative of the colony and a symbol of Flik later becoming accepted back into the colony, says “I would like to speak with the so-called ‘warriors" (Pixar 1998), after meeting the warrior/circus bugs for the circus bugs for the first time. The colony initially rejects the idea of fighting back, as it goes against everything that already exists in their culture. Eventually, they grow to accept and embrace this change in culture, and topple the hierarchy that exists between the ants and the grasshoppers using a fake