Accidental Aesop: Setting up something important next to a river makes for a really bad idea. The ant colony learned this the hard way by losing their initial Food Offering for the grasshoppers, because they decided to set it up next to a river, and sure enough, all it took was one accidental push from Flik to break the Offering structure, which resulted in all the food being lost to the river. Had the ant colony just put the Food Offering more inland, the Offering wouldn't have been lost.
Adorkable: Flik of the 'socially awkward yet adorably sweet' inventor-variety. It shows best in his interactions with Atta. Plus, his eagerness to do good for the colony and make a difference is quite endearing.
Alternate Character Interpretation: Was Atta's banishment of Flik purely out of anger for lying to her about the circus bugs, or was she telling him to leave in order to spare him from Hopper's wrath when the grasshoppers arrived?
Angst? What Angst?: Molt got over Hopper's death pretty darned fast as he is happily joining the circus that played a hand in his elder brother's defeat. But then again, seeing how he treated Molt arguably worse than he did the ants of Ant Island, perhaps it's understandable. Not to mention there's a timeskip between Hopper's death (sometime during the fall) and the ending of the movie when Molt leaves with the circus (taking place in the spring), giving him a good few months to get over it.
Applicability: Much has been made about Flik's speech about how the ants are superior to the grasshoppers for being able to provide for themselves and Hopper's gang. This post, for instance, likens the ants to mistreated workers and the grasshoppers as the heads of corporations that don't care about their workers.
A villainous example. As tragic it is to see the ant colony be forcibly taken over by the grasshoppers late in the film; to most, it also comes across as darkly satisfying Humiliation Conga given the ants have up to this point been mostly nasty jerks to Flik and drove him and the circus bugs off for lying, despite them proving their moral fiber and giving a sound plan.
The ants finally standing up to the grasshoppers in the film's climax after Flik's "Reason You Suck" Speech to Hopper and chasing Hopper's gang off the island. Special mention goes to Atta's Ironic Echo to Hopper's "circle of life" speech earlier in the film and Dot smackingThumper.
Any of the two times Hopper reacts in fear. First when he is attacked by the fake bird and then when he is confronted by a real one.
Cliché Storm: The movie follows the liar's journey to a tee without much variation. This is especially the case when Flik's Liar Revealed moment finally comes around, and it plays out in the most basic way possible.
Complete Monster: Thumper is a vicious grasshopper who serves as Hopper's chief enforcer and terrorizer of the ants. Introduced being physically restrained so he doesn't kill every ant around him, Thumper takes a sadistic interest in tormenting and trying to kill young Dot, laughing in glee when he's pushed her to her apparent death. Later leading the charge in enslaving the ants to Hopper's will, Thumper is set up to guard the Queen until Hopper crushes her to death. When Flik's plot to scare the grasshoppers with a fake bird is discovered, Thumper is given the go-ahead by Hopper to indulge in his sadistic brutality, at which point Thumper subjects Flik to a brutal, torturous beating. Though following Hopper's commands for a time, Thumper reveals himself a coward who ditches Hopper as soon as he has to face a bug bigger than himself.
Cry for the Devil: Even though Hopper was a cruel villain who had it coming, some feel bad for him during his death scene considering how utterly horrifying it is. Not helped by him begging for his life while in complete panic.
Diagnosed by the Audience: It's never explained why Thumper acts like a rabid animal, being an Ax-CrazyPsycho for Hire who communicates (almost) entirely in non-verbal vocalizations like screeching, roaring, hissing, and snarling, to the point that the other grasshoppers literally keep him on a leash during his Establishing Character Moment, when every other grasshopper seen in the movie is shown possessing human-level intelligence.
Ending Fatigue: The film's final act essentially consists of three separate climaxes coming right after each other. Flik and the Blueberry Scouts initially use the fake bird to scare Hopper and his followers, then after this goes wrong Flik uses a Rousing Speech to finally rally the ants against Hopper as they forcefully overpower him, and then the rain comes and an entire chase scene ensues before Hopper is finally eaten by the real bird.
Estrogen Brigade: Because he's a dork, Flik seems to be really popular among female fans, if all the fanart he gets online is to be believed. Hopper also gets this treatment as well.
Evil Is Cool: Hopper manages to be both incredibly charismatic and incredibly menacing, making many viewers view him as a cool antagonist they Love to Hate.
Hopper and Flik. Some people couldn't explain why they kept watching their No-Holds-Barred Beatdown scene repeatedly when they were children, but they sure could as they got older.
Those familiar with black widow spider mating habits might view some of Rosie's lines in a different light. (And those familiar with praying mantis mating habits might see why Manny went for an Interspecies Romance...)
The moment in the beginning when a line of ants suddenly loses track of where to go when a leaf falls in their path may seem like a random gag, but it's actually Truth in Television about ant behavior. Real ants create scent trails to direct other ants along specific paths, and if a path is suddenly blocked, the ants following the trail will become confused about where to go.
Harsher in Hindsight: Given how his character actually acts like an abusive boyfriend toward Atta, and constantly gets in her personal space, Kevin Spacey playing Hopper this way is quite cringeworthy with the sexual misconduct allegations that hit him in 2017.
Hopper's big speech can also get uncomfortable, given those allegations came in the same movement that ousted Pixar bigwig John Lasseter.
Hopper: You let one ant stand up to us, then they all might stand up! Those "puny, little ants" outnumber us a hundred to one. And if they ever figure that out, there goes our way of life!
A scene in the movie shows Tuck, Roll, and Dr. Flora dancing together. A year later, their respective voice actors (Michael McShane and Edie McClurg) would star in one of Crashbox's segments, "Revolting Slob".
One of the hilarious outtakes features Woody holding a film clapper. Eight years later, Tom Hanks and his Playtone company would produce/distribute their own animated insect film—The Ant Bully.
Ho Yay: When the bird starts attacking Flik and the circus bugs, Dot, who had been watching, tries to escape by way of floating dandelion seed, but falls. Francis breaks off from trying to escape the bird to catch her, but they both fall into a crack in the ground, and Francis is knocked unconscious. The bird then attempts to attack them by sticking its beak in the ground crack. The remaining circus bugs and Flik hide a safe distance away, not sure what to do...and then Slim begins panicking and crying Francis' name over and over.
Princess Atta is rather strict towards her own younger sister, Dot. Not to mention refusing to see Flik's inventions as a good thing to help the ant colony. But she is rather nervous about her problems with taking over as a Queen that you're amazed she doesn't go further.
Also, the ant colony themselves during the Darkest Hour brought upon themselves.
Jerks Are Worse Than Villains: Many people dislike the ant colony (bar Dot) for being such nasty, hypocritical jerks towards Flik, exiling him for his ruse even though they set him up first simply to get him out of their way. Hopper, on the other hand, is considered to be quite a memorable villain, even though he goes as far as almost feeding Dot to Thumper and strangling Flik to near-death in the climax.
Memetic Mutation: Heimlich's lines about becoming a "beautiful butterfly" have been recontextualized to reference voice actor Joe Ranft's untimely death.
Moe: Dot is as sweet and adorable as an animated bug of all characters can be.
Moral Event Horizon: There are two separate points where one of the Grasshoppers cross it.
At first, Hopper's affair with the ants seems to be about food, and he seems Affably Evil when in a good mood. However, his attempt to feed Dot to Thumper has him come across as Faux Affably Evil. If that wasn't bad enough, he later pretends to have given up on his next planned raid of Ant Island on the grounds that the grasshoppers have more than enough food where they are... then in a visual demonstration of a potential ant rebellion, proceeds to kill a bunch of henchmen by crushing them under a pile of grain. That, along with his "keeping those ants in line" speech, is enough to convince the grasshoppers that it's worth it to subjugate the ants after all. With all those atrocities, he is definitely beyond it by the time he decides to assassinate the queen.
Thumper is a vicious beast who actually tried to eat Dot three times.
Popular with Furries: Atta, Gypsy, and especially Rosie are all very popular with fans of arthropods. Flik also has his fans, helped by his adorkable personality and mission to help his colony.
Rewatch Bonus: In one of the animated outtakes, Molt accidentally knocks the camera over. If you watch the scene that outtake occurs in (where Molt is trying to talk Hopper out of returning to Ant Island), when Molt backs away from Hopper, you can actually see Molt look behind him, directly at the camera, as if he's making sure he doesn't knock the camera over again.
Rooting for the Empire: Even without how evilly cool Hopper is; a lot of viewers found themselves siding with the grasshoppers when they terrorized and brutalized the ant colony (sans Flik and the children) after Flik's banishment, feeling that it was well-deserved poetic justice after how the ants treated Flik like utter crap for most of the film and dug themselves into this hole the moment they found out about Flik's lie.
Signature Scene: Hopper's speech about keeping the ant colony in line is the most famous scene in the film. While originally, it was mainly beloved as a nightmarish but very effective showcase of how evil Hopper is, it gained a new appreciation after the rise of the #MeToo movement. Hopper's "getting buried by grain" analogy is often used to show how while one accusation may not accomplish much, multiple people coming out with and backing it up can ultimately make a difference. In summer 2023, the scene gained another resurgence during the writer's strike with Hopper being compared to CEOs in Hollywood, and the ants being compared to writers and artists.
Sophomore Slump: This was Pixar's second film and while it isn't hated, it's generally regarded among its lesser entries. The fact that it's sandwiched between Toy Story and Toy Story 2 doesn't help; indeed, it's the only one of Pixar's first seven films not to have spawned a franchise.
Unintentionally Unsympathetic: The big Liar Revealed scene where Atta banishes Flik for lying about the Circus Bugs paints her in a not so good light for some people, mainly because of the hypocrisy displayed by herself and the other adult ants. They all originally lied to Flik by making him believe that they sent him off on a glorious quest to search for Warrior Bugs to save the ant colony from the grasshoppers, when in actuality, they just wanted him gone, and to not come back. The scene on YouTube even has many comments criticizing Atta's decision.
Values Resonance: As noted in Signature Scene, Hopper's "getting buried by grain" analogy is often used in regards to how the #MeToo movement works. While one person coming out about abuses may not accomplish much, multiple people coming out and backing it up can make a difference.
What Do You Mean, It's Not Political?: Hopper's speech about "keeping those ants in line" and the subsequent aesop about collective action and the power of oppressed groups who are pushed too far has resonated with all political sides.
Flik is an inventor who is treated by an oddball and outcast by the rest of the colony for daring to have new ideas. He gains their respect by bringing back circus bugs and pretending that they're warriors who will save them from the grasshoppers, but when they discover the truth, the colony turns against him with complete fury, and Atta tells him to leave and never come back. He comes within an inch of crossing the Despair Event Horizon, believing that the fake bird plan won't work and calling it "a guaranteed failure...just like me."
A minor one in the begging cricket who holds a sign saying that a kid tore off his wings, sending a strong message against needless insect cruelty.
The video game:
Breather Boss: The bird. You can easily obtain a blue berry and fire at it without jumping onto the platforms by it, which is the only place where it will attack you, meaning you can easily defeat it without ever giving it a chance to attack you.
Critical Dissonance: Critics generally scored the game to the tune of an exceptionally mediocre 50% range, with some outright trashing it like GameSpot's 2.7/10 review. Sure, it's not the most beloved of the Disney or Pixar tie-in games from the era, but fans tend to hold much more positive opinions of the game by comparison, due to its unique seed-planting mechanic, its faithful representation of the source material, and being the effective spiritual predecessor to the highly regarded Toy Story 2 tie-in game.
Demonic Spiders: Appropriately enough, the daddy longlegs enemies. They constantly spin around, firing webs in all directions, and those webs can travel a surprisingly long way, which means that you can get hit by one before even seeing the enemy firing them. They have a big hitbox, which means it's at least easy to hit them without homing berries, but it'll still take a few shots to kill them without an upgrade. Not to mention they respawn almost out of nowhere. And to top it all off, they're very common in long levels, so you'll have to defeat tons of them when you want to 100% one.
No Problem with Licensed Games: The home console versions, developed by Traveller's Tales, are pretty solid 3D Collectathon Platformers with good music, graphics, and level design. Not to mention the game's main mechanic, growing seeds into various different plants to assist you throughout levels, is very fun and creatively implemented. Unfortunately, the Game Boy Color port is a different story...
Thud. He's fought in a rolling can with objects that can easily damage you, he constantly throws berries at you, you have to get close to him to hit him, he moves to the other side every time you hit him, forcing you to have to dodge the objects again to reach him, and in order to get the token for permanently slaying all enemies, upon getting the gold berry, you have to avoid getting hit by him the rest of the fight, otherwise the blue berry will replace the golden one.
Fighting Molt can be very tough, though not because he has any particularly strong attacks (although he does try to bum-rush you when you enter his area). The difficulty in Molt's boss battle comes from the ants surrounding the arena, who throw red berry pickups at you in an attempt to help. Collecting a red berry will automatically override any stronger berry pickups you have collected, and since red berries cannot hurt Molt, you'll have to grow another berry yourself to actually damage him. The level becomes even more of a headache if you're aiming for all the medals, since collecting the grain, FLIK letters, and gold berry tokens requires growing seeds in the central area where you'll be open to attack by the boss.
Riverbed Canyon. It's filled with enemies, pits, and it's huge. To 100% it takes a lot of thinking and dragging seeds around from one side of the map to the other. You will get lost several times. You also can't stay in one place for too long, because not only are there tons of enemies, spiky seeds fall from the sky around you.
Riverbed Flight can also be pretty bad. You play as both princess Atta carrying Flik, and Flik himself, where you have to maneuver through the level to the bird's nest with Hopper on your tail all the way, attacking you if he gets too close. The level is maze-like and filled with enemies, Atta flies fast and can't make tight turns, and it's annoyingly easy to get stuck on enemies and obstacles. This level will probably cause you to lose a few lives. Like Riverbed Canyon above, it's even worse if you're trying to 100% it—good luck getting all of the grain, FLIK letters, and gold berry tokens when Hopper is trying his hardest to kill you.
, for instance, likens the ants to mistreated workers and the grasshoppers as the heads of corporations that don't care about their workers.