The Grasshoppers are the main antagonists of Pixar's 2nd full-length animated feature film A Bug's Life. They are a gang of Carolina grasshoppers led by their cunning leader Hopper until the events of the film.
Hopper was voiced by Kevin Spacey, Thumper was voiced by the late David Lander, Molt was voiced by Richard Kind, Axel was voiced by the late Jan Rabson, and Loco was voiced by Carlos Alazraqui. The other grasshoppers were all voiced by Rachel Davey, Brad Hall, Jeff Pidgeon, Patrick Pinney, Phil Proctor, and Rabson.
History[]
For many seasons, the grasshoppers have been terrorizing and bullying the ants into collecting food for them. It was not until an ant named Flik accidentally destroys the annual offering that the ants were collecting to appease the grasshoppers. In exchange for a temporary reprieve from the grasshoppers, the ants are given until the start of autumn to produce an offering of twice the usual amount. To make amends, Flik suggests recruiting "warrior bugs" to fight off the grasshoppers. The ants agrees to his proposal as they saw it as a convenient way of simply keeping Flik from wreaking any more havoc with their food-gathering activities.
However, this was not the case when Flik returns with a group of 'warrior bugs', though it turns out that the bugs he brought were actually retired circus performers. Nevertheless, the circus bugs agreed to help the ants by creating a giant bird to scare the arriving grasshoppers away (based on Flik's idea after the circus bugs saved Princess Dot from an actual bird).
At the grasshoppers' hideout, the two grasshoppers named Axel and Loco decided that it would be pointless to return back to the Ant Island as they had enough food to live, so they passed out the idea to Molt in hopes that he would be beaten by Hopper. However, Hopper learns of this intent and murders both Axel and Loco by burying them in a large pile of nuts, reminding the other grasshoppers of his true intent of keeping the ants in line. As such, the grasshoppers head back to Ant Island, where they took over after learning that ants did not put enough effort to meet their demand. He also intend to assassinate the Queen to ensure his dominance over the ants.
As part of Flik's plan, the circus bugs present themselves as performers to the grasshoppers in an successful attempt to rescue the Queen and reveal the giant fake bird to scare several of them away. Though Hopper is initially terrified, he soon learns that it is a fake after P.T. Flea sets it on fire after mistaking it for a real bird. Outraged by this, Hopper demands to know whose idea was it, to which an angry Flik reveals himself to him. Angered, Hopper orders Thumper to savagely pulverize Flik, much to the ants and circus bugs' horror and to the grasshoppers' sadistic delight (though Molt is uncomfortable by this).
Hopper then proceeds to berate the ants for their failed plot, saying that they are nothing but losers that are meant to serve grasshoppers (this is later foreshadowed as he encountered the real bird mistaking her for another fake bird). However, Flik, who quickly recovers, defies this, saying that ants are strong in numbers and Hopper is aware of it the whole time. Being inspired by Flik's bravery and speech, the ants and circus bugs finally decide to stand against the grasshoppers.
Realizing now that the gig is up, the grasshoppers (including Thumper) are forced to flee away from the revolting ants and circus bugs, much to Hopper's anger. It is unknown what happened to the grasshoppers following Hopper's death at the beaks of a real bird's chicks, as well as Molt deciding to join the circus, but it is most likely that they went back to the home that they came from during the middle of the film while staying away from Ant Island forever.