Leadership and teamwork: Lessons from A bug's life (Disney, 1998)
Hi, everyone:
I'd like to share with all of you the movie “A bug’s life” (Pixar Animation Studios – Walt Disney Pictures, 1998), a sweet history about invention as a means of fighting oppression (or, according to Grebley, 2018, a kids version of Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai), that offer us great and valuable lessons about teamwork and leadership. Here are the trailers of the movie:
Learning objectives:
I choose to bring this movie as an example, because it shows us many insights about communications, coordination, overcoming cultural differences, leadership, sharing values, getting compromise, building trust, delegating tasks, taking advance of complementary skills, group development, decision making, all of them distinctive characteristics of teamwork learned in this course.
Story (Critical incidents):
Ant Island is a colony of ants led by the Queen and her daughter, Princess Atta. Every season, ants give food to a gang of marauding grasshoppers led by Hopper. One of the ants is Flik, a freethinking ant whose value his colony does not understand because he was clumsy, annoying, and his inventions seemed to hinder their harvest more than help it.
The day that the grasshoppers came to take the ants’ food, Flik accidentally made the food all disappear into a stream with his latest invention (a grain harvesting device). Hopper, the leader of the grasshopper, enraged by the apparent “lack of productivity”, states that when he was to return at the end of the summer, there better be twice the amount of food than usual or bad thing would come. The ants, realizing that they could not collect so much food in so little time looked upon Flik for blame.
When Flik suggests in earnest that they seek help from other stronger bugs, the other ants see it as an opportunity to remove him and send him off to find a clan of warriors to fight against the grasshoppers, never expecting him to return. However, he comes back joined by a group of circus misfits (who, abandoned by his former boss, P.T. Flea, mistake Flik for a talent agent) disguised as warriors, who along with the ants, would prepare to stand up against Hopper and the grasshoppers for the last time.
When Flik and his new friends arrived at Ant Island, during a welcome ceremony both discover their mutual misunderstandings. The Circus Bugs attempt to leave, but are attacked by a bird; while fleeing, they save Dot, Atta's younger sister, gaining the ants' respect in the process. At Flik's request, they continue the ruse of being "warriors", so the troupe can continue to enjoy the hospitality of the ants. Hearing that Hopper fears birds inspires Flik to create a false bird to scare away the grasshoppers. Meanwhile, Hopper reminds his gang how greatly the ants outnumber them and suspects that they will eventually rebel against them.
The ants finish constructing the fake bird, but during a celebration, P.T. Flea arrives, searching for his former troupe, and inadvertently reveals their secret. Outraged by Flik's deception, the ants exile him and desperately attempt to gather food for a new offering to the grasshoppers. However, when Hopper returns to discover the mediocre offering, he takes over the island, and demands the ants' winter food supply, planning to assassinate the Queen afterward. Overhearing the plan, Dot persuades Flik and the Circus Bugs to return to Ant Island.
After the Circus Bugs distract the grasshoppers while rescuing the Queen, Flik deploys the bird; it initially fools the grasshoppers, but P.T. Flea, who also mistakes it for a real bird, burns it, exposing it as a decoy. Hopper has Flik beaten in retaliation, saying that the ants are humble and lowly life forms who live to serve the grasshoppers. However, Flik responds that Hopper actually fears the colony, because he has always known what they are capable of, inspiring the ants and the Circus Bugs to fight back against the grasshoppers. The ants attempt to force Hopper out of Ant Island using P.T. Flea's circus cannon, but it suddenly begins to rain. In the ensuing chaos, Hopper frees himself from the cannon and abducts Flik. After the Circus Bugs fail to catch them, Atta rescues Flik. As Hopper pursues them, Flik lures him to the nest of the bird he, Dot, and the Circus Bugs encountered earlier. Thinking that the bird is another decoy, Hopper taunts it before discovering in the panic that it is real, and is captured and devoured by its chicks.
With their enemies gone, Flik has improved his inventions along with the quality of life for Ant Island, he and Atta become a couple, and they give Hopper's younger brother Molt, and a few ants to P.T. Flea as new members of his troupe. Atta and Dot respectively become the new queen and princess. The ants congratulate Flik as a hero and bid a fond farewell to the circus troupe (Wikipedia, n.d.).
Main characters:
Flik: everyone keeps telling him to stop questioning tradition and be a good worker ante, but he knows that is not his mission in life. He is a resourceful but misguided ant who risks everything despite some major setbacks and the prevailing perception that he is a failure (Pixar, n.d.) He, although often making foolish decisions, should be a motivational leader.
Princess Atta: she is ascending to the throne and had to deal with a mean grasshopper. Quickly she realize the colony’s courage and strength, and to learn to trust her instincts as a leader (Pixar, n.d.). She is the rising leader of the colony. Atta wants to improve her colony by keeping them alive and she is constantly under pressure by her mother and Hopper.
Dot: she is the Queen’s youngest daughter, who proves that size does not matter when it comes to be a heroin, convincing Flik to return to save the colony (Pixar, n.d.).
The Queen: the ant colony’s monarch, who is looking forward to retiring and letting Atta take over the throne (Pixar, n.d.).
Hopper: the leader of the grasshoppers, he is a mean and arrogant tyrant, of tough exterior, an even tougher interior and a superior intellect, who can squash an ant’s head with his foot if the food is not in the offering stone (Pixar, n.d.).
In the movie he says: “First rule of leadership … everything is your fault.” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWSrwEYJBrg&feature=youtu.be)
The circus bugs: cast out of the colony for his blunder, Flik enlists the aid of outsiders (non – ant bugs) and builds a great flying machine fashioned to fool the grasshoppers (making them to think that a bird is attacking them).
Important questions:
1) In your opinion, do you think leaders are “born” or “made”?
2) In your opinion, do you think autocratic leadership style can accomplish impressive results in today’s world?
3) Which are the leadership style of the following characters: The Queen, The Circus Bugs, Princess Ata, Flik, and Hopper?
4) Which are the motivational skills of the following characters: The Queen, The Circus Bugs, Princess Ata, Flik, and Hopper?
5) What do you think about teamwork and motivation as a lesson from this movie?
Sources:
(n.d.) A Bug’s life. Wikipedia. Retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Bug%27s_Life
(n.d.) A Bug’s life. Pixar. Retrieved from: https://www.pixar.com/feature-films/a-bugs-life#a-bugs-life-1
Gebrey, J. (2018, November 24). Why A bug’s life is an underrated Pixar classic. Rotten tomatoes. Retrieved from: https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/article/why-a-bugs-life-is-an-underrated-pixar-classic/
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