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A Bugs Life Interpretive Questions

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1K views7 pages

A Bugs Life Interpretive Questions

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api-233736029
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Name________________ Disney Pixars A Bugs Life Film Analysis Interpretive Questions

Introduction: Throughout our discussions on defining life and finding purpose and meaning in it, we have explored some ideas about what it means to find passion, what life is like, and how we can define a successful human life. Most recently, we wrote our letters to Hasbro making our case what constitutes as a successful life. In science, weve also been discussing what we consider to even be life (living/nonliving). This all begs the questions then, how do we measure the worth of a life, human or otherwise? How do we know when and if we matter? These are not easy questions to answer and sometimes we might find insight into them in the least of expected places, such as childrens movies. As entertaining as they are, childrens animated movies are sometimes the most eloquently profound and there can be much to be learned from them. So with that in mind, we are going to conduct a film analysis of a renowned Disney Pixar animated film A Bugs Life.
Your Ultimate task:
You will write a multi-paragraph film analysis essay which cites textual evidence (in this case, the film is your text, as well as some additional resources) to support your central thesis statement (or claim) in response to the following prompt:

How does Disney Pixars film A Bugs Life address or answer the question of how can we determine the worth of a life? Through its characters, and the conflict, symbolism, and structure of the text (aspects/details of the film) what messages does it purvey as it pertains to this topic? How does the films message to this compare to other texts on this topic?

Directions for this planning sheet:


I am providing you with a list of interpretive questions to help facilitate your analysis of the film in relation to the prompt. You MUST pick at least THREE of the questions to answer and find textual evidence to support your answer. Use the following guidelines on quotations and the graphic organizers below to help you sort your information.

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Yes, there are a lot of interpretive questions, but thats because there are so many dimensions and ways in which you can approach this film analysis and this question. Remember you are picking THREE to answer, but pick three questions that you think might best fit together in an essay or are related. Good luck! Interpretive/Analysis Questions: 1. What is/are the conflict(s) in the story? 2. What is the turning point/climax in the story? Why is it the turning point, and how does that help convey the message? 3. What are the grasshoppers attitudes towards the ant colony? Why? 4. What are the colonys attitudes towards Flik? What are Fliks attitudes toward the colony? 5. Why is Flik so eager to do things differently? 6. In what ways are Fliks gifts misunderstood? Dots? What other characters are misunderstood? 7. What is the significance of Dots character and her other little friends? 8. Who in society might the ants represent? Who might Flik represent? Who might the grasshopper represent? Who might the circus bugs represent? Any other character representations? 9. Why do you think the filmmakers decided to revolve this story around a world of bugs? Why not humans or even a safari? 10. What other aspects or details of the film help contribute to the message it is trying to convey? Consider things like the music/soundtrack, illustrative details or images the animators chose to include, setting, etc., that the filmmakers chose to include or not include. 11. What is the significance of the seed (or the pebble) in the movie? 12. What might be some other implicit symbols throughout the movie? 13. What figurative or literary language devices do you see applied in this story? How do these devices help convey the point? 14. Does the ant colony suffer from a lack of diversity? Agree or disagree. Why might that be a good or bad thing? Writing about quotes requires practice. For each section we read, please find ONE quote and explain the quote. Below in the boxes, I have given you some helpful information to read before getting started. What is a quote? Qualities of a good quote A quote is any word, sentence, or It is meaningful to you, the passage taken from a written text. author, or the characters. The words can be, but are not It is about something important: necessarily, spoken by characters. an event, person, or idea. They can simply be any sequence You know you can write an of words you take directly out of a explanation of the quote. text word-for-word. It invites/helps you make In expository writing, quotes connections between the text and represent words that are NOT yourself. yours, but are words that from You can discuss your own

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another source that might be important to making your point Whatever appears between quotation marks should be exactly what the text/person wrote or said. opinions and/or feelings about the quote.

Example Question: What are the grasshoppers attitudes towards the ant colony? Formal Lead-In
A crucial conversation between Hopper and his gang of terrorizing grasshoppers indicate the grasshoppers attitudes toward the importance of their ant counterparts,

Quote/Paraphrase/Detail Explanation from the text It was just one ant. Just By using words like just
one ant! Yeah boss, theyre puny! (Pixars A Bugs Life)

and puny it is clear that the grasshoppers, except for Hopper himself, believe that the ants are insignificant and are of a lower social status than themselves. This belief appears to be founded on the mere size of the ants and physical prowess of the grasshoppers

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Directions: Use the following blank charts to help you find evidence in answer to your THREE selected questions.
Question:

Formal Lead-In

Quote/Paraphrase/Detail from Text

Explanation

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Question: Formal Lead-In Quote/Paraphrase/Detail from text Explanation

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Question: Formal Lead-In Quote/Paraphrase/Detail from text Explanation

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