Thumper is the secondary antagonist in A Bug's Life.
A Bug's Life
Thumper is Hopper's "pet," so to speak. He is feral, vicious and almost dog-like (and also attached to a leash collar). Thumper is somewhat Hopper's main enforcer, brutally beating up any insect who stands up or disobeys Hopper.
When Thumper is first seen, he threatens Dot, prompting Flik to defend her, much to Hopper's anger.
Many months later, Flik stands up to Hopper again and gets beaten up by Thumper as punishment when Flik admits that he was the one who came up with the fake bird hoax (after it was set on fire by P.T. Flea). However, Flik manages to survive the ordeal and continues his standoff. As he does, Hopper approaches Flik and attacks him, knocking him to the ground. He then tries to squash Flik's head, only to be stopped by Princess Atta. While the rest of the colony chase off the other grasshoppers, Thumper tries to scare Dot, but she smacks him, calls him a bad grasshopper, and tells him to go home. He then angrily roars at her, but Dim appears behind Dot and roars louder than Thumper, making him race off after the other grasshoppers while yelping like a dog.
Personality
He does not speak in the actual movie. However, in one of the bloopers, he is revealed to be intelligent and can speak. As he is roaring at Dot, he stops to rethink on how he could do better, in which he says: "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Can we cut? It's just that I don't think I'm coming across. Hmm. Oh! Oh! I know! I know! I could lather up a bunch of spit. Ooh, ohh, that's good. I got it, J.L. All right, one more for me." His voiced was done by David Lander in this blooper, who also did his rabid sounds.
Trivia
- The blooper reel which appears during the credits for A Bug's Life contains a blooper, which is the only time where Thumper actually speaks, and was voiced by David Lander.
- He was named after Thumper from Bambi, who is one of John Lasseter's favorite Disney characters.[citation needed]