| Evil-doer | |
|---|---|
 | |
|
Full Name |
Mandible Marion |
|
Alias |
General Mandible |
|
Orgin |
Antz |
|
Occupation |
General of the soldier ants |
|
Skills |
Manipulation |
|
Hobby |
Concocting strategic plans. |
|
Goals |
Marry Bala and become King of the Ant Colony. |
|
Crimes |
Mass murder (indirectly) |
|
Type of Villain |
Tyrannical Social Darwinist |
| “ | Workers. They are weak, they lack discipline, and they lack commitment. | „ |
| ~ Mandible's first lines and introduction. |
| “ | Sacrifice. To some, it is just a word. To others it is a code. A soldier knows that the life of an individual ant doesn't matter. What matters is the Colony. He's willing to live for the Colony. To fight for the Colony. To die for the Colony. At 0800 hours we received word that the termite enemy has mobilized. We have no choice but to launch a preemptive strike. You are the Queen's finest. I know you will all do your duty. I am proud to send you into battle. Dismissed. | „ |
| ~ General Mandible intentionally sending the Queen's troops on a suicide mission to attack the termites. |
| “ | You useless, ungrateful maggot! I AM THE COLONY! | „ |
| ~ Mandible's villainous breakdown and last words before falling into his death - his most famous quote. |
General Mandible is the main antagonist of DreamWorks’s 1st full-length animated feature film Antz.
He is the former leader of the Queen Ant's army who planned on dividing the ant colony by attempting to exterminate every single worker ant, just so that soldier ants like him could survive further. He is also the former boss of Cutter, the arch-nemesis of Z 4195 and Princess Bala, as well as the former fiancé of the latter.
He was voiced by Gene Hackman, who also played John Herod in The Quick And The Dead, Lex Luthor in the original Superman films, Alan Richmond in Absolute Power, and Little Bill Daggett in Unforgiven.
Biography[]
Template:Quote In his first action, Mandible sends the soldier ants most loyal to the Queen to fight a termite colony, knowing fully well that they wouldn't survive.
He intends to marry Princess Bala, making her his queen and the mother of thousands of larval children and make a strong colony with soldiers. After Bala is "kidnapped" by a worker ant named Z (who was the sole survivor of the termite battle), Mandible attempts to find their whereabouts. He has some of his soldiers beat up Z's soldier friend Weaver to get information out of him, but he refuses to talk. However, when Mandible has Z's other friend, Azteca (whom Weaver has romantic feelings for) tortured, Weaver says that Z went to Insectopia. Mandible sends Cutter to retrieve Bala and kill Z.
After Bala is brought back to the colony, she demands that Mandible tells her what is going on, to which Mandible replies that he will explain afterwards. Outraged, Bala calls off the wedding and rejects Mandible after she learns of his plans. Mandible nonetheless reveals to Bala his evil scheme to drown all the workers during the MegaTunnel ceremony along with her mother, while sparing the princess herself to make her as his new queen of his colony of soldiers. He then locks Bala in his office to stop her from interfering in his plan.
After successfully flooding the anthill, the would-be-dictator's scheme is foiled when Z, Bala, Weaver, Azteca, and the other ants form a ladder with their own bodies to escape from the rising waters. Mandible grabs a spear to kill Z, but Cutter, fed up with Mandible's evil ways, seeing that he's a monster with foolish opinions and goals, he turns against him, and instead tries to help Z, stating that is what's truly "for the good of the colony". Enraged, Mandible snaps and yells, and yet again continues to foolishly proclaim himself "I AM THE COLONY!" Mandible charges at Cutter, but Z pushes Cutter out of the way, and he and Mandible fall into the flooded anthill. While Z lands in the water (where he is saved by Cutter a minute later), Mandible ends up smashing against an upturned root, killing him on impact. Finally putting an end to him, his false beliefs and actions. And avenging the deaths of Barbatus and the other soldier ants he sent to their deaths.
Personality[]
General Mandible is an ant who serves as the leader of the Queen's army alongside with his accomplice, Colonel Cutter. He is a war-hungry insect with little regard for the colony as a whole (especially the army's battle against the Termites), which becomes evident when he ultimately betrays every ant, including the Queen but excluding his own army, by flooding the anthill in an attempt to "wash away the past".
Arrogant, he is willing to do whatever it takes to accomplish his goals including sending hundreds of solder ants to their deaths to root out those loyal to the queen. He also holds darwinistic beliefs, because according to him, the strong should survive, and the weak element should be washed away, meaning killed. And what Mandible means by the weak are all the worker ants and even members of the royalty.
Despite this, he is still a charismatic and persuasive leader, able to convince the rest of the colony that Z was an enemy with his speech skills. Mandible appears a definite physical match, but he prefers to manipulate a situation to his advantage and trick the most loyal soldiers into attacking a termite colony, which was a definite suicide mission. He also generally behaves well-mannered and politely, although this is only a façade.
Mandible is definitely xenophobic and manipulative, as he possesses a nonsensical and indescribable hatred of the worker class of the ants; he even believes that their deaths would benefit the colony and he is able to manipulate the Queen to send an army to a suicide-mission to attack the termites who are their enemies. For all his delusional speeches that a life of an individual does not matter, he himself has an extremely high self-importance, describing himself as the colony before attacking his former second-in-command, Cutter, proving to all that deep-down inside, his notions of sacrifice and duty is simply a façade to hide the power-hungry hypocrite he truly is.
Quotes[]
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Trivia[]
- General Mandible is the third main antagonist of a computer-animated film after Sid Phillips from the Disney/Pixar film Toy Story, which was the first fully computer-animated film ever, and Shadowseat from the Brazilian film Cassiopeia.
- He is also the second main antagonist of a computer-animated film who is not grey zoned and the first main antagonist of a computer-animated film to die at the end.
- Mandible is currently the only DreamWorks villain to use profanity, as well as the first antagonist of a CGI movie to do so.
- General Mandible symbolizes Adolf Hitler due to a desire to commit genocide in the name of a "perfect" society run by a superior kind of individual (for Hitler the Ubermensch, for Mandible the Soldier Ant).
- Due to his voice mannerisms and jingoistic personality, Mandible has some similarities to George C. Scott's portrayal of American general George S. Patton.
- In the early drafts of Antz, an ant named Formica served as General and Bala's fiancé, whilst Mandible served as a major and the one who brought Bala back to the colony. Unlike Mandible in the final film, who locks Bala in his office to prevent her from being drowned, Formica would have left Bala to die along with the Queen and the workers, claiming that there are more princesses were she came from. Also, unlike Mandible in the final film, who died after landing hard on a root, Formica (whilst trying to attack Z) would have fallen into water and nearly drowned, but was saved by Z and the others and would have been made a honeydew keg whilst Weaver would have replaced him as General.
- In real life, Mandible would actually have survived the fall, since ants have very little body mass, and even the highest falls technically cannot kill them.
- Mandible is the only animated role of Gene Hackman, six years before his retirement in 2004 due to business.
- Mandible serves as a dark counterpart to Z. Both ants were desperate to further prove each of their worths as they're doing their respective jobs within the ant colony. However, while Z just wanted something than can make him feel bigger, Mandible instead had more destructive intentions behind his own. Additionally, Z stands for the rights of every ant, whereas Mandible doesn't care about his own species but himself. Had Z never learned to have any sort of responsibility as he was trying to prove his additional worth as an ant, he would've ended up being like Mandible.
- General Mandible is somewhat similar to Hopper from A Bug's Life, another computer-animated film about ants that both came out in 1998. Both are brutal insect leaders who took advantage of other insects.
- General Mandible is somewhat similar to Hopper from A Bug's Life, another computer-animated film about ants that both came out in 1998. Both are brutal insect leaders who took advantage of other insects.
External Links[]
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