Antz

Antz is an animated movie that wasn't appreciated upon its initial release. After the family friendly movie Toy Story, I feel like people weren't ready for something a little bit darker, and more intense. This movie has death (and a lot of it at that), it has violence, it has gore, it has humor, it has swearing, and it has alcohol in it... pretty epic huh (granted, just being edgy doesn't necessarily equal good). The movie Antz which actually came out before A Bug's Life by about a month takes the role of what ants do a lot more seriously and better captures an ant like atmosphere. The movie A Bug's Life really doesn't seem to understand what ants do or how their colonies work, but the movie Antz does it all. There are the miners, the warriors, the drones (the ones with wings) the queen and others. The voice acting itself is also pretty good and Woody Allen fits the role of Z perfectly. The animation was also pretty advanced for its time, because it did many things that were hard for that time: Water, large amounts of moving objects, realistic face movement, realistic body movement, lighting, and many others.

The nice thing about this movie is that it doesn't pretend to be a kids movie. Ants swear in it (the word b****in is used once) and as mentioned there is a lot of violence. Like a very intense scene where the ants are trying to fight a termite colony and the ants are getting attacked by acid, are getting decapitated, and dying in other various barbaric ways. The thing is that this movie doesn't cover up death. When someone dies, the movie won't hide it.

The other cool thing in Antz is that the rest of the insects in the movie are as hideous and monstrous as they should be. Praying Mantis? It is infinitely larger than an Ant. Wasps? Like giants. It gives this overwhelming sense that Z is not only small in the ant world but also small in the insect world as well. There is nothing that can't kill him (even the princess could if she wanted).

Honestly this movie was really good, it has a good story, it has good characters, it is realistic, and has nice action. One of Dreamkworks' best.

Sweet animated comedy. Story is not that original but is very well told and animated. Hilariously funny at times.

Voice cast is an all-star one: Woody Allen, Dan Aykroyd, Anne Bancroft, Danny Glover, Gene Hackman, Jennifer Lopez, Sylvester Stallone, Sharon Stone, Christopher Walken. Moreover, the cast delivers in spades - great casting.

Okay, so it's not War and Peace, but this film is about as dark and meaningful as you could want a big-budget comedy animation to be. The computer animation itself never ceases to be awe-inspiring and more than compensates for the plot holes - I personally did like the style of the characters themselves, although others have disagreed. The casting is perfect, and Woody Allen as Z-4195 the neurotic worker ant complete with impeccable one-liners is at times hilarious. Although the plot falls into predictability, the communist metaphors combined with the basic boy-meets-girl-above-his-station story make this highly enjoyable, and all you could want as a 3D animation suitable for adults. A strong opening blow in the Disney-Dreamworks rivalry swordfight.

Released 1 year after Disney/Pixar's 'A Bugs Life' and still during the early years of the computer generated genre, Dreamworks released their second all CGI cartoon 'ANTZ' and despite the glaring resemblances between the 2 movies; all it not as it appears.

ANTZ still stands alone as the more adult movie in the genre, far more complexity in the character's emotions and a far more sinister plot evolution separate this from rest. OK movies like 'Shrek', 'Finding Nemo' and 'Toy Story' have adult undertones beneath the humour, but ANTZ doesn't rely on such subtlety.

PLEASE NOTE THIS IS NOT A CRITICISM OF EITHER STYLE!

We follow the struggle of 'Z' (Woody Allen) as he tries to come to terms with his life as a worker, his neurosis, his love for Princess Bala and dream of something better. Allen is excellently supported by an all star cast, including Sharon Stone, Sylvester Stallone, Gene Hackman, Christopher Walken, etc, and we are treated to a visually impressive rendition of a heart warming story about life as an ANT.

This movie can still be enjoyed as a family film, but much of it will be lost on younger kids.

In Summary ANTZ is a fine film, but in truth it is difficult to compare with others in the genre, and for that; i salute it!

7/10

From what I have read, DreamWorks got the idea of an insect animation film from Disney, rushed to market before the Disney version was released, and that they think this will enable them to compete against Disney in the animated film market? I think some reevaluation is in order.

ANTZ is not bad, far from it. The animation is very well done (to this untrained, unschooled eye) and the voices well-acted (and maybe Woody wasn't so much acting as being Woody). The feel-good plot was well......very Disney. Certainly worth the price of a rental. And I mean this for adults. I can't comment of the movie being too dark and violent for small children, well maybe very small children.

Nothing earth-shaking or leading edge, but good ol' entertainment.