Antz (1998)

Because a certain bigshot from a studio jumped ship, we got two ant-films at roughly the same time. 'A Bug's Life' was one, 'Antz' the other. Yet both films couldn't be more different than you could imagine. 'A Bug's Life' is a colourful adventure, geared more towards kids. 'Antz' is maybe not as colourful, but it does aim for a more mature audience. But even though there seems to be some debate as to which one is better, they both are fine.

Z is a lowly worker ant, who constantly ponders his existence. Is digging the only thing in life for him? He accidentally meets princess Bala and immediately thinks he has a change of escaping his mundane routine. He then switches places with his friend, a soldier named Weaver, but the war against the nearby termites is a ruse by general Mandible in order to start a fresh colony, completely as he wants it. Z is the only one who makes it back and through circumstance, he more or less kidnaps the princess and once outside, they head for Insectopia. But of course, the princess is recaptured and now Z has to go and rescue her and maybe save the entire colony. 

What really makes this film stand out and what is probably its biggest charm, is the voices. There's a plethora of big league actors and actresses involved and nearly all of them do a great job. Gene Hackman is perfect as General Mandible, Christopher Walken is more subdued than he ever was as Cutter, Mandible's second in command. The supporting roles of Weaver (Sylvester Stallone) and Azteca (Jennifer Lopez) also work very nicely, but if you talk about perfect casting as a neurotic ant, then Woody Allen as Z takes the cake. I would have never thought it, but his voice suits the reluctant hero perfectly. In fact, most people are wonderful in their portrayal. The only one that is lacking, is Sharon Stone as Bala. She seems to be slumming a little. She can be a great actress, but somehow I get the feeling animation isn't her strong point and she often comes across as merely reading her lines, without a lot of emotion or investment. A shame really, because the rest is so engaging. Stallone especially is wonderful and you can almost hear he's having a ball with it. 

The animation is great and it is as realistic as they dared to go without losing the anthropomorphic nature of these films. The ants actually have six legs (well, two arms and four legs) and the colourschemes make sense. Actually, all the insects are fairly faithful representations of their real life counterparts. Maybe that's why so many people seem to prefer 'A Bug's Life': that one has a myriad of colours and there the creatures are more akin to human in every way, this one is grittier. The jokes here are also a lot more on an adult level, which might make it a little tougher to digest for little kids. Again, maybe there lies a 'problem' of sorts: people that went in to see this one expecting a nice, friendly kids' film. It isn't, not really. But don't let that stop you from enjoying this one.

'Antz' is a lot better than you might think. It has interesting ideas and a not so subtle message about totalitarianism and individualism. It might not be the happy-go-lucky feelgood film of the year, but it is definitely worth a watch.