DVD After a chance meeting, a small worker ant has grand ideas about landing the beautiful Princess Bala. By swapping his boring job with his soldier ant friend his life is turned on its head when war breaks out with the termites. He soon uncovers a dastardly plot by General Mandible to destroy the ant colony. Can he grab the girl and save the colony from destruction?
Details
'Z' is in a dead-end job as a worker ant in the 'mega-tunnel' project. Despondent with life, as only Woody Allen could portray, he has a chance meeting in a bar with Princess Bala who has sneaked out from the palace looking for some excitement. Determined to meet her again, 'Z' manages to swap jobs with his soldier ant friend Weaver to appear on a parade. However, during the parade he discovers that war has been declared and he is sent to the termite colony.
After a lengthy and bloody battle he discovers that he is the only survivor and returns to the colony as an unlikely hero. However, General Mandible hadn't planned on any survivors and is far from pleased. Being a hero he is invited to meet the Queen and the royal family, but during the meeting he accidentally falls down a rubbish chute with the princess. Princess Bala attempts to return to the colony but 'Z' decides that he cannot return and sets out to find the mythical 'Insectopia'. However, his plans are soon altered by the intervention of a human and Bala accompanies him on his journey.
When 'Z' is sent out to battle the termites I got the feeling that I'd seen it all before. I had - the battle scene could have been taken straight from the man-versus-bug battle in Starship Troopers as the termites, who are outnumbered by the ants, slaughter everything in their path.
Picture & Sound
For all the fuss and performance over the fact that A Bug's Life was the first direct digital transfer, I actually found myself liking the 'Antz' picture more. It is softer and not as 'mechanical' as the other. The menus are superbly animated whereas A Bug's Life's are totally static.
Overall
Some of the production team jumped ship on this project and went away to create a little known film called A Bug's Life. The dash was now on to see who could release their film first. This was eventually won by Antz, but this may have been a flawed idea. Not only could the other production team spend more time on their film, but the extra interest generated by Antz would be carried into A Bug's Life. The extra time and effort put into the film can be seen graphically in A Bug's Life, but I found that I much preferred Antz as the script was just so much better.
The arguments could go on forever over the qualities and comparisons between the two films, but Antz works better in many ways. The cast list is enormous, with some of Hollywood's biggest stars lending their voices to a computer-generated ant colony. Heaven knows what this menagerie of stars cost, as countless lessons have been learnt since Toy Story was born. Tom Hanks was reputed to have 'only' received $50,000 for his role in the first Toy Story, whereas this had rocketed to a cool $5,000,000 for Toy Story 2.
Special features
- Theatrical Trailer
- Directors Commentary
- Basics of Computer Animation
- Antz Facial Systems
- Antz Character Design
- TV Spots
- Production Notes
- Cast and Crew Biographies
