Review: Antz (1998)

ANTZ

From the first scenes of the cavern where the ants carry on their busy lives, we see that Antz is a movie full of action and ideas. Too cerebral for young children, it has a pace and a charm that will attract everyone else. The film spends much of its 77 minutes looking at the worth of the individual and his place in society.

One indicator of popular culture in Antz is the struggle of the individual. Z, voiced by Woody Allen, plays the worker ant in analysis - just one item of Allen's schtick carried over into this, his first appearance in animation. Despite his small stature and relative shyness, Z carries through with actions that demonstrate his beliefs. From refusing to stomp mindlessly in a massive line dance, to leaving the colony at one point, Z proves himself the ultimate democratic insect. Viewers surely enjoy rooting for the underdog, and Z serves well in the role of an inconsequential creature acquiring a voice. The only trouble is that we have to keep our disbelief suspended throughout the non-stop anthropomorphism: isn't it natural for ants to work as a collective, for the good of the colony?

Class is another theme explored in Antz. Along with pulling for the weak, we also obsess over royalty - and this plot allows for a real queen (Anne Bancroft) and her daughter Princess Bala (Sharon Stone). The only plot better than the triumph of an underdog occurs when the underdog pursues the heart of a princess. Z is irresistible when he schemes to meet Bala a second time, and stumbles into trouble with the princess' fiancé, the square-jawed Mandible (Gene Hackman) and his henchman. Though outrageous, Z's plight is everyman's: a peasant worker aspiring to a higher station - soldier - and what's worse, daring to dance with the daughter of the colony's birth-mother. We love seeing it stuck to the powerful and arrogant.

Aside from the university, Hollywood is a staunch promoter of correctness. In Antz, Dreamworks SKG has succeeded in portraying a rather pluralistic society; according to this story, no one should be able to say, "All ants look the same." (We can transfer this sentiment to a political context, and see that we are being taught gentle lessons in tolerance.) In any case, directors Eric Darnell and Lawrence Guterman adopted techniques from conventional animation, and used much of the actor's personality and appearance in the cartoon image. These representations are delightful, as in the case of Christopher Walken's long face to match the suave and menacing voice of Colonel Cutter. Sylvester Stallone delivers a smart self-parody as Weaver, a huge soldier ant with a smallish head but a thorax like a Vick's cough drop. So these ants really look nothing like each other, and the animation imitates the differences of real life - whether in body type or racial features or philosophical views. Finally, we observe other species of insects, including a reunion of Jane Curtin and Dan Aykroyd, as a pair of snobby yellow jackets.

Layering conflict upon conflict, the film suggests that we like old and busy plots; here old does not mean stale, as the movie wraps the plot in new paper. Heavy-duty digitized animation is clearly another ware we pay our money for. Antz is just as well-plotted and -animated as Toy Story but not as nice to look at. Its duller earth-tones fit its serious themes, though, and the mood is lightened by humor and by occasional ventures outside the colony to a land known as "Insectopia."

Antz mirrors our society in the way it promotes the value and dignity of each person. In an increasingly technological world, viewers like to see positive portrayals of common people and of their roles. Love stories and laughs don't hurt, either.