I saw this back when it came out in theaters, and I remember thinking it was a bit on the slow side. Although I did enjoy it, I didn't like it as much as A Bug's Life. This one is on my to-rent list though so once I do get around to watching it again my opinion of it will probably change. One thing that won't change is I don't really like the animation style. It's too angular and the colors are too dull. I recently purchased the soundtrack to this film and it's great. Plenty of good themes in it.

I am not very fond of CGI movies. That said I'll proceed to express my dislike of this boring film. The animation is inferior to that of "A Bug's Life" and the story is uninspired, also the voices sound too much like the people who make them (they don't disguise them at all). But if you are one of those CGI freaks, I know there are plenty, you'll probably like this movie, which I didn't.

Animation has always played a big part in my life. The TV show "Duck Tales" introduced me to great and very well-written stories made for the small screen (I was five years old when it was released in Germany and I thought it was the best show in the whole world). "The Fox and the Hound" and "Jungle Jack" made me a sucker for cute animated couples. "A Goofy Movie" is still one of the coolest things I've ever seen. "Chip and Dale's Rescue Rangers" showed me that I could be obsessed with a TV show beyond my wildest beliefs. I saw "Treasure Planet" seven-times during it's theatrical run because I loved this movie so much. Now I want to go to art school to study animation.

And among all this was "Antz".

I can see people raise their eyebrows when I tell them this movie changed my life in a way. I was obesessed with "Antz" and, in a way, I still am. I loved the humor, I was so happy to see an animated film that was targeted clearly towards adults (I saw the movie twice in the cinema. The first time the audience was mainly a grown-up one and they laughed at every sophisticated joke Z made. The second time there were mainly children and the theatre was very quiet...). I was 14 when the movie was released and it was a difficult time for me. I didn't drank or smoked (I still don't and I won't ever do it), I was good at school, I had my own opinion - to make it short, I wasn't your average teenager, at least in the eyes of the other kids in my class. Most of them simply ignored me, some made some really hurting jokes about me on a daily basis. "Antz" came at the right moment, it showed me that humor can be very powerful and that even when you feel like a fish out of water there's still a place for you. My search continued for several years and in some way I'm still searching, but "Antz" pointed me in a certain direction. I was a Woody Allen fan even before "Antz" came along but his mannerism portrayed in this flick convinced me that I should try to come up with one-liners and jokes like he. ;)
"Antz" is probably my favourite animated movie of all time - and that comes from a guy who prefers traditional animation over computer generated ones. I'm happy that "Antz" came along when I needed it and i will always love DreamWorks for putting this movie out. It's trully an amazing movie with amusing characters, some breath-taking sequences (the war with the termites), great humor and a terrific soundtrack. "Antz" is ... well, you know what I want to say. ;) If you haven't seen this movie and have the chance - go see it! It's worth every second of your time.

Right from the opening scene, it is evident that Antz has a darker tone than A Bug's Life. The hero Z (voiced by Woody Allen, in a typically neurotic role) begins the film telling a psychiatrist that he feels insignificant. The shrink responds by saying that he has made a breakthrough - Z IS insignificant. The camera then pans out to display the colony's home, and it's a spectacular piece of design - the ants' obviously low technology level has been blended with standard sci-fi "city of the future" iconography to create a splendid fantasy world.

Seeking glory, Z joins the army and ends up in a hellish war with monsterous termites. After this bleak sequence Antz eventually takes a turn for the lighthearted; this is a bit disappointing, as the early set piece of the termite war promises a fairly gritty - for an animated comedy - story that is never followed through. When Z actually starts enjoying his hero's welcome and apparently forgets the horrors of the war, it feels as if a major part of the story has just sort of slipped out. While watching the montage of the ants enjoying themselves at Insectopia while Johnny Nash's "I Can See Clearly Now" played in the background, I felt a little cheated.

Still, it's a solid film, and considering that it's only the second outing for the CGI movie formula established by Toy Story, I can't truly say that its weaknesses are the result of a lack of imagination.

I used to be not too terribly fond of this movie, prefering A Bug's Life over it. Upon watching it a second time, I must concur with its fans. Antz is definitely more palatable for adults. Yes the villain is obvious. Yes the characters are spitting images of their own voice actors. But what saves this movie from being mundane is the rather sharp and dry wit of the humor, the confident and snappy narrative, and the excellent voice acting. Even if A Bug's Life has better animation, Antz has a better "little outcast who could" theme. And every once in a while we all deserve an animated movie that's funny without resorting to tired pop culture jokes.

It's ironic, but 'Antz' may be remembered as the last great Woody Allen comedy. Like Robin Williams in 'Alladin', Z's dialog is so quintessentially Woody Allen that it's hard to believe he didn't write or ad-lib some of it. It's also a damn sight funnier than anything Woody has made himself since I can't remember when. Some of Z's lines to the ant psychiatrist in the opening scene alone are priceless. The world might be slightly tired of Allen playing the whiny, neurotic wimp, but in 'Antz' the character who, back in 1967, tried to hold up a bank with a stick-up note which nobody could read ("I have a Gub?") is absolutely perfect.

What's more, Allen is cast alongside Sylvester Stallone (who, incidentally, was voted worst actor of the century in the Razzie awards in 2000), and even HE comes across well. This is easily the most bizarre pairing since Mickey Rooney and Kurt Russell in 'The Fox and the Hound'. No, wait... I forgot about Ernest Borgnine and Sheena Easton... well it just goes to show that in animation, miracles can happen.

It's been said before, but it bears repeating: Antz, despite the ostensible similarity of subject matter, and similar release dates, is nothing like 'A Bug's Life'. Put simply, 'Bug's Life' is a kid's film this is an adult's film which kids will like.

The story, I suppose, is nothing remarkable: male nobody gets princess... another parallel with 'Alladin' - but there is a social and political undercurrent to 'Antz'. If it owes a little to Disney, perhaps it owes a little to George Orwell, too.

There's something else about 'Antz': it's one of the few CGI movies where the CGI just didn't bother me at all. In 'Toy Story' I just swallowed my preference for cel animation, because the film was so undeniably brilliant. With 'Antz', the whole thing somehow seemed outside of the normal animated genres, such that it never entered my head to wish they'd done cel animation instead. In fact I can clearly see how scenes like the 'wrecking ball' sequence wouldn't have had half the impact with conventional animation.
Visually the film is always superb, sometimes plain stunning.

'Antz' is straining hard to break through the 4-star barrier. The only thing holding me back is 'What do I give to the handful of films I like even more?'

Great stuff, and sadly overshadowed by the very good, but less substantial 'Bug's Life'.

3.9 stars!

Antz is a fun film, with a more adult plot and sense of humor than A Bugs Life, which was released about the same time. (Not coincidentally, either--a disagreement about plot direction reportedly motivated the originator of the ant story to depart Pixar and pitch his original concept to Dreamworks.)

The main character is Z, an angsty, rather whiny Woody Allen character. He can't come to terms with the idea that he is only a tiny, meaningless little cog in the huge organization of the colony. Then he falls in love with a slumming princess, and his life is turned upside down.

Antz varies subtle, clever and original humor with scenes of stunning scope. The incredible vastness of the colony is a 'wow' moment near the beginning of the film, and the termite war (and aftermath) are also impressive. The gigantism of everything in the ants' world is brilliantly expressed. This film deserves to be seen on as large a screen as possible.

Apart from the visuals, the film plays a lot like an old-fashioned Woody Allen comedy, from the days when he was funny. The plot isn't terribly original or surprising, but the humor and the amazing world of the ants keeps the film exciting. It helps, too, if you LIKE Woody Allen, because if you don't, Z gets annoying. (I don't like Woody Allen, though, and still enjoyed the film VERY much. So don't let that scare you off.)

The score of Antz is by Gregson-Williams and Powell, the same team who did the excellent scores to Shrek and Chicken Run. The energetic, sycopated jazz theme, The Colony (heard near the beginning of the film, as Z goes to work) is arguably the high point of the soundtrack CD, though the entire score meshes very well with the film, and is good listening.

The first thing to say is don't even try to mistake "Antz" for "A Bug's Life." Where A Bug's Life is quite obviously a cute, Disney-flick targeted to kids, Antz plays like an adult action film from the dialogue to the issues it plays with. At times the 'social issues' motif threatens to overwhelm the story but things are usually brought back down to earth quickly enough with the Z / Princess Bala side-story. Woody Allen does well as the voice of Z, the paranoid ant with a few issues of his own.

The animation pulls no punches and you will be astonished at how organic the entire film feels--even though it is completely computer generated. The character animation is very well done as well and takes the time to put in the small nuances of facial expression and body language, putting life and complexity into the characters. The lighting of the film is also impressive and contributes to its feeling of realism. There were times watching this movie when I could have sworn I was watching stop-motion animation--that's how real the characters and the environment felt.