Debugging Antz

Rating: 7/10 (3 July 2018)

Part of the fun of the movie Antz is that on works on many different levels and as several different stories. Children might enjoy it as simply a cute animated film (although the aftermath of the battle between the ants vs. the termites earned Antz a PG rating). At another level, Antz is the old girl-meet-boy from the wrong side of the tracks story). The film is also part adventure film with political intrigue and action. At yet another level, the film is an interesting political parable complete with sophisticated humor and witty dialogue.
Antz is about Ant Z, a neurotic worker ant in a colony of millions of ants. The movie opens with Ant Z lying on the psychiatrist's couch asking questions about the meaning of life, and the needs of the individual as opposed to the society as a whole. Fittingly, the voice, neuroses, and mannerisms of Ant Z are provided by Woody Allen. Sharon Stone provides the voice of Princess Bala, daughter of the queen of the ants. Princess Bala meets Z when she goes to a working-class bar. There is a cute dance sequence here complete with imitations of John Travolta and Uma Thurman from Pulp Fiction.

The one part of the movie that could use some debugging is the political parable. There are some references to the class system that could have been written by Karl Marx. There are other times when Ant Z rallies the troops around the themes of individualism and autonomy. In short, the film is a bit unfocused in terms of its central theme, and as a result, the political parable is the least satisfying of the elements.
If we don't take this part too seriously, we can still enjoy the film. Additional voices are provided by Gene Hackman, Christopher Walken, Danny Glover, and Jennifer Lopez (too name a few). The computer-generated animation is excellent. The dialogue is witty and well-written with lots of tongue-in-cheek references to contemporary culture. For example, when Ant Z is in trouble, a chorus of Ants starts singing "all we are saying, is give Z a chance." All in all, not a bad summary evaluation for the film as a whole.