Hugely entertaining (and a lesson in civics)

Rating: Null/10 (28 December 2001)

This is one animated movie that is just too good and clever to be left to the kids, though they will certainly be entertained by the imaginative characterisations, exciting storyline, funny sequences and expressive music. But in addition to these basic merits, adults will also enjoy the way the main CGI-produced characters have been adjusted to the actors providing the voices, rather than the other way round. This applies especially, of course, to Z (Woody Allen) who embodies not only Allen's neurosis, but that awkward, questioning individuality that so often goes along with neurosis; and which is particularly awkward for a worker-ant, supposed to conform to the totalitarian norm with every fibre of its being.
With gentle-giant soldier-ant Weaver (Sylvester Stallone), autocratic General Mandible (Gene Hackman) and his smooth sidekick, Col Cutter (Christopher Walken), also, the personalities of the voicers - or at least of the human characters they often play - have been successfully incorporated into the animated figures. This aspect of the movie is perhaps not so marked with the female characters - the Queen (Ann Bancroft), Princess Bala (Sharon Stone) and Z's friend Azteca (Jennifer Lopez), which may be because actresses are less typecast in Hollywood movies than their male counterparts.
A dominant feature of the film is its strong political message in favour of individual liberty and freedom of choice, a message which carries more weight because it is delivered not by some super-hero, but by arch-nebish Z. Yet despite this theme of the individual, the climactic image of the film is one of teamwork, with the ants voluntarily combining their strength and agility to save themselves and each other, by forming a precarious tower of bodies supported by the strong-limbed and even stronger-hearted Weaver.