A communist fable? That's not so far in left field...

Rating: 8/10 (15 February 2013)

Antz is a notable film for three distinct reasons. One, it ushered in a whole new kind of animated film for children; dark, stylish, very adult, and usually appreciated by a certain type of child. This isn't necessarily the story believe would possess mainstream appeal by a public treated to the wonders of Toy Story and a previous slew of Disney films. Two, it bears a darker and more stark animation style that breaks free from the cuteness of other animated tales. And three, the explicit controversy that lead to this film's creation.
For the "Cliff Notes" version of the story, Jeffrey Katzenberg, an executive at Disney, departed the day Pixar/Disney head John Lasseter pitched the idea for A Bug's Life, a charming little computer animated feature centering around the rodents of your backyard. Not long after Katzenberg departed, he formed "Dreamworks" and his debut feature would be Antz, focusing, likewise, on an insect-drive society, released seven weeks before A Bug's Life. Lasseter was greatly disheartened by Katzenberg's move, which was easily the case of taking someone's great idea and using it against them. Which one became more well-known? At the time, I'd most likely say A Bug's Life, but both films have gone on to be sort of the forgotten creatures of two massive companies. Yet Antz is more than meets the eye in several regards.
We focus on an ant colony in New York City where ant Z-4195 (voiced by Woody Allen - whose character is also nicknamed "Z") is gridlocked in an oppressively totalitarian society where individualism is discouraged and conformity is king. As neurotic and somewhat inept he is, he hungers for the opportunity to express himself in a land dominated by conformists obeying the order of the ruling class. "Z" befriends Princess Bala (Sharon Stone), the daughter of the ruling queen ant, who takes a liking to his quirkiness, but recognizes he is merely a worker ant and not a noble soldier ant. To impress her, "Z" sneaks into the soldier march and is quickly taken for a ride to defend his ant colony. Yet he overlooks the fact that General Mandible (Gene Hackman) is purposely shipping out the loyal troops to die so he can formulate his own society filled with goon-like ants that talk with incredible power. The whole thing escalates into an integration of not only the plot of rebellion and survival, but romance and possessing a non-conformist attitude.
The voice acting will without a doubt turn off some people, but there are so many terrifically cast people in this film that sink into their roles fittingly. Woody Allen comfortably sinks into his role as a neurotic worker, Gene Hackman is brilliantly cast as the villain, Sharon Stone works as the princess, and Sylvester Stallone and Danny Glover exercise their roles to a pleasant extent.
Visually, as stated before, this is one of the darkest animated films I've seen - one of the very few not to be dominated by eye-popping, candy-coated colors while being soaked in a nice innocence that's easy to swallow. The message is strong and versatile; don't settle for conformity, but branch out and do what you want to do. Go against convention, do noble acts, do something that doesn't put you in a line occupied by faceless others. Some people have said Antz is a communist fable and I whole-heatedly agree. It shows in detail a society of shameless totalitarianism and exploits how it robs people (or ants in this case) of their individualistic qualities and personal traits.
Antz is primarily targeted towards the ten and up demographic, but I can see slightly younger kids appreciating this for its charming convention-breaking roots and its enigmatic presence it unleashes on its viewers. Dreamworks would later become known for implementing this kind of style, where it would ditch the younger crowd demographic in favor of the tweens and teens still cool enough to see animated films. Needless to say, with their immense success with the Shrek and Madagascar franchises, they've had quite the lucrative success. At the very least, this is a footnote in the world of animation, not just for its successful cast but for its darker themes and appearance that contrast it from the typical animated film.
Voiced by: Woody Allen, Sharon Stone, Gene Hackman, Sylvester Stallone, Danny Glover, Jennifer Lopez, Christopher Walken, Anne Bancroft, and Dan Aykroyd. Directed by: Eric Darnell and Tim Johnson.