Must a worker ant always be a worker?

Rating: 7/10 (6 February 2017)

Z (Zee not Zed; he is American) is a worker ant who is fed up with his lot in life; he wants to be allowed to make some choices but that isn't the way life works in the ant colony. One day as he moans about things to his friend, a soldier ant Weaver, in a bar Princess Bala visits the incognito to see how the lower orders live. She ends up dancing with Z but his individual dancing style leads to trouble and she is rushed to safety; it is only then that Z learns who she was. Determined to see her again he swaps place with Weaver at a military review. He doesn't realise that the assembled soldiers are about to be sent on a certain death mission to attack a termite nest! Somehow he is the sole survivor. He returns to the colony a hero but he soon crosses paths the General Mandible, who has rather drastic plans for the colony. Z escapes with a somewhat unwilling Bala. Outside the colony they make their way to the fabled 'Insectopia'. On the way they face a variety of perils then just as things look good for them Bala is grabbed at taken back to Mandible. Z is determined to see her again and ultimately the two of them will have to save the colony from Mandible's evil plans.
1998 saw two animated films about an ant that didn't do what was expected of him and became a hero; this and Disney/Pixar's 'A Bug's Life'; while I slightly preferred the latter this is still a lot of fun and will probably appeal to older children a bit more. There is a greater sense of threat and the villain is more unpleasant. Mandible is clearly meant to be a Nazi with his plans to 'cleanse' the colony of its weaker members the very workers who built it. The battle against the termites features death and surprisingly for a PG rated film reminded me of a toned down version of the battle scenes in 'Starship Troopers'! There are some funny moments but this is more about the drama than comedy. The cast is almost entirely made up of actors who one wouldn't usually associate with animated films; notable Woody Allen, as Z; Sharon Stone, as Bala; Sylvester Stallone, as Weaver, and Gene Hackman, as General Mandible; they, along with the rest of the cast, do a fine job. The animation is pretty good given that it is almost twenty years old now. Overall I'd certainly recommend this to fans of animated films.