It's still as poignant and funny as it was when I first saw it back in 1998

Rating: 9/10 (1 June 2010)

Yes, Z basically is a slightly more child-friendly version of Woody Allen's movie persona and the film is Annie Hall with an action plot built around it, but it works, even though the way the movie started (you hear Woody Allen's voice from the off for a while before the animated ant he is voicing is revealed lying on his psychiatrist's couch) it initially was difficult for me to accept Woody's voice as the voice of this piece of animation which moves it's mouth in sync but - and of this I was convinced - is not Woody Allen. But this passed quickly and the symbiosis came to fruition. But it proves how problematic it can be to use the voice of such an iconic person for an animated character.
The weakest element of the movie certainly is the villain, who is the clichÃ© war mongering general who in this case doesn't even have a reasonable motive for his evil plans (he wants to drown the whole colony pretty much just because), which is made worse by the fact that he has the final say on all decisions in the colony, so the only one who can save the day is our Z, since everybody else would be negatively affected by the general's plans simply is clueless.
The computer animation still looks good, although the motions don't always look as realistic as we got used by now. But the design of the ants still looks as unusual as it did the first day in a weirdly creative way. It also proved unexpectedly influential, as can be witnessed on MTV in the shape of Tila Tequila, whose team of plastic surgeons owes a lot to DreamWorks' creative minds in the art department. Who could have ever foreseen such an impact of ANTZ back in 1998, right? Talking about DreamWorks, this movie feels much more like a Pixar movie to me, given how clever it is and how much potential entertainment value for grownups it offers.
Now I have spent the whole review on only listing all the things it doesn't do well and a few things it does well, while saying nothing about why it is as as important a movie as it is (apart from the surgeon influence). Well, unfortunately I have run all out of time now and the greatness that is ANTZ really is self-explanatory. Should you be ignorant to all the good things that it brings you certainly can't be helped and probably are blind and dumb or simply a Woody Allen hater, because ANTZ easily is one of the very best Woody Allen films - even without being a Woody Allen film.
I rate it 9 out of 10 ant allegories which show us the insignificance of an individual in a mindless worker ant producing society that encourages unproductive work, and the power an individual can have to change at least his own life if he takes a stand against the system (and has a good portion of luck on his side as well).