Reasonably entertaining animation showcasing Woody Allen

Rating: Null/10 (17 February 1999)

I did not see Antz until after I had seen A Bug's Life, and I had the strange feeling I would have liked the former film better than I did had I seen it when it initially hit theatres. Antz is much darker and more serious than A Bug's Life, Woody Allen's solid one-liners notwithstanding. I was also surprised by how "adult" the film felt in terms of its dialogue, plotting, and angular (some would say ugly) character animation -- not to mantion the overall darkness of the design. Some Allen fans will be pleased, as typical Woody-style jokes are transposed into insect vocabulary.
I personally favored Z's off-color retort following an invitation to drink some aphid beer. Allen did not write the film, but just as well could have considering how tailor-made some of the jokes were for him.