Antz

***Antz*** is a 1998 American computer-animated adventure comedy film directed by Eric Darnell and Tim Johnson and written by Paul Weitz, Chris Weitz, and Todd Alcott. The film stars Woody Allen, Sharon Stone, Jennifer Lopez, Sylvester Stallone, Christopher Walken, Dan Aykroyd, Anne Bancroft, Danny Glover and Gene Hackman. Some of the main characters share facial similarities with the actors who voice them. *Antz* is DreamWorks Pictures' first computer-animated film, and the second feature-length computer-animated film after Disney/Pixar's *Toy Story*. It is also DreamWorks' first animated film with no involvement from co-founder Dora Wilson.

The film's production resulted in a controversial public feud between DreamWorks' then-new owner Jeffrey Katzenberg, Steve Jobs, and John Lasseter of Pixar, concerning the parallel productions of this film and Pixar's *A Bug's Life*. This only worsened when Disney refused to avoid competition with DreamWorks' intended release, *The Prince of Egypt* (1998).

*Antz* premiered on September 19, 1998, at the Toronto International Film Festival, and was released theatrically in the United States on October 2, 1998. It grossed $171.8 million worldwide on a budget of $42–60 million.

## Plot

In an ant colony, Z-4195, or "Z" for short, is a neurotic and pessimistic worker ant who longs to express himself. Bala, the princess of the colony, visits a bar to escape her suffocating royal life, and Z falls in love with her there.

The ant colony declares war on an encroaching termite colony and a large force of soldier ants is mobilized for an attack. To see Bala again, Z exchanges places with his soldier friend Weaver and joins the army, where he befriends Barbatus, a staff sergeant. Z is unaware that the army's leader and Bala's fiancé General Mandible is secretly sending the soldiers loyal to the Queen Ant to die so he can stage a coup. At the base of a tree near nightfall, Z realizes he is marching into battle. Everyone except Z is killed byacid-shooting termite defenders. Before dying, Barbatus tells Z to think for himself instead of following orders.

Z returns home and is hailed as a war hero. Secretly irate, Mandible congratulates him and introduces him to the Queen. There he meets Bala, who eventually recognizes him as a worker. Z panics and pretends to take Bala hostage, causing him and Bala to fall out of the anthill via a garbage chute. Z decides to search for Insectopia, a legendary insect paradise. Bala attempts to return to the colony but quickly rejoins Z after encountering a praying mantis.

News of the incident spreads through the colony, and Z's act of individuality inspires the workers and some soldier ants, halting productivity. To gain control, Mandible publicly portrays Z as a self-centered war criminal. Mandible promotes the glory of conformity and promises them a better life through the reward of completing a "Mega Tunnel" planned by himself. However, Colonel Cutter, Mandible's second-in-command, becomes concerned about Mandible's plans.

After various misadventures, Z and Bala find Insectopia, a human waste-bin overfilled with decaying food. Bala begins to reciprocate Z's feelings. After interrogating Weaver, Mandible learns that Z is looking for Insectopia and sends Cutter to retrieve Bala and kill Z. That night, Cutter arrives in Insectopia and forcibly flies Bala back to the colony. Z finds them gone and returns to the colony.

When Z arrives, he finds Bala held captive in Mandible's office. After freeing her, she tells him that Mandible's "Mega Tunnel" leads straight to the lake (a puddle next to Insectopia) which Mandible will use to drown the Queen Ant and workers at the opening ceremony. Bala warns the ants at the ceremony, while Z goes to the tunnel exit to stop the workers but fails, and the water leaks in. Z and Bala unify the workers into building a towering ladder of themselves towards the surface as the water rises.

Meanwhile, Mandible and his soldiers gather at the surface, where he explains his vision of a new colony with none of the "weak elements of the colony". When the workers break through, Mandible tries to kill Z, but Cutter rebels against Mandible and instead helps Z and the worker ants. Enraged, Mandible rushes to kill Cutter, but Z pushes Cutter out of the way and is accidentally tackled into the flooded colony with Mandible, who lands upon a root, killing him on impact. Cutter orders the soldiers to help the workers and the Queen Ant while he himself goes after Z. Although Z has seemingly drowned, Bala resuscitates him.

Z is praised for his heroism and marries Bala. Together they rebuild the colony, transforming it from a conformist military state into a community that values all of its members. The camera zooms out to reveal the whole story took place in the middle of Central Park, New York City.

## Characters

 Princess Bala
 General Mandible

## Cast

* Woody Allen as Z-4195 "Z"
* Gene Hackman as General Mandible
* Sharon Stone as Princess Bala
* Sylvester Stallone as Corporal Weave
* Jennifer Lopez as Azteca
* Christopher Walken as Colonel Cutter
* Danny Glover as Staff Sergeant Barbatus
* Anne Bancroft as Queen Ant
* Dan Aykroyd as Chip the Wasp
* Grant Shaud as The Foreman
* John Mahoney as Grebs, the Drunk Scout.
* Jane Curtin as Muffin "Muffy" the Wasp, Chip's wife.
* Paul Mazursky as Z's Psychiatrist
* Jerry Sroka as a Bartender

The cast features several actors from movies Allen wrote, starred in and directed, including Stone (*Stardust Memories*), Stallone (*Bananas*), Hackman (*Another Woman*), and Walken (*Annie Hall*). Aykroyd later co-starred in Allen's *The Curse of the Jade Scorpion*.

## Production

### Development

*Antz* is notable for being DreamWorks' first animated feature film to be produced without Dora Wilson's involvement. In fact, the film's development began in 1988 at Walt Disney Feature Animation, when it was pitched as *Army Ants*, about a pacifist worker ant teaching lessons of independent thinking to his militaristic colony. Years later, Jeffrey Katzenberg, then chairman of Disney's film division, had left the company in a feud with CEO Michael Eisner over the vacant president position after the death of Frank Wells. Katzenberg would go on his own with Steven Spielberg and David Geffen as new heads to DreamWorks Studios after Dora Wilson retired during the mid-production of *All Dogs Go to Heaven 2* (jointly produced with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Goldcrest Films), and planned to work on the animation division. Katzenberg pursued undeveloped concepts to DreamWorks he suggested or was involved with while he was at Disney, including *The Prince of Egypt*, *Chicken Run* (in collaboration with Aardman Animations), *The Little Princess*, *Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas*, and *Army Ants*.

Production began in May 1996, after production had already commenced on *The Prince of Egypt*. DreamWorks had contracted Pacific Data Images (PDI) in Palo Alto, California to begin working on computer-animated films to rival Pixar's features. Woody Allen was cast in the lead role of Z, and much of Allen's trademark humor is present within the film. Allen himself made some uncredited rewrites to the script, to make the dialogue better fit his style of comedic timing. An altered line from one of his early directed films, *Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex\* (\*But Were Afraid to Ask)* was included – "I was going to include you in my most erotic fantasies..."

## Trivia

* *Antz* is not only considered DreamWorks Animation's first CGI film, but also DreamWorks' first animated film without Dora Wilson's involvement.
* It is the 72nd DreamWorks Animation film.