Antz

Patty Wooton

Todd Alcott

Anne Bancroft

Jane Curtin

Danny Glover

Gene Hackman

Jennifer Lopez

John Mahoney

Paul Mazursky

Grant Shaud

Sylvester Stallone

Sharon Stone

Christopher Walken

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 animated film, and the third feature-length computer-animated film after Disney/Pixar's Toy Story and NDR Filmes Brazil´s Cassiopeia.

The film's production resulted in a controversial public feud between DreamWorks co-founder 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 first animated 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. Rotten Tomatoes's consensus was that critics praised the voice cast, animation, humor and its appeal towards adults.

## 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 by acid-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.

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.

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.

## Cast

* Woody Allen as Z-4195 "Z", an idealistic but anxious worker ant.
* Gene Hackman as General Mandible, the mean-spirited and selfish supreme commander of the ant military. He is also the fianće of Princess Bala.
* Sharon Stone as Princess Bala, the Queen Ant's daughter.
* Sylvester Stallone as Corporal Weaver, a brave soldier ant and Z's best friend.
* Jennifer Lopez as Azteca, another friend of Z's and a worker ant who becomes Weaver's girlfriend.
* Christopher Walken as Colonel Cutter, a flying ant that serves as Mandible's patient and empathetic adviser who becomes disillusioned by the general's actions.
* Danny Glover as Staff Sergeant Barbatus, a soldier ant who befriends Z.
* Anne Bancroft as Queen Ant, Princess Bala's mother and the ruler of the ants.
* Dan Aykroyd as Chip the Wasp, a wasp whom Z befriends.
* Grant Shaud as The Foreman, the head of the worker ants.
* 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*.

## Release

ReleaseIn late 1997, a teaser trailer for Antz, depicting the opening scene with Z in an ant psychiatrist office, first played in theaters in front of select prints of As Good as It Gets. Anticipation was generally high with adult moviegoers rather than families and children.

### Home media

Antz was released to VHS and DIVX on February 9, 1999, and to DVD on March 23, 1999, becoming the first feature-length CGI-animated film to be available on DVD. However, the DVD release used a 35mm print of the film to create the copies, rather than using the original files to encode the movie directly to video. A Blu-ray release is scheduled for October 16, 2018.