Antz Review
by Fox Davidson (moviman18 AT aol DOT com)March 26th, 1999
Antz
Rated: PG (for stupidity)
Reviewed by Fox Davidson
Their little, smart, and hard working. They have many of the characteristics of humans. They're...Ugly! I watched this movie expecting cute, wide-eyed Disney-esque ants on the screen. Instead, I got vomit-colored, big-mouthed, dwarf-mutant ants running amoke. Not only that, they happened to have the same voices as major Hollywood stars, including Woody Allen and Sharon Stone. Someone save me from a sequel!
The film begins with Z (Allen) tired of being a worker all his life for the colony he lives at. The colony is run by a King and Queen, and their princess daughter, Bala (Stone). The first 10 minutes or so of Antz is Z moaning and groaning over how pathetic he is and that he was never able to lift more than ten times his own body weight. Oh brother. If I wanted to listen to Woody Allen complain, I would have rented Hannah and Her Sisters (one of Allen's lesser films).
Z learns of a place in the outside world known as Insectopia, a land where all insects can run free. Z wants to go, but not before trading places with his buddy (voice supplie by Sly Stallone), who is a cadat in an military-type army, ready to go to war with a bunch of alien-looking termits.
One day, Z and Bala are accidentally brought to the outside world, where Z insists they search for Insectopia, but Bala wants to go home. This is a perfect setup for the Hollywood man-and-women trapped on a desert island, fighting all the time senario. You know what I mean. We just saw it with Harrison Ford and Anne Heche in Six Days, Seven Nights. Except, this time, it features to talking ants with the voices of Allen and Stone.
I was very disappointed with Antz. I heard some good words of the movie, but, sadly, I don't think I'll be passing any of those said words along to my friends. DreamWorks' turn into the all computer animation territory dominated by the superior Toy Story is a second-rate voiced, written episode worthy of a slot in the WB Saturday morning kid scetch.
The DVD of Antz is very nice. The picture is lush and brimming with beautiful colors. Special features are a trailer.
Film: **
Disc: ***
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