"Antz," the new animated feature from DreamWorks, opens with an image of a silhouetted skyline. On the soundtrack is Woody Allen's voice, providing his patented neurotic narration. To the unsuspecting, this could be another trip to Allen's Manhattan haunts, but suddenly the light shifts, and the skyline turns out to be blades of grass. That's pretty much the major theme of "Antz" -- changing perspectives.
With an intelligent script, amazing visuals and strong performances, "Antz" is one of the best films of the fall season so far. It has a fully realized vision of ant life and surprisingly mature subject matter that perhaps is more entertaining to adults than to children.
The story follows Z (voice of Allen), a worker ant suffering a massive identity crisis. He's first seen venting his frustration to an ant therapist. "When you are the middle child in a family of 5 million, you don't get any attention," Z laments. He feels insignificant and rightly so, according to his therapist.
As a worker ant, Z must know his place in his society. There's no room for individualistic thought. Everything must be done for the good of the colony. Signs and posters adorn the interiors of the anthill extolling the benefits of hard work and group loyalty.
Unfortunately, Z has a streak of independence in him, and he doesn't seem to understand why the other ants in the colony ever thinks for themselves. On one miserable night at the colony bar, Z meets a drunk ant who talks about a legendary "Insectopia," a place made entirely of food. Z mocks the old ant at first, but eventually the idea sinks in and becomes a personal quest.
To complicate things, Princess Bala (voice of Sharon Stone), successor to the Queen Ant (voice of Anne Bancroft), decides to slum it with the lower classes for a night before her arranged marriage with General Mandible (voice of Gene Hackman). As luck would have it, Bala and Z wind up dancing, and in a fit of individualism, Z breaks free from the sterile, lackluster dance of the other ants.
Z's deviation from the norm starts a bar fight, and he and Bala are separated, but not before he discovers that she's the princess. Of course, Z has fallen in love with the beautiful princess and is determined to get her attention again, so he approaches his best friend, Weaver (voice of Sylvester Stallone), who is a soldier ant.
As a soldier, Weaver must march past the Queen and Bala as part of Royal Inspection. Z convinces Weaver to switch places so that he can march past the princess. In return, Weaver can work alongside his semi-crush, Azteca (voice of Jennifer Lopez).
Elsewhere in the colony, trouble is brewing. General Mandible is planning a coup d'etat, and his first step is to purge all of the Queen's followers. He fabricates a conflict with a neighboring termite colony, enlists all of the soldiers loyal to the queen and then sends them off to battle, knowing full well that none will survive.
Z, while impersonating Weaver, is sent off to the battle and miraculously survives, returning as a war hero. What follows is a nice blend of adventure and political satire as the colony undergoes a social revolution, complete with Marxist mantras.
The story is tight and well developed, and for once breaks the Disney formula. There are no cute sidekicks or musical numbers, and the mature material is not dumbed down or softened for a children's audience. In fact, the film is surprisingly mature. The words "bitching," "tight-ass" and "crap" are all used, a taboo for most animated family fare these days. The jokes are often sharp, witty and knowledgeable, and most of them are probably lost on the below-15 crowd. In a parody of John Lennon, one scene finds a mob of ants singing "All we are saying / is give Z a chance."
In addition, the film has a large amount of Nazi parallels. One instance finds the ant population, after a rousing speech by Mandible, making hand gestures that are similar to the "Hail Hitler" salute. And, as part of Mandible's coup, he plans to commit mass genocide on the colony (this is after the termite battle) to separate who he believes are the weak from the strong.
The film uses its Nazi imagery to comment on the importance of individualism. When the ants think only as a group, they find themselves under the control of a vicious fascist. Mandible essentially runs the colony; the Queen is a lame duck. It is ultimately the free spirited Z who revolutionizes the colony into thinking for itself.
By tackling these ideas, "Antz" becomes a sly political satire in much the same way (but not in the same league) as "Animal Farm." Very few, if any at all, animated films in recent years have ever attempted or achieved satire. True, "Beavis and Butthead Do America" had a satirical edge, but it wasn't much of a full- fleshed satire.
At one point in the film, I worried that the story was going to lose its satirical edge when Bala and Z, after a series of actions, find themselves outdoors. It seemed as though the movie was going to soften and become a love story. However, while a romantic subplot develops, the film surprisingly does not lose its focus.
In fact, the scenes outside of the anthill are fascinating to watch. The change of perspective is intriguing, and a scene where the two ants find beauty in what for us is trash is highly amusing.
One of the strongest aspects of the film is its visuals. The computer animation works well with ants and the ant world, just as it did with toys in "Toy Story." However, now that the technology has improved, some wonderful images of the colony can be created. Some scenes show millions of ants all marching to and fro with various tasks. The termite battle is an eyeful, as thousands of ants clash with the giant, round bugs.
Some of the imagery might be rather harsh for very young children. The termites are vicious looking monsters that might disturb toddlers.
Another sight that might be upsetting is one of an ant who gets trapped under a magnifying glass. We actually see the naive bug pulverized into ashes. Of course, I respect the filmmakers for not softening those sorts of scenes. The writers seem to want to tell a good story rather than appealing to the widest audience.
Also in the film is a handful of colorful and humorous characters. There's the WASP couple, Chip and Muffy (Dan Ackroyd and Jane Curtin) who actually are wasps, and a rogue bunch of teenage insects who sit around and ponder the universe. One debates whether they are part of some larger world.
"Antz" truly surprised me. What I expected to be at most a pleasant diversion turned out to be a sophisticated comedy. Don't let its genre fool you. "Antz" is quality filmmaking.
