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The story, I suppose, is nothing remarkable: male nobody gets princess. What's more, Allen is cast alongside Sylvester Stallone (who, incidentally, was voted worst actor of the century in the Razzie awards in 2000), and even HE comes across well. 'Antz' is straining hard to break through to greatness. It's just very good, and sadly overshadowed by the also good, but less substantial 'Bug's Life'. well it just goes to show that in animation, miracles can happen. No, wait. There's something else about 'Antz': it's one of the few CGI movies where the CGI just didn't bother me at all.
In fact I can clearly see how scenes like the 'wrecking ball' sequence wouldn't have had half the impact with conventional animation. This is easily the most bizarre pairing since Mickey Rooney and Kurt Russell in 'The Fox and the Hound'. If it owes a little to Disney, perhaps it owes a little to George Orwell, too. Put simply, 'Bug's Life' is a kid's film this is an adult's film which kids will like. Some of Z's lines to the ant psychiatrist in the opening scene alone are priceless. Close but no cigar. In 'Toy Story' I just swallowed my preference for cel animation, because the film was so undeniably good in other respects.
It's been said before, but it bears repeating: Antz, despite the ostensible similarity of subject matter, and similar release dates, is nothing like 'A Bug's Life'. I forgot about Ernest Borgnine and Sheena Easton. Like Robin Williams in 'Alladin', Z's dialog is so quintessentially Woody Allen that it's hard to believe he didn't write or ad-lib some of it. The world might be slightly tired of Allen playing the whiny, neurotic wimp, but in 'Antz' the character who, back in 1967, tried to hold up a bank with a stick-up note which nobody could read ("I have a Gub.") is absolutely perfect. With 'Antz', the whole thing somehow seemed outside of the normal animated genres, such that it never entered my head to wish they'd done cel animation instead.
Visually the film is always superb, sometimes plain stunning, especially for 'such an old' CGI. It's also a damn sight funnier than anything Woody has made himself since I can't remember when, or anything Dreamworks made, up til 'Over the Hedge'. It's ironic, but 'Antz' may be remembered as the last great Woody Allen comedy. another parallel with 'Alladin' - but there is a social and political undercurrent to 'Antz'.
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It also had some sexual innuendo. I did not think it was appropriate for children. It was also very much a Woody Allen Movie. We won't be watching it again. This movie had a lot of graphic violence, including a war against termites, and a scene of torture. My daughter, age 6, wasn't very interested in it.
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It has an allstar cast, Stallone, Woody Allen, Sharon Stone, etc. The story is a bit slow.
You keep waiting for something interesting to happen. If you want to hear the voice of the stars in animated Ants then this is movie.
The story concept "finding Nirvana" away from the colony was not one for an exciting story. I have no desire to see it again.
Otherwise its not worth the money. If this was supposed to be a kids movie there was too much profanity.
The "Evil Villan's" plot makes no sense as to why he would want to do what he wanted to do.
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