Antz 1998
This movie is a nice change from the Disney formula. Instead of the typical loner hero who is befriended by a couple of wisecracking sidekicks before overcoming the establishment to find the true meaning of . . . whatever, we have Antz.
Though I don’t typically like Woody Allen, here he is almost a parody of himself: “I can’t even lift 10 times my own weight . . . maybe more like just 4 times."
The villains were pretty good, though somehow too heroic instead of just purely evil. They lacked a certain level of cruelty one has come to expect from the truly bad. The royal women seemed like fairly flat characters, not well thought out. The group of friends was very well done.The animation was good, especially the big scenes with all the movement and detail that you could never pay a standard animator to do anymore. This is the type of thing computer animation can do really well. The faces of the ants were made very human while still retaining an ant look.
The story was maybe a little bit tired and for whatever reason some of the magic seemed lacking that other cartoons like Toy Story and Aladdin had.
I give it a B.
Written: 26 Oct 1998
Owned on: Digital