|
"Woody Allen is the true star, playing Z-4195 as a
characteristic self-doubting neurotic"
"If you like Shrek, Bug's Life or Toy Story, you'll like this
earlier movie too"
The PG rating includes a gritty battle
sequence that may frighten younger youngsters. |
 |
|
Antz
with Woody Allen, Sylvester Stallone,
Sharon Stone, Gene Hackman, Anne Bancroft, Christopher
Walken, Jennifer Lopez, Dan Ackroyd and others |
Z is an ant, a very small worker ant with ambition.
He hopes in time to win the heart of a beautiful princess. When his friend
offers to change places with him he jumps at the chance to become a
soldier ant. What follows is a battle with General Mandible who plans to
wipe out the colony.
Review
Woody Allen as a worker ant with an inferiority complex?
Sylvester Stallone as an affable soldier ant who discovers that digging
tunnels is cool? The animation playground we all knew so well is turning
into a theme park full of in-jokes for grownups. Antz explores
age-old topics (one person--err, insect--can make a difference,
individuality and social responsibility must exist side by side, war is
hell) with comic asides and Woody Allen's funniest quips this side of PG
(adults will chuckle at the socialist slogans bandied about as he
campaigns for workers' rights). Sharon Stone voices the rebellious
princess with a fun-loving streak that doesn't quite overcome her royal
bearing and court training, but she can learn. Gene Hackman is all teeth
(ants have teeth?) and menacing grins as the Army general plotting insect-icide. This bug's-eye view of life on Earth gives Allen's neurotic
nonconformist an epic adventure of microscopic proportions: a devastating
war with a termite colony, an odyssey to the fabled land of plenty (a
picnic ground), and a race to save his fellow workers from certain death.
Other voices include Anne Bancroft as the Queen, Christopher Walken,
Jennifer Lopez, Danny Glover, Dan Aykroyd, Jane Curtin and John Mahoney.
The computer animation isn't exactly realistic but feels as solid and
contoured as puppet animation with the smoothness and slickness of
traditional cell cartoons, and the character designs and animation offer a
marvellous range of expressions.
Click below for more information, or to
buy from Amazon:
|
