Antz

Rating:
Summary: A brilliant animated movie!
Review: A witty worker Ant named "Z" switch places with his friend " Weaver" so that he can win the hand of the sexy " Princess Balla" and finds himself in many adventures out of the colony.
A highly entertaining and memorable animated movie done in realistic CGI made by PDI ( the company that animated "Shrek"), it's one of the finest animation movies done by Dreamworks during the same year when "Prince of Egypt" came out and another similar insect story from Disney/Pixar called " A Bug's Life" came out. This is far more for adults than " Bug's Life", it's one of the best animated movies i've ever seen. The voice acting was great with Sylvester Stallone, Woody Allen, Sharon Stone, Christopher Walken, Jane Curtin, Dan Ackyroid, Anne Bancroft, Gene Hackman and Jennifer Lopez makes this a Must See!
Also recommended: A Bug's Life, Finding Nemo, Watership Down, Transformers: The Movie, The Secret of NIMH, The Flight of Dragons, Toy Story, The Hobbit, Toy Story 2, The Last Unicorn, The Dark Crystal, Rock & Rule, Cowboy Bebop: The Movie, Metropolis ( 2001 anime version), Final Fantasy: The Movie, Monsters Inc, Roujin-Z, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Kiki's Delivery Service, Heavy Metal.

Rating:
Summary: NOT FOR KIDS
Review: I bought this for my kids and I was NOT happy when I heard cuss words and watched this video. Adults may like this video but I WOULD NOT ever reccomend it for kids.

Rating:
Summary: You won't find these Antz in yer Pantz!
Review: The Film: [Rating: 84%] Dreamworks challenger to the Disney ant favourite A Bug's Life arrives on a feature packed DVD complete with a truly sumptuous transfer. Ok, so it's a cartoon - but don't be put off since this one is loaded with far more wit and style than your average kiddie flick (isn't he in a A Bug's Life?) and features the vocal talents of Woody Allen, Sharon Stone, Dan Aykroyd, Gene Hackman, Danny Glover, Jennifer Lopez, Sylvester Stallone, Christopher Walken, Anne Bancroft and a shed load more fine actors. Imagine this many actors in a live-action film, the fees, the makeup, the trailer size contests - I guess doing animation must be a welcome bit of fun, allowing dress-down days too!

The story follows loner ant Z (pronounced zee, not zed!) who feels there should be more to life than his lot as a worker ant. Allen plays the lead, supported well be his best friend and soldier ant Weaver (Stallone). Z's path crosses that of the bored Princess Bala (Stone) whom he desperately wants to see again. Following a little persuasion, Z manages to trade places with Weaver for a place in the soldier's parade - held in front of the royalty! I don't want to give too much of the plot away since you're better off watching but Z's adventures to win the heart of the Princess, battle fierce termites Starship Troopers style, and his all round save-the-day antics are a treat for young and old alike. Kids will love this great cartoon but only adults will catch all of the humour and admire the truly stunning computer animation.

It's a pity this was released only one month before Disney's ant based film and the subsequent press scrutiny they both received in the 'Ant Wars'. They are very different films, just both animated and about ants. Personally I rate Antz slightly higher but I also think that from a kid's point of view the adult nature of much of it's humour may put A Bug's Life out in front as a point decision winner. Take the easy route and give both pride of place in your DVD collection!

The Picture: [Rating: 93%] Gob smacking! Awesome! Breath-taking! What more can be said about this 1.85:1 original aspect ratio transfer from an all digital source. Colours are to die for - see the Trash-topia sequence to see what I mean, black levels are spot on, detail is truly amazing, and there's not a single imperfection noticeable anywhere. There was some reported moans that the film was based underground too much, resulting in a too dark, earthy look - maybe an issue with a VHS copy but not here. This is what DVD and widescreen were made for!

The Sound: [Rating: 82%] Again, absolutely awesome (do I have to add the word DUDE to truly convince?). Some have mentioned the drowning out of vocals during some of the terrifically loud action sequences but this didn't affect me, even on (or maybe because of) my 'pantz' audio set up.

The Extras: [Rating: 70%] Directors Tim Johnson and Eric Darnel feature on an informative full-length audio commentary. There's a production featurette running under 5 minutes that is more interview soundbites than anything else. Much more revealing is the 11 minutes on The Basics of Computer Animation - focusing on the dance sequence and the water droplet, showing build up from storyboards to the finished, lighted & shaded animation. Brief but nice is the one minute on the Antz Facial System. Last of the documentaries is 10 minutes 26 seconds worth of wonderful hand-drawn art work showing the development of the Antz Character Design. There are four TV spots, along with the theatrical trailer, but the usual filmo's are blown away by a simple cast list. Finally there's also eight pages worth of production notes. Packaging the whole thing together is a fantastic menu system, fully animated with great transitions from one selection to another and all fully scored. Selecting the scene index from the front page (by moving the giant magnifying class!) will drop the 'camera' through the earth, taking you down to the Antz homeworld before displaying the four individually animated clips that represent four of the twenty six scenes available - top stuff!

And Finally... [Overall Rating: 86%] Superb presentation - more meat on the extras would have been nice, but this is nit-picking since everything here is gold-plated!

Rating:
Summary: A charming little animated piece of work
Review: The unfortunate thing with Antz is that it got released around the same time as A Bug's Life, which had significantly better special effects. Still, overall, I believe Antz wins over A Bug's Life in the long run.

The whole story stars Z, a ranting, individualistic ant played by Woody Allen (who also looks like E.T. in my opinion), and Princess Bala, the fun-loving (and spoiled) heir to the ant throne played by Sharon Stone. Other characters include the evil General Mandible, voiced perfectly by Gene Hackman, an over-expectant yellow jacket called Chip (Dan Ackroyd), and Weaver, a "lady's man" soldier ant played by Sylvester Stalone.

The whole storyline seems to hint of The Prince and the Pauper, but later turns into just another "baddie manipulates the system to get what he wants" movie. Simplistic plot, really, but that doesn't stop the movie from being comical, which is probably what its directors intended more than anything. The humor is probably best suited to the teenager crowd, despite the movie's PG rating, although I'm sure kids would enjoy this movie as well.

The movie is also filled with many small Flinstones-ish mini-jokes involving the usage of just about anything made out of grass, dirt, or sticks as an everyday human appliance. Most of the humor is drawn from the over-cockiness of Weaver, the over-concerned nature of Z, and essentially how over-acted all of the characters are. Not a great place to draw humor, but Antz pulls it off nicely.

Conclusively, this movie is nothing next to A Bug's Life in terms of 3D animation, but don't let that stop you. Pick up a copy of this movie, it's literally fun for the whole family.

Rating:
Summary: A very well rendered kid-adult movie.
Review: Who knew a cartoon could have such deep views and ideas about Utopias, communism, dictatorship, and governmental oppression? This is one of the best I have watched. The movie itself is wonderful and has a very deep and involving plot even though you might not expect it. The characters are well written and it doesn't fall into the typical cliches like disney movies do. As for the disc, the video quality is the BEST I've seen, no pixels were present in the video. Heck, I tried to find something wrong with the video quality and I couldn't! The 5.1 audio is excellent also and the .1 channel knows when exactly when to come in. The vibrant sounds never fight with the dialogue, and the movie has a great sense of 5.1 surround creating a real environment. The features are also where this DVD shines. The colorfull animated windows are user friendly leading you to Behind the scenes featurettes, The basics of computer animation, CG facial and character designs, commentaries, a trailor, 4 TV spots, and more. Overall, this is how all DVD's should be and will set a standard. It's a good movie for kids AND adults and I mean that, I'm a 20 year old Male and I loved it. This is definately a movie adults could enjoy.