Antz

In an anthill at Central Park, neurotic worker ant Z is suffering an existential crisis because everyone in the colony, including his psychiatrist, reminds him of his insignificance. At the same time, the colony's princess Bala wants to escape her suffocating royal life. While the worker ants are building a giant "Mega Tunnel" within the anthill, the leader of the colony's army General Mandible - to whom Bala is betrothed - declares war on an encroaching termite colony. Unbeknownst to anyone else, Mandible is sending only soldier ants loyal to the colony's Queen on a suicide mission to engage the termites in order to stage a coup d'état. One night at a bar, Z hears about the legendary insect paradise "Insectopia" from a retired scout suffering from PTSD. Bala later visits the bar and shares a dance with Z, who becomes smitten with her. Wanting to see Bala again, Z convinces his best friend Weaver, a soldier ant, to exchange places with him for the army's royal inspection. The next day, Z joins the army corps where he befriends staff sergeant Barbatus. Meanwhile, Weaver joins the digging crew, striking up a relationship with Z's co-worker Azteca. Z is sent out with a platoon into battle where the ants are overwhelmed by the termites, who slaughter everyone except Z. After the carnage, Z finds a dying Barbatus, who tells him to think for himself instead of blindly following orders. Z returns home where he is mistakenly hailed as a war hero and is granted an audience with the Queen. Bala recognizes Z as a worker and Mandible orders him arrested. This prompts Z to panic and pretend to take Bala hostage as he escapes the anthill with her. The royal guards' attempt to recover Bala fails when they are incinerated by a human child with a magnifying glass. Z's act of individuality inspires the workers and some soldier ants, halting productivity, but Mandible regains their loyalty by portraying Z as a self-centered war criminal, promoting the glory of conformity and promising the workers rewards for completing the Mega Tunnel. However, Mandible's second-in-command, a flying ant named Cutter, begins to doubt Mandible's constant reassurances that he is acting for the good of the colony. After an encounter with a praying mantis, Bala agrees to join Z to go in search of Insectopia. They initially mistake a human picnic for it, but are told otherwise by Muffy and Chip, an upper-class couple of wasps. They are suddenly attacked by a human wielding a fly swatter, which kills Muffy, and Bala gets stuck on a piece of gum beneath the human's shoe. Z attempts to rescue her, but gets stuck as well. The human flicks them off the shoe, and they land in Insectopia, revealed to be a trash can overfilled with decaying food. After interrogating Weaver, Mandible learns that Z is searching for Insectopia and sends Cutter to find it. That night, Cutter arrives at Insectopia and forcibly flies Bala back to the colony. Seeing Z's desperation at Bala's abduction, a drunken Chip, mourning Muffy's death, flies Z back to the colony. Z rescues Bala and together they discover that the Mega Tunnel will flood upon completion and that Mandible intends to drown the Queen, along with the workers, and restart the colony with Bala as his queen. Bala goes to save the Queen while Z attempts to stop work on the tunnel, but it begins to flood. Z and Bala unify the queen and workers into building a ladder towards the surface as the water rises. Meanwhile, Mandible gathers the soldiers on the surface and gloats about creating a new, stronger colony. When the worker ants break through the surface, Cutter betrays Mandible and helps them. An enraged Mandible tries to attack Cutter, but Z intervenes and he and Mandible fall into the flooded tunnel. Mandible dies striking a root and Z nearly drowns, but is rescued by Cutter and resuscitated by Bala. Z is praised for his heroism, and he and Bala become a couple. The colony is finally free with no rules and Z is finally content with his place in the world. == Voice cast ==

• Woody Allen as Z-4195 "Z", an idealistic, but anxious worker ant. • Gene Hackman as General Mandible, the sarcastic, unscrupulous and arrogant general officer of the ant military and Bala's fiancé. • Sharon Stone as Princess Bala, the future Queen of the colony, Mandible's fiancée, and Z's love interest. • Sylvester Stallone as Corporal Weaver, a brave soldier ant and Z's best friend who becomes Azteca's boyfriend. • Christopher Walken as Colonel Cutter, a flying ant who serves as Mandible's patient and empathetic adviser who becomes disillusioned by the general's actions. • Anne Bancroft as the Queen Ant, Bala's mother and the ruler of the ants. • Jennifer Lopez as Azteca, another friend of Z's and a worker ant who becomes Weaver's girlfriend. • Danny Glover as Staff Sergeant Barbatus, a soldier ant who befriends Z during the fight against the termites. • Dan Aykroyd as Chip, a wasp whom Z befriends. • Jane Curtin as Muffin "Muffy", a wasp who is Chip's wife. • John Mahoney as Grebs, a drunk ant scout with PTSD who talked about Insectopia. • Grant Shaud as the Foreman, the head of the worker ants. • Paul Mazursky as Z's Psychiatrist. • Jim Cummings as: • Soldier Ants • Worker Ant • Jerry Sroka as the Bartender, the unnamed bartender of the bar that Z and Weaver frequent. • April Winchell as a ladybug resident of Insectopia The cast features several actors from films Allen wrote, starred in and directed, including Stone (Stardust Memories), Stallone (Bananas), Hackman (Another Woman), and Walken (Annie Hall). Aykroyd later co-starred in Allen's The Curse of the Jade Scorpion. == Production ==

Development and writing In 1988, Walt Disney Feature Animation pitched a film called Army Ants, about a pacifist worker ant teaching lessons of independent thinking to his militaristic colony. Years later, Jeffrey Katzenberg, then chairman of Disney's film division, had left the company in a feud with CEO Michael Eisner over the vacant president position after the death of Frank Wells. Katzenberg would later go on to help co-found DreamWorks with Steven Spielberg and David Geffen, and the three planned to rival Disney with the company's new animation division. At the newly founded studio, Katzenberg began developing projects he tried to pursue or suggested while at Disney, including The Prince of Egypt, a collaboration with Aardman Animations which resulted in Chicken Run, Sinbad, and Army Ants. Also many ideas for the film were borrowed from a scrapped PDI film pitch for a computer-animated film from 1991 called Bugs: Lights Out about microscopic robots that take apart machinery. Production began in May 1996, after production had already commenced on The Prince of Egypt. DreamWorks had contracted Pacific Data Images (PDI) in Palo Alto, California to begin working on computer-animated films to rival Pixar's features. Woody Allen was cast in the lead role of Z. According to Allen, his decision to be in the film was made as a favor to Jeffrey Katzenberg. Allen made some uncredited rewrites to the script, to make the dialogue better fit his style of comedic timing. An altered line from one of his early directed films, Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask) was included – "I was going to include you in my most erotic fantasies..." Sarah Jessica Parker was originally cast as Princess Bala and even recorded some lines, until she was fired and replaced by Sharon Stone. Feud between DreamWorks Animation and Pixar During the production of Pixar's ''A Bug's Life'', a public feud erupted between Katzenberg, and Pixar's Steve Jobs and John Lasseter. Katzenberg, former chairman of Disney's film division, had left Disney in a feud with CEO Michael Eisner. In response, he formed DreamWorks with Spielberg and Geffen and planned to rival Disney in animation. By this time, Pixar's project was well known within the animation community. Both Antz and ''A Bug's Life'' center on a young male ant, a drone with oddball tendencies that struggles to win a princess's hand by saving their society. Whereas ''A Bug's Life relied chiefly on visual gags, Antz was more verbal and revolved more around satire. The script of Antz'' was also heavy with adult references, whereas Pixar's film was more accessible to children. Lasseter and Jobs believed that the idea was stolen by Katzenberg. Lasseter had high hopes for Toy Story, and he was telling friends throughout the tight-knit computer-animation business to get cracking on their own films. He told various friends, "If this hits, it's going to be like space movies after Star Wars" for computer animation companies. Lasseter recalled that Katzenberg began explaining that Disney was "out to get him" and Lasseter felt that he was cannon fodder in Katzenberg's fight with Disney. Disney afterward announced release dates for films that were going to compete with The Prince of Egypt, and both studios had to compete with Paramount Pictures, which was releasing The Rugrats Movie in November, based on Nickelodeon's animated series Rugrats. Katzenberg suddenly moved the opening of Antz from March 1999 to October 1998, in order to successfully beat ''A Bug's Life'' into cinemas. David Price writes in his 2008 book The Pixar Touch that a rumor, "never confirmed", was that Katzenberg had given PDI "rich financial incentives to induce them to whatever it would take to have Antz ready first, despite Pixar's head start". He told Jobs that he had enough power with Disney to convince them to change specific plans on their films. Jobs believed it was "a blatant extortion attempt". Release fallout and comparisons As the release dates for both films approached, Disney executives concluded that Pixar should keep quiet on Antz and the feud concerning DreamWorks. Regardless, Lasseter publicly dismissed Antz as a "schlock version" of ''A Bug's Life''; however, Lasseter later admitted that he never saw the film. Lasseter claimed that if DreamWorks and PDI had made the film about anything other than insects, he would have closed Pixar for the day so the entire company could go see it. In the end, Pixar and PDI employees kept up the old friendships that had arisen from working in computer animation for years before feature films. ==Music==

Jeffrey Katzenberg initially wanted Hans Zimmer to compose music for Antz, but because of his commitments with The Prince of Egypt, he suggested his protégés, Harry Gregson-Williams and John Powell, who were working for Zimmer's Media Ventures, to score the film. The soundtrack was released on November 3, 1998, by Angel Records. == Release ==

Theatrical On December 23, 1997, a teaser trailer for Antz, depicting the opening scene with Z in an ant psychiatrist office, first played in theaters in front of select prints of As Good as It Gets. Anticipation was generally high with adults rather than families and children. Antz premiered at the 1998 Toronto International Film Festival on September 19, 1998, and entered wide release on October 2, 1998. Home media Antz was released on VHS and DIVX on February 9, 1999, Additionally, Paramount signed a six-year distribution agreement for past and future DreamWorks Animation films, with DreamWorks Animation having spun off into a separate company from the live-action division in 2004. Paramount Home Entertainment controlled the home media rights for the film during this time, but did not create any new releases for it, despite releasing other DreamWorks Animation films on home video. On December 31, 2012, DreamWorks Animation's distribution agreement with Paramount officially ended, The film was released on Blu-ray on October 16, 2018, by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment, for the film's 20th anniversary. == Reception ==

Box office The film topped the box office in its opening weekend ahead of Rush Hour and What Dreams May Come, earning $17,195,160 for a $7,021 average from 2,449 theatres. It surpassed Stargate to have the highest October opening weekend. This record would last for two years until it was beaten by Meet the Parents in 2000. In its second weekend, the film held the top spot again, with a slippage of only 14% to $14.7 million for a $5,230 average and expanding to 2,813 sites. It held well also in its third weekend, slipping only 24% to $11.2 million and finishing in third place, for a $3,863 average from 2,903 theatres. The film's widest release was 2,929 theatres, and closed on February 18, 1999. The film altogether picked up $90,757,863 domestically, but failed to outgross the competition with ''A Bug's Life''. The film picked up an additional $81 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $171.8 million. According to DreamWorks, the film's budget was about $42 million, Metacritic gave the film a score of 73 out of 100 based on 26 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. Conversely, Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale. Roger Ebert praised the film, writing that it is "sharp and funny". The variety of themes, interesting visuals, and voice acting were each aspects of the film that were praised. Ebert's partner, Gene Siskel, greatly enjoyed the film and preferred it over ''A Bug's Life. He wrote the film "boasts a smart and funny script that will appeal even more to adults than children." Siskel later ranked it as number 7 on his list of the 10 best films of 1998. Todd McCarthy of Variety praised the voice acting, the script, and the animation in his review. McCarthy summarized: "On its own terms, Antz'' is fresh and inventive, visually stimulating and extremely well-served by a starry cast largely new to the animation field." Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly called Antz a "sophisticated, funny, and joyously subversive animated bug epic that, for all its snazzy computer animation that can claim the 1955 cartoon version of George Orwell's Animal Farm as a first cousin." James Berardinelli of ReelViews wrote Antz "is a very good movie, no matter how you look at it. Visually, it's more impressive than Disney's Toy Story, the pioneer in this burgeoning genre. On a script level, it was developed as much with a mature audience in mind as with the usual pre-pubescent crowd." Michael O'Sullivan of The Washington Post called the script "cleverly written" and was "an old-fashioned yarn about the triumph of individuality over conformity that taps into the universal desire to root for the underdog. As directed by Eric Darnell and Tim Johnson, however, [Antz] actually accomplishes what many live-action narratives fail to do: It makes you care about its speck-sized characters." Janet Maslin for The New York Times however found the story to be "overplotted in bizarrely grandiose ways", but felt the film worked best by "just showing off its prodigious voice talent ... and playing lightheartedly with the curious possibilities of a buggy world." Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times complimented the visuals, but was unimpressed with the script calling it "too predictable to make an impact even in such a short space." Overall, he opined: "When everything is added up, Antz is more weird than funny, a film that has the potential to make both parents and young children uncomfortable." Rita Kempley of The Washington Post negatively compared Antz to previous Disney animated films as she disliked the adult innuendos, the script, and the use of product placement. She wrote in summary: "For whatever ill-conceived reasons, the material is obviously tilted toward grown-ups. But it's hard to believe that adults will be drawn to a cartoon about an ant no matter how remarkable his accomplishments." Accolades == Video games ==

A direct-to-video sequel was in development at DreamWorks at the time of the release of Antz. Like the first film, it was planned to be produced by Pacific Data Images, and was also considered for theatrical release. By early 1999, when DreamWorks closed its television animation unit and merged the direct-to-video unit with the feature animation, the sequel was still planned, but eventually the project was never made. ==See also==