Reviews WesternAnimation / Antz

Think for Yourself

First things first, I don’t think that Antz was in any way a rip-off of A Bug’s Life. I think the similarities between the two are almost entirely superficial. I think Antz is more similar to A Bug’s Life than it is to TheAntBully but I don’t think that says all that much.

Now that that’s out of the way, Antz is clearly trying to be Darker and Edgier than Disney movies are and I’m not a huge fan of that tone.

That said, there are a lot of things that I like about this film. First of all the Aesop that the individual should never be replaced by the collective. When Barbados’s severed head before dying in Z’s arms tells him “Don’t make the same mistake I did. Don’t follow orders your whole life. Think for yourself.” And that, in addition to being a strong emotional scene, actually articulates the Aesop quite well.

I also like how that Aesop permeates the film. Z complains about “this gung-ho superorganism thing that I don’t get” since he wants to be allowed to care about himself rather than subordinating all interests to the colony. Princess Bala, wants to evade the destiny thrust upon her of giving birth to larvae for the rest of her life since she wants to be able do what she herself desires instead of being subordinated to her position. And Colonel Cutter goes from simply doing his ‘duty’ to the colony to doing what he wishes and has a Heel–Face Turn as a result.

Also it seems to me that the villainous General Mandible is a Fascist by another name who espouses the idea of everything inside the colony, nothing outside the colony, nothing against the colony.

The animation hasn’t aged well but considering that pure CGI animation had only just started I really can’t blame them for that.

The humour of this movie wasn’t as funny as that of other DreamWorks movies such as Megamind but I think it was funny enough.

So is this film an animated classic? No. Is it a good movie? Yes.