ANTZ (United States)
A review by Mark R. Leeper in bullet-list form
from the Toronto Internation Film Festival
CAPSULE: The story is okay in a Disney sort of way, but the star is the state-of-the-art computer animation in this film that shows life in an insect colony from the Dreamworks. The mass scenes are impressive and the individual ants are expressive. Voices include Woody Allen, Sylvester Stallone, and Gene Hackman. Rating: 7 (0 to 10), low +2 (-4 to +4)
Directed by Eric Darnell and Tim Johnson.
- Voices also include Sharon Stone, Christopher Walken, Danny Glover, Dan Aykroyd, and Anne Bancroft. Part of the game is in recognizing the voices. - Story involves a worker ant who does not want to be one of a sea of ants, he wants to be an individual. Masquerading as a soldier ant he sees war first hand. Meanwhile the general of the soldier ants is making plans to massacre the whole nest and go off to found his own colony. - Do not believe any entomology you see represented here. Most is wrong. I believe male ants basically fertilize the queen and die. The termites don't look like real termites. They look less like real termites than the ants look like ants. - There is some irony in the ants all deciding en masse that they are individuals. - In some ways this is STARSHIP TROOPERS as seen from the other side. - Most of the animation sequences seem more complex than TOY STORY, though the story is not really as good perhaps. This could spark a race for most complex scenes. There is a tremendous amount happening in some of these scenes as a sea of ants, each individually animated, swarm onto the enemy. Pixar and Disney may have to look to their laurels. - Could be frightening for younger children.
Mark R. Leeper
mleeper@lucent.com
Copyright 1998 Mark R. Leeper
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