Antz


Antz is a 1998 American animated adventure comedy film directed by Eric Darnell and Tim Johnson, and written by Todd Alcott, Chris Weitz and Paul Weitz. Produced by DreamWorks Animation and PDI, the film features an ensemble voice cast, including Woody Allen, Sharon Stone, Jennifer Lopez, Sylvester Stallone, Christopher Walken, Dan Aykroyd, Anne Bancroft, Danny Glover and Gene Hackman. Some of the main characters share facial similarities with the actors who voice them. The film involves an anxious worker ant, Z, who falls in love with Princess Bala. When the arrogant General Mandible attempts to seize control of the ant colony, Z must combine his desire for purpose with his inner strength to save everyone.
Development began in 1988 when Walt Disney Feature Animation pitched a film called Army Ants, about a pacifist worker ant teaching lessons of independent thinking to his militaristic colony. Meanwhile, Jeffrey Katzenberg 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. Production began in May 1996. DreamWorks had contracted Pacific Data Images to begin working on computer-animated films to rival Pixar's features. During its production, a controversial public feud erupted between Katzenberg of DreamWorks and Steve Jobs and John Lasseter of Pixar, due to the production of their similar film A Bug's Life, which was released a month later. The feud worsened when Disney refused to avoid competition with DreamWorks' intended first animated release, The Prince of Egypt. Harry Gregson-Williams and John Powell composed the music for the film.
Antz premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 19, 1998, and was released theatrically in the United States on October 2 by DreamWorks Distribution. It grossed $172 million on a budget of $42–105 million and received positive reviews from critics, who praised the voice cast, animation, humor, and its appeal towards adults.

Plot

In an anthill at Central Park, 16 year old anxious 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, Z hears about the legendary insect paradise "Insectopia" from a retired scout suffering from PTSD at a bar which Bala visits. While there, she shares a dance with Z, who becomes smitten with her. Wanting to see Bala again, Z comes up with a clever plan and convinces his soldier ant best friend Weaver 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 and all except Z are killed. After the carnage, Z finds a bodiless Barbatus on the battlefield who tells him to think for himself instead of blindly following orders before dying.
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, a middle 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, Stallone, Hackman, and Walken. 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 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* 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. After DreamWorks' acquisition of PDI—long Pixar's contemporary in computer animation—Lasseter and others at Pixar were dismayed to learn from the trade papers that PDI's first project at DreamWorks would be another ant film, to be called Antz. 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. Katzenberg had stayed in touch with Lasseter after the acrimonious Disney split, often calling to check up. In October 1995, when Lasseter was overseeing postproduction work on Toy Story at the Universal Studios Lot's Technicolor facility in Universal City, where DreamWorks was also located, he called Katzenberg and dropped by with Andrew Stanton. When Katzenberg asked what they were doing next, Lasseter described what would become A Bug's Life in detail. Lasseter respected Katzenberg's judgment and felt comfortable using him as a sounding board for creative ideas. 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 later recalled, "I should have been wary. Jeffrey kept asking questions about when it would be released."
When the trades indicated production on Antz, Lasseter, feeling betrayed, called Katzenberg and asked him if it was true, who in turn asked him where he had heard the rumor. Lasseter asked again, and Katzenberg admitted it was true. Lasseter raised his voice and would not believe Katzenberg's story that a development director had pitched him the idea long ago. Katzenberg claimed Antz came from a 1991 story pitch by Tim Johnson that was related to Katzenberg in October 1994. Another source gives Nina Jacobson, one of Katzenberg's executives, as the person responsible for the Antz pitch. Lasseter, who normally did not use profane language, cursed at Katzenberg and hung up the phone. 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. For his part, Katzenberg believed he was the victim of a conspiracy: Eisner had decided not to pay him his contract-required bonus, convincing Disney's board not to give him anything. Katzenberg was further angered by the fact that Eisner scheduled Bugs to open the same week as The Prince of Egypt, which was then intended to be DreamWorks' first animated release. Lasseter relayed the news to Pixar employees but kept morale high. Privately, Lasseter told other Pixar executives that he and Stanton felt let down by Katzenberg.