Movie Review:Antz

Several folks asked for it, so I figured I'd quick whip up a review of the first full length CGI film from PDI. Hit the link below to read my take on it.

Ok I'm a computer geek. And a film geek. And an animation geek. So if a company is going to release a full length CGI film, I'll probably go see it. And if you get Woody Allen and Christopher Walken to do voices, I'll probably enjoy it. Even if Sharon Stone, Sylvester Stallone and Gene Hackman to provide most of the rest of the voices.

So here's the deal:the story is something anyone could write. I can imagine the day they got Woody Allen to play to role of the lead Ant. "Ok, guys? We've got Woody. Go watch a few of his movies, and then write a script tomorrow. We go into production next thursday". Don't get me wrong. The movie is funny. Definately a notch above typical children's animation. But the Woody Allen dialog is just rehashed from other places. If you enjoy that, you'll love the movie. After an hour and a half, the novelty of a CGI Woody might wear off. But don't worry, various dirty jokes and references have been scattered about to balance the Allen bits.

Anyway, the plot. 'Z' is Allen's charachter. He is a worker ant. He meets Princess Bala at a bar (in a scene basically identical to every other 'princess rebels from her role in the royal household and secretely runs off to be rebellious with the commoners' scene that you've ever seen). Z falls in love (of course) and to get a chance to see her again, he switches places with his Solider ant buddy (Sly's charachter- possibly the best mouth CGI I've ever seen) and gets accidentally sent to war.

So there's a corrupt general trying to overthrow the queen. There's a special placed called 'Insectopia' located far away. There's an amazing adventure on the surface. There's lots of cheezy sequences where ants try to rebel from the role they've been cast into (Worker ants vs. Soldier ants). Zillions of shots designed to hammer into the audience that this movie is talking about Community vs. Individuality. The good of the one vs. the needs of the many. The Team vs The Star. Yada yada yada. It gets somewhat tiring at points as the theme his hammered on the viewer over and over aqain, but the good bits outnumber then bad.

The cinamatography is great. Working on a film of this scale must be great fun for a director. He can do anything he wants. Amazing pans and impossible camera angles. Gigantic shots. War sequences that look a lot like Starship Troopers, except with Ants & Termites instead of beautiful Fox TV show stars and gigantic metal bugs.

The animation is excellent. Not necessarily better than Toy Story, but excellent. The backgrounds, rendering, shading and lighting are all a notch above TS. Visually the movie is a treat, some absolutely amazing special effects, including some excellent CGI water shots that will really make ya feel wet.

The voice actors are all fine. Allen does his neurotic New Yorker bit the whole way through (the film starts with him talking to his therapist). The rest of the Stars are just doing their normal schtick just like Woody. It's fun, but except for Stallone, none of the voices are really standout. It's just that the charachters aren't all that interesting.

Anyway, its worth the price of admission if you enjoy Woody Allen, CGI, or Disneyesque cheezy fluffy movies (especially without the cheezy fluffy Disneyesqye songs). I happen to be a fanatic of all 3, so I loved it. But I'm terribly biased- if Full House had been produced as CGI, I probably would have liked that too.