Amazon.com video review:
Woody Allen as a worker ant with an inferiority complex? Sylvester
Stallone as an affable soldier ant who discovers that digging tunnels is
cool? The animation playground we all knew so well is turning into a theme
park full of in-jokes for grownups. Antz explores age-old
topics (one person--err, insect--can make a difference, individuality and
social responsibility must exist side by side, war is hell) with comic
asides and Woody Allen's funniest quips this side of PG (adults will
chuckle
at the socialist slogans bandied about as he campaigns for workers'
rights).
Sharon Stone voices the rebellious princess with a fun-loving streak that
doesn't quite overcome her royal bearing and court training, but she can
learn. Gene Hackman is all teeth (ants have teeth?) and menacing grins as
the Army general plotting insect-icide. This bug's-eye view of life on
Earth
gives Allen's neurotic nonconformist an epic adventure of microscopic
proportions: a devastating war with a termite colony, an odyssey to the
fabled land of plenty (a picnic ground), and a race to save his fellow
workers from certain death. Other voices include Anne Bancroft as the
Queen, Christopher Walken, Jennifer Lopez, Danny Glover, Dan Aykroyd, Jane
Curtin, and John Mahoney. The computer animation isn't exactly realistic
but
feels as solid and contoured as puppet animation with the smoothness and
slickness of traditional cel cartoons, and the character designs and
animation offer a marvelous range of expressions. The PG rating includes a
gritty battle sequence that may frighten youngsters. --Sean Axmaker
