Antz (1998)

Directors: Eric Darnell, Tim Johnson

A rather neurotic ant tries to break from his totalitarian society while trying to win the affection of the princess he loves.

Interesting how two similar-themed animated films were released around the same time: ‘Antz’ and ‘A Bugs Life’. While ‘A Bug’s Life’ is more cartoonish for a younger demographic, ‘Antz’ is more mature and even contain a number of very emotional scenes.

Z is an ant, and he is unconventional. While the other ants in his colony happily follow their every day routine, Z is longing for something more out of life. When he meets the ant of his dreams, he throws caution to the wind as he desperately tries to win her love.

‘Antz’ is a wonderful animated movie with loads of humour, action, adventure, intrigue, betrayal, suspense and so much more. A number of characters die in the process, so take this in account when deciding to show it to a young audience.

The voice cast was fantastic, featuring voices of Woody Allen (as Z), Sylvester Stallone, Sharon Stone, Gene Hackman, Dan Aykroyd, and yes, even Jennifer Lopez.

‘Antz’ is among my favourite animated films. It is funny and entertaining, and actually such a beautiful movie!

‘Antz’ earned $171.7 million on a $105 million budget (yikes, that’s a big budget for an animated film!!).

Would I watch it again? Yes.