Antz (1998)
Where to Watch
- Eagle-eyed viewers have noticed a hidden easter egg referencing Eric Darnell, Tim Johnson's previous film in the background of the opening scene.
- Before Woody Allen was cast, several major A-list stars turned down the lead role because they felt the script was too risky.
- The incredible score for Antz was composed in just a few weeks after the original composer dropped out.
Antz is a 1998 American animated comedy produced by DreamWorks Animation, the studio's first animated feature. Woody Allen voices Z-4195, a neurotic worker ant in a massive colony who feels insignificant among millions of identical drones. When Z inadvertently becomes a war hero and falls for Princess Bala, voiced by Sharon Stone, he exposes a secret plot by the militaristic General Mandible, voiced by Gene Hackman, to drown the worker ants and create a new colony of soldiers.
Antz was released just weeks before Pixar's similarly premised A Bug's Life, a timing collision that fueled the most discussed rivalry in animation history. The film's humor was distinctly more adult and Woody Allen-esque than typical animated fare, with Allen's trademark neurotic dialogue applied to an ant's existential crisis about conformity and individualism. Antz earned $171 million worldwide on a $42 million budget.
