Being a believer in the infinite monkey theory I have no problem accepting that two animated movies about insects, A Bug's Life and Antz, could come out at the same time without one, as some people claim, being a rip off of the other. Yes, both movie's main characters are ants and yes; neither of them fit in the regimented culture of their society. But there the similarities end. Z, the hero of Antz deals with a threat from within his society as its strict regimentation feeds upon itself until it takes a self-destructive form. Antz also has a darker edge more in line with Animal Farm or Watership Down then with, say, Disney's The Rescuers. The humor, with its snappy one liners, is very good and is much more sophisticated then A Bug's Life, but as a result a great deal of it tends to go over the head of its younger audience. The computer animation was excellent, but not as colorful or detailed as the work in A Bug's Life. And to my mind; computer animation is technically impressive, but lacks the warmth and style hand drawn animation possesses. Still, my only real objection to Antz was its occasional strong language, which wasn't horrible (cr*p and h*ll were used very pointedly), but was unnecessary. In fact, the cursing was so unnecessary I'm sure the Producer must have said to himself at some point, "If we allow Antz to get a PG rating older kids will probably avoid it. Let's wedge in a little cursing to up the rating a bit." Personally, I probably wouldn't have taken Ashley to see it the first time had I realized it was rated PG-13 (I misread the rating and thought it was PG) and worried a bit she would repeat some of the language, but so far, to my relief, she hasn't. Yes, I know sooner or later she will use such language, but as any parent knows, you may not be able to avoid the difficult stages your child will go through (cursing being one of them), but with a little luck you can postpone them. And if you're really lucky you can postpone them until they leave for college. Ashley enjoyed Antz; not as much as A Bug's Life, but enough that she sweet talked me into taking her to see it more then once. As for which movie of the two is better, well, that's a judgement call each parent will have to make for themselves depending on their child's age and maturity. Having seen both movies more then once, my advice would be to take younger kids to see A Bug's Life and older ones to see Antz, but if you can only see one of the two A Bug's Life is the slightly better movie. Either way, I suspect that twenty years from now, as the fans of these movies grow up, there's going to be a huge increase in the field of entomology.By the way, I enjoy plays on words and wondered if anyone else noticed the three way play with words in the title Antz? The movie deals with a colony of ants (antz). The hero's name is Ant Z (AntZ) and finally, the hero is a slightly neurotic (voiced very well by Woody Allen) and nervous character. Nervous, of course, being a synonym of antsy (antZ). Neat, huh?
Average Grade: B
