Review of Antz (1998) by Davey M — 28 Jun 2010

This movie has so much going for i. Woody Allen as a computer-animated ant is the real reason to see it--he gives a terrific vocal performance, and the dialogue is frequently as funny and clever as if it was scripted by Allen himself (only the occasional line feels like it's trying too hard).

The story, too, is good, but the characters and threads and dialogue never quite seem to cohere, and, with everything taken together, nothing really adds up to much. Everything seems just a little bit off, so all we're really left with is a serious of very promising moments tossed together.

The animation is rather crude--the movements a bit stiff, and the design mostly unappealing (though a little gang of hippy bugs at Insectopia show how great this movie could have looked). It's too bad--this could have been a wonderful film.

Instead it's only mediocre, but there are flashes of genius. Allen's character talking to the severed head of Danny Glover, trying to convince him that he's going to be OK--that sort of thing is straight out of the sort of animated masterpiece Allen himself might have dreamt up on a good day.