This file was generated 2002-09-03 03:17 GMT. This movie's information hasn't changed since 2001-09-03.
I'm probably the only reviewer you'll ever read who saw Bug's Life before seeing Antz. I'm surprised to say that I liked Bug's Life better. I liked the story more and the animation was far superior.
I overwhelmingly failed to be dazzled by the animation. There were a few standout moments: the tennis shoe sequence, the water drop from the fountain, and the dirt in the tire track. Other than that, I thought the movie looked rather flat and uninspiring. I was especially disappointed by the backdrops, which far too often are paintings and not rendered. I know clouds offer a particular challenge in a rendering system, but these aren't even convincing paintings!
I expected my favorite part of the movie to be the visuals. Nope! The score stole the show in my opinion. The sassy orchestrations by John Powell and Harry Gregson-Williams are delightful. Guantanamera never had it so good.
I certainly can't fault the Antz DVD for completeness. There are several making-of segments including preliminary character sketches, a sample of the layered approach to building the characters, and two times through the process of creating a scene from storyboard to final rendering. There are also television spots and the theatrical trailer (although not presented in widescreen). Both directors lend their commentary to the disc's second audio track. I would've appreciated a score-and-composers audio track like the one on Rush Hour's DVD.
The menus are a bit distracting. There is always a lot of motion on the screen, as befitting a movie with a cast of millions. Every menu-to-menu transition has animation and associated sound effects. This gets distracting and annoying pretty quickly. The movement within the scene selection menus was tricky to figure out at first.
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