Antz (1998)
Trivia
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Spoilers (3)
Christopher Walken's voicework was so excellent that Cutter's role was expanded. He was originally a faceless lackey to General Mandible, but Walken brought some unexpected depths to the character.
DreamWorks Animation's 1st feature film and the only one released in 20th Century to be fully computer-animated. Starting with Shrek (2001), all of that company's subsequent CGI films were released in the 21st Century.
Arnold Schwarzenegger was originally offered the part of Weaver. When Schwarzenegger wanted to be paid for the role, it went to Sylvester Stallone, who was willing to do it for free.
Some of the characters are named after types of ants: Bala is the name that people in Costa Rica give to bullet ants ("Paraponera clavata" species), Barbatus is named after "Pogonomyrmex barbatus" (red harvester ant) species, Azteca is named after "Azteca andreae" species, Weaver is named after weaver or green ant (genus Oecophylla), and Cutter is named after leaf-cutter ants (genera Atta and Acromyrmex). Also, General Mandible is named after mandibles - ant jaws.
Ants and termites really do go to war with each other. But in reality, ants would emerge the victors, because they would easily outnumber a termite nest.
Woody Allen was offered accompaniment to sing "Almost Like Being In Love", but he refused, preferring to sing it a capella, and did so.
A reason why the movie has a PG rating is because of casual swearing, an unusual thing to hear in an animated film. This is often omitted whenever the film is shown on television.
Bala was a lot nastier in the early days of defining the character. Sharon Stone's reading helped to change that, by balancing sass with spoiled, without ever becoming too bratty.
In the scene at the bar, Z says he doesn't drink from the anus of another creature. In the trailer, the word "anus" is replaced with "caboose".
Woody Allen recorded his part as "Z" in only five days.
Shares a similar plot with the Pixar cartoon A Bug's Life (1998), which was released the same year. In both stories, a common worker ant, who's known for his unorthodox thinking, sparks a chain of events that affect his entire colony, and lands him a romance with the Princess.
Sarah Jessica Parker had recorded dialogue for this movie, but was later fired for unspecified reasons. She was replaced by Sharon Stone.
This is the first computer-animated film to be rated PG by the MPAA and the only one released in the 20th century to do so. All the other PG rated fully CGI films were released in the 21st century, with there being one or more in every year expect for 2003.
The main characters share facial similarities with the actors voicing them, but according to the DVD commentary, they were designed before the cast was hired, particularly Weaver's lips based on Sylvester Stallone's. Z was also going to wear thick glasses like Woody Allen's, but this idea was scrapped.
In the original development, the ants had six limbs, some of them wore clothes, gloves, and lightbulbs appeared whenever they had an idea. None of these made it into the finished film. Also, General Mandible looked more visibly sinister in early drafts, but they toned it down for the final result.
Woody Allen had uncredited input on the finished screenplay.
Woody Allen's first appearance in an animated film. Though he didn't particularly enjoy the experience, Antz (1998) went on to become the most successful film with which he'd ever been involved.
Although often cited as the second computer animated film (after Toy Story (1995)), this was actually the third. The second was Cassiopeia (1996).
Although there are humans in the film, we never see any faces. This may have been because DreamWorks didn't want to incur the same criticisms that Pixar received when Toy Story (1995) came out. The humans in the film looked grotesque, and not at all plausible, because they hadn't perfected a computer animated human face yet.
Woody Allen felt uncomfortable watching Z, because he was reminded so much of himself. This is why he can never watch any of the films he makes in which he has a role.
The General's name was originally Formica, instead of Mandible. His original plan would have included tying Bala up, and abandoning her in the tunnel with the workers, instead of isolating her in safety, and his original fate would have been drowning before rescuers could reach him.
One of the motivational signs in the ant colony, "Free Time Is For Training", is a real motivational sign at PDI DreamWorks.
Apparently Woody Allen nailed every reading he did for Z. But he also got very physical in the recordings, ruining some of the takes because the animators couldn't keep up with him.
John Mahoney plays one of the ants in the film. In a peculiar coincidence, David Hyde Pierce, Mahoney's co-star on Frasier (1993) played a regular insect in Pixar's A Bug's Life (1998), a similar film about an ant colony, both in the same year. Additionally both of these films featured Phil Proctor, Jim Ward, Bob Bergen, Jan Rabson, Experienced voice actor Carlos Alazraqui, and Frank Welker.
Loosely based on the novel Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.
There are several subtle shout outs in dialogue to Star Wars: "I hope you know what you're doing." "Yeah, me too." "The Colonel is not as understanding as I am." "You're a little short for a war hero?" "Who's the bigger idiot, the idiot or the idiot who gets kidnapped by the idiot?"
When the kid with the magnifying glass vaporizes a dumb soldier ant who thinks the light is beautiful, is similar to Independence Day (1996) a take-off on a similar dialogue. The sound effects are directly from the original War of the Worlds.
In an early draft, Cutter was meant to have a worker girlfriend who was Bala's sole friend. The idea was dropped to focus more on Z's and Bala's, and Weaver's and Azteca's relationships.
One of two animated films that Danny Glover would appear in for DreamWorks. The other is The Prince of Egypt (1998).
Originally, this film was going to be composed by Hans Zimmer and David Newman but they were busy with a few films of 1997 and 1998 so this film was instead composed by Harry Gregson-Williams and John Powell.
It could be argued that the film has always had two simultaneous titles. "Antz" is obviously a play on Ants (plural), but with the lopsided Z in the title graphic, it can also be read as "Ant Z" as in the lead hero, Ant Z-4195, known in his short version of his name as "Z".
Any resemblance to Starship Troopers during the termite battle scene is a coincidence according to the directors.
Matthew Broderick was considered for the role of Z.
In the original script, the giant human wearing the shoes was a young woman, but half of the script, and some sketches were changed for the final draft of the film. In the final storyboard, and in the film's picnic scene, the human wearing the shoes is an unseen teenage boy.
Z's line "I was going to include you in my erotic fantasies" was originally "I was going to include you in my most erotic sexual fantasies", but was shortened to retain a PG rating. In the German dubbed version the "sexual" is included. The line was from a spider sketch called "What Causes Homosexuality?" which was cut from Allen's Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex * But Were Afraid to Ask (1972). Woody Allen was going to use that line as Louise Lasser was about to eat him - the sketch was never used, because Allen couldn't think of a way to end the scene. Since the sketch was not used, the writers got a hold of the line and, realizing the irony (spiders, ants), had Allen's character (Z) state it.
Is the one of the only two Fully CGI films that released in the 20th Century to not be from Pixar the other was Cassiopeia (1996).
First Theatrically released animated film to star Danny Glover. Later he'd go onto voice Jethro in The Prince of Egypt (1998), Miles the Mule in Barnyard (2006), President Chen in Battle for Terra (2007), and Winston the Wolf in Alpha and Omega (2010).
Dan Aykroyd and Jane Curtin, the wasp couple, were regulars together on Saturday Night Live (1975) and played a couple on Coneheads (1993).
The plot of Antz (1998) is an ironic twist. In the movie, Mandible wants to flood the ant colony, wiping out all the ants, so he can start anew. In the James Bond movie A View to a Kill (1985), the antagonist, Max Zorin, wanted to wipe out Silicon Valley by flooding the San Andreas fault by digging under San Andreas Lake. Max Zorin was played by Christopher Walken, who was also in Antz.
Christopher Walken's first voice acting performance in a theatrical film. Later he'd go onto voice Sal the Kangaroo in Kangaroo Jack (2003) and King Louie the Gigantopithecus (a huge extinct ape that closely resembles a modern day Orangutan) in The Jungle Book (2016).
The computer graphics imagery that makes up the film, would later become the dominant form of animation at DreamWorks, replacing 2-D animation as of 2003.
The film cast includes four Oscar winners: Woody Allen, Anne Bancroft, Christopher Walken, and Gene Hackman; and four Oscar nominees: Dan Aykroyd, Sylvester Stallone, Sharon Stone, and Paul Mazursky.
Many actors from the cast appeared in several films directed by Woody Allen: Sylvester Stallone was in Bananas (1971), Christopher Walken in Annie Hall (1977), Sharon Stone in Stardust Memories (1980), Gene Hackman in Another Woman (1988), Dan Aykroyd in The Curse of the Jade Scorpion (2001), and Paul Mazursky directed Allen in Scenes from a Mall (1991).
This film and The Prince of Egypt (1998) are the only Dreamworks Animation Films released in the 20th Century.
Eric Darnell and Tim Johnson did cameo voice-work in the film.
While often compared to Disney's A Bug's Life (1998), the plot bears some similarity to the novella "Anthem" by Ayn Rand. Both "Anthem" and "Antz" follow a single character (Equality 7-2521 in Anthem and Z in Antz), disaffected with his assigned position in a mechanized collectivist society, breaks free from the collective and makes a startling discovery about the world.
Dan Aykroyd's first time voice acting in a theatrically released film. Later he'd go onto voice the titular character of Yogi Bear (2010) and the Scarecrow in Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return (2013).
John Mahoney's first time voice acting in a theatrical film. Later he'd go onto voice General Rogard in The Iron Giant (1999) and Preston Whitmore in Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001). Of the only 3 theatrically released animated films he ever had, this is his only one to be shot in the 1.85:1 aspect ratio and his only one to be computer-animated.
Both A Bug's Life (1998) and Antz (1998) have villains played by actors who previously played Lex Luthor in Superman movies, Kevin Spacey and Gene Hackman.
Drew Barrymore, Tracy Ullman, Joanna Lumley, Kelly Preston, Carly Simon & Leslie Uggams were considered for the role of Azteca before Jennifer Lopez was cast.
Sylvester Stallone's first time voice acting in a theatrical film, later he'd go onto voice Joe the Lion in Zookeeper (2011), Victor Von Ion in Ratchet & Clank (2016), Bulletman in Animal Crackers (2017), and King Shark in The Scuicide Squad (2021).
In the competing film from Pixar, Bugs Life (1998) which came out the same year, the main villain was voiced by Kevin Spacey, who played Lex Luthor in Superman Returns (2005). In this film, the main villain is voiced by Gene Hackman, who played Lex Luthor in Superman (1978).
Paul Newman, Sean Connery, Charlton Heston, Alec Guinness, Joaquin Phoenix, Donald Sutherland, Matthew McGrory, Carl Reiner & James Gandolfini were considered for the role of General Mandible before Gene Hackman was cast.
Starting with this film, computer-animated films are being released theatrically every year, which would eventually decrease the amount of traditionally animated films (which as of the 2010s are only ever films based off already existing animated media).
Sylvester Stallone and Sharon Stone previously co-starred in The Specialist (1994). Here, they share no scenes or dialogue.
Jeffrey Katzenberg wanted Hans Zimmer to compose the music, but he was too busy with The Prince of Egypt (1998) among other projects. Instead, Zimmer suggested two composers from his studio - either Harry Gregson-Williams or John Powell - both of whom had already collaborated on Egypt.
Harry Gregson-Williams and John Powell's first score for an animated film.
Spoilers
Z gets saved twice from death by two ants, first Barbatus saves him from being eaten by a termite, second was Cutter, who saves him from drowning near the end, basically redeeming himself in doing so.