As part of our ongoing series (erratic, I know, but still ongoing!) delving into the Hollywood freak-show that is releasing two similarly themed films almost simultaneously (Deep Impact & Armageddon in 1997, and Saving Private Ryan & The Thin Red Line) we take on two film today that are among the most famous, and family friendly, animated films released. The erroneously apostraphe-d A Bug’s Life was released by Pixar Studios in 1998, coming hot on the heels of the earlier effort by PDI studios (now Dreamworks Animation, the very same mob who came up with Shrek) in Antz. This article will attempt to sort out the differences, similarities and ultimately, try and decide which is the better film.

Animated films have a gestation period almost five or six times as long as a standard live-action film. Before any frame of computer trickery is delivered, before the prints are struck, first, the filmmakers have to come up with an idea. After that, they have to develop the story, figure out the storyboards and record the voice cast, to ensure that by the time the rendering of animation begins, things are locked in stone. After all, when these films can cost millions of dollars, you want to be sure you get it right the first time.

How, then, did two separate studios in the largest movie production system on Earth manage to come up with two similar films in the space of the same year? Antz, and A Bugs’ Life, both centre their stories on a colony of ants and their associated world. Both feature a central character who likes the Royal princess, and is a blithering imbecile when confronted with this fact. Our hero in Antz, perfectly voiced by Woody Allen, is Z, the middle child of a family of several million, who yearns for something greater than just to dig and work for the good of the colony. Likewise, our hero in A Bug’s Life is Flick, voiced by the hilarious Dave Foley, who also yearns for something more than just collecting food for a group of marauding grasshoppers, led by Hopper (a delicious Kevin Spacey, hamming beautifully). yes, there’s a sense of the unfulfilled in both our heroes, as they set about proving everybody wrong. Of course, they have to convince their fellow ants that they’re both right to do what they do. So which film, if either, is the better of the two? Comparatively, these two films are so close in storyline and characterisations that it’s scary, and you’d be forgiven for thinking one is a sequel or prequel to the other. The strange thing is, both companies claim they had no foreknowledge of the other’s projects on the drawing board. Pixar, fresh off the success of Toy Story (hard to believe that A Bug’s Life is only the studios second major feature!) waited a little longer to release it’s product to the world, while Antz was seen as revolutionary for it’s time, and even proclaimed as a better film than Toy Story.

Let’s check out the film that was released first, namely, Antz.

ANTZ

Woody Allen leads a standout cast in what can only be described as a shadowy, unwieldy look at life in an ant colony, told from the ants point of view. Woody voices Z, the one ant in the colony who desires to be different, who dreams of having more than just a pick-axe and hard hat to dig with. Z is part of a work crew building a new tunnel extension for the colony, who bumps into the Princess Bala one night in a bar. Bala, slumming it in the lower depths of the colony because she wants to see how the other half live, is the catalyst for the events that take place in Antz, as Z decides he wants to see her again (after all, he thinks they have a connection after a brief Pulp Fiction-inspired dance sequence) and stops at nothing to broach the palace of the royal family.

Z decides to pretend to be a solder ant to impress Bala, by taking the place of his friend Weaver, voiced with stunning humour by Sylvester Stallone, and joining the army in manoeuvres that take them into battle against giant termites. It’s here, I must stop for a moment, and mention that if you were ever to show this film to young children, it’s the termite attack sequence that’s the most confrontational and disturbing. Creatures are torn asunder, dissolved in termite acid and otherwise mangled and mutilated. It’s quite graphic, and is not suitable for younger children. It is, however, an animated tour de force.

Of course, Z is the only survivor of the battle, and returns to the colony a hero. As a hero, he gets a meeting with Bala and the Queen, and Bala recognises him from the bar. Not wanting a scene, Z is kicked out of the palace, although not before dragging Bala down the chute with him. They begin a search for the mystical Insectopia, a lauded paradise for insects that Z has heard of from a drunk guy in the bar. After all, if Z can find Insectopia, then all will be better with the world. Won’t it?

Dodging malevolent magnifying glasses, a picnic blanket and the shoes that go with it (one of the best scenes in the film, for me) and homeless insects, Z and Bala eventually stumble upon Insectopia, and decide to return to the colony and tell everybody.

Of course, as with any film like this, not everything goes smoothly, and our heroes brave treachery and deceit from all corners to prove the point. In the end, though, the story ends the way you’d think: Z get’s the girl, the colony is saved from certain extinction (after all, the tunnel extension happens to be underneath a giant puddle of water which threatens to flood the colony out) and the bad guys are given their dues.

Technically, this film isn’t your traditional animated film. Here, shadows and colours are muted, almost shaded in a realistic way that is hard to describe. You haven’t seen anything like it, before or since. The facial animation, which is weird to say the least, is effective in showing the emotions of the characters, but by Pixar standards is low. PDI (Pacific Data Imaging) was the company behind this film, and as an animated film’s technical aspect is evaluated, I have to say Antz is found wanting.

Fortunately, the film’s voice cast and storyline does much to prop up what is a decidedly strange form of animation. Aside from Allen and Stallone, Hackman is accompanied on this endeavour by Sharon Stone, as Bala, Jennifer Lopez, Anne Bancroft, Danny Glover and Christopher Walken. All are uniformly good, bringing a level of gravitas to the story it perhaps would have suffered without. Walken, in particular, is the standout voice artist here in my opinion, creating a sympathetic and yet stern character as the second in command to Hackman.

Story-wise, it’s a fairly traditional “one man (ant) can make a difference” tale, with every-ant Z taking on the world and the establishment, and winning. Morally, there’s nothing better than a good old downtrodden guy getting a better life for himself: after all, that’s essentially what we wish for ourselves, and there’s nothing we like more than to see somebody who deserves more, get more. With the sharp edged cynicism present that would permeate the more commercial Shrek movie a few years away, Antz is a sly poke at conformity and not-so-subtle fable about fitting in.. or not fitting in, as the case may be. Parents can be sure their kids will understand it as the film goes along, by merely asking questions about the story and provoking some kind of discussion on the matter.

Perhaps the greatest fault of the film is it’s darker tone, something that eventually worked itself out of PDI’s system when they tackled Shrek later. The violent nature of the ant/termite battle, a ferocious sequence that’s quite scary for younger children, seems a mite out of place in what could be construed as fairly pleasant family fare. One must ask oneself (great, you say, now he’s speaking like royalty…) if the way this sequence is shot/edited/directed is warranted to get the point across…. and what exactly that point was? Is Z’s little excursion into battle a chance to see some cool animation and perhaps have an action sequence? Or is there more to it than that: does it develop Z’s character or move the story along. Unfortunately, for me, it’s a little more the former, and a lot less the latter.

Antz, nevertheless, is still a whole bunch of fun, and if you can get past the strange animated style (strange given we’ve been brought up on crisp, clean lines and bright, shiny colours in ever other animated CGI film before and since) then there’s plenty to like about the film.

A BUG’S LIFE

Following up after Toy Story was always going to be the danger film for Pixar. Toy Story had raked in the cash, been the talk of Hollywood for ages, and set the bar for future efforts. In most cases, the pressure to produce a film worthy of following Toy Story would have crippled most studios and creators. Not so Pixar. Thankfully, the next film they made was just as delightful, almost whimsical, and came out here in Australia just a few short months after Antz.

A Bug’s Life follows the tale of Flick, a clumsy, nerdy ant with an Edison complex: constantly inventing things to make society better, but being ignored as a freak by his colony. Yes, A Bug’s Life is set in an ant colony too, although this is by far a more appealing ant colony than the one portrayed in Antz. Okay, so we get that there’s ants here. Now, what does our hero in ABL do or have that’s different than in Antz? Well, he falls in love with the local princess, this time named Atta. Atta, who initially finds Flick and annoyance as he tries to invent things to help with the harvest (more on this in a moment) will no doubt, by the films conclusion, find Flick to be a better ant than she originally thought. This is a given, and you can almost see the story unfold from this point. As the film opens, the colony of ants is harvesting food for a marauding group of grasshoppers, led by Kevin Spacey’s wonderfully voiced Hopper.

The grasshoppers have ordered a certain quantity of food to be stored by a certain amount of time (in this case, before winter) otherwise they have threatened to wipe out the colony. Of course, the smaller and more timid ants work together to do as ordered, thinking that they’re not strong enough or big enough to stand up to the larger insects.

Flick, as an ant who thinks outside the box, doesn’t agree with this, and wishes that the colony was free of the grasshopper’s tyranny. After an incident with the food store, in which all the stored food ends up at the bottom of a giant puddle, ruining it, Flick is charged with finding a group of warrior bugs to come to the colony and defend the ants against the larger grasshoppers. This, however, is a fudge plan, a way to get rid of the accident-prone Flick while the colony attempts to gather more food in time for the grasshoppers arrival. Flick heads off on his mission, and enters the big bug city. Here, he bumps into a group of circus bugs, whom he mistakenly thinks are warrior bugs (in one of the films more creative scenes!). The circus bugs think Flick is an agent of some kind, seeking to book their services at his colony, and under these two false impressions, they join together and return to the colony.

Of course, the mistaken identity soon becomes uncovered by both parties, and the fallout threatens the very existence of the colony. Flick and Atta, along with the circus bugs, manage to rally around the colony (and the colony around them) and together, with the help of a magnificent fake bird swing aflame from a tree branch, they drive the grasshoppers away.

A Bug’s Life has the advantage over Antz in several ways. First, the inordinate talent behind the microphone would make any Hollywood agent collapse from asphyxia. Dave Foley, best known to Australian audiences for his appearance on US sitcom NewsRadio, plays Flick, and gives the character a nervous, twitchy enthusiasm for life, which is in stark contrast to almost all the entire colony. Seinfeld alum Juia Louis-Dreyfuss pitches Atta at just the right level of annoyance, annoying, cowardice and frenetic energy the character requires. Alongside them are Hollywood heavyweights such as the aforementioned Kevin Spacey, David Hyde Pierce (Frasier’s brother on Frasier), Phyllis Diller, Hayden Pannettiere (recently starring in TV super-hit Heroes), Brad Garret (from Everybody Loves Raymond and ‘Til Death), Madeline Kahn, Denis Leary (in his best role ever!) and Lost In Space bad-boy Jonathan Harris.

The second advantage A Bug’s Life has is it’s clean, fresh animation style. Advancing technology meant a more versatile style than Toy Story, with better textures and lighting, more stunning visual effects, and a great aesthetic overall that makes watching ABL a pure joy. Unlike Antz, with it’s strangely textured characters inhabiting a dank, slightly soulless world, ABL managed to make living as an ant feel like fun. The sense of joy that sparkles from every frame is a magnificent achievement, and were it not for this film’s success soon after Toy Story, perhaps Pixar may have had to rethink their options. The colours are vibrant, the way the sunlight makes everything seem so bright and shiny: you’d think things would be a little grubbier down in the ant patch, but apparently, in Pixarland, it’s not.

As mentioned many, many time in many, many places, with Pixar, story is king. If a scene or sequence doesn’t move the story along, it gets cut. This reliance on the old adage that people would watch paint dry as long as the story was good holds true. Actually, I don’t think that’s an adage of any kind, but it sounded okay when I thought of it. Still, the point remains true: a good story will outweigh almost everything else. If you can’t get your audience invested in the characters, then there’s no amount of flashy effects that can rescue you. George Lucas learned this the hard way. In fact, there’s some doubt he learned it at all. Still, alongside Antz, ABL has a very similar theme: conformity and breaking out from the mould. Flick is a non-conformist, an inventor cum philosopher, who imagines a day when the grasshopper will no longer be a problem and the colony will live peacefully and free of fear. He is always bucking the trend of thinking about the colony first, and this brings him into conflict with the normal way of thinking (as an ant).

How does the film stack up compared to other Pixar films? Why even ask: even today, years after it’s release, it is still a magnificent film to watch, both visually and story-wise. The animation is just as good as anything getting about today, although perhaps not having the effect-driven flair of Shrek 2 (crickey, did they love the particle programme on that film or what?) or even the layering and texturing done on more recent Pixar output such as Wall-E or Ratatouille, A Bug’s Life still manages to entertain and draw you into itself, without appearing dated or clunky. And that is a sign of a truly awesome film.

So which film is better?

For me, A Bug’s Life is the most re-watchable, the most repeatable film on offer between the two. Antz requires a certain mood to be obtained before viewing, as it’s darker nature predicates a darker frame of mind to appreciate. A Bug’s Life, being the brighter of the two films, will stand tall for generations as one of the great icons of Pixar’s catalogue, and a truly inspiring cinematic film overall; for it’s story, its clean animated style, and wonderful moral fable (which, truth be told, is not as unsubtle as Antz’s was) which all adds up to one of the better animated films yet produced.

As we all know, Pixar’s dedication to story makes them the studio-de-jour in the world today. Their powerhouse success indicates that they’re onto a good thing. Dreamworks Animations run of luck hasn’t been as consistant. Shrek 1 & 2 aside (forget the lamentable Shrek 3) that studio’s output has been shaky at best. Shark Tale? Forget it. Madagascar was lamentable (except for the Penguins, which is what the film should have focused on… they’re awesome!) and even the Aardman co-production Flushed Away was slightly wishy-washy. Over The Hedge and Bee Movie were both pretty good, but were blown out of the water in comparison with the respective Pixar releases in those years.

Still, in the history of CGI animated film, there will always be a soft spot for A Bug’s Life. Flaming Death remains the single greatest insectoid circus act ever created.

Antz: 7/10

A Bug’s Life: 10/10