Studio: DreamWorks SKG
Production Company: DreamWorks SKG / Pacific Data Images
Producers: Aron Warner, Brad Lewis, Patty Wooton
Executive Producer: Carl Rosendahl
Directors: Eric Darnell, Larry Guterman, Tim Johnson
Screenwriters: Pau & Chris Weitz
Cast:

Z-1948: Woody Allen
Princess Bala: Sharon Stone
Weaver: Sylvester Stallone
Azteca: Jennifer Lopez
General Formica: Danny Glover
Mandible: Gene Hackman
Cutter: Christopher Walken
Wasps: Dan Aykroyd & Jane Curtin
Drunk Scout: John Mahoney
The Queen: Anne Bancroft

Running Time: 77 minutes
Domestical Release Date: October 2, 1998
Grossing: $ 90.6 million
Comments:

Antz is a comedy about an ant who leads a revolt against the conformist ant colony in which he resides.
This is DreamWorks / PDI first computer generated feature, to hopefully follow in the successful footsteps of Disney's Toy Story.
The project has been done with PDI computers and staff, with art direction and design from
DreamWorks.
DreamWorks and PDI used a combination of Silicon Graphics "O2" desktop systems;
"Origin200" servers with dual CPUs to be used for rendering; and "Origin2000" servers for media storage and file serving.
Antz marks DreamWorks' first animated full-feature coproduction with PDI since the companies announced their relationship in May 1996.
Tim Johnson likened working on Antz to "painting little pieces of a jigsaw puzzle'' and revealed that one of the movie's best sequences features central characters Z and Princess Bala getting stuck to the gum on a human's shoe. The scene is in keeping with the theme of the film, according to the director: We realized this was not a movie about how small the ants are ... This is a film about how big the world is.
Antz was expected to be released in theaters on Spring '99, after Disney's insect movie A Bug's Life but finally it was released 6 months before, on October '98.
Antz was premiered in The Toronto International Film Festival at their closing night gala on September 19. Antz was also screened at the Ottawa International Animation Festival on opening night, September 29.
 

Eric Darnell and Tim Johnson at the Sitges Festival

Test Screenings:

In Oregon, 800 folks were treated to the first ever screening of Antz. Here you have 3 reviews:

First review by B.Dog:

Fresh from a test screening of ANTZ (ok, it was last night, but I needed time to collect my thoughts and sleep, not necessarily in that order) and I wanted to share my reactions with the good AICN folks. First and foremost - I had a great time! This was my first ever test screening, and as such I wasn't sure what to expect. The movie isn't due out for a few months, so I figured it would still be in pretty rough shape, and that was right on target. About 60% (at a guess) was in complete form, but the remainder was either very basic animation (not much detail, just a few characters and little background), or in some cases just the storyboards (this was true of most of the last 10 minutes or so). The voices were all done, so even the parts with storyboards were easy to follow (I think at some points the rough drawings made some of the humorous scenes even funnier). The soundtrack was bits of other movies slapped in there (I recognized ID4, Apollo 13 and First Contact), so it'll be interesting to see what they have in the final version.
So in any case, a rough product, but I really enjoyed it. Woody Allen was a perfect choice for the over-talkative, slightly hyper "Z", our hero, and Gene Hackman did lots of fun scenery chewing (as it were) as the devious General Mandible. Sharon Stone didn't impress me a whole lot in her role as the love interest, Princess Bala, but I'll see if she grows on me in the final version. Also watch out for Christopher Walken, Sylvester Stallone, Danny Glover and Meryl Streep in smaller parts (Walken's ant character had some perfect Walken facial expressions - made me laugh).
The story is pretty straightforward, nothing exceptionally original, but there's plenty of humor and some exciting moments along the way. What was complete of the animation was very impressive, especially the "wide-angle" shots of the whole colony - quite amazing.
All in all, a really fun night out! It should be a really entertaining and enjoyable movie once it's completed. I'm really looking forward to the finished product!

B. Dog

Second review by Jalapeno:

DreamWorks Picture’s new fully animated film Antz was shown for the first time ever at Lloyd Center Act III Theatre in Portland, Oregon yesterday, July 6th. The audience was drawn from those present at Friday’s 10:15 premier of Armageddon. When I called to RSVP for the show, I was first put on hold for over eight minutes, then told that they had filled up everyone in my age group, and if I wanted to come I would have to bring two children 12 or under for every adult. The person on the other end of the line finished with “So why don’t you make some calls, then call me back.” I was then promptly hung up on. After reviewing the sheet given out at the Armageddon show, I noticed it said specifically not to bring children 12 and under or infants, so I called back. There was no answer. Interestingly enough the sheet also said that anyone who “is dirty, inappropriately dressed or will otherwise interfere with the viewing of the film for others will not be admitted.”
I arrived a full hour and a half before the show was supposed to begin. Waiting in line the movie preview staff didn’t seem to care who was who or what age anyone was. There was no cost for the show, but personal information was collected from each audience member. At forty-five minutes to start almost every single seat in the theatre except for those reserved was filled. The show got going when a spokesman for the Preview Company played a short film explaining that what we were about to see was a work in progress, and was not ready for release, along with an explanation regarding the incomplete scenes.
Incomplete scenes in the film were in different stages of production. The most primitive scenes were in penciled sketches shown about 10 to 15 a minute. I got the feeling that the scenes that they wanted to be a surprise for even this audience were purposely left as storyboards. The other incomplete scenes were primitive objects of the characters covered only drab unlighted textures. In many scenes there were fully rendered and lighted foreground characters, but the background objects weren’t textured. About two-thirds of the film was fully rendered. Highly detailed screens such as the beer dripping down Weaver’s face or the flood sequences were left in low detail rendering or none at all.
The fully rendered animation for the film was really amazing. The gooey movement of the ant larva to the flexing muscles of the solider ants along with highly detailed scenes of consisting of thousands of moving ants moving sequentially or in different directions made the animation the best ever to hit the big screen.
Music and sound was good, but I was more enticed by the visuals. The most beautiful still would probably have been when Baala is on the back of a Praying mantis. I remember its eyes being this shimmery rainbow. It was gorgeous. I wish I could describe it more. I really liked Jennifer Lopez’s New York accent, and Barbatus was the perfect sounding veteran for Z. Woody Allen’s whiny voice was a bit annoying at times, but a lot of the lines sounded like they could have come from his mind.
The content of the film is definitely mature. Things such as alcohol use, obvious intoxication presented as comedy, (which I found extremely funny,) severe animated violence such as dismemberment, sexual overtones, death of celebrated characters, and hopelessness all contribute to a PG-13 movie NOT for kids.
After the film, the audience was asked to fill out a survey which inquired about what parts of the movie were good, bad or funny. Whether the ending was good, etc. A friend of mine who also viewed the film commented. “I thought it was average. I don’t think it was original, besides the fact that it took a generic plot and replaced everything with ants.” This negative review comes from a guy who wrote “I have diseases,” for no particular reason, on his survey.
I found the movie quite cool, the reason I posted it here is because I remembered a feature about “Ain’t it Cool News” on CNN, so naturally, I had to review it. Rage Against the Machine. I probably wouldn’t, just so DreamWorks could have a clean release, but the company who did the preview was so rude, I wanted to ‘get back at them’?
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my review, and are now raving to see the finished product. I know I am.

This is Jalapeno signing off.

Third review by Skintaco:

Monday night we went to lloyd cinemas (a big theatre complex in portland). my friends had gotten a flyer when they saw armageddon there last wednesday. The flyer asked for your name, address, etc., explained that the movie was a rough cut, and gave a little blurb about it.
So we're waiting in line and are constantly set upon by suited ushers and such, taking our flyer, giving us a ticket. Lots of movie theatre etiquette one liners/pointers.
We get in and find some good seats, as the auditorium fills. Several seats here and there (the last 2 rows, some aisle seats on our row) were taped off... for what exactly, i was not sure. The audience was mostly filled with kids, and their silly stereotypical parents. 800 seats in there i'm told. all filled.
So me and my pal are chillin', waitin' for our friends to get in, when this red-faced energetic dude (named kevin it turns out) in a suit walks over and asks us our names. grills us on how many movies we've seen recently. my pal fails miserably (more of a business geek), but i've seen every one he mentions. He says that the editors will be around after the show and could we stick around to answer some questions. so we got to grinnin'.
(but after the show he says "The editors decided not to do it, so he doesn't need us after all." frown. grumble. sigh. Was it my cologne? lack thereof? No! It must have been my friends!)
Some people fill the taped off seats just before the lights went down. the two closest had some strange stuff. one had a glow-in-the-dark pen & a notepad, and the other had some kinda box attached to a cord, with a simple red dial on top. WTF? i've no idea.
So the energetic guy inna suit (names kevin it turns out) walks out and addresses the crowd, thanks us all for coming, etc. tells us we're the first audience to see the film nation wide. (wee) Then begins to explain that the movie is still very rough,and runs us through a few examples on video tape.

  • he shows a scene comprised of badly animated story boards (voiced over).
  • then the same scene with blocky floating polygon models (no roundness).
  • then fullbright walking models (with no textures or shading, no moving lips, but fully round/polished models).
  • then finally the same scene fully rendered, shaded, textured, and beautiful.

    • then some random unfinished water effects (looked like tons of flat shaded blue balls. nifty). And lastly some quick editing stuff (like 2 black bars that sweep the scene, with out the actual dissolve, or cut, etc.) he explains that we'll see each of those stages of animation in the movie. then he exits, the lights go fully dark, and the movie starts.
    the movie, kicks booty.
    Then the lights come back up. Kevin runs up and informs us the editor's won't need us, cuz they smoked to much crack during the movie and decided not to quiestion us (or something) (we were probably just a few too many). Questionaire's are handed out along each aisle. and hastily filled out. Question's like "what was the best scene?" "Please rate the character's voice-overs" "Did any part of the movie confuse you?" "which of the following phrases best describe the flic", etc. There were even two sections set aside for parent's only. Wacky.
    They collected the questionaire's in trash bags at the exits (hmmm), and we went off to the mall for some anti-consumer antics.
    Twas much fun. Anterrific.
    I was thinking of doing the best (worst?) spoiler of all time. running through each scene, explaining what was ready what wasn't, sketching all the characters and scenes and such. but that would be pretty rude (save that for the blood-buddies), and a little over-zealous. So here's a few choice notes:
    AUDIENCE: The movie seemed geared towards young teens, if not young adults. there was no real kiddie humor (fart jokes, physical comedy, etc.). But the character's weren't exceedingly deep/wordy/philosophical either. Yet, only old farts will understand some jokes, and only small kids will appreciate some visuals.
    NITPICK: Bugs don't have lungs right? (Mimic taught me that one). So why would two ants be choking and spewing air bubbles when caught inside a water droplet? hmmm...
    VIOLENCE: They had the coolest fight scene early on. The ants take on a nearby termite colony. Its like something out of starship troopers. Termites are lifting ants up in their jaws, while getting stabbed to death. Termites are spittin' acid on ant soldiers, and we get to see em dissolve. it was intense! It even seemed like a nod to starship troopers when danny glover's ant hopped on one termite's back and rode it around, stabbing it all to hell. kid movie? hmmm. i think not.
    also, they killed this lady wasp at one point with a fly swatter. showed her squashed gooey corpse afterwards. kinda weird. a sudden change of pace (it ended a kinda-funny exchange). people would've been ill had it been the same style of scene with human counterparts. hmm. but they were only bugs...
    PROBLEM: Why the hell where they attacking the termites? they mentioned it briefly, maybe i missed/forgot it. But it makes no sense for hackman's character to waste army ants once we find out his "future plans" for the colony!
    Also, they mentioned that the point of the termite attack was to find the queen and kill it. but we never saw or heard of that. ???!?!?!?!
    COOL: I thanked god when they actually supported "the rigid system" during Gene Hackman's speech to the rebellious workers. Seems so many of these movies tell people to think for themselves and screw the system. So it was nice to take a moment to point out what the system had achieved and that the hero had really turned his back on the rebels by taking off on his own adventure. That was the only part of the movie where i dug hackman's bad-bug character. It was a good speech.
    PROBLEM: We needed more Jennifer Lopez... J.Lopez is a goddess among sex kittens in my opinion. Why couldn't she have had some small amount of screen time to herself? her character had little point and no depth. It sticks out to me as the only big name voice to kinda get the shaft, script-wise. She's the secondary love interest (hooks up with sylvester stallone's character), so i guess they didn't want to distract from the main hero's relationship, by developing her. (or maybe i'm just too focused on her :^).
    And frankly i was heartbroken when stallone's ant oggled her (as any self respecting man would do), and we only got to see spindly ant legs. Weep.
    BUMMER: It was interesting to me that one potentially exhilarating scene was totally unfinished. There's a point where Z (the hero) takes a ride on the back of a drunken wasp to get from "insectopia" back to the anthill. we just got a storyboard of a take off, then a story board of a crash landing. but that coulda been quite a cool speed scene with flybys of all the "landmarks" Z had passed on his way to insectopia. maybe they didn't want to show the "landmarks" from the tiny ground perspective, or give away the _actual setting_.
    PURE SPOILERS (don't read it! you'll go blind!):
    the one scene that we all talked about afterwards was this "feet of the behemoth" sequence. Sharon stone's ant gets stuck in gum on a sneakered foot. Which then seems to launch miles into the air and away. Z hops on the other foot to follow and attempt to a rescue. it was amazing. reminded me of clive barker's short story "in the hills, the cities" (if you've read it, you know what i mean. totally intense).
    there was funny reference to pulp fiction during an ant dance sequence. That mia wallace fingers-over-the-eyes sweep. It gave the movie a (rare) "hip" feel.
    The water effects were awesome! a huge flood occurs at one point (barely unfinished animation), and it was so strange to see hundreds of blue balls act just like an onrush of water. In a way it was much cooler than normal water would have been. I kinda hope it doesn't get "too real."
    I coulda sworn Z's model mouthed "god damn" when the voice said "geesh" at the beginning. hmm.
    what kinda kiddie movie mentions drinking from a bug's anus? seriously, Z says something like "i'm not in the mood to drink from some (grub)'s anus" in a bar scene. (instead of like beers, they have these little bugs to drink. i don't remember what type of bug they were supposed to be).
    and thats all folks. (speaking of clive barker, the story "how spoilers bleed" comes to mind. eek. ick. ...) annnyyyywaayyyyyyyyy the movie was pretty close to done. And way past "kickin ass". big hit, I predict.

    Skintaco.
     

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