Product: Antz: Signature Selection
Company: Dreamworks
Review By: Alex Harris

Aspect Ratio	Regional Information		DVD Disc Details
1.85 : 1 Anamorphic Widescreen	1 : USA	NTSC	Closed Captioning: CC Master format: Film Sides: 1 (SS-DL) Chapter stops: 18

Sound:	English	English	French	Commentary
	5.1	2.0 Surround	2.0 Surround	2.0
Subtitles:

Life is no picnic for Z, a small worker with some very big ideas whose chances of landing the beautiful Princess Bala are literally one in a billion. But when Z convinces his soldier ant buddy Weaver to switch places with him, his simple life takes a wild turn. From his battles in the termite war to his search for "Insectopia," Z's adventures land him in a final confrontation with the ruthless General Mandible who has planned to liquidate the colony. Once the most insignificant of workers, Z may just turn out to be the biggest hero of them all. 

This film was produced by Dreamworks, the company that also released films like The Prince of Egypt and The Peacemaker. This film has a star studded cast which includes famous names like Woody Allen, Sharon Stone, Gene Hackman, Sylvester Stallone, Christopher Walken, Jennifer Lopez. This film was released around the same time as A Bug's Life in the cinema and even though direct comparisons can be made between the two they are quite different. This film is aimed towards the way life would look from the view of an ant. The things that we consider quite small in our terms, for example a sandwich or some gum on the ground are shown to be enormous in comparison to the size of an ant. What they have done in this film is made some direct comparisons with human life to that of an ant. The ants have a regular routine of getting up in the morning and working on a new tunnel which will extend the size of their city. It shows how when the ants are born a person decides whether they are going to be workers or soldiers. It is one ant, Z (Woody Allen), that decides that going to work and then going to sleep each day is just getting to boring and he hears of a place called Insectopia, a place where insects can live with all the food they want and lounge around all day, To most of the ants it is just a myth and that no one has ever been there. One day when all the ants are in the bar Princess Bala (Sharon Stone), who is getting bored of the fact she is a princess, decides to disguise herself and go down to the workers bar and see what their life is about. She notices that Z is sitting alone and asks him if he would like to dance.

While this is going on the ants don't know that the tunnel they are building is leading them to their doom. The General has planned it so the workers and the Queen will be in a huge chamber when they finally finish the tunnel. What the workers and Queen do not know is that the tunnel will open up into the bottom of the lake and then kill them all. The Generals plan is to start a new city with the soldiers faithful to him and make the ant colony stronger that way.

From that point on Z falls madly in love with her and he doesn't realize that she is a princess. When he finds out that she is a princess he asks his good friend Weaver (Sylvester Stallone) to swap places with him in the parade so he can see Princess Bala again. What Z doesn't know is that General Mandible (Gene Hackman) is planning on sending the ant army against the termite army so all the soldiers loyal to the Queen (Anne Bancroft) will be killed. While on parade he becomes good friends with an ant called Barbatus (Danny Glover). During the fighting Barbatus saves Z's life, but is killed later on in the battle. The only one to survive the onslaught against the termites is Z. When Z comes back to the colony he is a hero to all the ants.

When the General finds out one ant survives he tries to get rid of Z, but Z takes the princess  hostage and they escape through the trash shoot. Once outside the guards that are trying to get the princess back are killed by a human with a magnifying glass. This is where the adventure starts. Z and the Princess end up traveling away from the colony in search of Insectopia. During their travels they come upon many characters such as Chip (Dan Ackroyd) and Muffy (Jane Curtin), who are bees that are snobbish and aristocratic and think that ants are lower creatures on the castle system of the insect world. When the General finds out that they have gone missing he sends his faithful assistant Cutter (Christopher Walken) out to find the missing Princess and Z. I won't tell you what happens at the end, because I don't want to spoil the movie to much. 

Special Features

This DVD has loads of special features on it including Featurette, Audio Commentary, Additional Footage, Filmographies, Documentaries, Interactive Menus, Cast/Crew Bios, TV Spots, Theatrical Trailer, Production Notes. The additional footage is some of the most interesting that I have seen on a DVD in a while. What it does is take you through the different steps that happened to make two of the scenes. It starts from the basic storyboarding of the film all the way to the finished product. After they have show you each of the stages it  splits the screen into 4 and shows all the bits running at once so you can see where they have changed bits on it or taken bits out. This DVD also has some of the more normal additions to it such as Interactive menus Theatrical trailer and Scene access. 

"Antz" - DVD Features

• Featurette
• Audio Commentary
• Additional Footage
• Filmographies
• Documentaries
• Interactive Menus
• Cast/Crew Bios
• TV Spots
• Theatrical Trailer
• Production Notes

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