ANTZ
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.
For a full cast of characters see previous Ain’t it Cool Post:Click Here A word of warning, not all the information presented in that post is accurate. Don’t read the following paragraph if you would like the story to be a surprise, if you can, hold off!
I don’t want to spoil the story for you too much. It starts out with this ant Z who is a worker ant in a huge colony, and is depressed with the monotony of living in his caste. Bummed out, the mischievous princess Balla sneaks into the bar he is drinking “beer” at and asks him to dance. He is enthralled with her, and when she has to leave because of a bar fight, she tells him they’ll never meet again. From this point on he can’t get her out of his head. So he trades places with Weaver, his friend, and soldier ant in an attempt to go in front of the out of reach princess. His aspirations turn to despair as his one day trade turns into an involuntary preclude to war. Scared at first, Z is reassured by fellow soldier ant Barbatus, (Danny Glover.) Barbatus was easily the most interesting and lively character in the movie along with the best voiceover. But he meets his sad defeat with the rest of the army after an extremely grisly battle with carpenter ants. Z, a surviving by total non-involvement returns home alone as a “hero.” Through a sequence of events Z and the Princess end up on their own outside their colony. An uproar among classes turns Z into a political leader for the upheaval of the Ant classes. And then… I’d really like to tell you more, but I’m afraid you have to wait.
See earlier posts about Antz for more tidbits.
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.
