I just saw ANTZ
I was shaking in my seat I was so excited by this film. The film caused those… giggles… you know the type people in film claim you get from smoking pot, but you have never seen pot-smokers get. Or maybe you have, but I haven't. Anyway, that stereotyped (heheheheheheheheheheee) sorta sound.
I'll tell ya about this day.
I woke up late, after getting to sleep very early last night. I was tired as hell, hadn't slept for about 37 hours before that, and needed sleep badly, my speech was slurring and inanimate objects started dancing around and talking to me. When that begins happening… rest is the cure, unless you like that sort of thing in which case you continue staying awake.
Did some site updating, hooked up with Tom Joad, got Sister Satan, and we (Dad and I) all headed off for the Driskill to get tickets and passes for the AUSTIN FILM FESTIVAL. There were of course some problems, there always seems to be when registering for film fests, but hey… it's the turf. In fact this time it was so messed up that I'm gonna have to get there early tomorrow just to fix it. Sigh….
Because it was so late we didn't eat, so though we were all starving we headed to the theater to get our place in 'the line'. Of course all the 'line people' were there, but most were unenthusiastic about this film. Me… I'm bouncing off the walls with excitement. Why?
You know it seems like it was just a couple of months ago that DREAMWORKS SKG was formed. It sure as hell doesn't feel like 4 years. Sheesh. To me, when it was brought into existence the most exciting aspect of the 'dream' was high grade feature animation NOT by Disney or Bluth. I really have to say that. I love those two, but how many times do we have to see the fairy tale with cute animal sidekicks, goofy villian and annoying songs (though sometimes I really like the songs).
Why couldn't the animation business grow up? How come it reached it's maturity as an industry with SNOW WHITE? It hadn't really evolved. The formula left basically unmarred. With Katzenberg, I had faith. Why? Because I felt he was a strong presence behind the modern age of Disney and in his 'arc' of films there, you could see a change in what animation was meaning. You could since a tonal difference in the slow burn.
When I first heard of ANTZ it was merely a script sitting in a pile of scripts that needed reading. The authors were Todd Alcott and Chris Weitz. Two people I didn't know or respect really. It sat there at the house for about 3 months, then I heard on like Variety or Hollywood Reporter that Woody Allen was cast in the lead of DREAMWORKS and PDI's premier CGI animated film entitled ANTZ.
I dove into the pile and came up with the script. I read the first two pages and died. It was the best Woody Allen dialogue in ages. It was killing me. So I ran into the living room and got Dad and started reading the script out loud in characters' voices. I did Woody Allen perfect (p.s. I do character voices and mannerisms… it's annoying) Dad and I howled at the script it was brilliant. It was actually a very smart take on SPARTACUS. It was a liberal doctrine about the strength and rights of the individual. It was the perfect vehicle for Woody. The film he could never make. Written by two people that must have loved him and his films, but dreamed a far bigger scope than Woody tends to think in.
So I sat there and wrote it up for the site, I talked about the script about how hysterical it was. I wrote sample dialogue from the opening scene for the site, I've been slobbering for this film for a year. People like Copernicus and my sister were very very skeptical about my love for this film. Hell, I've been labelled a DREAMWORKS SELL OUT for openly embracing the film. Whatever.
Anyway as the first reviews started to pour in I began getting a smile. People were loving the film. God I hoped this would… work. I really really really wanted the movie to work.
That cast was revealed, Dan Akyroyd, Jane Curtin, Anne Bancroft, Woody Allen, Jennifer Lopez, Gene Hackman, Christopher Walken, Sylvester Stallone, Sharon Stone, Danny Glover, Paul Mazursky, etc…
Wow.
So tonight… tonight I was soooooo excited to see this flick.
PERFECTION.
I can't imagine not watching this film compulsively. This is Stallone, Stone, Woody, Lopez and Aykroyd's best film. As a film geek I do love this film more than Annie Hall. Why? Well, because it's fantastic dialogue, involving multi-starred cast, made for the intelligent film goer that in addition is pure friggin eye candy.
The concept that this film is only an hour and seventeen minutes is mind numbing. They fit soooo much into it. There is not a wasted second, every character is so cool, every shot is so beautiful. God, this is cool.
Is it better than TOY STORY? Well imagine comparing THE WIZARD OF OZ to EXCALIBUR, they are fantasies, but ya know… they aren't eeeeeven the same genre.
When I was talking with Katzenberg about ANTZ and P.O.E., he was talking about treating it like live action features. He did. Watch the beautiful slow fades, the P.O.V. shots, the steadicam shots, the crane shots, the film isn't treated like an animated film in it's technical areas. And for a lot of the film, I forgot it was animated. I thought of it as merely a great movie.
In my review of A BUG'S LIFE, I talked about really wanting to love that film. I did. I have always felt that it was important to want to love any and all animated films. Thinking about A BUG'S LIFE and I get a smile, I did have a lot of fun with it, and there is always a place for that type of film, but ANTZ is a different type of animated film.
It's not cutesy and it's not Bakshi, it's… Dreamworks. This is their first 'style' film. A movie that identifies a belief system in story-telling. Here's what I mean.
In ANTZ, there is never for one moment a talk down to the audience. In a way it reminds of the original theatrical Warner Brothers LOONEY TUNES in that respect. It's a film that was made to entertain adults first and foremost, but that also grabs kids. Disney's animated films on a whole have played for kids, the darkest aspects excised or washed over by a big comedic moment. The notable exception of this was PINNOCHIO. That film had real horror, real danger. Now I'm not advocating for ALL ANIMATION to go in this direction. Instead, I'm saying this is a great road for Dreamworks… DREAMWORKS to follow.
This is kinda important. It's kinda like the difference in musicals between MGM, WARNERS and COLUMBIA. They weren't alike, they were each distinctively different.
The other big bonus in ANTZ's favor is the fact that the people behind ANTZ actually thought about what it was to be an insect. They researched the bugs, found out what they did, and they built this world around that. They thought about how time would exist for a bug, how water would act, how a human would be seen, how trash would appear, how war would be seen, how a 'colony' brain would think. And it's all done with the absolute greatest attention to detail. Everything from lighting to textures to… well the characters themselves. Everything is just so right.
I love the film. I'm not saying this is better than Disney animation or Pixar animation, I'm saying this is a new place for animation. It's for us folks that grew up with the great work DISNEY has done, and now… well now we have a new type of animation entertainment for us, that isn't crude, that isn't childish, but rather it's treated like the best of live action films. I wouldn't be surprised if this film got a nomination for screenplay if it were pushed.
You have a lot of cool entertainment this weekend. Whatever you do, be sure to enjoy yourself.
