Z and Bala come upon a human picnic, which they mistake for Insectopia. However, Mandible's second-in-command, a flying ant named Cutter, begins to doubt Mandible's constant reassurances that he's acting "for the good of the colony". To gain control, Mandible publicly portrays Z as a self-centered war criminal, promotes the glory of conformity, and promises the workers rewards for completing a "Mega Tunnel" he designed. Z's act of individuality inspires the workers and some soldier ants, halting productivity.
Bala attempts to return to the colony, but quickly rejoins Z after encountering a praying mantis. Now a fugitive, Z decides to search for Insectopia, a legendary insect paradise. Z panics and pretends to take Bala hostage, causing him and Bala to fall out of the anthill via a garbage chute. There, Z meets Bala, who recognizes him as a worker. Secretly unsatisfied, Mandible congratulates him and introduces him to the Queen. Z returns home, and is mistakenly hailed as a war hero. Meanwhile, Weaver joins the digging crew and falls in love with Z's co-worker Azteca. Before dying, Barbatus tells Z to think for himself instead of blindly following orders. In the battle, everyone except Z is killed by much-larger acid-shooting termite defenders. The ants are unaware that General Mandible, the army's leader and Bala's fiancee, is secretly sending the soldiers loyal to the Queen to die, so he can stage a coup d'état. To see Bala again, Z exchanges places with his soldier friend Weaver and joins the army, where he befriends staff sergeant Barbatus. The ant colony declares war on an encroaching termite colony, and soldiers are sent to engage the invaders. While at the colony's bar one night, Z falls in love with Princess Bala, when she visits the bar to escape her suffocating royal life. Z is an anxious worker ant who chafes at conformity, and the fact that everyone, even his psychiatrist, reminds him he is insignificant. The film received positive reviews, with critics praising the voice cast, animation, humor, and its appeal towards adults. It grossed $171.8 million worldwide on a budget of $42–105 million. This only worsened when Disney refused to avoid competition with DreamWorks' intended first animated release, The Prince of Egypt (1998).Īntz premiered on September 19, 1998, at the Toronto International Film Festival, and was released theatrically in the United States on October 2, 1998, by DreamWorks Pictures. Antz was the first film from DreamWorks Animation, and the third feature-length computer-animated film after Disney and Pixar's Toy Story (1995) and NDR Filmes's Cassiopeia (1996).ĭuring its production, a public feud erupted between DreamWorks co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg, and Steve Jobs and John Lasseter of Pixar, due to the production of their similar film A Bug's Life, which was released a month later. Some of the main characters share facial similarities with the actors who voice them. The film features the voices of Woody Allen, Sharon Stone, Jennifer Lopez, Sylvester Stallone, Christopher Walken, Dan Aykroyd, Anne Bancroft, Danny Glover and Gene Hackman. Antz is a 1998 American computer-animated adventure comedy film directed by Eric Darnell and Tim Johnson (in their feature directorial debuts) from a screenplay by Todd Alcott, Chris Weitz, and Paul Weitz.