A neurotic underdog ant falls in love with the princess of the rest of the ants and is compelled to stand up to an authoritarian predator in this computer-animated allegory for Communism? It sounds like we watched “Antz” (1998) and “A Bug’s Life” (1998) this week! But which film is superior?
Because this is Hollywood, we look first to the cash each film brought in. Disney’s “A Bug’s Life” grossed $360 million USD at the box office, doubling the $171 million USD that Dreamworks’ “Antz” was able to bring home.
Comparing film’s box office revenue seems like a flawed idea, but remember these are twin films that aren’t just alike; they were released within four months of each other. In fact, the similarities of these two stretch into the talent that backed each cast.
Both films are supported by an all star set of A-list actors, well before A-listers were known for taking on voice roles. Though both movies had top billing by a renowned and incredibly problematic celebrity – Woody Allen with “Antz” and Kevin Spacey with “A Bug’s Life”, so both movies lose this round.
Since Disney was responsible for “A Bug’s Life”, it is almost unfair to any other studio to have its animation compared to it. That being said, “Antz” loses this round because it had the gall to give us a lead ant that just looks like Cillian Murphy with antennas.
In fact, the whole of Dreamworks’s work on “Antz” is a little bit of nightmare fuel. The almost all-star cast just doesn’t excuse the soulless characters with the same ambiance as a Playstation 2 cutscene, and even bears a striking resemblance to the full length action movie about beans that someone uploaded to Youtube for free.
For the first time in Movie Duel’s long and illustrious career, our winner takes the cake in nearly every possible category! “A Bug’s Life” wins this competition by being a more charming, funnier, and having better animation, but importantly, one of the coolest part of “A Bug’s Life” is that it is not “Antz”.
It was very considerate of Disney to not make the movie, “Antz”, and for that exact reason, Dreamworks is on a time-out until further notice.
Stay tuned next week, for articles that may or may not be a Movie Duel! If you would like more movie duel articles in the future, please email your congressman immediately.