ANTZ

DVD Details: Anamorphic Widescreen Audio Tracks: Dolby Surround, Dolby 5.1 Subtitles: English Director's Commentary Production Featurette Computer Animation Stuff (See Below) Trailer/TV Spot PG, 83 minutes

Around the same time as A Bug's Life came out, another movie about the life beneath our feet was released. Never as popular, probably because it wasn't geared as much toward kids, Antz was still a movie I really enjoyed. It follows the life of one free thinking ant named Z (voiced by Woody Allen). He lives a simple life as a worker, but dreams of a place where he wouldn't have to work strictly for the colony. He meets the princess (voiced by Sharon Stone), falls in love, and somehow manages to change his society all in less than 90 minutes. Quite a feat, especially for such a little creature.

As I stated earlier, I really enjoyed this movie. The all-star cast does a great job of bringing the tiny world to life. And I'm pleased to say that the DVD is anything but insignificant. With a great transfer, the only problem I had was how soft the image looked at times. I know a lot of the softness was intentional, but a bit sharper would have been a little better to me. It's not really a DVD problem, so I won't say anything more about it.

The sound is very good too. This isn't a great disc for you to demo your speakers or anything, but there are some nice surround effects when the situation dictates. There's not much I can say about the sound, it's more than adequate, and is never too loud or too quiet. The music gives the movie an enjoyable atmosphere, and never overwhelms the voice acting.

The animated menus are in the Antz style, with funny little transitions between the different screens. Animated chapter selection screens let you jump to your favorite scene in the movie, and the Special Features screen lets you see a list of all the extras at once. There are many movies with just as many extras, and they get spread across several screens, which I find more annoying than useful. On the Antz disc we can turn on the director's commentary, see the short featurette, see behind the scenes on some of the computer animation, read Production Notes, or watch a trailer or TV spot. A lot of good stuff, with very little repetition among the different extras.

My favorite part of this disc, besides the movie, was the Basics of Computer Animation, hosted by the directors. Here we get to see a lot of the development of two scenes from the movie. From storyboard to final rendering, we get to see the different steps that a movie like this must go through. Very informative and entertaining, especially to anyone who's ever been interested in computer animation. The other animation featurettes focus on character development, and are also fun to watch to see what the movie could have been like.

The commentary track is a relaxed look at the disc through the eyes of the directors. They spend a lot of time complimenting the different work done on the movie, but they give a lot of nice anecdotes about the production too. Lots of fun details pepper the track, and it becomes understandable why Antz took so long to make. It's nice to have the directors' thoughts on the movie, making this commentary track a good extra to have.

A fun movie, and a fun DVD, this disc is definitely one to pick up for either kids or adults.