Long, long ago in the long-forgotten pre-histories of 1995), Pixar and Disney's first collaboration, a tale told from the perspective of a child's playthings, was released. Toy Story blew the lid off computer animation genre and ushered in a new era for children everywhere. Soon after, the chairman of Disney, Jeffrey Katzenberg, founded a separate studio known as DreamWorks Animation, and their first planned film was the dark-ish comedy Antz.
Unfortunately, Pixar had a similar story in mind, the colorful adventure called A Bug's Life. Both films were released in 1998, a month or so apart, regardless of their extreme similarities in content and style. The battle between these movies represented that between the respective studios, and neither of them wanted to give up their version. Still, Antz and A Bug's Life were considered accomplished works of art, although each of them was brilliant in a different way from their competitor.
10 Antz Is Better: Hilarity
A Bug's Life is a straightforward narrative, dealing with its characters and their paths without imbuing them with unnecessary complexity. On the other hand, Antz is riotously funny, steeped in evolved puns, elaborate gags, all hallmarks of the classic Woody Allen style of humor—for those who don't know, he plays the lead role, Z Marion-4195.
Other comedians involved were Dan Aykroyd, known for The Blues Brothers, Ghostbusters, and SNL, as well as Jane Curtin, the "Queen of Deadpan" and a multi-Emmy Award-winning sitcom actress.
9 A Bug's Life Is Better: Storyline
The plot of A Bug's Life is loosely based on the Aesop fable, The Ant and the Grasshopper, in which a lazy grasshopper starves to death after being denied access to the ant's food. The movie obviously is nowhere as dark and actually has a group of violent grasshoppers led by Hopper forcefully taking most of the colony's resources.
Flik, the protagonist, attempts to fend off the villains by creating a "fake bird" which fails, unsurprisingly. But, in a delicious twist of fate, Hopper ends up eaten by a real bird that he refuses to believe is real. There is a moral in there somewhere.
8 Antz Is Better: Cast & Voice-overs
Katzenberger wanted his movie to outweigh his competition, which is why he hired the biggest superstars he could possibly find. In addition to the ones already mentioned, Antz has Sharon Stone, Danny Glover, Gene Hackman, Sylvester Stallone, Jennifer Lopez, John Mahoney, and Anne Bancroft.
To put it in context, the cast has garnered eight Academy Awards between them, along with innumerable Emmys and Golden Globes. Interestingly, the roles in Antz are exaggerated versions of their respective actors, adding another dimension to the movie's meta-ness.
7 A Bug's Life Is Better: Animation
A Bug's Life was a monumental achievement in the field of computer animation; the positive characters were presented in an appealing manner, discarding their natural physiology for a human-esque appearance, while the "evil" grasshoppers were portrayed with strange bumps and ridges that were not realistic, but made for menacing enemies.
In fact, the animation employed an intricate algorithm that ensured every ant in the colony looked different, setting the stage for future developments in the technology.
6 Antz Is Better: Anatomical Accuracy
Unlike A Bug's Life, whose character designs were intended as approximate, heavily-beautified variants of the real thing, Antz tries to replicate the actual anatomical aspects of the insects in the story.
The ants, wasps, and termites look exactly as they should, although it could be argued that, as a children's movie, Antz could have benefited from making its characters a tad less accurate and a bit more pleasant to look at. Further, the animators were offered massive bonuses to speed up their work to keep up with A Bug's Life, which shows in the stark atmosphere of the movie.
5 A Bug's Life Is Better: Motley Crew
Where the characters in Antz are limited to three species, A Bug's Life is rich in a wide variety of insects: ants, ladybirds, grasshoppers, gypsy moths, black widow spiders, caterpillars, fleas, pillbugs, rhinoceros beetles, mosquitoes, and even a "magical" praying mantis.
This gave the movie a larger scope as well as greater depth, allowing it to take its story in unexpected directions. The Circus Troupe, especially, are a bunch of characters that add as much color as they do pizzazz, something that Antz sorely lacks.
4 Antz Is Better: Maturity
In the end, Antz was far more appreciated by adults than anyone else, even though it was technically geared as a family-friendly movie. The notion of death is dealt with without shielding its viewers from the harshness of war, as seen in the brutal massacre of the ant platoon by a group of termites, especially the scene in which Z holds the decapitated head of his friend, Barbatus.
One of Woody Allen's most famous lines, "I was going to include you in my most erotic fantasies," was included in the script, in addition to the casual use of R-rated terms like, "cr*p", "da*n", "hell", "tight*ss" and "an*s".
3 A Bug's Life Is Better: Accolades
Antz won few awards after its run, the biggest of which was the Golden Reel for Best Sound Editing. In comparison, A Bug's Life obtained considerably more, netting a Satellite Award, a Grammy, a Bogey Award, a Golden Screen, various Film Critics Association Prizes, and it was even nominated for the Golden Globes, the BAFTAs, and an Academy Award.
More importantly, it was nominated for a position in the American Film Institute's Top 10 Animation Films category. Impressive, as the list contains the likes of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Beauty and the Beast and Shrek.
2 Antz Is Better: Depiction Of Class
One of the subtler features of Antz was its depiction of a class system, with the oppressed suffering at the bottom while those in power obtained glory and recognition for the work of those under them. This is most evident in the character of General Mandible, who tries to kill defiant soldiers by shipping them off to war with the intentions of staging a coup and taking control over the colony from the Queen Ant.
Further, Z's "therapist" insists that he is insignificant, implying that his role is to live and die for the colony. He is aware of this fact, however, as he says that his fellow workers were "mindless zombies capitulating to an oppressive system."
1 A Bug's Life Is Better: Reception
To nobody's surprise, A Bug's Life took the box office for itself, generating more than double that of its competition. Nevertheless, critics enjoyed both films greatly, although many of them slightly preferred the Dreamworks product for its more expansive themes and excellent comedy.
In terms of audience reception, though, Pixar was the clear winner: reflected in their individual IMDb scores (Antz: 6.5, A Bug's Life: 7.2), as well as on Rotten Tomatoes (Antz: 52%, A Bug's Life: 73%.)