Or should that be Ant Z? After all, this is the story about one ant's journey to find himself in the teeming masses of literally millions just like him -- well, not just like him... they're all willing to be automatons and conduct things according to the status quo... But Z thinks there's more to life than just digging and drinking from the carcasses of small insects and dancing the same steps to the same drab and dreary song.

And he finds it -- in Princess Bala, doomed to a life of marrying the evil General Mandible (ha!) and popping out millions of offspring... another life of drudgery. They seem to be kindred spirits, in a mismatched, off-balance sort of way, and he is instantly smitten. Of course, being the princess, and being betrothed, she knows it will never work out, so when she leaves him, she tells him that he will never see her again.

Determined to prove her wrong, Z switches places with his warrior ant friend, not knowing that the warriors are being sent into battle against the termites, not aware that he would be the only one to survive, not realizing he'd be celebrated as a hero until they discovered he is only a worker... not having a clue that he'd end up kidnapping Bala in an escape.

*sigh* Nothing like an engaging plot, eh? Jokes aside, though, this is one of the best non-Disney animated features in a long time. With voice talents such as Woody Allen, Sharon Stone, Gene Hackman, Anne Bancroft, Danny Glover, Christopher Walken, and Sylvester Stallone, it has the name power... but is the story worth all the stars? You betcha!

And once again, the moral of the story is not beaten into you a thousand times -- well, Z's opening monologue does set the stage for the moral -- and that moral, boys and girls? Don't let the daily grind stop you from being who you truly are. There, now you don't have to go see it. (Just kidding!)

Is it for kids? Yes, and no. It's not Disney, by any means, and there are some rather frightening fight scenes, and some off-color language, but the characters are cute enough, the animation great enough, and the story moves fast enough that kids' attentions will be held. Is it for grown-ups? Heck yes! Cartoon (computer generated, that is) or not, its message is for the adults too!

This movie is rated PG for language and "menacing action". Use judgement when bringing very small children.

SCORE: 9 A fun animated film that, though I despise Woody Allen, I thoroughly enjoyed! No happy songs and dances, it's a straightforward story with a good vs evil subplot that doesn't overshadow the rest of the movie. See it with someone you love. Highly Recommended! Return to top

Only twice.

That's how many times I've been disappointed by a Whoopi Goldberg movie. The first was the awful Made In America, a trashy "Gotta make a movie with this week's sweetheart" film that utterly disgusted me to have Whoopi's name associated with it. (I may review it one day, but until then, I'll return to the topic at hand.)

The other, admittedly less so, was The Associate, in which she plays a talented Wall Street wiz who, because of her gender, gets passed up for promotions. Her glory is stolen by her archrival (played by Wings's Tim Daly), and when he is promoted above her, she quits to start her own company.

"Great idea," I thought, until her ideas are shot down by every single person she shows them to-- again, because of the gender. So she invents Robert Cutty, a white businessman, to be her partner. "He's out of town," is her excuse, or "He hates the media." "He's a very private person."

Things go well for her, until Daly's character decides to get even with the man who has taken all of his business away. Eventually, Cutty is subpoenaed under suspicion of "insider trading". So Whoopi must bring Cutty to life somehow.

Did I like this movie? Yes. Am I going to recommend it to you? No. Why not? Well, let's play with it for a moment, shall we? On the one hand, seeing Whoopi as an aging white man was rather comical-- and watching her fight off the advances of Bebe Neuwirth was downright hilarious! (Laugh out loud, in fact!) The problem, to me, was the Wall Street jargon that went right over my head! I'm sorry, but if I can't understand what the characters are talking about, I can't enjoy the movie as much.

Another problem was the method of beating the audience over the head with the "moral" of the story (something about accepting people for who they are, or along those lines-- it's in Cutty's acceptance speech near the end...).

I hated the demoralization of women in this movie. Daly constantly talked down to Whoopi and his own receptionist (The Lost Boys star Dianne Wiest), the way the "boys' club" went into woman bashing with one another, the total submissiveness of Neuwirth's Camille. These are things that I would like to have thought humanity was getting past, and movies like this encourage degrading behavior. You can bet I won't be watching this movie again any time soon.

Pluses for the movie: Whoopi's on-screen intelligence. She was absolutely brilliant! Wiest's intelligence. (She designed a computer program herself, that catalogued every file in a cumbersome box in "Cutty's" office.) How Cutty/Ayres Investments seemed to always stay one step ahead of the competition. The comedy. The "kiss" (That's something you'd have to see for yourself!). Unfortunately, these things couldn't save the movie from spiraling down, down, down...

This movie is rated PG-13 for some language and suggestive dialogue.

SCORE: 5 I expect more from Whoopi. She's good, I'll give her that-- the laughs do keep coming (once the premise has been fleshed out), but certain aspects of the movie struck a negative chord with me that prevented my total enjoyment of the film. Sorry, Whoopi, but I cannot recommend this one. Try Ghost or Sister Act instead...
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