Antz seems more…mature, I guess. I always preferred Antz when I was younger, I have to admit, and I still sort of do now; the character of Z is so quirky, especially for a main character, and I love the humour. I still love ABL, but Antz does have a sort of appeal. I’d say it’s probably the best movie, apart from Shrek, that Dreamworks have ever made (which isn’t the greatest feat, considering that pretty much all of their other movies haven’t been that great. 
)
On the topic of Antz, I always, even before I liked Pixar, hated it. I actually have NEVER finished it, I can’t, it’s THAT bad to me. I do remember A Bug’s Life captivating me when I was younger, I loved the graphics, colors and everything taht makes a Pixar movie great. Well I guess it’s underrated because it’s inbetween the two Toy Story movies and it has to compete with Monsters, Inc. and Finding Nemo, which are both amazing movies. Well when I started liking Pixar a lot (Monsters, Inc.) I hadn’t realized that two of my early childhood top 3 favorite movies, Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, and The Lion King where made by Pixar. Well I’m getting a bit off topic. My point is, A Bug’s Life is great, but it has a hard time standing up to in house competition.
I don’t like Antz! 
I didn’t even wanna see it in theaters! I waited until it came on Cartton Network one day. 
ABL is WAY better in my opinion. Actually… I was 6 when ABL came out, and I didn’t see Antz for the first time until I was 12, so does that tell you anything? I don’t like Antz…
And, going a bit off-topic, but, did anyone else know that Shrek is based off a book? Like, a 10 page book? (LOL) That’s like the first movie I’ve ever seen where they actually PUT things in the movie instead of taking things out. xD
Okay, sorry. I was just wondering… 
Wow! That post was cool, because (as you already know) I love randomness! 
6 years to see Antz? It did look pretty creepy, actually. And of course, the creepiest man of all, Woody Allen?
You mean random cos I started talking about Shrek? xD Yeah, I tend to have a short attention span somethimes, therefore, I’m automatically random.
But yeah, 6 YEARS. That’s a long time… AND YES. YES HE IS VERY CREEPY. 
I’ve never seen Antz and I don’t want to. (I don’t like Dreamworks.) Oh, and by the way, I love A Bug’s Life!
Exactly how I feel as well.
Oh, good. 
It shouldn’t be underrated. It’s my second favorite Pixar film.
I haven’t seen it for years, but I’d like to rent it sometime soon. I’ve been wondering the same thing as well… why IS it so underrated? I remember loving it when I was younger. I actually told everyone that my name was Atta
Haha
How cute.
Well, anyways, I watched it today, just to get my memories of it back. Yay for memories.
When I was younger it was one of my favorite movies, among Toy Story & 2 and The Lion King. Little did I know that those movies where created by Pixar, let alone computer animation, I couldn’t even imagine that, so I convinced myself it was clay. I assumed they where made by Disney (don’t hurt me I was really little.) Well, I loved Pixar before I knew what Pixar was (this was once the Monsters, Inc. DVD came out.) Anyways, I think I posted this here already, but I’ll do it again, I think it’s overshadowed by the other Pixar movies because of three things:
- It was the second release (as opposed to the first)
- It didn’t gross as much money as the others
- It wasn’t released so recently
Ah, here we are once more, the “Antz & A Bug’s Life” argument.
Here we have Dreamworks Animation SKG Inc., the company which brought you the well known ogre called "Shrek and its following sequels, the lovely tale of sharks, the beautiful aspects of Madagascar, and of course, the most recent production of a movie with bees.
For many years, I have considered their productions rip-offs, unoriginal, and total plagiarism. How so? Let me elaborate on my point.
First off, we have “Shrek”. The thing I first notice about the film is not its fairy tale aspects, but its monstrous characters. “Monstrous,” the root word of this term would be “monster.” And what do we have in Pixar? Monster Inc. My theory is not only based on the characteristic aspects of the characters, however. No. When I look at Shrek the other day, the large barbaric ogre reminded me of someone else I know that’s cheesier and most definitely friendier. That’s right, I’m talking about Mike Wazowski from Monster Inc. Not only that both characters are green, freaky looking (but don’t get me wrong, Mike does look adorable), but both creatures possess two tiny projectiles on their head; whether ears or horns. Sure, that is not hard enough of a proof, so let’s move on.
Then we have Shark Tale. This is one movie which you can’t deny that it wasn’t inspired by Finding Nemo, among other films involving the life in the ocean. Released a year after Finding Nemo was in May 30th 2003, Shark Tale tells a story about how a fish and a shark work together to achieve their own dreams. Sure, the purpose of the acquaintanceship are varied, but the concept is pretty much the same; friendly sharks that don’t eat fishes.
Now is the part where I get into topic (pardon my off-topic-ness, ahem). A Bug’s Life was released in November 25th, 1998 in the US, while Antz was released… whoa, whoa, whoa, what’s this? A whole month earlier, and more! October 2nd, 1998! Now you ask why A Bug’s Life was underrated? Here’s Wikipedia with your answer (though the source is highly unreliable but… good enough):
These are harsh words, people. But the truth is there and the people did not like A Bug’s Life as much as they like “Antzi Panzi”.
What do you think? Do you believe, as I do, that at some point in the production of Antz, plagiarism is involved? 
On Antz:
Well, in “To Infinity and Beyond!: The Story of Pixar Animation Studios”, it explains that before A Bug’s Life was released, Pixar was very open about their future productions (unlike now), so they would boast about what they where planning to do next at industry fairs. Of course, the new computer animation division, DreamWorks was up and coming and they also attended the showcase. Later, DreamWorks revealed that they too where making a movie called Antz, about… well… ants. They re-assured their fellow studio at the time, Pixar, that the film wouldn’t have too much similarities to A Bug’s Life, then dubbed Bugs, and would be released later, after the ABL craze went down. Well, once 1998 rolled in DreamWorks surprised the CG community by changing the release date from the Winter of 1998/99 to October of 1998. Well, as you may have guessed, Pixar was outraged, and ever since then, Pixar has been extremely secretive. The book describes this momment in animation history as the time that computer animation became a “competitive” industry instead of a “novelty” one. Now I realized “To Infinity and Beyond!” might be a bit biased since it is an authorized biography and was made out of interviews with the people at Pixar. So, I decided to research it over at Google news, the articles on A Bug’s Life and Antz from 1998 agree with what was said in “The Story of Pixar Animation Studios”. So my conclusion is, Antz was definitely a rip-off and an obstacle for A Bug’s Life, but the better film, A Bug’s Life, came through with great box office numbers, a great fan base (at the time), and great reviews.
It’s obvious that Dreamworks based the idea of a bug-related movie on A Bug’s Life, that’s for certain, and it was annoying of them to do that over and over again (e.g. the comparisons between Monsters, Inc. and Shrek, between Finding Nemo and Shark Tale, etc.).
But at the end of the day, I still enjoy Antz. It’s a brilliant film. It’s funny, it’s got great characters, and I love the style of animation. I actually, in a way, almost prefer it over A Bug’s Life. I know it was ill-concieved, but a movie’s a movie, and the final product was very, very different from Pixar’s movie.
From then on, of course, Dreamworks have just been making cheapy rip-offs that require no thought and cause most children to fall into a humour induced coma. I think that Antz was a real piece of artwork, and as a movie in itself, should be appreciated for what it is, rather than be avoided because of who it was by.
Guess what I just found out, Pixar has it’s own A Bug’s Life appreciation week.
Source: VNOG Blog
navone.org/PhotoGalleries/Pi … g_5170.htm
martini833 - Puh-ha! That’s hilarious. It almost makes you feel pity for the poor film… and the studio. (snigger)
– Mitch
Ha ha ha, that is funny martini.
i think the main reason was because dreamworks put out antz first, so it wasnt seen as origonal
Oh, yes, DreamWorks was very smart to put out theirs first, so it would seem like theirs was the original one (which, of course, it wasn’t). And you can see that DreamWorks rushed it, because of the horrible quality of the film.
I don’t think so. I would say that the title “Antz” put alot people off. Another reason why it wasn’t a success is because it was rivalling against A bug’s life, where the characters were more human like where as Antz was not. The reason why Antz was in production first because Dreamworks SKG thought it was original idea. If it wasn’t original do you think they would release the film first?