A Tradition // Antz (1998 movie review)

My family is one of traditions.

We have so many, it's impossible to keep track; the fact that they come from various individuals and pertain to varying subjects does not help.

A good deal of them relate to Christmas, as my father is an utter fanatic about it and his holiday hype spreads to the rest of us. Some are a few generations old, while others are created by my parents, me, or my siblings. It is one of the latter I am about to share. 

My brothers and I started this about six, seven months ago. I will explain the tradition briefly and then use the magical powers of a segue to tie this bad boy together.

We call it the Quest for Cringe. It's a bonding ritual of sorts where we sit together and watch the cringiest looking movies we can find. Netflix, Amazon Prime, and the free section of On-Demand create our reservoir for such films.

How did such an odd tradition come to be? Well, my friends and I had a tradition amongst ourselves where, snuggled cozily in a pile of blankets, we'd watch films that created memes (ex. The Bee Movie, Shrek, etc). We took great pleasure in laughing with/at these movies, and commenting/critiquing on what we saw. I took this joy home and wanted to share it with my younger brothers. However, as they do not share my vast knowledge of memes, I had to think of a different subject matter. Then it hit me. Cringe.

Scheme formulated, I asked my brothers if they wanted to watch a movie. They said sure, and as I searched, one noted, "None of these look very good." I responded with what I can only imagine was a twinkle in my eye.

"That's the point."

It caught on, we had a blast, and ever since we've had our Quest for Cringe.  

You now know why we decided to start out 2019 by watching the film Antz. 

The ball dropped; it was new years. Our parents, not as young as they once were, went to bed. Their offspring, also not as young as we once were but still pretty young in comparison, watched the movie we'd found on Netflix about five hours prior. 

Antz is about a depressed ant named Z living in a totalitarian society where a genocidal general wishes to wipe out the working and royal classes to leave only the soldier ants. Toss in a discontent princess who goes slumming and extremely questionable character designs, and you have this work of absolute GENIUS.

For starters, a disclaimer. This film is a 1990's PG, which (in this case) would probably be a modern PG-13. There's brief language peppered throughout, a few dark and gritty subjects (war, torture, genocide, death of a loved one, alcohol as a coping mechanism, subtle depression), and a line of blatant sensuality. None of this is excessive, though it may sound as such in writing. I'm just saying it'd probably be a soft PG-13 these days--the same kind of PG-13 you'd find in Marvel films. Really not that bad, but still PG-13.

The story is unimaginably original, the characters are unique, and the comedy was intentional. In all categories except animation, my brothers and I were laughing WITH the film. That said, the animation was probably revolutionary for 1998, but for these days, it was...yikes. Perhaps its more design than animation, but again, YIKES. 

this was the most unappealing ant design of all the ant animated films I've ever seen (why are there so many ant-related animated films? Bugs Life, Ant Bully, Antz...)

also these dudes dance

That said, I absolutely love this film. It was terrible... but terribly brilliant? I don't know, I just adore it. It's the kind of bizarre uniqueness that you'd expect from a french film, or perhaps a piece by Tim Burton. But it's not, its just '90s Dreamworks being weird. And, again, I LOVE IT. I strongly recommend this to anyone who can appreciate an odder piece. 

I shall leave you with some quotes, in case you aren't convinced.

*me, presenting my pile of quotes*

"I've been kidnapped by the village idiot."

"Who's the bigger idiot, the idiot or the idiot who gets kidnapped by the idiot?"

"Don't worry, I know almost exactly what I'm doing."

"You're not gonna let a little near-death experience ruin the mood, are you?"

"You're an ant after my own heart, an ant who looks death in the face and laughs."

"Actually, I generally just make belittling comments and snicker behind death's back."

"Trouble's my middle name. Well, actually, my middle name is Marion, but I don't want you spreading that around."

 "I, um, that's--you're being a little extreme, I feel. Why don't we just try to influence their political process with campaign contributions?"

"I've gotta give myself a positive attitude. A good attitude even though I'm utterly insignificant. I'm insignificant... but with attitude."

"There you have it; your average 'boy-meets-girl, boy-likes-girl, boy-changes-underlying-social-order' story"

So there you have it, my friends. Antz is a very, very odd film, but its fantastic in it's own way. It's on Netflix, so if you have it, I highly suggest giving it a watch.

Do you have any odd traditions? What's the cringiest film you've enjoyed? I'd love hearing from you :)