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Notes -
Antz was a much better movie than A Bug's Life.
A Bug's Life, as you said, is fundamentally just a remake of Seven Samurai and The Magnificent Seven, toned down for little kids. Antz is clever, original, and very much not toned down. The termite battle is basically the insect version of Saving Private Ryan's beach scene. Z and Weaver have actual sexual tension with Bala and Azteca, respectively, as opposed to the chaste romance between Flik and Atta. Antz deals with military coups and genocide; A Bug's Life deals with learning to stand up to your bullies.
Antz is a movie everyone can enjoy; A Bug's Life is a movie meant for small children.
+1 for Antz.
I think a Bug's Life is more cohesive as a movie, actually, but it's far, far less interesting and subversive. Some of it is unfortunately visuals; the character designs in Antz were just kind of less pleasant to look at than Pixar's approved and focustested shapes, and that kind of serves as a metaphor for the differences between the two movies.
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+1 for Antz superiority, and fond memories of my father helpfully pointing out to me that Gene Hackman's character was a Nazi.
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I haven’t seen either in a very, very long time but if memory serves Antz was also more interested in using actual facts about ants to set up its world. Building tunnels and fighting with termites and all that.
I do remember preferring Antz as a kid, or at least I have a stronger memory of it, probably in large part because of the action scenes.
One thing AntZ certainly got accurate about ants that to A Bug's Life didn't was the fact that ants have 6 legs. The 4-limbed ants in the latter film used to bug (heh) the hell out of me as a kid.
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