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Antz DVD
Review:
Two of the best animated features of 1998 are now available on DVD.
vs A Bug's Life DVD Begin announcer voice In this corner, we have our challenger, hailing from Dreamworks and PDI, weighing in at one hour, twenty-three minutes, and starring the voices of Woody Allen, Sharon Stone, Gene Hackman, Sylvester Stallone and Christopher Walken, it's Antz! Our reigning champion, weighing in at one hour, thirty-five minutes, hailing from Disney and Pixar and starring the voices of Dave Foley, Julia-Louis Dreyfus and Kevin Spacey, it's A Bug's Life! OK boys, get back to your corners, no low blows and keep it clean! -ding ding- And they come out swinging. First Antz attacks with incredibly sharp wit, and a great plot line, not to mention a few jokes which are decidedly more adult than your standard Disney fare. A Bug's Life strikes back, hitting with a joke, and a joke, and ANOTHER JOKE! Antz staggers for a moment, but is nowhere near faltering. The PDI team retaliates with a beautiful facial animation system, and a DVD featurette that explains it. Ohhhh...that's hitting Disney where it hurts...in the special features. Disney strikes back, by adding the animated short Geri's Game, oh and a reframing of the pan & scan version so the viewer doesn't miss anything. And just when you think they're done, oh...a 2.35:1 widescreen version on the same side of the disc! It looks like Antz may be down for the count...but no...wait...they've got a couple of more punches. They don't have that fancy pan & scan, but they do have a 1.85:1 transfer of the film, and a secret weapon...it's enhanced for 16x9 televisions! Oh...A Bug's Life staggers, and hits back with both sets of end credit bloopers for the film, plus a bunch more jokes! Antz stumbles and nearly falls, then hits back with a staggering series of blows. Oof! Animated menus! Baf! Audio commentary. Slam! Production featurette. BOOM! Character design featurette! Original theatrical and television trailers! Oh...it's a one two three for five punch, and it looks like Disney is out for the count! Disney has one last secret weapon, though...an amazing looking digital to digital transfer unlike anything you've ever seen on your TV! Ohhh...and it's been a bloody brawl, and the clear winner is...a draw. End Announcer Voice Buy both discs. There's no other solution. Ken Pierce dvdken@home.com Contributing Editor, www.dvdfuture.com |
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