ANTZ

HARRY GREGSON-WILLIAMS and JOHN POWELL

Rating:

Original Review: As the blackness of the Dreamworks logo fades away, Woody Allen can be heard entering one of his classic neurotic, self-loathing monologues in his typically nasal New York drawl. But... wait a minute... did he say he wanted to get in touch with his "inner maggot?" Did he say it was difficult being "the middle child in a family of fifteen million?" Welcome to the twisted but highly inventive world of Antz, the brilliant new computer-generated animated movie from Steven Spielberg's Dreamworks Pictures, and directors Eric Darnell and Tim Johnson. With a voice cast to die for (Woody Allen, Sylvester Stallone, Sharon Stone, Gene Hackman, Christopher Walken, Anne Bancroft, Jennifer Lopez, Dan Aykroyd, Jane Curtin, Danny Glover... need I go on?) and a knowing, highly intelligent script exploring such mature themes as the relative benefits of capitalism and Marxism with a bit of Jungian psychology thrown in, Antz is an unexpectedly enjoyable and challenging delight.

One of the best things about Antz is the fantastic score by Media Ventures duo Harry Gregson-Williams and John Powell, who shared scoring duties along with their collaborators Geoff Zanelli, Steve Jablonsky and Gavin Greenaway. One of the reasons I like this score so much is that it doesn't sound like a typical Media Ventures score (regular readers of MMUK will know what this means), and it comes as a really refreshing change to hear something as exciting and innovative as this coming out of Hans Zimmer's patented composer factory. There are so many highlights in Antz I hardly know where to begin. Every one of the 21 tracks on the album is absolutely exceptional but, for review purposes, I'll pick out my own personal favourites.

Three leitmotifs form the bulk of the album, and are presented in quickfire fashion in the first few cues. The first score track, 'Z's Theme', is a slightly melancholy but romantically lush string theme with backing from quiet harmonicas and assorted percussion effects, and is the emotional basis of the score. If there's a crescendo, you can bet your bottom dollar that Z's Theme will feature in it somewhere. 'General Mandible' has his own militaristic, slightly dangerous-sounding pan-pipe march (if you can imagine such a thing) a little reminiscent of Goldsmith's Patton, which later develops into an all-out celebration of gung-ho warfare in 'Mandible and Cutter Plot'. The attractive but rather brief theme for 'Princess Bala' is performed by slightly unsteady woodwinds, and captures both her insect beauty and her adventurous spirit. As well as having these three motifs weaving in and out of the score, at least another half dozen cues really stand out of the crowd and make an instant impression.

'The Colony' is utterly, utterly, stunning - probably my favourite single cue from any score this year. It's a wild, rocking mambo with a funky whistled melody and a vibrant orchestral backing which accompanies the stunning on-screen visuals of the camera swooping through and around the anthill, searching out all the nooks and crannies, accentuating the constantly busy, constantly moving daily life in the hill. '6:15 Time to Dance' underscores the wonderful scene of hundreds of ants all moving in time to the most uninspiringly flat rendition of Guantanamera you have ever heard, until it bursts into life when Z and the incognito Bala finally break ranks and perform a homage to all the classic movie dance scenes from Saturday Night Fever to Pulp Fiction, before it finally turns into a rapturous, joyous further rendition of the amazing Colony theme. 'The Antz Go Marching To War' begins with a clever reworking of the classic civil war song Johnny Comes Marching Home with highly amusing lyrics, before presenting a spectacular pastiche of Starship Troopers (both musically and visually) as the ant army face the might of the acid-spewing termite hordes. 'Weaver and Azteca Flirt' is a sensationally sleazy saxophone solo which captures the blossoming romance of the seductive worker and the strong but dim soldier who displays his physical prowess to his colleagues by wielding two shovels at once.

'The Death of Barbados' is a desolate, lonely, bitterly sad choral elegy for the slaughtered ant army, the impact of which is shattered in the cinema when the disembodied head of a heroic soldier looks up at a concerned Z and croaks "Tell me, how bad is it..." 'The Picnic Table' introduces the fabulous tango-inspired motif for two affected, lovestruck wasps (who, if memory serves, were called Bunty and Muffy), and there are three exciting action cues in 'The Magnifying Glass', 'The Big Shoe' (which is a particularly rousing rendition of Z's Theme, replete with powerful drum machines and horns) and the climactic 'Z to the Rescue'.

I could go on all day extolling the virtues of this score. I confidently predict that either this score or Goldsmith's Mulan will win the Musical/Comedy score award at the Oscars next year. From the previous form of Harry Gregson-Williams and John Powell, I would never in a million years have expected this score to have the impact on me that it has done. It's funny, it's exciting, it's romantic and, at times, it makes me wanna boogie! Undoubtedly, one of the scores of 1998.

Track Listing: Running Time: 52 minutes 37 seconds

Angel Records 7243-5-56792-2-2 (1998)

Music composed by Harry Gregson-Williams and John Powell. Conducted by Gavin Greenaway. Orchestrations by Bruce L. Fowler, Yvonne S. Moriarty, Steven Fowler, Walt Fowler, Elizabeth Finch, Ladd McIntosh, Jack Smalley and March Dichterow-Vaj. Additional music by Geoff Zanelli, Steve Jablonsky and Gavin Greenaway. Featured musical soloists Jonathan Snowden, Phil Todd, Brian Gulland, Oren Marshall, Skaila Kanga, Frank Ricotti, Chris Lawrence, Louis Jardim, Ian Thomas, Ryeland Allison and Bob Daspit. Special vocal performances by Nicole Tibbles, Janet Mooney, Kenny Andrews, Marcos D'Cruze and Michael Dmitri. Choir conducted by Rupert Gregson-Williams. Recorded and mixed by Nick Wollage and Alan Meyerson. Edited by Adam Smalley and Brian Richards. Mastered by Joe Gastwirt. Album produced by Hans Zimmer.

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These web pages were designed and maintained by Jonathan Broxton copyright 1998. All opinions and views expressed on these pages are my own and are in no way intended to reflect those of my employer, the Trent Institute for Health Services Research, or those of the University of Sheffield.