5. A Bug's Life (1998) VS Antz (1998)
This particular debate has perplexed me for years, and if I am honest I am not entirely sure which film I consider to be the greatest. A Bug's Life in my opinion is Pixar's most underrated film, and probably the film most people forget was actually made by Pixar. For some reason Pixar never mentions the film when advertising its recent releases, although this is definitely one of my personal favorites. A Bug's Life is certainly more beautiful than Antz and definitely has the far superior animation... it probably also has a slightly better story but then again that story was basically a copy of The Magnificent Seven which itself is a copy of Seven Samurai. However, even though both films have pretty stunning voice actors on board, A Bug's Life doesn't have Woody Allen, and if a film has Woody Allen in it it is almost always better. Woody Allen is one of the funniest men working in film today, and the voice he lends to Dreamworks first animation film's central character Z gives him the edge over the very similar but just a little less likable Flik from a Bug's Life. Antz is probably also the more mature film out of the two, and is a film which only improves with age. Woody Allen's sarcastic and self pitying humor is perfectly on point in this movie and speaks more to the adults in the cinema than it does to the children. Whilst this isn't necessarily a criticism, A Bug's Life is the more childish film. I'd also argue, though both films have stunning and emotional moments, for example in A Bug's Life when Flik and the rest of the ants finally stand up to Hopper the evil grasshopper; I would say again that Antz probably just about edges out A Bug's Life on the emotional front. When Barbatus, Z's ant friend dies in battle this is a far more emotional moment than any singular moment in A Bug's Life. You may also be surprised to find out that critically speaking Antz just edges out A Bug's Life on Rotten Tomatoes, the former scoring a 95 percent approval rating and the latter scoring 3 points below with 92. Either way, at this point in both Pixar's and Dreamworks animation careers, both studios were on top form and with these particular films, I'd say they were just about level pegging. The only thing that really pushes Pixar in the lead at this point in 1998 was the massive success it had with it's first film Toy Story, and as Antz was Dreamworks first film, it was still really trying to prove itself and prove it could compete. Luckily the film proved that it could do just that.