By Stacey Duke
Z-4195 (Woody Allen) is a misfit worker ant who dreams of escaping his rather boring destiny. He is undergoing therapy because he wishes to be an individual in a society where conformity is mandatory.
DreamWorks Antz combines adult humor with important leadership lessons. Hollywood’s stars lend their voices to developing the personalities of these human-like ants.
In spite of the ant caste society, Z sets his sights on the beautiful, but spoiled Princess Bala (Sharon Stone). Bala, the daughter of the colony’s queen, feels that a relationship with a lowly worker ant is beneath her, due to her high station in life.
In order to impress Bala, Z switches places with his soldier-ant friend Weaver (Sylvester Stallone). Instead of getting closer to Bala, Z ends up being shipped off to fight in a war against a neighboring termite colony. During the war, Z stumbles across a plot by the evil General Mandible (Gene Hackman) to kill the queen and take over leadership of the colony himself. Z finds himself leading a revolution that celebrates individuality rather than conformity.
The changes in Z’s life compare to the issues addressed in the article, “Dealing with Resistance to Change,” by Joseph Stanislao and Bettie C. Stanislao from Unit 8 of Phi Theta Kappa Leadership Development Studies. In this article, the authors point out that fear of the unknown, loss of security and peer pressure are among the factors that cause people to avoid change.
In the movie, Z deals with the peer pressure to conform to the caste society of the ant colony where he is simply a worker drone. He is expected to accept his assigned station in life without question. But Z is not happy with his predictable life in the ant colony. He wants a change. As the Stanislaos point out, many work groups will resist new ideas even when the individual workers may not feel as strongly against the idea as their group actions suggest. Being accepted by the group may motivate the worker to participate in the resistance to change.
Z also must face the challenges of dealing with loss of security, loss of his known lifestyle and criticism for wanting to rise above his worker ant status. He is thrust into a leadership role that he was not prepared to handle. At first, when the going gets tough, Z runs and hides rather than face conflict.
Nancy K. Schlossberg’s leadership article, “Taking the Mystery Out of Change,” can also be applied to this movie. Schlossberg points out that “the transitions in our lives are those events or nonevents that alter our roles, relationships, routines and assumption.” Z sees his role and his relationships in his ant society change when he pretends to be a soldier-ant and when he experiences the transition from follower to leader.
As Schlossberg recommends, Z attempts to use his resources to bring about change. He relies heavily on the support of his friends and must deal with his own lack of self-confidence. His creative strategies for coping with the situations he encounters are sometimes humorous, but lead to success in the end.
The battle for control in the movie comes in a series of confrontations between right and wrong. The conflicts of individualism vs. repression, democracy vs. dictatorship and courage vs. cowardice elevate Z from common drone to unlikely hero.
This review appeared in an issue of The Leader.
