The ants live in or around the city of New York, New York, as seen in the beginning and end of the movie.

The story, revolving around an ant called Zee (Woody Allen), is about a loser who falls in love with a princess, becomes a soldier (or at least, gets swept up in a battle), an outlaw and finally saves the ant colony from destruction.

Its cinematic release was somewhat overshadowed by Disney's A Bug's Life, which was also a computer animated film based on the adventures of a misfit ant who falls for the princess of the colony. The movie is not as child-centric as A Bug's Life - for example, in this film, the ants are a muted orange brown rather than bright blue, and the world is simarly less vividly colored.