The Ant Bully (2006)

Rating:

A genre only Disney seemed to have an interest in years back now seems to be a bee in everyone else’s bonnet as well. A report says 30-40% of the films released and to be released this year will be family-oriented. In effect, you’ll see more kids disturbing your watching on weekends. This year’s nth movie of this genre and the nth movie as well released with a technique Pixar pioneered, The Ant Bully is another movie you’ll be watching together with kids you don’t know bursting in laughter here and there even on scenes that don’t seem funny at all. Well, for movies like this, they’re the target market after all.

The shortest full-length animation this year with just 90mins running time, The Ant Bully is just another cartoon movie with not much inventiveness to offer. The ants you see in this film call to mind Antz (1998), to which some of them might have starred in already. You see, they just look alike. The theme is close to that of Over The Hedge’s (2006) with a similar setting and coincidentally, a similar villainous exterminator. As it’s based on a children’s book by John Nickle which I haven’t read, we can only speculate how much of the idea was original. Well, you be the judge.

The movie tells the story of Lucas, a bullied geeky youngster. His bully is bigger than he is so in turn he can’t retaliate. He turns his frustration on creatures smaller than him—ants—causing a big disorder in their colony. The Ant Wizard Zoc (voiced by Cage) in the meantime comes up with a potion to make Lucas shrink to their size so they could eat him. A terrible flood in the colony pushes Zoc to continue on with his plans. Lucas is now brought to the ant tribunal for his trial. The wise Ant Queen decides to make Lucas live with the ants and become an ant himself. Hova (voiced by Roberts) volunteers to oversee Lucas. This marks Lucas living the life of an ant and eventually thinking the way ants do.

Its storyline and script still inferior to that of any Pixar (still to beat) movies, the movie boasts on a message that attempts to preach the whole world touching on Karl Marx's ideas criticizing conformity, selfishness and pushing on teamwork without neglecting individualism and specialization. It also poses a political message. The Head of the Ant Council laments: "To attack without provocation, without reason, because they can—it's barbaric."

Gone are the days when voice talents audition for the role. Now we have roles appointed to the stellar voice talents. At least for productions outside Pixar. As a result, not so compelling voices deliver the lines. Take the case of Nicholas Cage taking on Zoc and that of Julia Roberts’ taking on Hova. They were dreary and at times, bland. The majestically dull delivery of lines of Meryl Streep as The Queen could be easily done by just anyone her age (almost). Anyway, they weren’t really paid for their voices, but more for their names. Nevertheless, the casting agent actually scored big in choosing Bruce Campbell to voice Fugax, a haughty hunter ant. In him is where the movie really comes to life. By far only Pixar and old school Disney are best at casting who (not Who) as who.

Not to be denied though, animation was top-notch being crisp, visually fascinating and engaging. It sure wasn’t cheap. But this does little in making this movie really memorable and moving it out of the norm of "Just Another Cartoon Movie.

© 2006 Jonathan Susvilla