The Ant Bully (2006)
Directed by John A Davis
Written by John A, Davis
Starring Zach Tyler Eisen, Julia Roberts, Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep, Regina King, Bruce Campbell
Release Date July 28th, 2006
Published July 29th, 2006
Is Hollywood killing the golden goose? A recent explosion in computer generated cartoons threatens to saturate the market for a genre that came to prominence based on its lovely uniqueness. In the summer of 2006 we have already seen Over The Hedge, Cars and Monster House and soon Barnyard will open. In the midst of all of this frenzy of computer animation comes The Ant Bully, a forgettable but lovingly rendered kiddie flick from the creative minds behind Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius.
Adapted from a book by John Nickle, The Ant Bully delivers perfunctory kids movie messages about friendship, family and working together in a terrifically crafted computer animated universe.
Nine year old Lucas Nickle (Zack Tyler) has been the target of neighborhood bullies for years. His only solace from the constant humiliation is taking his frustrations out on the ant hills in his yard. Little does young Lucas realize that he is not just bullying ants but nearly destroying a very real society of families and friends. With each squirt of Lucas's hose or stomp of his foot years of progress for the large in number but small in stature ant colony is lost.
While the leaders of the ant colony debate how to react to Lucas, whether to pick up and move away from the hill or find some way to retaliate, the ant wizard Zoc (Nicolas Cage) has a plan of his own. Zoc has developed a potion that will shrink Lucas, known to the ants as 'The Destroyer', to ant size. The potion works and Lucas is taken prisoner and put on trial.
Sentenced by the ant queen (Meryl Streep), Lucas is given the opportunity to prove himself. Rather than the ants eating him, Lucas will become part of the colony and if he can work together with the ants and find his place in the colony he will be returned to his family. Aiding Lucas will be Nurse Ant Hova (Julia Roberts) who volunteers to mentor Lucas over the objections of Zoc, her boyfriend.
Obviously from my plot description there is very little suspense in The Ant Bully. If you don't know the valuable lessons about friendship, teamwork and family that Lucas will learn then you have never seen a kids movie before. The story of The Ant Bully, adapted by director John A. Davis from the book by John Nickle, is neither original nor all that humorous. It works because it is comforting, familiar and the animation is absolutely gorgeous.
Because John Nickle's book is a slight 32 pages much had to be added and those additions include a nasty bug exterminator voiced by Paul Giamatti. The exterminator character leads to the film's climax, a bug war with the exterminator that is a visual marvel if only a story convenience. The war with the exterminator as well as ants angst over how to deal with Lucas, leads to an interesting, if not well explored, idea of the doctrine of The Ant Bully.
John A. Davis considers for a moment an idea of an anti-war movement amongst the ants. Many ants oppose confronting Lucas in a war-like fashion. Later when threatened by the exterminator there is talk of whether striking the exterminator before he strikes the ants is a proper course of action. A cartoon debating the ethics of first strike capability, even as briefly and simplistically as The Ant Bully does, is rather ambitious for such a little movie.
The animation of The Ant Bully is some of the best non-pixar computer animation I have ever seen. John A. Davis, whose previous effort was the imaginatively unattractive Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius, here crafts lovely, lush visual landscapes. The characters are candy colored browns, greens and fleshtones that really pop right off the screen. The action is animated so spectacularly that you nearly forget how unnecessary these scenes are.
The voice cast lead by Nicolas Cage and Julia Roberts is first rate. Cage strikes just the right balance of strength and vulnerability in his vocalization. Roberts, honey voiced and beatific, communicates motherly wisdom and a sensuousness that really draws you to the character of Hova. Bruce Campbell as Fugax does most of the film's comic heavy lifting with his tough guy bravura often punctured by pratfalling cluelessness. Finally, Regina King as Kreela is as always the queen of smart sass.
A better, funnier, more innovative plot could have turned The Ant Bully from a typical kids flick into something worthy of the Pixar canon. As it is I can still comfortably recommend The Ant Bully because of it's artistry and good intentions. John A. Davis has a bright future ahead of him in computer animation if he can in the future combine the gorgeous visuals of The Ant Bully with telling a real good story.
