The Ant Bully

Voices of: Julia Roberts, Nicholas Cage, Meryl Streep, Paul Giamatti, Zach Taylor, Regina King, Bruce Campbell, Lily Tomlin, Ricardo Montalban
Directed by: John A. Davis
Rating: PG
Genre: Animation, Family
2006

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A young boy (Zach Taylor) being bullied takes his pain out on a small ant colony in his front yard. This all changes when an ant wizard (Nicholas Cage) shrinks him down to their size. The ant queen (Meryl Streep) puts the bully in the care of a caring ant (Julia Roberts) to help him realize the error of his ways.

Review:

Tim: In recent years, so many animated films has seemed to have the formula down for greatness. To be fair, most of these are Pixar movies. However, it almost got to the point where Pixar made it look easy- that any animated movie, with a good voice cast, would be an instant success. The Any Bully shows us once again that making a great movie is not as easy as it looks. Now, this is not a bad movie- it is actually fairly decent. However, it is a far cry from films like Finding Nemo, Toy Story, or Shrek. Despite their best efforts, this film is fairly forgettable.

I like the idea of a human being shrunk down to miniature size. I loved the idea in Honey I Shrunk the Kids, and nearly 20 years later, I still like the idea here. I also have no problems with the moral of the story- it is not right to bully anyone, especially if they are smaller than you. Films that help people to walk a mile in someone else's shoes are always good in my book. I even like most of the animation- some of the scenes are gorgeous to watch. What I don't like about this movie is that it is simply not a great film. The writing is very often weak, the characters are boring and forgettable, and there are very few genuinely funny moments. This is a decent but certainly not a good movie.

The impressive voice cast is almost completely wasted. Nicholas Cage is an odd choice to do voice work, but he does a decent job. The problem is that his character is ridiculous and unmemorable. I forgot who he was halfway through the movie. Julia Roberts, likewise, does decent voice work, but her character is bland and doesn't stand out in the least. This is a major problem for the film. I love that Meryl Streep did work for this film, but she is in the movie for about 3 minutes, so she is completely wasted. Paul Giamatti might do the best voice work, but his character is just so over-the-top that he ends up being ineffective.

The biggest problem with this movie is that the story just isn't compelling. It simply doesn't work on so many levels. It will entertain audiences, but only in the most simplistic, basic way. It makes you want just so much more from the film. Too much of the movie is beyond belief (I'm overlooking the obviously ridiculous entire premise of the movie), which just hurts the film. The Ant Bully has a good message, so I am appreciative of that. However, this is an amateurish, forgettable little movie that shows us the disparity between animated films coming out of Hollywood today.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Antz, A Bug's Life, Shrek, Finding Nemo, Honey I Shrunk the Kids, Cars, Toy Story, Toy Story 2