The Ant Bully (2006)

Director:

John A. Davis

Writers:

John A. Davis (writer)
John Nickle (book)

Release Date:

28 July 2006 (USA)

Genre:

Animation | Adventure | Comedy | Family | Fantasy

Tagline:

The battle for the lawn is on.

Plot:

After Lucas Nickle floods an ant colony with his watergun, he's magically shrunken down to insect size and sentenced to hard labor in the ruins.

Plot Keywords:

Miniaturization | Ants | Shrinking | Kids And Family

Awards:

1 win & 3 nominations

US TV Schedule:

Thur. Aug. 28

10:00 AM

TOON

US Showtimes:

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Cast

Julia Roberts	...	Hova (voice)
Nicolas Cage	...	Zoc (voice)
Meryl Streep	...	Queen (voice)
Paul Giamatti	...	Stan Beals (voice)
Zach Tyler	...	Lucas Nickle (voice) (as Zach Tyler Eisen)
Regina King	...	Kreela (voice)
Bruce Campbell	...	Fugax (voice)
Lily Tomlin	...	Mommo (voice)
Cheri Oteri	...	Doreen Nickle (voice)
Larry Miller	...	Fred Nickle (voice)
Allison Mack	...	Tiffany Nickle (voice)
Ricardo Montalban	...	Head of Council (voice)
Creagen Dow	...	Mullet Boy (voice)
Myles Jeffrey	...	Steve (voice)
Jake T. Austin	...	Nicky (voice)

Runtime:

88 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Sonics-DDP (IMAX version) | Dolby Digital | SDDS | DTS

Certification:

UK:U | Canada:G (all jurisdictions) | Netherlands:MG6 | Brazil:Livre | Australia:G | Malaysia:U | Denmark:7 | Philippines:G | Hong Kong:I | Sweden:7 | New Zealand:G | France:U | Ireland:G | Switzerland:7 (canton of Vaud) | South Korea:All | Finland:K-7 | USA:PG (certificate #42829) | South Africa:PG | Argentina:Atp | Portugal:M/4 | Norway:A | Switzerland:7 (canton of Geneva) | Singapore:PG

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

The eerie insect noise heard when Zoc and the other ants first enter Lucas' house (to shrink and kidnap him) is the same eerie insect noise heard in "Them!" (1954), when the giant ants are shown on screen.

Quotes:

Queen Ant: [plans have been made for Lucas] It is done. Let us continue our work.
Lucas Nickle: That's it? How long am I gonna be like this? I want to go home! Wait! It's inhuman!
Head of Council: Yes. It is.

Movie Connections:

References Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)

Soundtrack:

The Ants Go Marching

A generic entry for the genre

Lucas Nickle (Zach Tyler) is a nerdy outcast, who is always killing bugs, but when he floods out an ant colony, the ants use a magic potion to shrink "The Destroyer" down to their own size in order to enact punishment by putting Lucas to hard labor.

The Ant Bully is a forgettable animated film. It offers generic animation, okay voice work and a decent moral. It's a film you can talk maybe a minute about with a kid and that's it. 2006 produced so many animated movies and most of them were made for quick profits rather than real entertainment value. In a way, I'm glad The Ant Bully bombed because it didn't deserve to gross over $100 million. It should have gone direct to video with a more experience cast. At the same time, it's so harmless that I couldn't really give it a low rating since the quality of the film doesn't offend me just the reason why it was made.

The story is rather bland just like the book and the whole "ants" thing has been done before. At least the film does a decent job with it's moral by showing why bullying is bad. There were a few preachy scenes but nothing too bad. The animation looked good yet at the same time it was pretty ordinary. I understand all the hard work it takes to make a movie like this but maybe they should also come up with a good story so it's not a bland film.

The above average cast kind of saves the film. For kids, they probably wouldn't care abut the cast unless it's Robin Williams or something. For me though, Julia Roberts was surprisingly funny. This isn't her usual territory yet she still did a good job. Nicolas Cage was just annoying to no end. His neurotic character got old fast and I hope he doesn't do voice work ever again. Meryl Streep had only a few scenes and she was nothing special. Regina King was just playing an annoying stereotype but she did have a few good lines. Paul Giamatti was just bland while Bruce Campbell was hilarious and he did the best job out of everyone. Overall, The Ant Bully may serve as a rental for children but everyone else would be better off by skipping it. Rating 5/10