Exterminators of the world should beware. “The Ant Bully,” a new family-oriented computer-animated film directed by John A. Davis (who also directed “Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius”) and co-produced by Tom Hanks, will likely have many children worldwide demonizing bug killers everywhere.
“The Ant Bully’s” premise is simple and straightforward. Ten-year-old Lucas Nickle (voiced by Zach Tyler Eisen) can’t get a break. He is the small new kid in the neighborhood picked on by menacing bullies.
To vent his diminutive frustrations, he boosts his own self-esteem by destroying the ant hills in his front yard because it is one activity where he is indeed bigger than the rest. Little does he know, however, that his actions have serious consequences for the tiny world of the ant colony.
A mini ant-like Gandalf the Wizard named Wizard Ant Zoc (voiced by Nicolas Cage) places a drop of a magic shrinking potion in Lucas’ ear while he is sleeping that causes him to become as small as the ants he picked on. The rest of the story is Lucas and the ants learning about the larger world around them and ultimately defeating a demonized exterminator voiced by Paul Giamatti.
The computer animation of “Ant Bully” is amazing. Ever since the release of Pixar’s revolutionary “Toy Story” in 1995, computer-animated movies have been getting better and better with regards to their visual creativity. “Ant Bully” is definitely a representation of the best of today. The insides of the ant colony and the long camera shots were impressive, especially when viewed in 3-D IMAX like what we at the Daily Forty-Niner viewed at the screening in the Howard Hughes Center.
Fans of “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids” (1989) will also get a kick out of this film. The two share the same premise of shrinking kids exploring larger worlds, even running across unfriendly insects.
This is a good movie to bring little brothers, cousins and other family members to see. Or, if you and your date are into ants, this could make an excellent light-hearted date outing.
This movie comes from a book of the same name and was written by John Nickle. Producer Hanks was reading Nickle’s book to his son when he realized it would make a good movie. The lesson of this story? If Tom Hanks reads your book, it may be made into a movie, so get writing!