The Ant Bully: Movie, DVD, HD DVD, Blu-ray Review (2006)

(Originally published 2006)

The computer-animated movie, "The Ant Bully," knows a few things about bullies, most of which we already know--all of which bear repeating.

For instance, the movie understands that for the most part, the average bully is a weak little miscreant whose fists and tough talk, when pressed into action by real intimidation, pack the punch of a feather. It also knows that not all bullies are created equally and that some just need a little nudge to lift them to the higher level of human existence they resist. That can take some doing, though the work generally is worth it, even if the methods for promoting change can be somewhat extreme.

Take, for example, young Lucas (voice of Zach Tyler Eisen), a hapless, 10-year-old boy so relentlessly bullied by a menacing group of neighborhood brats, that he becomes something a bully himself.

It isn’t just his family that feels the redirected weight of his rage and humiliation, but also the little ant colony nesting in his front yard. With zeal, Lucas attacks it with crushing streams of water, creating such havoc inside the colony that the ant wizard Zok (Nicolas Cage) decides what Lucas needs is a taste of his own medicine.

With the help of his ant girlfriend, Hova (Julia Roberts), Zok devises a potion that when spilled into Lucas’ ear, will cause him to shrink to the size of an ant. Only then, when Lucas is brought down to size, can Zok and the rest of the colony truly have their way with him, though not in ways that you might expect.

The movie, which writer-director John A. Davis based on John Nickle's book, brings in the Queen (Meryl Streep), a towering, serene presence who looks and speaks as if she just stepped off the utopian mother ship. What she demands for Lucas is a stretch of time living among ants. Maybe then, if he's forced to walk in their shoes (all six of them), he will come to appreciate all that he wanted to destroy.

When it comes to messages, this movie has its share of them--teamwork, understanding and tolerance all are underscored. For some, those messages might seem overdone, but these days, with a certain Hollywood star joining Hezbollah in headlining the news, an argument could be made that they can't be done enough.

The film's animation is particularly strong, though not in ways that overwhelm the story or the characters, which is typically how these computer-animated movies go. Several scenes are standouts, such as a gentle flight across a living room “meadow” with flower petals used as hang gliders, a war with wasps that recalls one of the battle scenes in "Star Wars: Episode III," and a very creepy fight with an exterminator (Paul Giamatti) that will leave some scratching their heads for all the wrong reasons.

Grade: B+