Title: The Ant Bully (2006)Starring: Zach Tyler, Nicolas Cage, Julia Roberts
Directed By: John A. Davis
As a superdork, I make it a point to watch most animated projects. There's just something about them that's always appealing to me. The problem with that though, is that I've pretty much seen it all. Been there, done that. And that's the feeling I had while watching this movie.
Sure, there were impressive enough visuals; and it has a stellar cast (especially considering it's a non-Pixar and non-Dreamworks CG film). But the whole time, I couldn't help but think how predictable and dated the whole idea felt. Smaller kid gets picked on by bigger kid. Smaller kid takes out his frustration on ants. Ants make smaller kid even smaller and teach the kid to be an ant. Ants get attacked by exterminator (which is of course all the kid's fault). Ants fight back with kid's help. Happy ending. If you feel that this was too spoiler heavy, I emplore you to look at the above image. How is it NOT about that? You see the entire plot in 1 picture!
Honestly though, you're not seeing this movie for the plot. You're seeing it either because you have kids and they wanna see it, or because you like cartoons too. Kids probably really like this movie. It's got lots of bright colors and funny parts and there's a lesson to be learned (what else is new?). As for us grownups though, there just really isn't much to this movie. The humor? The Story? The visuals? Everything is just par. Even for a movie released in '06, it was par.
The ONE thing that this movie can really boast about is its cast. And as an adult, you'll be just as entertained by whose voice pops up next and in which character, as the kids are with the movie itself. You'll hear Paul Giamatti hamming it up as the sleazy exterminator, Bruce Campbell as an over-confident ant, Cheri Oteri & Larry Miller as the kid's distracted parents, and you'll hear other familiar voices from Meryl Streep, Lily Tomlin, Ricardo Montalban, Regina King, Allison Mack and Nicole Sullivan; and even seasoned voice actors Rob Paulsen, Frank Welker, Paul Rugg and Tress MacNeille. That was the the only fun I really had with this picture! Listening to the next voice and saying to myself, "okay now who was that?"
A completely forgettable 90 minute distraction, with a nice list of names attached.
Score: 5/10
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