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Friday, July 28, 2006
'Ant Bully' shows kids life isn't always a picnic
It has been a good summer for animated movies. Following the success of "Cars" and "Monster House" comes "The Ant Bully," a high concept picture with imagination, a solid sense of storytelling and a fantasy world spun from a reality only too familiar to kids.
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View all photosPipsqueak elementary school kid Lucas (voiced by Zach Tyler Eisen) is bullied by the bigger kids and takes it out on the only things more helpless than he is: the ants in his yard. Of course, in this world the ants are hardly as helpless as they look.
In the film's twist of poetic justice, Lloyd is shrunk to the size of a crumb by the colony's wizard (Nicolas Cage), carried away for trial and sentenced to live with the ants ... but not before signing a contract with an insect exterminator (Paul Giamatti) who does his job with the glee of a sadistic little boy.
Julia Roberts voices Hova, the only ant willing to teach the boy the bug's life and, along the way, some empathy, and her voice centers the film with a mothering presence to counter Lucas' defiance.
Director John Davis previously created and directed the "Jimmy Neutron" film and TV series, and he brings the same kid-savvy smart-aleck humor (the ant kingdom provides a wealth of material for poop jokes with an entomological angle) to this story.
He's also not afraid to cast a shadow over it. At an age when humiliation can become blind aggression in a heartbeat, Lucas' malevolence resonates with vulnerability and frustration, and his battered self-esteem and emotional isolation gives his odyssey a dimension kids can relate to.
Even without Lucas playing Godzilla to the ant hill's Tokyo, there are predatory wasps, clouds of insecticide and other genuinely scary perils, all brought to life with dynamic designs and direction.
It may be too intense at times for wee ones, but kids of 5 and up testing the limits of their independence in the big world should relate to Lucas, dig the crazy insect world and embrace the imagination behind the colorful adventure.
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