On paper, The Ant Bully couldn't lose. DNA Production Inc. (Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius) was a CG animation outfit capable of challenging the mighty Pixar. Add the acumen of movie star/producer Tom Hanks (The Polar Express). Now throw in an all-star cast list that includes Julia Roberts, Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep, Paul Giamatti and Bruce Campbell: marquee names one and all. So what happened?
Somebody forgot to bring in a story, or a focus. The Ant Bully is a confused mess, that takes John Nickle's best-selling children's story and then hides it under the couch.
The plot: when little Lucas Nickle (Zach Tyler Eisen) finds himself the target of the neighborhood bully, he takes his frustrations out on the ant colony in his front yard. However, ant wizard Zoc (Cage) takes revenge by shrinking Lucas to ant-size, and forcing him to work as a become an ant, which apparently means becoming some proto-Marxist with a "everyone happily labours for the good of all" attitude. Important life lessons and gross-out jokes ensue.
Ants in CG animation have been done before, most notably in Pixar's A Bug's Life and Dreamworks' Antz, both released 8 years ago. Given that the big boys of CG have done ants before, you'd think The Ant Bully would have generated a great story to stand out from the pack, right? Right?
Nope. This script looks like it was put together by a focus group. Cute creatures that might sell toys? Check. Plenty of bathroom humour and crotch gags? Yup. Important life lessons to reassure the parents? Got 'em.
An animator on The Ant Bully admitted that the script underwent major revisions right until the last minute, and it shows. There are serious stitch lines in the plot, and characters suddenly change their behaviour when the script calls for it. Forget motivation and complex character: everyone is there to get the story from point A to B, no matter how divorced from reality their actions become.
Yes, The Ant Bully has an incredible cast, but they have nothing to work with. Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin, possibly the greatest actress and comedienne of their generation, are wasted in one-note roles. And Paul Giamatti's turn as Stan Beals, the propietor of Beals-a-Bug (ha-ha) Exterminators, is downright embarrassing. Even his entrance into the movie is implausible.
How about the animation? In a word, phenomenal. DNA Productions, before their massive lay-offs, were a worthy challenger to Pixar with their mastery of CG animation. The detail of the backgrounds and characters are little short of breathtaking. But pretty visuals can't help a movie if the story isn't there, and it's this which sinks The Ant Bully.
This movie is nowhere near making back its $60 million investment, and it's not hard to see why. This is a beautifully-animated waste of everyone's time. It's a crying shame that such potential is squandered on such a weak, unfocused script. It's mostly the beautiful CG work that lets me give The Ant Bully a 4/10.
Trailers with The Ant Bully include The Santa Clause 3, How to Eat Fried Worms, Charlotte's Web, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Happy Feet.
