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Reviews

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POSTER ART
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FILM DETAILS
Certificate
tbc
Cast
Julia Roberts
Nicolas Cage
Meryl Streep
Zach Tyler
Lily Tomlin.
Directors
John A Davis.
Screenwriters
John A Davis.
Running Time
87 minutes

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The Ant Bully
Yet another ant animation, but this will appeal to the littluns

Plot
Lucas (Tyler) is fed up with being picked on for being small. So he kills the only thing smaller than him: ants. None too pleased about this, a magically powered ant shrinks him down to their size to spend some time in their tiny shoes, teaching him to think before he stamps.

Review
The Ant Bully

The general rule with computer animation is to show audiences something they’ve never seen before, a glorious world that new technology has only made possible within about the last eight minutes. It’s unusual, then, that someone should choose to set a film in the world of ants, who have already been done great service by Antz and A Bug’s Life.

In Bully’s defence, it does give a better visual look at this world — the textures and lighting are gorgeous and there’s a terrific Starship Troopers quality to some of the insect battles. But storywise and laughwise it suffers by comparison to its forebears, and never really manages to nail down its characters’ functions.

The role of villain shifts between bratty nerd Lucas (insufferable for the first 40 minutes), magician ant Zoc (Cage, OTT even in animated form) and Paul Giamatti’s sleazy exterminator, making it difficult to settle into the story or actually root for anyone. Even with a running time under 90 minutes, there are moments that will drag for anyone over the age of nine.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with revisiting ground covered by other films, but there needs to be something fresh, and compared to previous bug-centric ’toons, The Ant Bully is small fry.

Verdict
As kiddie entertainment it works well, with simple humour and lots of action. But there’s not a lot to appeal to any accompanying adults.

Reviewed by Olly Richards

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Your Reviews
Average user rating for The Ant Bully

Ant Bully

Okay not great. Serviceable animated movie. ... More
Posted by lynnshep at 04:43, 22 July 2008 | Report This Post
Ant Bully

Okay not great. Serviceable animated movie. ... More
Posted by lynnshep at 04:43, 22 July 2008 | Report This Post
RE: disagree

EDIT double post ... More
Posted by Orbital at 14:19, 29 April 2007 | Report This Post
disagree

edit ... More
Posted by Orbital at 14:18, 29 April 2007 | Report This Post

this was a good movie ... More
Posted by Orbital at 14:17, 29 April 2007 | Report This Post

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The Ant BullyYet another ant animation, but this will appeal to the littluns

The Ant Bully
Yet another ant animation, but this will appeal to the littluns