The Ant Bully (2006)

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

hyped garbage

good back-story, and good acting

Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

Lucas is a rather nerdy boy with no friends. He's often bullied by his peers, including an overweight guy who won't stop giving him "atomic wedgies", and Lucas spends much of his time inside playing videogames. He vents his distress by destroying the huge anthill on his front lawn, and unknown to him the ants living there have abilities beyond human comprehension, using elements of the earth to finally get revenge on him. While he, his bimbo sister and conspiracy nut grandma are asleep, the ants shrink Lucas down and take him to the anthill where he has to learn to live in the colony and witness what his destruction has done. When he recalls hiring an exterminator to kill the ants, they all band together to prevent a mass murder of the whole colony.Ant Bully is pretty good as far as animation and plot originality goes, I'm honestly surprised it doesn't have a higher rating. Yeah it's got crude humor and some dorky moments, but come on, there are far worse animated programs out there, like Family Guy, now that's a disgusting program and I hate Family Guy! To appreciate what this film is getting at, which is that two wrongs don't make a right, you have to watch it with an open mind and ignore the annoying crude humor to see the true motives behind it. And oh, the pesticide clouds towards the end, that was wonderful, so much pollution, pollution is so wonderful... the soundtrack was kind of lame and unmemorable, but seeing Meryl Streep, who played the nuclear plant worker in the 1983 movie Silkwood, doing the voice of the queen ant, was pretty cool. Overall the voice acting wasn't bad, and the ending, when Lucas finally stands up to the bully, was pretty cool. Not a bad movie at all, you just have to see past the kind of dopey kid's stuff in it.

Lucas Nickle is a nerdy friendless kid bullied by the other kids. He takes out his frustration on the tiny ants. His parents go on a holiday leaving him with his older sister and grandma. Zoc (Nicolas Cage) is an ant wizard who accidentally creates a shrinking potion. Annoying exterminator Stan Beals (Paul Giamatti) tricks Lucas into signing a contract. Zoc puts a drop of the potion into Lucas' ear, and he's shrunk down to ant size. The ants take Lucas prisoner to face charges against the colony. The Queen sentences Lucas to learn the ways of the ant. Hova (Julia Roberts) volunteers to teach the braty kid.I really didn't like this brat. If you want something good, watch 'Honey, I Shrunk the Kids'. This has none of the charm nor likability. The animation is understandably cartoonish. This is strictly a little kiddie movie which is almost unwatchable for adults.

When I saw the movie coming up way back in 2006, I was excited to see it. Four years later, I now have.I'm very impressed by the realism that it has. I like the message they give.I know it was probably a children's movie, but I still feel that it was pushing it a bit. First, the stereotypical characters were a bit extreme. I mean, just look at the mom! And I never did crack up that much at all. Maybe once. I know, I know, you're 17, it won't be funny. Well the adult jokes weren't either. In fact, I wondered why they has made such a big deal when referring to the jokes.But all in all it was okay. I still think Bugs Life is way better, but it's not as bad as Antz was.

This would have been awesome in IMAX 3D. The movie as it stands is okay. The story of a picked on kid who picks on ants and then is shrunk down and forced to live among the ants has some great sequences, but also too many dead spots. Its as if the filmmakers had some good ideas but couldn't tie them together properly or that they simply couldn't sustain the momentum. It reminded me in ways of other better movies- and even Arthur and the Minimoys. Not bad but not worth taking the effort to track down a copy so you can sit down and watch.Wait to catch it in pieces on cable. 5 out of 10