The Ant Bully Movie Review
This Las Vegas set movie takes a close look at what starts off as the not-so-interesting life of 10 year old Lucus Nickle (Zack Tyler Eisen), otherwise known as “Peanut”. As many preteens often do, Lucus undergoes a series of family and social situations. As his life takes drastic turns, he is forced to learn important lessons on life, friendship, and moral values. This family film is sure to have children and parents questioning the daily encounters they go through with nature and animals, and from the movie title, you can just about guess that the primary focus is the treatment of ants. Not far from the above mentioned films, The Ant Bully’s characters will have you at the edge of your chair and grabbing your stomach in laughter, even if you have advanced above the PG audience. With voice overs by Julia Roberts (Hova), Nicolas Cage (Zoc), Meryl Streep (The Ant Queen) and Regina King (Keela), even if you have surpassed PG movies, you can’t help but become interested in being entertained by some of our all time favorite Hollywood greats (I hope that shows no indication to my real age). Even with all of the great character voices, my 7 year old son, who had the chance to attend the premiere with me, still cannot stop talking about obvious audience favorite “Mommo” (Lily Tomlin), Lucus’ hip, denture-loosing, alien fighting grandma, whose quirky actions and quick wits make Mommo an easy character to remember and love. Whether you opt to side with my little movie lover and make Mommo your favorite, or whether you opt to find comfort in one of the other characters, this movie certainly leaves enough room for every viewer to learn a valuable lesson from somebody.
What’s really reputable about this film is that again, it’s based off an actual children’s story. At the premiere, director/producer, John Davis, who also happens to be the creator of Jimmy Neutron, excitedly admits that it was a difficult feat transforming a small picture book into a major big screen film; it actually took him and his team of co-producers including Tom Hanks, four years to make the film. Davis claims that it was actually Hanks that sent him a copy of the book, and things started to fall in place from there. Obviously, countless hours and bundles of hard work went into the production of this film, and by the wide range of bright colors and intricate details put into making the characters, it’s also safe to say that creativity was also a main focus when transferring this book from library shelves to cinema big screens. Being an educator, it’s clear and easy to see why Tom Hanks felt this story would be perfect for the big screen; the themes and lessons taught in this film make it a great resource for parents and teachers to use at home and in the classroom, making going to see The Ant Bully not only a great excuse for a family field trip to the movie theater, but also leaves plenty of opportunities for school field trips and classroom lessons.
Being a vivid movie lover makes it easy to relate new films to certain films of the past, and we can do just that with this film; after about 30 minutes into the film, I could tell that I was watching a modern day, animated Honey I Shrunk the Kids, without the obvious, yet annoying sci-fi theme and semi-predictable plot. Even with the close relevance between the two films, there’s a clear distinction between them; one of the two is an educational resource that can be supplemental to teachers, parents, environmentalists, and nay other lover of nature.
With all of this film’s humor, life lessons, and pleasant sensations to the eye, The Ant Bully definitely deserves an A. With such a progressive plot, it would be a true disservice to viewers if all parts of the film did not reflect such progression; from the expert characterization, to the use of current hip slang like when Lucus asks a family member, “Why you gotta be hatin’?” all viewers leave with feeling connected, and with excellent reasons why no matter what we do, we should always be kind to ants.
