Tanya Batson-Savage, Freelance Writer

The Ant Bully is a reasonably enjoyable flick. Written and directed by John A. Davis, the movie is based on a book by John Nickle. It plods along at a good pace for the most part, but also experiences moments of great humour which might not last long, but shine brightly when they do happen.

The Ant Bully would be hard-pressed to separate itself from the average animated flick, as there is nothing specifically fantastic about it. It is lovely to look at, as the ants and wasps are very imaginatively created.

Stunningly witty

Unfortunately, The Ant Bully is not one of those animated flicks where the dialogue is so stunningly witty, the characters so memorable and the jokes ring in your head for days. As such, it does fall below par to its possible nearest rivals, Ants and A Bugs Life.

The Ant Bully is the story of Lucas (voiced by Zach Tyler), a young boy who seems to have begun to trod the path to psychopathdom. Picked on by a bully, he has learnt that when in doubt pick on someone or something else smaller than yourself. So he turns around and attempts to bully ants, relishing in his power to destroy them. Fortunately, he has not yet moved on to cats and dogs, so he can still be saved. Salvation comes when he is magically made the size of an ant and is forced to live with them and understand their ways.

Stuck in the grass, the ants lead reasonably exiting lives hunting sweet rocks, foraging, scouting, staving off attacks by wasps, avoiding being burnt by magnified sunlight, dodging hungry frogs and more. When he is forced to become one of them Lucas learns to see life from their point of view and learns that small people can gain strength from numbers and sheer determination.

The stars

The days when animated flicks were filled with no-name actors are long gone. So, not surprisingly, The Ant Bully stars the voices of what is becoming a cadre of high profile actors (because it seems every major animated film now needs stars to not show their faces in the film).

Julia Roberts heads up this cast, lending her voice to Hova, while Nicolas Cage voices Zoc, the powerful ant wizard. The flick also features the voices of Regina King (Kreela), Meryl Streep (Ant Queen), Paul Giamatti (Stan Beals) and Bruce Campbell (Fugax).

Indeed, The Ant Bully is a worker ant of a movie. It does what it needs to and makes a good group effort. Together the characters are interesting enough, though none of them stands out. And so, The Ant Bully has what it takes to generate a few good laughs.