Review of The Ant Bully (2006) by D M — 05 Sep 2009

They try to do some interesting things with this one to make it seem fresh, and surprisingly it stands on its own and is sufficiently original when compared with A Bug's Life and Antz. But it's not sufficiently original when compared with most other animated films since the overall story is somewhat a cliche at this point.

The animation is solid and the themes (especially anything dealing with religion) are cleverly tackled. Most of the voice work is also solid, although some performances seem phoned in and uninspired. Of course that could be due to the fact that Nic Cage is too prominent in the film.

It could've spent maybe a little bit more time developing characters and it does come off a bit heavy-handed sometimes, but not so much that it's unbearable. Now can Hollywood please retire animated films with ants as the main characters!