The Ant Bully

[Sparky]

I really really enjoyed this movie; unfortunately the IMDB board for it is full of morons. ::) So I haven't been able to chat with anyone about it. if anyone knows a decent discussion fanboard, let me know.

I want to go see it again but its already being removed from theatres around here. :P Anyways I was surprised by this movie, I didn't expect to like it. I didn't like the idea of the ants having magic, that seemed out of place, but other than that I thought it was good. I went mostly because Bruce Campbell and Paul Giamatti were in it; Campbell's character wound up being my least favorite but Giamatti's wound up pretty much my favorite. :) I was surprised to see Jelly Bellies featured so prominently by name in the film. We used to live right by the JB factory in Suisun, CA.

Anyways I'll be picking this up when it hits DVD.

[InsaneFan]

I haven't seen it yet(though my sisters and cousins have DX), but I'm trying to go see it soon. I'm really behind on movie watching...The last one for me was Monster House.

[Mac]

unfortunately the IMDB board for it is full of morons. ::)



That board is full of morons period. I hate going there. You get bashed for liking something/one and get bashed for disliking something/one. You just can't win on that darn forum.

As for the movie, I haven't seen it but one of my favorite voice actors (Rob Paulson) is in it so I deffinatly wanna see it.

[Voxxyn]

As a Pixar diehard who is tired of studios aping the CGI animation... I must say this(and Monster House) doesn't look bad at all. Maybe it's because it looks more than a stab at genuine storytelling instead of a pop-culture-referencing machine. I'll give it a rental on DVD.

[don Jaime]

I saw it a while back. It looked prettier than Monster House, but it seemed like it was written by committee. There were a lot of little errors here and there, like not killing that one wasp off, or the Chuck E Cheese animatronic queen, or the whole business of walking up walls because you believe it. Not a bad movie per se, but kind of average. It seemed like it needed fewer jokes about butts and their functions, and more dark humor like the grinning head in the frog's stomach. I wanted to see beetle and the glow worm some more. And Ricardo Montalban. It's hilarious hearing "Attacking without provocation, without reason, eet's barbaric!" in the voice of Khan.

I guess I should ask some questions. Like, how did that creep know the parents left town? How did Zock navigate the stairs when Lucas and four other ants could manage the carpet? Heck, how did Zock get downstairs ahead of Lucas? How did they see downtown DFW from the top of a mushroom when you couldn't see the next street at human size? Why doesn't Bruce Campbell do more stuff like this? Where can I get a frog beating game? Did I really see Lucas's weiner when he fell out of bed? Did you feel queasy over the Stalinist re-education camp feel when Lucas was sentenced to learn ant stuff? (I did.)

[InsaneFan]

I was lucky enough to see this movie in IMAX 3D. LOVED IT.

While I do agree with Don Jaime on most of his points, I must say...

ZOC = <3

[Mr. Marshmallow]

I saw the movie and for the most part, really enjoyed it. Sometimes I'm cautious these days about seeing kids movies because there's always the fear that I will end up seeing something really, really, REALLY kiddie sappy and oh so crappy.

A good kids flick is one parents and even us teens (me being 22 not really a teen, but not really much of an adult either) can enjoy. Ant Bully gets really good after Lucas is shrunk and to be honest, i wasn't TRYING to look for his weiner when he got shrunk.

In any case, I really liked how Hova actually liked Lucas and that Zok was an ant wizard, I mean how the hell often do you hear the words ant and wizard together? In any case. I think the animation was pretty good and they did some impressive scenes with the frog, and the hornets and such.

Bruce Campbell surprisingly excels in his role here and I really enjoyed him. My only REAL beefs were the annoyingly pathetic writing in terms of Lucas's problematic cliche's:

1. The Bully - this guy was terribly written and too overdone, a monkey could write better lines for this guy.

2. The Exterminator - His little teasings to get Lucas to sign it were really pointless, and how they beat him in the end was too kiddie-comical to swallow. I also don't know how you can call him a villain considering he was in the movie for like what 15-20 mins max?

Overall, this was pretty good, there was some really sucky too kiddie feeling moments in the beginning but it really picks up once Lucas is shrunk. But I personally will take the oh so sweet "Over the hedge" instead.

[scary_dream]

Rob Paulsen? Tress MacNeille? Regina King? BRUCE CAMPBELL?!

Just the voiceovers alone make me want to see this. I'm not too tempted by the story, honestly, but I might have to now.

[Sparky]

I think I just like kids' movies about bugs, to be honest. ;)

[CG]

Whilst I haven't seen it it seems hard to really single out a single enemy. The kid, the ant, then the exterminator? I don't remember rightly since I've only read it.

I, am personally sick of CGI movies. So I proably won't see it.

[InsaneFan]

1. The Bully - this guy was terribly written and too overdone, a monkey could write better lines for this guy.

2. The Exterminator - His little teasings to get Lucas to sign it were really pointless, and how they beat him in the end was too kiddie-comical to swallow. I also don't know how you can call him a villain considering he was in the movie for like what 15-20 mins max?

Yeah, the bully sucked. I dun really like the way he was animated either. His movements were kinda...I dunno...Bleh. Maybe it just looked bad because I was used to the cool bug stuff. =P

I agree. They could've done better with the Exterminator. Though I did think the company name was clever...^^

[Mr. Marshmallow]

The funny thing was, Paul Giamatti voiced the Exterminator here and strangely enough, his "Sideways" co star Thomas Hden Church voiced over for an exterminator in another CGI kiddie film, "Over the Hedge".

The only difference was that while not the most original and brilliantly crafted villain, Haden's exterminator has a REAL personality and is no where near as stupid or cliche as Giamatti's exterminator. Church did loads better.

I really wish they hadn't made CGI animation so mainstream because once anything gets big, the good stuff only lasts for the first few films. Once you drag it out it becomes more common, and more crap films get churned out.

"Ant Bully" was a decent movie, I'm not doubting that, I'm just saying in comparsion to it's earlier CGI ancestor films, they make this movie look like a joke.