Like,
well, the over-the-head joke; or the witty in-gag. But besides that,
there’s usually a good script. Some kids films – like say last Summer’s
D.O.A Disney effort, Chicken Little
– have an outline, a voice-cast and little more, but more often than
not, most of today’s family films are being pruned and polished by some
of today’s top screenwriters, or if not one guy, than fifty different
writers are collectively on a mission to write the smartest, funniest
and most entertaining family film out there. After Toy Story, they all feel like they have to. Thank god. Now
forget everything I just mentioned. Take the Delorean back to 1985.
Steal the template from one of those lacklustre DTV Care Bears movies. Return to the modern day. Hand your notes to Warner Bros. Presto! The Ant Bully is born! Grrr. Granted, The Ant Bully
started out with a little more potential. Aside from the fact that it
was Tom Hanks who was championing the film (and served as producer), it
was based on a reasonably fun children’s book. It tells of a
youngster named Lucas, constantly picked on by his peers, who decides
to take his anger out on an ant farm. Unbeknown to him, one of the ants
has magic powers – and magically shrinks him to the size of an ant, and
captures him. Now, besides the fact that we’ve been swimming in ‘ant’ and ‘bug’ movies for the past few years – Antz and A Bug’s Life were enough cinematic insect to last us a good century – the main problem with John Davis’s Ant Bully is that he has forgotten about the parent. Sure,
kids might enjoy some aspects of it. But, to tell you the truth, I
think they’ll even realise they’ve seen it all before – especially
when Bug’s Life plays on a constant loop back on the home VCR. The
script is just weak. Very weak. There’s little excitement. Next to no
laughs. And its unmistakably missing a middle act. Sure, the animation
looks good and the voice-cast are all OK (Nicolas Cage! Meryl Streep!
Julia Roberts! Paul Giamatti!) but all the elements have to be in place
before we can go with a movie. And though I can’t speak for an
8-year-old, I can confidently say, he didn’t go with this either. DVD Extras
Since kids aren’t very interested in DVD extras, there’s little reason
why additional scenes, animated shorts and a couple of other extras the
have tacked onto the disc.
Conclusion: Movie 60% Extras: 50%
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