Directed by John A Davis
Rating: ***
While the two Hindi biggies for Diwali slug it out, here's an animation film that absolutely sweeps your heart away.
Carrying on the strange and stirring phenomenon of animation films that put forward an entertaining social message with pungent panache The Ant Bully recreates the ambivalent relationship between the human and animal kingdom through a rapport that grows between a little lonely boy Lucas and a colony of ants.
The film gives us great flashes of insight into human insensitivity and how grossly it affects living creatures which are too small and vulnerable to protest.
The ant's colony is imagined with the organized grace of an army camp. Every detail is cleverly and cannily worked out to the point where we cease to marvel at the details, just sit back and enjoy the morality fable where size and proportion are things taken for granted.
Lucas comes to terms with the physical and emotional turmoil of creatures we don't know upclose and personal. This little-'bug' film is warm and tender, acutely insightful and funny. At times the going gets purposely preposterous. But we all know the heart is in the right place. And so are the voices, all adding to a colourful flavour of personality and attitude among the animation-generated creatures.
Understandably the voices add tremendously to the film's endearing quality. The little boy who speaks through the voice of Zack Tyler Eisen seems real enough to seem like the kid nextdoor. Then there's Meryl Streep as the queen ant and Julia Roberts as a limpid liason lady.
Every voice adds an exclamatory luster to the goings-on, bringing alive a world that fuels fantasia in the most explicit and enchanting terms. If for nothing else, all of
Bollywood should watch the film to realize how much of a performance happens at the dubbing stage.And while we're at it, check out how mellow a message movies can be, if a directors sets his heart on it.
