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Shelf Beauties |
The Ant Bully Every
studio wants to get
into the animation biz as movies like Shrek,
Finding
Nemo and Cars
make
gazillions of dollars in theaters, on DVD, as theme park attractions,
as toys
for kids, as video games, and more. However, when you get a
glut of films
like we will see this summer (is it just me, or do we have 1 animated
film per
week being rolled out?), not all are created equal. The Ant
Bully
is a
great example. The Ant
Bully feels
like a movie where the writer and director had some neat ideas for
three
or four scenes, then tried to force a story to evolve around them. Sadly, there is not enough
story to go
around. Now that
all of us have seen
mindblowing animation, story is more important than ever, and
that’s where The Ant
Bully fails. We can see where this plot
is
going in a heartbeat, writer/director John A. Davis (creator of the
FABULOUS
Santa vs. the Snowman)
doesn't provide a script with the wit of Monster
House, and
his main characters don’t bond naturally.
Plus, Lucas (and
the audience) learn very little about ants and the way they conduct
their lives. We get
some platitudes about working together
for the better of the collective, but never get introduced into this
fascinating new world. Who
are these
other bugs? What is
the ant
history? What are
the different
jobs? Stuff like
this engages the audience
intellectually (and would naturally be taught to Lucas since
he’s supposed to
LEARN), opens up plot twist possibilities and draws in the audience,
which The
Ant Bully never does.
1 ½ Waffles (Out Of 4) Copyright 2006 - WaffleMovies.com
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