The Ant Bully (2006)
Usually, modern cartoons seek to send a message to impressionable children rather than to just entertain. If your child gets picked on and is starting to take his retaliate by becoming a bully himself, rent The Ant Bully. The story revolves around a little boy who gets bullied and who terrorizes an anthill so he can feel bigger and better than someone else. He learns his lesson, as he’s soon shrunken in size and forced to live among the ants. He finds out how scary it is to be small and vulnerable, and he understands that he had been turning into a bully himself.
The reason this isn’t my favorite cartoon is because I don’t need to learn this lesson, and I don’t know any little children who would benefit from it. Call me a cynic, but if I knew a child who was becoming a bully, I don’t think a 90-minute cartoon would help them become better people. If picking on someone who can’t defend himself makes you feel good, that’s a deep problem that needs to be worked out. Nicolas Cage and Julia Roberts can’t help you. However, if you love Nicky’s voice (and who doesn’t?) and you want to “see” Paul Giamatti as a poison-spraying villain, you can rent this one. Just don’t expect your unruly child to suddenly become nice and sweet.
More Meryl Streep movies here!
The reason this isn’t my favorite cartoon is because I don’t need to learn this lesson, and I don’t know any little children who would benefit from it. Call me a cynic, but if I knew a child who was becoming a bully, I don’t think a 90-minute cartoon would help them become better people. If picking on someone who can’t defend himself makes you feel good, that’s a deep problem that needs to be worked out. Nicolas Cage and Julia Roberts can’t help you. However, if you love Nicky’s voice (and who doesn’t?) and you want to “see” Paul Giamatti as a poison-spraying villain, you can rent this one. Just don’t expect your unruly child to suddenly become nice and sweet.
More Meryl Streep movies here!