the ant bully

Director: john a. davis

Actor: paul giamatti,nicolas cage,julia roberts,meryl streep

Data Published: Fri Jul 28 2006

Genres: Animation,Adventure,Comedy,Family,Fantasy

Key Words: ant,punishment,miniaturization,formicary,moral

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0429589/

WIKI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ant_Bully_(film)

Description: The Ant Bully is a movie starring Paul Giamatti, Nicolas Cage, and Julia Roberts. After Lucas Nickle floods an ant colony with his water gun, he's magically shrunken down to insect size and sentenced to hard labor in the ruins.

Plot: In Las Vegas, lonely 10-year-old new kid, Lucas Nickle (Zach Tyler Eisen) is left with his older sister, Tiffany (Allison Mack), and his grandmother (Lily Tomlin) when his parents go to Puerto Vallarta. Neglected by his family and tormented by a local bully named Steve (Myles Jeffrey), Lucas takes out his frustration on an anthill and attacks it with a squirt gun, terrifying the ants. One ant, an eccentric wizard named Zoc (Nicolas Cage), tries to fight back. His girlfriend, a nurse ant named Hova (Julia Roberts), attempts to communicate with Lucas. He drops his gun on the grass, and kicks the anthill with one of his sneakers, sending the ants flying into the grass. Hova tries to communicate to Lucas, but she is almost crushed before being rescued by Zoc. The leaders of the colony decide to use a potion Zoc has recently created to shrink Lucas down to ant size. The local exterminator, Stan Beals (Paul Giamatti), convinces Lucas to sign a contract to kill vermin. Later, Zoc and a small troop of ants pour the potion onto his ear. He wakes up and discovers that he is now tiny, where he lands on a potato chip. He is carried to the anthill into a world of giant caves, caterpillars and ants. Zoc insists that Lucas should be studied then eaten, but he is overruled by the Queen (Meryl Streep). She sentences Lucas to hard labor. Hova volunteers to train Lucas, much to Zoc's mortification. They both learn about the differences between ants and humans. However, when she forces him to forage for jelly beans with Kreela (Regina King) and Fugax (Bruce Campbell), Lucas is unsuccessful. The ants are attacked by tarantula hawk wasps. Lucas finds a discarded firecracker and uses it to scare away the wasps. This earns him the admiration of all the ants – except Zoc. Lucas is introduced to honeydew, the feces of caterpillars. He is shown a painting which depicts the Great Ant Mother and the evil "Cloud-Breather", an exterminator. Lucas is told that the Great Ant Mother will return and shower the ants with honeydew, while the Cloud-breather will spell destruction for all of them. He and his friends return to the house, where he tries to cancel the contract but dials for pizza instead. To make matters worse, Tiffany comes in as a giantess, and tries to crush the ants with the phone (not just Fugax) as they are forced into hiding until dark. When Zoc finds out that Lucas put Hova in possible danger, he accuses Lucas of further treachery and tells him that he should find another wizard because there is no way that he will give Lucas the potion to turn him back again. Lucas runs away, frightened, and Hova becomes angry with Zoc. But when Lucas is swallowed by a frog, Zoc frees him. Afterwards Zoc and Lucas discuss their differences. Zoc explains that ants work for the benefit of the colony. Lucas states that most humans work for personal gain. Zoc is unsure as to how anything gets accomplished in Lucas' world. They enlist the aid of the wasps; at first, the wasps want to eat Lucas, but hearing that their nest is destroyed by Beals, they agree to help. During the battle with Stan, Lucas saves the lives of Hova and an injured wasp. Both the ants and wasps were no match against pesticide, but as Stan is about to exterminate the ant hill, a beetle and glowworm bite him in the groin. As Stan doubles up in pain, Lucas injects him with the shrinking potion, severely disfiguring him, and he retreats on a tricycle. The queen pronounces Lucas an ant in honor of his heroic actions, and Zoc gives him the antidote. Lucas goes back to normal size and finally stands up to the bully who runs away. Lucas then showers the colony with jelly beans as a farewell gift.