SCREEN

It doesn’t seem so long ago that studios cast animated features according to the personalities of the characters. Now everything is stunt casting, and so, in The Ant Bully, we have Nicolas Cage’s complex, hangdog voice coming out of a single-minded ant called Zoc. And Meryl Streep spouts a few regally monotone lines as the Queen Ant—a job nearly anyone could have done. Ant Bully begins with nerdy boy Lucas (voiced by Zach Tyler) taking out his frustrations by firing water pistols at an anthill, little realizing the destruction he’s causing. Led by Zoc, the ants capture Lucas. The Queen decides to teach him about the life of an ant, and so Zoc’s girlfriend, Hova (voiced by—of all people—Julia Roberts), becomes his trainer. The expected follows: Lucas learns not to be self-absorbed; Zoc learns to trust others. Where the casting agent scored big is in Bruce Campbell as the arrogant hunter ant, Fugax. Campbell has a gift for seeming slightly ahead of his material; his voice finds jokes where there are none. He provides a hint of carefree wiggle room when the rest of the production is controlled to within an inch of its life.