Adapted by director John A. Davis from a Scholastic book Tom Hanks used to read to his son, The Ant Bully' tells the story of a bored, lonely 10-year-old boy who takes his frustrations out on ant hills -- that is, until members of the colony figure out a way to cut him down to size both literally and figuratively. [...] despite the Hanks seal of approval and the lure of a stellar voice cast including Julia Roberts, Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin, the animated version feels anonymously generic and charmlessly mechanical. Situated tightly between Columbia's "Monster House" and Paramount's "Barnyard" in this season's fairly crowded animation market, the Warner Bros.

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