The glut of digital animation that hit theaters in 2006 finally took its toll -- on the wrong movie. Despite first-rate visuals, an all-star vocal cast, and a new spin on some familiar territory, The Ant Bully trickled out of the Top Ten within three weekends, leaving Warner Bros. and producer Tom_Hanks with a certified flop. Meanwhile, Barnyard's box office continued to prove the earning power of far less inventive films. Antz and A_Bug's_Life may have gotten to this microscopic world eight years earlier, but it took The Ant Bully to explore the age-old one-sided battle between ants and "human destroyers" -- i.e., cruel children who stomp on anthills. Director John_A._Davis and company have developed an imaginative variation on the landscape their predecessors established, one that's surprisingly unburdened by what came before. Plus, they've provided children a positive message regarding perspective that has both a literal interpretation (don't kill other living creatures) and a figurative one (don't pick on the little guy). Although Lucas Nickle adapts unnaturally quickly to his change in circumstances -- nary a freak-out about his shrunken size -- his immersion in the colony and eventual bonding with its members are both handled well. This sets up a series of strong set pieces, including a wasp attack, a mission into Lucas' house to get "sweet rocks" (jelly beans), and a narrow escape from a determined bullfrog. The climactic battle against the exterminator -- voiced by Paul_Giamatti in a regrettably brief showpiece of vulgarity -- is a final summary of all the film's clever decisions about size and the possibilities therein. If audiences finally decided they preferred something really "different," it was a poor time to reach that conclusion. Better to give fresh life to old material than approach new material in a derivative way. Derek Armstrong, Rovi

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