The Ant Bully (2006): The Animated Cage We’ve Been Waiting For [Joey’s Review]

by Joey Lewandowski · Published November 23, 2015 · Updated November 19, 2017

We may have officially entered the “animated Cage” era when we got to CHRISTMAS CAROL: THE MOVIE, but now we’ve truly begun with the animated Cage we’ve all expected. I knew nothing about THE ANT BULLY before watching it, and while I’m clearly not the target demographic, I wound up enjoying this movie a lot more than I thought I would.

A lot of that has to do with the voice work in the movie. Cage gets to really flex his muscles in a way he couldn’t (or didn’t) in Christmas Carol: The Movie. We’ve also got Bruce Campbell and Paul Giamatti really going for it, and Julia Roberts throwing in a respectable (if underwhelming) performance. It basically seems like either Cage or Campbell are on-screen at all times, which is a-okay with me.

The other thing that really impressed me about this movie was how well the script was put together. The same guy wrote and directed this movie, and from the look of things hasn’t done much else in Hollywood except for some Jimmy Neutron stuff. I don’t want to make it sound like this movie’s doing anything that would win it awards for originality or creativity, but it sets up a lot of things early on in the movie that pay off in the end. A handful of #CageClub movies have had lazy scripts; this is not one of them!

Also: some of the stuff this movie was doing in 2006 was copied by ANT-MAN earlier this year. CAGE DID IT FIRST.

I’m of the firm belief that this movie should be mandatory viewing for all elementary school kids. Let’s introduce them to Cage at an early age! But also it covers the topic of bullying in a fun and relateable manner. Hey bullies, cut it out. We know you may be getting bullied somewhere else, but it’s never cool. We’re all the same, man. We all stare up at the same stars.

This is the first of two “Cage as animated animal” movies on the #CageClub docket — we’ve got G-FORCE coming up before too long. We also have a handful of other animated Cage movies coming through the #CageClub pipeline in the next few weeks — none of which I’ve seen, I don’t think — and I only hope they’re as fun and entertaining as this one was. THE ANT BULLY 4EVER.