8/1/2006, 12:25 pm
Wouldn't you want your boy to "discover the ant within" and become a disposable drone in an anthill, sacrificing himself for the Greater Good™ as it is defined by his wise leaders? As a parent you don't have to do anything - your local public school is fully equipped to prepare your child for a life as mote in the vast collective. And then there are animated movies.
Most audiences won't find anything unusual in the new CGI-animated kiddy adventure film The Ant Bully.
A savvy parent might yawn at the routine obligatory condemnation of the Western "every man for himself" society that relies on technological crutches and WMD to oppress and eliminate the weaker, gentler "other" society that relies on collectivist values, magic, and wisdom of a benevolent supreme leader. Been there, done that.
The ant collective lead by a wise leader who is more equal than others and knows what's best for the colony.In between these two opposing worldviews is a confused human boy Lucas who now faces a difficult ethical choice. Even though in his despicable past Lucas had been spoiled and brainwashed by violent videogames, the boy chooses to follow his heart and "discovers the ant within."
Cheered by the audience, Lucas switches sides and teams up with insects against humans, helping them to shrink the militaristic exterminator into a deformed midget.
Obviously, an enlightened, mature person must always choose magic and utopia over reality. Don't we all want this for our children?
LUCAS: Yeah, kind of...
ZOC: And the humans that live there are all brothers working together for the greatness of their colony?
LUCAS: Not exactly. It's a little more like, you know, every man for himself.
ZOC: But that's so... primitive. How anything ever gets done?
LUCAS: Some people work together.
ZOC: Some! Why not all?
LUCAS: I suppose because of their differences.
ZOC: But it's the differences that make a colony strong. Foragers, scouts, drones, nurses, regurgitators! All are different but they're a central part of the whole. This is where we ants draw our strength.
US redneck militarism at its worst. Shrunken by the potion, too small to reach into his WMD-loaded van, the shrieking war monger hops on a kiddy tricycle to escape. Clean educational fun! What family wouldn't want to see the same happen to the war-mongering Pentagon?
A happy collectivist insectopia headed by a supreme leader who knows what's best for the colony - isn't it what we might also find if we could only take an unbiased look at such "pariah" states as Cuba, North Korea, Venezuela, or maybe even Iran? And isn't it what we had mindlessly exterminated by interfering in Grenada, El Salvador, Guatemala, Bolivia, Columbia, Iraq, or Afghanistan? Did we have a moral right to oppose the workers' paradise in the Soviet Union? We will never know. We ought to stop being such bigoted, close-minded, aggressive ant bullies and, for a change, relieve our collective guilt by showering these small misunderstood nations with jelly beans.
When all is said and done, the little boy Lucas appears as an ultimate moral hero, a whistleblower, a human shield who switches sides - like Johnny "The Taliban" Lindh, Jose Padilla, John Allen Mohammed, like Alger Hiss and the Rosenbergs, like Kim Philby and many others before them, whose self-sacrifice for the Greater Good™ shines a moral guiding light for all open-minded, progressive young people in this country. The next time you see thousands of raging peace protesters blocking your way, remember - they have "discovered the and within!"
Movie mistakes:
Ant bully looks too much like Kim Jong Il from Team America, throwing a dark shadow on the concept of World Socialism. Was it criminal negligence or a deliberate act of political sabotage? Must be edited out in the DVD version. Perpetrators must be found; they'll never work in Hollywood again. Where exactly was the SAG Kommissar when this happened?
In this sense, The Ant Bully is a boilerplate anthill-morals movie, indistinguishable from many other films produced in Hollywood for children and adults in the recent decades. We might have missed it completely - if it hadn't attracted such a loud applause from the critics (who probably loved it for helping them to trace the origin of their own morals back to the anthill).
WHAT MAINSTREAM FILM CRITICS SAY ABOUT IT:
- "The best - and most surprising - scene finds Zoc and Lucas comparing the colony's Communist ethic to the 'Every man for himself' lifestyle of human cities. Though the global implications will soar over kids' heads, the provocative cultural critique will give parents more to ponder than the average kiddie outing."
- "'I'm big, and you're small' is the film's negative-example lesson, spouted first by Lucas' bully and then parroted by our petulant hero as he passes on the sting of victimization to the ants."
- "...stokes enough action to please kids, but it's the political allegory that separates this one from the pack. Montalban's Head of Council grumbles, 'To attack without provocation, without reason, just because they can - it's barbaric.'"
- If "Antz" dwells on the American myth of individualism as antidote to conformity, glorifying freedom as the most cherished virtue, "Ant Bully" preaches for co-existence, understanding, and collectivism.
- "[T]he ants have a vast and complex civilization ... where every individual has a job to do for the greater good and collective welfare."
- "[T]he movie certainly means well, and its worthwhile message (teamwork is good, selfishness is bad) should penetrate the brains of kids old enough to stay in their seats and pay attention to it."
- "The movie is an epic adventure with a rigorously moral point of view."
But then there's this completely revisionist, Trotskyite interpretation:
- If the left-winged "Antz" [huh? - Red Square] propagates individualism and non-conformity at all cost, "Ant Bully" is ideologically more centrist, preaching for a moderate version of collectivism (but not socialism) [huh? - Red Square]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hh4Pu00fA44