The Ant Bully appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. An early Blu-ray, the image suffered from some of the format’s growing pains.
Sharpness took a hit thanks to primitive compression techniques. While the movie brought fairly good delineation and occasionally looked better, it lacked the rock-solid accuracy I expect of a CG animated flick.
No issues with jagged edges or moiré effects materialized, and I saw no edge haloes. Print flaws remained absent.
Colors worked well. The natural ant complexion led to a lot of reds and browns, but the many outdoor scenes opened up the palette well. I thought the hues seemed lively and dynamic.
Black levels were decent and shadows could appear a bit dense. Objectively, the movie came with reasonably positive visuals but it simply failed to live up to the high standards that accompany 2000s computer animated films.
I felt pleased with the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack of The Ant Bully - outside of its lossy nature. Warner didn’t go with lossless audio for its early BDs and that became the case here, so I docked the mix some points.
Still, if you ignore the lower quality of the lossy material, the track worked well. In the forward domain, the music showed fine stereo imaging, while effects blended together neatly and smoothly.
Those elements moved from speaker to speaker cleanly as the track created a solid sense of atmosphere. It even included a fair amount of dialogue from the side speakers, which offered a good impression of breadth.
Surround usage generally favored reinforcement of music and effects, but the rears came to life nicely during a number of scenes. Various battles showed effective use of the surrounds, as did the other action sequences.
When water roared into the anthill, it provided an engulfing setting. The mix really helped bring the material to life.
Audio quality consistently seemed positive. Dialogue was natural and distinct, and I heard no problems related to intelligibility or edginess.
Music was rich and warm throughout the movie, with good clarity as well. Bass stomped to life nicely during the louder scenes and effects always seemed clear and accurate, with no signs of distortion or other concerns.
This was a nicely engaging soundtrack. It only fell to “B+” level because it lacked the extra resolution a lossless mix would add.
How did the Blu-ray compare to the DVD version? Both came with identical audio, which meant I lowered my grade here because a Blu-ray should provide lossless material.
As noted, visuals on this ancient BD could seem less precise and dynamic than expected from a CG animated movie. Still, it remained more than watchable and became an obvious upgrade on the DVD.
The Blu-ray repeats the DVD’s extras, and It Takes a Colony presents a 16-minute, 35-second featurette. It offers comments from director/producer/screenwriter John A. Davis, lead storyboard artist/workbook artist Tom Morgan, head of environmental modeling Todd Fechter, head of character modeling Tom Jordan, head of character rigging Michael Comet, layout artist Chris Sherrod, character animator/concept artist Sarah Mensinga, and head of lighting Ian Megibben.
The program looks at the movie’s roots and development, visual design and story emphasis, casting and voice recording, storyboarding and the animation processes, and Davis’s role as director. Quick and fun, “Colony” offers a nice little synopsis of the production.
It rushes through the subjects but still gives us good notes and information. Though animation won’t learn anything revelatory here, the show works as a neat summary.
Seven Animated Shorts come next. And by “shorts”, they mean really short; taken together, they run only eight minutes, 19 seconds.
Apparently created for promotional reasons, I don’t know where they originally appeared. In any case, they deliver reasonably entertaining little pieces and a nice addition to the disc, even though the Blu-ray sticks with DVD quality so they don’t look good.
Ant Habitat provides an odd little screensaver. The actual novel content lasts one minute, 12 seconds but it cycles so it’ll run two hours, 12 minutes, four seconds if you allow it. This creates a cute though inconsequential extra.
Footnote: I find no IMDB evidence that Despicable Me director and voice of the Minions Pierre Coffin worked on Ant Bully. However, the vocalizations made by the ants in this screen saver sound suspiciously similar to his Minions so I can’t help but think he mustered some involvement here.
10 Additional Scenes occupy a total of 11 minutes, 24 seconds. They consist of a mix of finished material, rough animation, and storyreels.
These offer a little more character development for Hova as well as early film info about the exterminator and Lucas’s parents. We also see how Lucas and the ants made it across his family’s living room plus a flashback to a formative event in Zoc’s life.
Most of these seem interesting. The one between Lucas’s dad and the exterminator works best since it more clearly explains why Beals has Lucas sign the contract.
In addition to the trailer for Bully, we locate Animators Having Fun, a two-minute, 36-second reel that brings some goofy outtakes. It offers a little amusement along the way.
A serviceable flick, The Ant Bully offers minor entertainment. The film keeps us occupied for about 90 minutes but just doesn’t go any higher than that. The Blu-ray provides strong – though lossy - audio along with decent visuals and a few supplements. This becomes a mediocre release for a mediocre movie.
Note that this 2025 Blu-ray reissues the movie’s prior release in 2006. The 2025 BD simply reproduces the same disc from 19 years earlier.
