Credits
Distributed by
Warner Bros. Pictures
Production companies
Legendary Pictures
Playtone
DNA Productions
Directed by
John A. Davis
Screenplay by
John A. Davis
Based on
The Ant Bully
by John Nickle
Produced by
Tom Hanks
Gary Goetzman
John A. Davis
Starring
Julia Roberts
Nicolas Cage
Meryl Streep
Paul Giamatti
Regina King
Bruce Campbell
Lily Tomlin
Edited by
Jon Price
Music by
John Debney
SYNOPSIS
Lonely 10-year-old Lucas Nickle is left with his older sister, Tiffany, and his grandmother, when his parents go to Puerto Vallarta. Neglected by his family and tormented by a local bully named Steve and his friends, Lucas takes out his frustration on an anthill and attacks it with a squirt gun, terrifying the colony. One ant, Zoc, an eccentric sorcerer, tries to fight back. His girlfriend, Hova, a nurse ant who is fascinated by humans, attempts to communicate with Lucas. He drops his gun on the grass, and kicks the anthill with one of his sneakers, sending the colony flying into the grass. Hova tries to communicate to him, but she is almost crushed before being saved by Zoc. The leaders of the colony decide to use a potion Zoc has recently created to shrink Lucas down to ant size.
The local exterminator, Stan Beals, convinces Lucas to sign a contract to kill vermin. Later that night, Zoc and a small troop of ants pour the potion into his ear; Lucas wakes up and discovers that he is shrunk, and naked and is carried to the anthill for the court. Zoc insists that he should be studied then eaten, but he is overruled by the Queen, who sentences him to hard labor. Hova volunteers to train Lucas alongside her friends Kreela and Fugax, much to Zoc's mortification, and they both learn about the differences between ants and humans. The ants are later attacked by tarantula hawks. Lucas finds a firecracker discarded by Steve and uses it to scare the wasps away. This earns him the admiration of all the ants except Zoc.
Lucas is shown a painting that depicts the Great Ant Mother and the exterminator, and is told that the Great Ant Mother will return and shower the ants with honeydew, while the Cloud-Breather will spell destruction for all of them. Lucas, Hova, Fugax, and Kreela return to his house, where Lucas tries to cancel Beals' contract, but accidentally calls a pizzeria instead. Tiffany then enters the kitchen, and attacks Lucas and company where it flees.
When Zoc finds out that Lucas put Hova in possible danger, he accuses him of further treachery, and tells him that he refuses to give him the antidote, causing him to run away in fright. Hearing what happened, Hova gets angry with Zoc, and goes out to look for Lucas. Once she finds him, he is swallowed by a frog. Zoc witnesses the event and realizes how much Hova cares about Lucas, so he frees him to make up for his selfishness. Afterwards, they discuss their differences. Zoc explains that ants work for the benefit of the colony, whilst Lucas states that most humans work for personal gain. Zoc is unsure as to how anything gets accomplished in Lucas' world, but then sympathizes with him when they both admit that they both used to act without thinking.
The next day, when Beals arrives to exterminate the colony, Lucas and Zoc enlist the wasps' aid; at first, the wasps want to eat them, but upon hearing that their hill is being destroyed by Beals, they agree to help. During the battle with Beals, Lucas saves the lives of Hova and an injured wasp. Both the ants and wasps are no match against pesticide, but as Beals is about to exterminate the anthill, a beetle and glowworm that Zoc and Lucas met while trapped inside of the frog's stomach bite him in the groin. As he painfully doubles up, Lucas injects him with the shrinking potion, severely disfiguring Beals, and he retreats on a tricycle while being attacked by the wasps.
The Queen pronounces Lucas an ant in honor of his heroic actions, names him "Roki", and Zoc gives him the antidote. He returns to normal size, reunites and reconciles with his mother, and finally stands up to Steve, whose friends choose to befriend Lucas after Steve insults them. Lucas then showers the colony with jelly beans as a parting gift.