The micro world of insects comes out alive & big

Film review: Minuscule: Valley of the Lost Ants

MANILA, Philippines - The animated film Minuscule: Valley of the Lost Ants is one of 20 movies that may end up earning a nomination for Best Animated Feature in the coming Oscar Awards in February 2015. It could really be shortlisted considering that it’s remarkably different from the usual animations of this CGI era.

For one, the zero-dialogue animation does talk a lot.

It’s practically the same advantage that the silent movie The Artist had when it competed for Oscar Best Picture a couple of years back.

That nice-sounding word used in the title is synonymous to “tiny or extremely small.” Yet, the film appears big on screen and by that, it means it has grand things to offer.

The film, an adaptation of the TV series of the same name and created by the same tandem of Hélène Giraud and Thomas Szabo (which also wrote and directed this one), talks about the adventure of a young ladybug trying to discover the little universe amidst the breath-taking backdrop of Earth’s natural surroundings.

The uplifting visuals, the classical music-inspired soundtrack, the effective delivery of sound effects, and the logically funny sequences brought about by the conflict between the black and red ant colonies all capture the viewers’ fantasies without ever dragging them to a long stretch of no-dialogue narrative.

What shorts effectively do without the use of speaking lines, this movie does in full-length.

Minuscule, distributed by Solar Pictures, Inc., is now showing in theaters.

Martin Macalintal, audiovisual attaché of the French Embassy, hit it right when he said (prior to a special screening of the film held at Glorietta 4 in Makati last Nov. 29), “We support the promotion of cultural diversity. We want to show Filipino audiences that there are movies conceived from a different perspective, with a different outlook.”

Certainly, The Valley of the Lost Ants is a place not often visited or seen by Filipino animation fans. There may be quarters that will find the movie not fitted to their taste. But having an open mind (for artistic possibilities) should give one an easier ride for appreciating the flick.

In the movie, the ride begins with a look at the real world starring a couple on a romantic outdoor date. But once they leave their picnic supplies and go off the screen, “the micro world of insects” comes out alive and big.

The lead-starring ladybug, abandoned by family, befriends a black ant named Mandible, ensuring that the reds will be at the opposite side of the battle, sparked by human stuff leftovers. In the ensuing “war,” a can of bug spray becomes a seemingly deadly weapon while cotton buds transform into rockets. Along the way, frogs and lizards deliver the scare as comeback-to-life dinosaurs or King Kong’s neighbors do to humans. This is the film where a matchstick is as significant as the atomic bomb that ended World War II in 1945.

Minuscule won this year’s Mill Valley Film Festival Audience Award for Best Children’s Feature Film and nominations from other bodies like the 2013 Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival and the 2014 European Film Award.