This film is two years old, and I’m wondering why I haven’t heard of it before now. If you haven’t heard of it, or seen it, you’re going to want to correct that. Soon. It’s really a gem of a film, and if you have younger children, you’re especially going to want to share it with them. It’s unlike any animated film I’ve ever seen; the backgrounds are all “real”: real rocks, real trees, real roads, etc. But our characters are all animated. And although there’s not a word of dialogue (the insects all speak in buzzes, much like Charlie Brown’s teacher), the brilliant score by Hervé Lavandier more than makes up for it.

The story is a simple one: a ladybug is befriended by a group of black ants, who are trying to bring a lunchbox full of sugar cubes back to their anthill, and she decides to help them with their task.  Along the way, they are set upon by a group of more violent red ants, intent on keeping the sugar for themselves, even if it means an assault on the home of the black ants. And that’s it. It’s so simple, in fact, that I worried that even at 1:30 this was going to be too long. But I never got bored. And I enjoyed the nods to other films and genres that I noticed. For example, I thought I saw homages to films like Lord of the Rings, Top Gun, and even Psycho. (VERY mild homages, to be sure, but I saw them, nonetheless.)

The characters themselves were great, too, whether it was a bunch of bullying flies, a greedy frog, or the ants themselves. They all were expressive in a way that kept them unique. I believe this is available in a 3D version, which I would love to see at some point, as it could only make this an even better film experience.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen so far this year, and had it come out this year, would be a no-brainer for my “Best of” list. It currently has a 7.1 at IMDB, but I think it ranks right up there with the best of the Pixar films, and would give it at least a 7.5, and might even go as high as an 8. (running time 1:29)