Saturday, 18 September 2021 19:49

Miniscule: The Valley of the Lost Ants





MINISCULE: THE VALLEY OF THE LOST ANTS.

France, 2013, 89 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Helene Giraud, Thomas Szabo.

This is a pleasing film, mainly for little children, and for their parents accompanying them who would be able to explain some of the details about insects.

It is also an example of French animation, based on the television series of 2006, Miniscule. The animation is fairly straightforward, but very attractive. Much is made of the beautiful French countryside, the mountains, the grass on the hills, the trees and woods, the roads through the mountains. It is only at the beginning that any humans appear, a husband and wife having a picnic on the grass, she heavily pregnant. During the meal, labour pains come on and they have to hurry away in their car, leaving some of the picnic goods on the blanket on the grass.

In the meantime, we are treated to the birth of little ladybirds, their parents looking on, helping them to flex their wings and then urging them on to fly. One of the ladybirds becomes one of the main characters for this film.

With the food left of the blanket, especially a box of sugar cubes, it is a signal for the insects to come out. On the good side, are the black ants. The film, like a documentary, shows great deal about the ants, their size, the hierarchy and command, the ants working as a group, in unison, scenes of their marching, going over the ground, finding the sugar, the attempts to carry it and take it back to their nest. The plot shows the ladybird becoming friendly with one of the ants.

On the villainous are the red ants. Once again, the film shows them in great detail, their nest, their working together, their leadership, the approach to the sugar. The film builds up to a clash, but the Ladybird and the little black and are able to thwart the ambitions of the red ants.

This is the kind of story and documentary that nature channels show on television. And, the real thing is probably more persuasive than an animation story. However, for little children, the animation and the story will capture their imagination and help them in their discovery of the world of insects and their place in the world of nature.