Blend "Antz" with "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids," and you get a fair idea of "The Ant Bully." Unlike the latter, however, "Ant Bully" is fully animated. But the concept of a child being reduced to insect size and trying to survive in his lawn IS a "Honey" of an idea. Judging from the delighted sounds of young kids at the screening, originality does not seem to matter anyway.

The fact is "The Ant Bully" is so well animated, voiced, written, and directed, it defines itself as one of the best animated flicks this summer, rightfully standing beside recent titles like "Monster House" and "Cars." Like them, it is highly recommended family viewing.

Director-writer John A. Davis ("Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius"), in collaboration with producer Tom Hanks, utilized Playtone Productions, the artists responsible for another Hanks project, "The Polar Express." While not a mix of human imagery and graphics like "Polar," "The Ant Bully" has a very clean and vivid Pixar-like look. The rich colors are knockouts, particularly those of the cool wasps. Like "Toy Story" and recent animated offerings, there is a depth to images as well, a very credible quality. See the IMAX 3-D version, playing at select theatres throughout the country, for truly pronounced depth.

These days teaming animation and star voices is a given. "The Ant Bully" features audio dubs of humans and insects by Meryl Streep, Nicolas Cage, Julia Roberts, Paul Giamatti, Regina King, Bruce Campbell, Ricardo Montalban, and Lily Tomlin.

Zach Tyler Eisen voices 10-year-old Lucas Nickle, the new kid on the block desperately in need of friends. His teen sister Tiffany (Allison Mack) ignores him, and his parents (Cheri Oteri and Larry Miller) are only thinking about their anniversary vacation weekend. The only one who gives Lucas attention is his wacky grandmother Mommo (Tomlin), who can't keep her false teeth in place. There are some neighborhood boys Lucas' age, but they are led by Steve, a classic bully.

Lucas vents his frustration by stomping and hosing down a large ant colony residing in his front lawn. Cut to a close-up of the ants, who call Lucas "The Destroyer," and vow to stop him from bullying them. Do you detect some movie maker psychology afoot? After Lucas is shrunk to bug size through some Wizard Ant Zoc (Cage) concoction poured in his ear while asleep, the boy is hauled away by ant soldiers and taken before the queen (Streep). Forced to perform ant duties to teach him a lesson in walking in another's shoes or in this case another's segmented appendages, Lucas fails repeatedly. Kindly ant nurse Hova (Roberts) volunteers to mentor the boy.

There are attacks by the wasp army, and the ultimate nemesis, the full sized human who is bound to destroy all insect life on the Nickles' lawn, Stan Beals (Giamatti) of the Beals-a-Bub Pest Service. Is that an apt name or what?

Humor and action in "The Ant Bully" move pretty much non-stop; and the united we stand and Golden Rule morals play out effectively without being preachy.