When The Ant Bully’s producer Tom Hanks first approached John A. Davis and Keith Alcorn about the project, they were unsure they wanted to make an ant movie. All The Ant Bully images courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures.

Warner Bros.’ The Ant Bully, which opens July 28, 2006 in the U.S., tells the story of Lucas, a boy shrunk to the size of an ant, who battles creatures much bigger, including full sized humans. This battle must have seemed right at home for John A. Davis and Keith Alcorn of DNA Prods. Their Texas-based studio is quite a contrast to the giant production houses one usually associates with major CGI productions.

The Ant Bully is the second feature film to come from DNA, perhaps best known for Nickelodeon’s Jimmy Neutron series and feature. “Imagine a whole world you know nothing about yet probably step over every day. It could be a dynamic, hidden universe that exists in your own backyard,” suggests The Ant Bully writer/director Davis, creator of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius.

DNA was created in the 1980s when friends Davis and Alcorn teamed up to make shorts and commercials. Originally the studio focused on hand animation and stop motion. The reason for these dual skills goes back to the partners.

John A. Davis grew up as a fan of Ray Harryhausen and his love of stop motion made the move to CGI an easy one. Photo by Dennis Walman.

Davis grew up as a fan of Ray Harryhausen. He loved the blend of fantasy and effects. His earliest films at home and in school were stop motion. It is one reason he readily moved to CGI. “I moved to CGI because it was better than stop motion because I wasn’t limited to the things I had in my garage!”

Alcorn came from an art background and loved to draw. In the early days he was the main designer and an animator at the studio. “I really like cartoons,” states Alcorn. “All I ever wanted to do is make cartoons.” Even as the studio got busy with various productions, he continued to create shorts.

Davis first heard of The Ant Bully from the film’s producer, Tom Hanks, who sent him a copy of the book by John Nickle. “I didn’t know Hanks,” explains Davis, who adds with a laugh, “but we had heard of him!” It seems that Hanks had seen the Jimmy Neutron feature and thought the visual style and humor would fit perfectly with the book.

“My first thought,” recalled Alcorn, “was, ‘not another ant movie.’ But looking at the actual story, this was really about a little boy and how he learns about the world by having to live beneath the surface.” And Alcorn also considered that, “They have made vampire movies since the ‘30s, and still make new ones.”

Davis began working on some story ideas, while Alcorn did some initial art. Then Davis went west to meet with Hanks.

Davis and Hanks were on the same page throughout the project. Hanks took a hands-off attitude throughout and Davis appreciated the show of trust.

“It’s great when you’re immediately on the same page,” says Davis. “We [Hanks and Davis] saw the same things in it — the adventure aspect, the action, how cool it would be to have Lucas and the ants fighting giant wasps, and all the places he could go. In some ways, it’s the ultimate wish fulfillment for a kid.”

Writing began on the script. But how does one make a small book into a full-length film? Davis recalls, “The book was around 2,000 words, so we needed to expand the story. Tom Hanks said to ‘do what you feel’. So we moved a bit away from the style of the book. Book author Nickle saw the final script, was pleased, and wished us luck.”

The script was completely boarded on paper, and then sent to an Avid for the animatic. During this time, Davis would also be taking occasional trips to present concept art and final designs to Hanks’ team. “Tom took a pretty ‘hands off’ attitude. No one came out to the studio in Texas. It was nice… and showed trust.” As production continued, DNA sent various animation tests. “We figured if they were not asking, we would just ‘go on our merry way.’”

“For The Ant Bully, we completely gutted our pipeline and built something new. We didn’t use any of the tools we used on Neutron,” offers Davis, a self-taught 3D animator who created his first shorts with off-the-shelf software. “We needed to raise the bar in render quality and the amount of detail and complexity of the characters. That’s what excited the whole team but also killed us for a couple of years. We didn’t have a year of R&D going in; everything happened all at once and, ultimately, it was through sheer force of will, plus blood, sweat and tears that we got the look I wanted within our time and budget limits.