When I started watching this charming film, I was surprised not to see the usual list of stars who would be voicing the various parts. However, once the film got going and went to ground level I realised that there are no human stars - because there are no words. And yet I understood every conversation with no difficulty whatsoever.

This is the brilliance of this film - one which puts cgi (and not a lot of cgi really) over real filmed scenes in an effortless, flowing way to create completely believable cinematography. That is not to say the film is believable, in the same way that Tinkerbell and A Bugs Life are unbelievable. And yet it is completely riveting to watch a ladybug take a meandering, drifting, wonderfully entertaining journey to save the day for new friends.

There are no words spoken, and yet there is plenty of perfectly understandable dialogue - a mixture of toots, peeps and growls that need no translation, along with a mass of subtle and not-so-subtle sound effects. The humour of realising that the buzz flies are the insect equivalent of a motorcycle gang, and the smile at hearing the oh-so-faint sounds of sawing and hammering as the ants build their nest - these are some of what make the-film-with-the-impossibly-long-name so satisfying, even as an adult. And my children were completely engrossed and living the story along with the minuscule hero all the way through.

Great movie.

"Minuscule - La vallée des fourmis perdues" or "Minuscule: Valley of the Lost Ants" is a 2013 animated film that runs for 85 minutes only and that already includes a fair share of credits. So a fairly short film by writer/director duo Hélène Giraud and Thomas Szabo. The two already worked on the television series that came before this film. Their work with the movie got them an impressive deal of awards recognition, also at fairly prestigious events. And I can see why. We basically follow a ladybird that starts an unusual friendship with an ant and is treated as a friend afterward by the ant's colony. However, not everything is harmonic as the fight for food and daily survival gets our heroes into battles with dangerous fish and red ants, who are the main antagonists in here.

It took so long for this film to finally hit theatres in Germany here, but now the movie is there. And they did not even had to dub anything as the film is completely silent in terms of dialogue. It is not silent in terms of animal noise and music though and the music is one of the areas where this film really delivers. But the biggest area is the animation. They managed a nice mix of cute and stunning here, but mostly stunning as the ladybug is really almost the only cute character in here. If you love ladybugs as much as I do, then this is certainly worth checking out. The story is not 100% convincing, but there are enough quality moments in terms of comedy and drama to let me recommend this film. If your kid does not get bored by animation movies in which the animals aren't speaking than it's a good watch for him/her too. To me, maybe because of the lack of language, this film had a very documentary aspect to it. I enjoyed the watch. Thumbs up.

The film has clever animation mixed in with film. Lady Bugs are depicted as nurturing parents, having a sense of humor, curious, scare easy, and not good fliers. Our main character runs into trouble and aids a group of black ants. They join forces to retrieve some picnic booty back to the farm. The mound becomes a huge Masada fight scene as the evil red ants attempt to take it over.

There is no talking in the film, but clearly the bugs communicate. I found the film to be clever, the soundtrack good, but overall it wasn't that spectacular entertainment...and this from a guy who grew up watching Gumby.

Most kids will surely enjoy it more than I except maybe my 10 year old grandniece who didn't like it.