Antonio Meets His Match

Antonio Meets His Match is the newest of Max Lucado’s Hermie & Friends DVDs. Antonio is a brave and athletic ant, the most respected in the garden. One day a new neighbor moves in—an annoying and challenging neighbor. Antonio’s first response is to want to throw the pest and his friends out, but God changes his course by telling him to love his neighbor. The lesson (love your neighbor as yourself) is good and clear. Unlike many Christian cartoons, it is the main theme rather than an afterthought. And both before and after the main feature, Max Lucado explains the concept of loving your neighbor. For that reason, I appreciate Antonio Meets His Match. The computer animation is another positive. But the characters are not very likable. Nor is the plot entertaining. It is, for our children, hard to follow. Having three little ones under six years old, we watch lots of children’s DVD’s. Our girls are not overly impressed with this one. Bonnie, our oldest, watched it with a frown. When it was over, I asked her how she liked it. “I think…not very much,” she said. The athletic contest, the boisterous ants, and the conflicts all make Antonio a movie that boys between the ages of 5-7 would probably enjoy. But my family found the DVD much like Antonio’s new neighbor—annoying. I received this DVD through the Thomas Nelson Book Review Blogger Program.