every ant make mistakes

UNIVERSUM cameraman Wolfgang Thaler and Bert Hoelldobler, a leading authority on ants, bring us face-to-face with the mysterious world of these social insects.

an Antz Short

Elk, who ran through the forest during a thunderstorm, was crushed by a fallen tree. A brazen and treacherous magpie told the wolves about it all through the forest. Good forest animals decided to help to free the elk. The first was a hedgehog, then a hare and his mom, a family of squirrels, a mouse, a frog. Decisive in saving the elk from the wolves was the contribution of the smallest character - an ant.

At a futuristic construction site, a giant robotic ant and other robots and automated machinery build a reflecting dish.

Ant colonies are one of the wonders of nature: complex, organised… and mysterious. This programme reveals the secret, underground world of the ant colony, in a way that’s never been seen before. At its heart is a massive, full-scale ant nest, specially designed and built to allow cameras to see its inner workings. The nest is a new home for a million-strong colony of leafcutter ants from Trinidad. For a month, entomologist Dr George McGavin and leafcutter expert Prof Adam Hart capture every aspect of the life of the colony, using time-lapse cameras, microscopes, microphones and radio tracking technology. The programme explores how these tiny insects can achieve such spectacular feats of collective organisation. It also reveals the workings of one of the most complex and mysterious societies in the natural world – and shows the surprising ways in which ants are helping us solve global problems.

A platoon of ants set out to save their community in the midst of a severe drought, but the hilariously inept Arnie and Barney – who are not cut out for heroics – decide to tackle the problem themselves. Their bumbling efforts lead them to uncover a shady water racket and team up with a secretive superhero mosquito. In a series of comical mishaps, they inadvertently save the meadow and become the most unlikely heroes of all.

Tenório

Krieg der Ameisen

A 1983 short film directed by Eduard Nazarov about an ant who gets blown away with the wind from its home and the adventures it goes through in desperately trying to find its way back.

A documentary showing the lives of an worker ant colony.

After being put on indefinite leave by his chief of police uncle, the highly intelligent and arrogant huntsman spider Inspector Sun boards a San Francisco bound seaplane. Joined by an intrepid young fan, Sun is pulled into a murder case where the turnout could affect both the insect and human worlds.

An aardvark tries to catch one ant without success.

Ages before man proclaimed himself a superior being, the tiny ant had developed the art of agriculture — a practice which was later to be the backbone of human society.

Sir David Attenborough is in the Swiss Jura Mountains to discover the secrets of a giant. Beneath his feet lies a vast network of tunnels and chambers, home to a huge empire of ants. It is believed to be one of the largest animal societies in the world, where over a billion ants from rival colonies live in peace.

Donald is preparing a little picnic when he sees some ants passing by. He decides to tease one, ultimately by piling lots of food onto it. The ant eventually stumbles, but realizes Donald is sitting on a veritable gold mine. He rallies his fellow ants, and while Donald is napping, they cart him to a cliff and drop him into the river. When he returns to the raid in progress, he finds himself powerless to stop it. He dynamites the ant hill, but that only separates the ledge he's standing on, and he finds himself in the river again as the ants finish off a cupcake.

As in the classic fable, the grasshopper plays his fiddle and lives for the moment, while the industrious ants squirrel away massive amounts of food for the winter. With his song, he's able to convince at least one small ant until the queen arrives and scares him back to work. The queen warns the grasshopper of the trouble he'll be in, come winter. Winter comes, and the grasshopper, near starvation, stumbles across the ants, who are having a full-on feast in their snug little tree. They take him in and warm him up. The queen tells him only those who work can eat so he must play for them. Written by Jon Reeves

A bug’s life laid bare in this charming cut-out animated tale.

With Once Upon a Forest, Luc Jacquet invites the spectator into a never-before-seen world of natural wonder and staggering beauty. “For the first time, we will be able to watch a rain forest growing before our eyes…Only cinema can offer this unique voyage into a completely untamed universe, a world of perfect balance in which each living thing – from the smallest to the largest – plays an essential role. The film will deliver a complete sensory immersion in the primaeval splendor of one of nature’s richest mysteries, inviting the audience to enter, discover and marvel at a universe of untold treasures while joining its voice to the ever-growing awareness of the need to preserve our world.”

An ant dreams of visiting the Taj Mahal.

The 1890s; a picnic in the park. A man is pitching woo to his girl, while behind them a steady stream of ants is methodically devouring and carting off their food. Some other interludes include four ants eating Russian rye bread, then breaking for a Russian dance; a torch singer that sends everyone scurrying for some kind of ear plugs; a chef ant that coordinates the creation of three sandwiches that the humans eat.