Minuscule 2: Mandibles from Far Away

Minuscule 2: Mandibles from Far Away
Film poster
Directed by	Hélène Giraud Thomas Szabo
Produced by	Philippe Delarue
Music by	Mathieu Lamboley
Production companies	Le Pacte Éditions Montparnasse Futurikon Ifilmfilm Entertainment France 3 Cinema Supamonks Studio Studios D'Animation The Yard B Media SofiTVCine
Distributed by	Signature Entertainment (United Kingdom/United States) Falcon Films (United States) Le Pacte Éditions Montparnasse (France)
Release dates	9 September 2018 (2018-09-09) (Toronto International Film Festival) 30 January 2019 (2019-01-30) (France)
Running time	93 minutes
Budget	€13 million

Minuscule 2: Mandibles from Far Away (released in the UK as A Minuscule Adventure) is a 2018 French adventure comedy live action animated film based on the TV show Minuscule and a sequel to Minuscule: Valley of the Lost Ants and was released on January 30, 2019.

Plot

Years after the events of the first film, Cox now lives with his family in a valley in southeastern France. One day, Junior, one of Cox's kids who wishes to be independent, leaves the group and tries to carry an apple he finds to their home. However, Toofete the fly and his gang steal it, having survived due to their ability to return from the afterlife. Cox leads them on a chase that ends with the flies being trapped on a spider's web, which then crashes and kills them. Cox and Junior then return home and hibernate for the winter with the others. Later that night, Mandible and his patrol raid a grocery store to obtain food for the winter, but the colony of red ants and Butor attack them, with Butor seeking revenge against Cox and Mandible. After being separated from the others following a chase into the shipping factory, Mandible uses his antennae to send a long-distance call to Cox, who awakens from hibernation and sets off with Junior.

As Cox and Junior arrive, the ensuing fight results in the red ants ending up in one of several boxes of chestnuts that are to be shipped around the globe. Junior ends up in a box headed for Guadeloupe in the Caribbean. Cox leaves Mandible and hitches a ride on the truck and then on an airplane headed to Guadeloupe. They arrive in Guadeloupe on a cargo plane, but Junior is separated from Cox and lost in the jungle. Cox regains consciousness and, with help from a troop of Caribbean ants, contacts Mandible before setting out to find Junior. After receiving the message, Mandible goes to the sewage pipe and meets with Cox's other friend, the black spider. They set off for Guadeloupe on a modified model ship, but get caught in a storm while crossing the Atlantic Ocean, causing them to fall into the sea, where a great white shark eats them.

In the jungle, Junior escapes from a praying mantis and falls into a cave, where he becomes stuck in a jumping spider's web, There, he meets a fly named Gray, a black swallowtail caterpillar, and a black ladybug named Coco, whom he falls in love with. Cox arrives and saves them by dropping a rock on the spider, and Cox and Coco narrowly escape with the others with a comatose Junior. As Gray and the caterpillar return home, Coco takes Cox to her colony's home, where the black ladybugs perform a ritual to help Junior regain consciousness. Meanwhile, Cox continues to try reaching out to his friends, but they are still in the shark's stomach. Two days later, Junior regains consciousness and reunites with Cox; he also begins to bond with Coco as his girlfriend.

One day, construction workers chop down the black ladybug's home to build a resort. While devising a plan to save them, Cox remembers the black swallowtail caterpillars defend themselves by emitting a strong odor, which caused the island's people to consider them a nuisance. Cox leaves Junior and Coco to find the caterpillar's home in a banyan tree. However, they follow him anyway and save him from the praying mantis, but are cornered near a cliff. As they are about to be eaten, Mandible and the black spider arrive to save them, having escaped from the shark's stomach. Cox, Junior, and Coco escape and head for the caterpillar's banyan tree, where the caterpillar that Cox saved guides him to their leader. He decides to help Cox after learning of the construction site by using his antennae to look into his memories. With help from the army, he leads them to another construction site, causing scientists to declare the area a caterpillar-infested area.

Afterwards the gang parts ways with their friends and returns home to resume hibernation, while Junior decides to stay behind to be with Coco. In a mid-credits scene, the chestnut box Butor and his colony were stuck in arrives in a restaurant in Beijing, China, where Butor begins to plot their escape and revenge against Cox and Mandible.

Cast

Unlike the first film, where few humans appeared, the film features more human characters. It also features some speech in French, Creole and Mandarin.

• Thierry Frémont as the grocer
• Bruno Salomone as the man who chews gum
• Stéphane Coulon as the driver of the van
• Franck Benezech as the construction manager of the hotel
• Sarah Cohen-Hadria as mother
• Bô Gaultier de Kermoal as the radio operator of the submarine

Production

Part of the filming took place in Guadeloupe, more precisely in the Saintes islands, between June and July 2017.

Critical response

The film received positive reviews from film critics.

External links

• Minuscule 2: Mandibles from Far Away at IMDb
• Minuscule 2: Mandibles from Far Away at Rotten Tomatoes