A.N.T. Farm

A.N.T. Farm
Format	Teen sitcom Musical show
Created by	Dan Signer
Starring	China Anne McClain Sierra McCormick Jake Short Stefanie Scott Carlon Jeffery Aedin Mincks
Theme music composer	Toby Gad, Lindy Robbins, China Anne McClain, Lauryn McClain, and Sierra McClain
Opening theme	"Exceptional", performed by China Anne McClain
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	43 (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Dan Signer Stephen Engel
Camera setup	Videotape (filmized); Multi-camera
Running time	22 minutes
Production company(s)	It's a Laugh Productions Gravy Boat Productions Disney Channel Original Productions
Broadcast
Original channel	Disney Channel
Picture format	480i (SDTV) 720p (HDTV)
Original run	May 6, 2011 (2011-05-06) – present
External links
Website

A.N.T. Farm is a Disney Channel sitcom which premiered on May 6, 2011 as a special preview and continued as a regular series on June 17, 2011.^[1] The pilot episode, "transplANTed" aired after the series finale of The Suite Life on Deck.^[2] The series was created by Dan Signer, a former writer and co-executive producer of The Suite Life on Deck and creator of the Disney XD series Mr. Young. In mid-November 2010, Disney Channel green-lit the series,^[3] with production beginning in early 2011.^[4] The first promo was released during the premiere of Lemonade Mouth.

Taking place in San Francisco, the series stars China Anne McClain, Sierra McCormick and Jake Short are middle-schoolers in a gifted program at their local high school called the "Advanced Natural Talent" or "A.N.T." program.

On November 30, 2011, A.N.T. Farm was officially picked up for a second season, which premiered on June 1, 2012 with two back-to-back episodes.^[5]

On October 2, 2012, A.N.T. Farm was officially renewed for a third season by Disney Channel, which will premiere May 31, 2013 with a one hour special.^[6][7]

[edit] Plot

A.N.T. Farm revolves around Chyna Parks (China Anne McClain), a 13-year-old musical prodigy, who has just become the newest A.N.T. (Advanced Natural Talents) in the A.N.T. program at Webster High School in San Francisco, California. On her first day, she meets Olive Doyle (Sierra McCormick), an odd girl who has an eidetic memory, and Fletcher Quimby (Jake Short), an artistic genius (but otherwise quite dim) who falls deeply in love with her when they first meet. They soon become her best friends at the high school. They proceed to go on multiple adventures, using their talents to their advantage.

The school's "it" girl, Lexi Reed (Stefanie Scott), proceeds to bully Chyna, thinking of her as competition in being the star of the school. Chyna's bumbling older brother, Cameron (Carlon Jeffery), attempts to avoid Chyna in high school as much as he can, afraid she will be an embarrassment to him. Lexi's best friend Paisley, (Allie DeBerry) and Chyna, Olive, and Fletcher's friend Angus (Aedin Mincks) share a major-recurring role on the series.

Season 3 will take place at a boarding school instead of at Webster High School.^[7]

[edit] Production

[edit] Development

Disney Channel announced on November 11, 2010 that they had green-lighted the show for production, which began in early 2011.^[8] The show was first conceived when Dan Signer, creator of the show, saw China Anne McClain. "The girl had so much confidence. She can nail a joke. She can sing. She can play instruments. It's like China was some sort of child prodigy [...] And that's when it hit me: Why not build a show around a child prodigy? Someone who's got all of this natural talent & ability, but is still challenged when she's sent off to high school at the age of 11?" Signer said in an interview.^[9] After the first few episodes of the show were shown, Disney Channel bumped up their order of episodes for the show from 13 episodes to 26 episodes for the first season.^[9] On November 19, 2011, the series was renewed for a second season which would start filming in early December.^[10]

[edit] Casting

Sierra McCormick was cast after an audition where she continually talked about tigers. Dan Signer stated "And as I heard her continually talking about tigers, I thought 'That's just how Olive would sound,' because Olive is a fast talking, intelligent student whose talent is memory. Which is how Sierra got that part."^[9] Jake Short was the last of the three core characters to be cast.

[edit] Characters

[edit] Main characters

This article may be written from a fan's point of view, rather than a neutral point of view. Please clean it up to conform to a higher standard of quality, and to make it neutral in tone. (December 2012)

The main characters of A.N.T. Farm: (from left to right) Lexi Reed, Olive Doyle, Chyna Parks, Fletcher Quimby, and Cameron Parks. Can also use cursor to identify.

• Chyna Parks (China Anne McClain) is the A.N.T. program's musically gifted one, as she can play the guitar, piano, violin, trumpet, saxophone, flute, cello, harp, bagpipes, French horn, bugle, theremin, drums, harmonica, keyboard, bassoon, tuba and the spoons. She also sings a lot, blowing people away with her big, soulful voice. Never afraid of a challenge, she sees high school as an exciting place. Unfortunately, she’s going to have to drag her new friends out of their shells to experience it. In "ballet dANTser", Chyna reveals that the only instrument she cannot play is the triangle.
• Olive Doyle (Sierra McCormick) is extremely smart. Thanks to her eidetic memory, everything she’s ever read, heard, or seen is permanently etched in her brain. Olive, always ready with a fact about pretty much everything, is something of an over-thinker. She’d rather hide in the safety of the ANT Farm, but her new friend Chyna is not going to let that happen. Olive is shown to have many different phobias, being frightened by things such as ghosts, leprechauns and curly fries. In the episode "phANTom locker" it is mentioned that she has a locker next to Cameron, Chyna's brother. In the episode "replicANT", Olive reveals that her middle name is Daphne. Also, in the episode "studANT council", it is shown that she is an excellent rapper. Her full name (Olive Daphne Doyle) in initials, spells odd.
• Fletcher Quimby (Jake Short) is an artistic genius, gifted in all media – painting, sculpture, drawing, and other forms of art. But to him, the most beautiful work of art is Chyna. He's been in love with her since the first moment he saw her, though has trouble keeping his crush a secret when he’s constantly immortalizing her in his art. His crush on her may lead him to lose his mind sometimes, like how he denies that he likes her right in front of her. For example, in "transplANTed", when Fletcher saw Chyna walk into the A.N.T. Farm, he instantly said that she is beautiful.
• Lexi Reed (Stefanie Scott) Lexi Reed is Chyna’s biggest rival at Webster High. She is the series' main antagonist. Chyna may be the leader of the ANTs, but Lexi still considers herself the Queen Bee. She was known as the star of every school play until Chyna showed up, creating a rivalry between the two. However, she begins allying with Chyna and her friends, especially Cameron. Eventually, she becomes Student-Body President. Her best friend and sidekick is Paisley, who will listen to every word Lexi says, but sometimes in the wrong way. She hates Vanessa (Vanessa Morgan) because everyone thinks Vanessa is prettier than her. She works at Hippo's restaurant. Lexi kisses Cameron for first time ever in the episode "detective agANTcy." She is also the winner of many pagaents.
• Cameron Parks (Carlon Jeffery) is Chyna’s older brother, though he spends a lot of time in her shadow. While she’s a prodigy, he’s not especially gifted at anything, but is determined to find something at which he excels. He’s not thrilled that his kid sister is at his school, so he tries to keep his distance. But, when push comes to shove, Cameron will step up to help Chyna, especially when it involves problems with Lexi. In some scenarios, Chyna helps him. He is under five feet tall, even as a sophomore. Ironically, he often seems to get along with his sister's nemesis, Lexi, who mostly goes along with his plans to entertain herself because she wants to see how ignorant he is. He later has a girlfriend who is a model, Vanessa, but she broke up with him because he kept on spending time with lots of girls to keep Vanessa away from other boys, but she felt he had lost interest in her after Cameron's break up he reveals that he has a Crush on Lexi and Smiled when Lexi kissed him. Carlon Jeffery will not be part of the regular cast in season 3.^[7]
• Angus Chestnut (Aedin Mincks) is a computer genius who often runs illegal programs on his computer disguised as video games. He has a huge, but unrequited, crush on Olive. Because of the extensive time he spends on his computer, he is quite lazy and unwilling to do basic physical tasks, such as walking in between classes, to the point where he, in the episode, "ClairvoyANT", rides on an elderly scooter so he doesn't have to walk. Aiden Mincks will be apart of the main cast in Season 3, replacing Carlon Jeffery. ^[11]

[edit] Recurring characters

• Paisley Houndstooth (Allie DeBerry) is Lexi's empty-headed friend. She is also on the cheer squad, even though she's clueless about almost every cheer, and often hopelessly confused about everything that's going on. However, she thinks differently than Lexi because she is more a friendly and sweet-spirited girl who cares about people. Both easily fooled and free with compliments, she is treated badly by Lexi despite their being "best friends." She broke up with her boyfriend Keith in ClairvoyANT after she accused Keith of hitting Angus's electronic wheelchair with his body. She loves Badgers as shown in TransplANTed.
• Susan Skidmore (Mindy Sterling) is the corrupt school principal. She's completely convinced herself that she is young and beautiful, to the point where she cannot believe her own reflection is her. She runs the A.N.T Program like a sweatshop, to use the kids' talents for her own use and benefit. She is at all times finding ways to spend as little of the school budget as possible. Examples include replacing dinosaur nuggets with different nuggets because they cost five cents less and replacing the school nurse with a first aid kit.
• Darryl Parks (Finesse Mitchell) is Chyna and Cameron's dad. He loves his daughter dearly, but can be very overprotective at times, going to extreme and often ridiculous measures to ensure her safety. He is also known to be relatively cheap. Though known as a "highly decorated" police officer, he is rarely seen taking his job very seriously and is proud of having "San Franisco's cleanest cop car".
• Gibson (Zach Steel) is the counselor, tutor, and therapist of the A.N.T. Farm. He is shown to be caring, sensitive, and somewhat dimwitted, as well as acting more like a child. He likes knitting, mahjong, and feeding pigeons. He doesn't like his grandmother's boyfriend, Bob, and in "Bad RomANTs," he has gotten back together with his childhood girlfriend despite the fact that she's in jail. Gibson keeps many items in his voluminous hair, from tissues to assorted foods.
• Wacky the Wolf (Christian Campos) is the taciturn school mascot. The person inside the costume is never shown. However on Season 2, episode fANTasy girl, Fletcher removes the head and no one is inside the suit- yet it still moves. He is good friends with Chyna, Olive and Fletcher. Wacky is shown to take his job as school mascot very seriously.
• Roxanne Parks (Elise Neal) is Chyna and Cameron's mom. She is a children's birthday party entertainer. So far, she has only been seen in four episodes, but has been mentioned in three episodes. Although she is busy with her work, she still loves her kids. Darryl tricked her into marrying him.^{[citation needed]}
• Violet (Claire Engler) is the newest A.N.T, with sports and anything athletic as her talent. She has an explosive temper, and reacts with violence to the slightest offence. In Ballet DANTser, it is revealed that she has a crush on Fletcher. She appeared in "InfANT", when Chyna, Olive, and Fletcher have to find a baby's talent. She also appeared in "fANTasy Girl", in which she wanted Fletcher to go to a dance with her, but Fletcher didn't want to go with her, so much so that he convinced Chyna to go with him instead.
• Jared (Cameron Palatas) is a Webster High School student and a minor character in the series. He appeared in "Some enchANTed evening" where he played Chyna's fake boyfriend, and in "You're the one that I wANT" where he played the lead male role in the school play and always stayed in character.
• Hippo (Matt Lowe) is a creepy guy who went from the music business to the restaurant business. He often changes the theme of his restaurant to ensure that it is stylish.
• Hazel (Ella Anderson) "Orphan Girl" is a spunky, strong five year old that first appears in Creative ConsultANT. When Cameron and Fletcher want to see this movie that is for young kids, and invites some orphans and then Hazel wants to see a different movie instead. Then Hazel appears in the episode "AmusemANT park" when she and the other orphans got to an amusement park to play games. They end up playing "Pelt the Penguin", a game Chyna and Cameron created, and Hazel plays to win the prizes- Olive's dolls she was donating to charity. Also, Hazel used fake money to pay for playing Pelt the Penguin; she is very mean and clever. And near the end of the episode, AmusemANT park she burns all of Olive's dolls except the one that Olive was using for a doll pageant.

[edit] Guest stars

• Sequoia Jones (Zendaya) Sequoia Jones is a teen movie star who loves to play her role perfectly by shadowing a person and almost stealing their identity. Her only appearance was in the episode "creative consultANT".
• Vanessa (originally credited as Jeanne) (Vanessa Morgan) is a model from Canada and Cameron's girlfriend. Chyna tracks her down so Cameron would feel better, because in the episode FANTasy Girl, Cameron imagines Vanessa is his date to the dance, but thinks her name is Jeanne Gossamer because he was dozing off, looking at Lexi's magazine where she was on the cover of a jeans catalog. Chyna helps Cameron track down his imaginary model girlfriend, whose real name is Vanessa LaFontaine, and Chyna and Angus do everything they can to help Cameron impress her. Vanessa has bandages on her eyes that kept her from seeing what Cameron actually looked like. In ANTswers, Lexi gets jealous of Vanessa when she models for Hippo's new restaurant, and convinces Cameron that Vanessa might be an alien. In the end they find out Vanessa is an alien, but not the kind they thought. She is from Canada, so she isn't a US citizen, making her an alien. In ANTagonist, Cameron joins the several clubs with Vanessa which Lexi is the president of to keep the guys away from her. Vanessa thinks Cameron hangs out with the girls because he has lost interest in her. Vanessa breaks up with Cameron.
• Tasmanian Neville (Billy Unger) Tasmanian Neville is an Australian "Explorer". He acts like he is a proper survivalist when he turns out to be a weakling. His only appearance was in the episode "endurANTS". He gets lost with Angus, Chyna, Fletcher and Olive. Fletcher goes and hunts and the ANTs get trouble-sick and fight wild emus over a watering hole.

[edit] Episodes

[edit] Special episodes

[edit] Soundtrack

The A.N.T. Farm Soundtrack is a Disney Channel soundtrack from the TV series, A.N.T. Farm. It was released on October 11, 2011. In addition to songs by China Anne McClain and cast members Stefanie Scott and Carlon Jeffery, it features two songs by China and her sisters (The McClain Sisters) leading up to their debut album on Hollywood Records in 2012. The soundtrack has released 2 singles. The first single to be released was "Dynamite". The second single to be released was "Calling All the Monsters". The song was the first single to chart, peaking at number 86 on America and charting in 2 more countries. The third single to be released was "Unstoppable".

[edit] Release

[edit] Ratings

The sneak preview of the series garnered 4.4 million viewers on its premiere night, ranked as TV’s No. 1 Telecast in Total Day among Tweens 9-14 (441,000/1.8 rating) and was also TV’s No. 1 Telecast among Kids 6-11 (544,000/2.2 rating).^[14] Its lead-in, the series finale of The Suite Life on Deck, received 4.6 million.^[14]

The episode "The PhANTom Locker", is currently the most watched episode of the series, scoring 4.6 million viewers.^[10] It did better than its lead-in Wizards of Waverly Place, which earned 4.1 million viewers.^[10] The episode "detective agANTcy", is currently the least watched episode of the series, only scoring 2.2 million viewers.^[15]

[edit] Awards

[edit] International release

Country / Region	Channel	Series premiere	Title in country
United States	Disney Channel USA	May 6, 2011 (Sneak peek) June 17, 2011 (Premiere)	A.N.T. Farm
Canada	Family	May 23, 2011 (Sneak peek) June 24, 2011 (Premiere)
Australia	Disney Channel Australia Saturday Disney	August 15, 2011 May 19, 2012
Argentina  Bolivia  Chile  Colombia  Ecuador  Mexico  Peru  Uruguay  Venezuela  Panama	Disney Channel Latin America	August 21, 2011 (Sneak peek) September 16, 2011 (Premiere)	Programa de Talentos (Talents Program)
Brazil	Disney Channel Brazil
France	Disney Channel France	October 5, 2011	Section Genius
Quebec	VRAK.TV	August 29, 2012	Section Genius
United Kingdom  Ireland	Disney Channel UK and Ireland	September 16, 2011 (Sneak peek) October 7, 2011 (Premiere)	A.N.T. Farm
Italy	Disney Channel Italy	October 7, 2011	A.N.T. Farm: Accademia Nuovi Talenti (A.N.T. Farm: New Talent Academy)
Singapore	Disney Channel Singapore		A.N.T. Farm
Arab World	Disney Channel Middle East	November 19, 2011	النمل مزرعة
Denmark  Finland  Norway  Sweden	Disney Channel Scandinavia	October 21, 2011	A.N.T.- Akselerert Naturlig Talent (Accelerated Natural Talent) (Norway) A.N.T. - Accellereret Naturtalent (Accelerated Nature Talent) (Denmark) A.N.T.- Avancerad Ny Talang (Advanced New Talent) (Sweden)
Spain	Disney Channel Spain	November 11, 2011	A.N.T. Farm Escuela de Talentos (A.N.T Farm Talent School)
Austria  Germany  Switzerland	Disney Channel Germany Super RTL	November 17, 2011 March 17, 2012	A.N.T.: Achtung Natur-Talente (A.N.T.: Attention Natural Talents)
Portugal	Disney Channel Portugal	November 25, 2011	A.N.T. Farm: Escola de Talentos (A.N.T Farm: Talent School)
Bulgaria  Macedonia	Disney Channel Bulgaria	December 10, 2011	Фермата Г.О.Т. (Farm G.O.T.)
Cyprus  Greece	Disney Channel Greece		Παιδιά- τσακάλια (Kids- Geniuses)
Czech Republic  Slovakia	Disney Channel Czech Republic		Farma R.A.K.(Farm R.A.C.)
Hungary	Disney Channel Hungary		Zsenipalánták (Little Geniuses)
Moldova  Romania	Disney Channel Romania		Bobocii isteti (Smart Kids)
Poland	Disney Channel Poland		Nadzdolni (Over-talented)
Turkey	Disney Channel Turkey		Yetenek Çiftliği (Talent Farm)
Ukraine	Disney Channel Ukraine		Табiр О.С.А. (Camp B.E.E.)
Netherlands  Belgium	Disney Channel Netherlands and Flanders	December 23, 2011 (Sneak peek) January 13, 2012 (Premiere)	A.N.T. Farm
Israel	Disney Channel Israel	January 26, 2012	החרשנים
Japan	Disney Channel Japan	January 28, 2012	天才学級アント・ファーム (Genius Class A.N.T. Farm)
Russia	Disney Channel Russia	March 3, 2012	Высший класс! (The Upper Class!)
Taiwan	Disney Channel Taiwan	March 16, 2012	天才學園 (Genius School)
South Korea	Disney Channel Korea	2013	개미 농장 (Ant Farm)

[edit] References

[edit] House

Chyna's house used in A.N.T. Farm is in the same neighborhood as the Full House house as seen in both shows. It is possible that both shows take place in the same universe. In the Full House intro you can see Chyna's house.

[edit] External links

• Official website
• A.N.T. Farm at the Internet Movie Database
• A.N.T. Farm at TV.com
• A.N.T. Farm at TVGuide.com