Bee Movie - Review

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Length: 90 min

Rated: PG

Distributor: DreamWorks

Release Date: 2007-11-02

Starring: Jerry Seinfeld, Renee Zellweger, Alan Arkin, Kathy Bates, Matthew Broderick, John Goodman, Larry King, William H. Macy, Megan Mullally, Tim Blake Nelson, Patrick Warburton, Oprah Winfrey

Directed by Steve Hickner, Simon J. Smith

Produced by Jerry Seinfeld, Christina Steinberg

Written by Spike Feresten, Barry Marder, Andy Robin, Jerry Seinfeld

Visit the movie's Official Site!

Reviewed by Josh Tyler : 2007-10-31 00:10:36

DreamWorks may have messed up on the title for Bee Movie. Oh they got it half right, it is about bees after all, but it’s not so much a movie. Instead, Jerry Seinfeld has jotted down a few fairly obvious bee observations and then paid a bunch of incredibly talented artists to animate them. There’s not much of a story to string those observations together and what story there is, well it’s bee-buzzingly silly.

Actually, silly may be a somewhat generous term for what’s going on here. Stupid may be a better one. It starts rationally enough, with the movie taking us inside the secret lives of bees inside a bee hive. Barry B. Benson (voiced by Jerry Seinfeld) is a newly graduated bee about to select the job he’ll do in his hive, a job he’ll do until the hive quite literally works him to death. Barry, unlike all the other buzzing bugs around him, finds this prospect somewhat unsatisfying and the film seems on the verge taking its audience down the path of some grand social statement about corporatism and working a life of drudgery for very little reward. It’s also sort of funny, with the Seinfeld co-written script making cute bee related gags, about on par with the sort of corny gunk you’d see on an episode of The Flintstones, only with a much funnier, wry, Seinfeld twist.

Then in a moment of pure cinematic exhilaration, Bee Movie tosses all of that as Barry flies out of his hive for the first time into a wide open world; a world where quite literally everyone is certifiably insane. I’m not just talking about insane from the point of view of a bee; I’m talking all American, grade “A” crazy. Bee Movie stops making any sense. Barry starts talking to a human named Vanessa (voiced by Renee Zellweger). Vanessa reacts appropriately, with utter shock and amazement. They form a relationship, and Barry talks her into helping him sue honey manufacturers for stealing bee honey. That’s right, this is a courtroom movie. With almost no effort Barry is suddenly arguing before a human judge and jury, who unlike Vanessa, are surprisingly accepting of the notion that bees are intelligent and can not only talk, but make a pretty mean legal argument. Before long even Vanessa has lost her head, and she dumps her boyfriend in favor of dating Barry. I guess she has a thing for stingers.

Bee Movie goes from cute and funny to bizarre in an instant. The film’s universe is inconsistent, topsy turvey and I’m not sure what it’s trying to do. It keeps on making those giggle-worthy little bee-related observations, and they’re enough to keep it entertaining, but the story doesn’t make sense by any standard. It morphs from the bee version of Toy Story into some sort of wacky Looney Tunes cartoon, complete with John Goodman doing a Foghorn Leghorn impression as opposing council and an erratic plane crash sequence governed by the laws of Bug Bunny-style physics. I love the Looney Tunes, but Bee Movie needs to pick a tone and stick with it. One minute it’s a more realistic, epic animated film in the vein of Ratatouille, the next it’s Space Jam. Any pretense of sensible plot progression is abandoned in order to put Barry in common human social situations where he’s given the opportunity to insert a randomly funny comment on human/bee relationships. The result is a lot of great Seinfeldian bee jokes, but they come at the expense of more basic things, like say logic.

The baffling thing about Bee Movie’s wildly weird behavior, is that it’s hard to figure if the script is simply that bad, or if there’s some sort of wicked genius at work here. Yes the film is completely illogical and absolutely all over the map, yet I think maybe it’s on purpose. It’s as if the Bee-team said screw all that normal stuff and let’s just focus on entertaining ourselves by having a lot of fun with bees, doing whatever the heck we want. And so they did. The grand, uplifting theme about individuality and grabbing your dreams hinted at in the beginning is a red herring that never goes anywhere, as is any other sensible thing in the film you might grab on to. Bee Movie is what it is: an amiable black and yellow collection of rather silly, mildly amusing jokes thrown together with some great animation and a few pulse-pounding bee-flight sequences. Utterly ridiculous? Absolutely. But maybe that’s not so bad.

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Steven Says:
October 31st, 2007 at 01:24
Are you sure you want to give this three out of five stars? sounds a lot more like two stars to me.

JoshT Says:
October 31st, 2007 at 01:26
Since I assigned the rating, then yes I'm sure.

I was entertained by it, in spite of all the things wrong with it.

As always though, star ratings are an irrelevant and inaccurate way to define a movie. Read the review.

Cosmo Says:
October 31st, 2007 at 02:56
So you enjoyed it? Giddy-up. Do you think it will have a big opening weekend? What's your guess?

Mother Says:
November 6th, 2007 at 01:07
I took my 7 year old. It has opened up a whole world of interest for her. To the point that we went on the internet together, researching a lot of the points made. We then printed it and she wants to show her class everything she has learnt about bees.

Lumper Says:
November 7th, 2007 at 00:56
I just saw this film, and Although the reviewer makes some valid points regarding the weaknesses if you can call them that, ie: the deeper and perhaps more interesting social look at the drudgery of life in a sense not being explored as one might expect based on the films first scenes, it is a kids animated film not a documentary.

I think if you over think the picture you then that may make sense to you, however it is entertaining and children should enjoy it very much, the animation is top notch and there are lots of quick references that are funny for adults.
yes in hindsight it could have gone many ways after the first 15 minutes that may have been interesting but all in all for what it is it was enjoyable to watch.
The ending sequence is weak but again it is a silly kids animated movie.
It was fun to watch, I think for what it is 3 stars is appropriate.
Lump

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Bee Movie - Review

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