I really wanted Bee Movie to be better. It seemed like it had so much more going for it and yet it misses the mark of both child and adult audiences. Children won't get most of the jokes, and the adults will be annoyed that all there is to enjoy is a slew of tired puns. There will be a chuckle here or there - but overall Bee Movie fails to get off the ground.
When Barry B. Benson (Jerry Seinfeld) graduates after the strenuous week-long schooling period of bees, he's posed with the following task: choose your position within the hive. In case you missed the subtlety of the comedy, you'll notice that Seinfeld's character's names all start with the letter ‘b'...because he is a bee. Get it. Wow. Where does Barry see himself within the honey-making process that rules all factors of hive-life? Is he a stirrer like his father? Or will he be a stunt bee and test out experimental products like the ill-fated slapstick gag that appears throughout the movie? As Barry doubts the importance of limiting himself to making honey, he goes out on a test-run with the pollen jockeys to gather nectar for the production process. While out and about he gets separated and finds his way into the home of Vanessa Bloome (Zellweger), a florist. Get it? Bloome? Florist? Wow. This humor is so clever.
As Barry spends time with and becomes enraptured by Vanessa, he learns a harrowing secret so appalling that the audience will surely sympathize with the economic plight of bees across the globe: humans are stealing the honey of bees. Oh dear lord. Is there no justice left in this world? Well, actually yes there is. Bee Movie apparently takes place in Universe XG45NH where Bee's are capable of pursuing and legally entitled to court dates. How fortunate for them. So, Barry sues the honey conglomerates to return the honey and he wins. This little legal segment (which stretches on longer than I would like) does feature the funniest part of the film: Ray Liotta and Sting's testimonies as thieves of bee-oriented items. Sting was particularly funny. The bees win the legal battle, all their honey is returned and the bees across the world become lazy sad sacks who no longer wish to do anything - including pollination. With the bees quitting the pollination process, all the plants in the world begin to die off and Barry and Vanessa find the fate of the world in their hands. Can they find some flowers and repollinate the world?
Parents and kids alike don't really care. The film is so confused on its own theme that even if the jokes had been funny - the film still wouldn't have been great. But as it is - with Seinfeld's jokes being nothing but horrible puns - Bee Movie flails, gags and eventually crash lands in the all-too crowded fields of crappy children's films.
The concept of Barry wanting to strike out and choose his destiny for himself so closely resembles Woody Allen's Antz that by the time the movie goes back on the message of non-conformity - the audience no longer knows what the movie wants to teach us. Bee Movie seems to preach that non-conformity comes with a world-devastating price. Are we to assume that Bee Movie wants us all to fall in line and become nice little drones - does that make the world a better place? But even that message is marred by Barry's decision to continue his non-conformist career as a legal advisor. Bee Movie is all mixed up and doesn't know what it wants to say!
Sure, Jerry Seinfeld does as well as he ever does in lending his voice to an animated insect - but his voice can only carry a movie so far. If said movie completely lacks in funny dialogue Seinfeld's voice isn't worth anything but a piece of publicity to get a few more people in the theater. I almost feel betrayed by Jerry Seinfeld tricking me into thinking Bee Movie would be funny. The hardest I laughed was at the TiVo and HiVo joke - which appeared in the trailer!!!
Though on the plus side - Renee Zellweger is much less annoying in animated form. And visually the animation is quite easy on the eye. Very pretty.
Avoid Bee Movie. There are better kids movies out right now. Go to one of the other options you the parent will get much more out of this. If you're a kid reading this - I applaud your reading level but don't make your parents go to this movie.
Boo for Bee.
"Bee Movie" opens November 2, 2007 and is rated PG. Animation, Children & Family, Comedy. Directed by Simon J Smith, Steve Hickner. Written by Jerry Seinfeld, Andy Robin, Barry Marder, Spike Feresten. Starring Chris Rock, Jerry Seinfeld, John Goodman, Kathy Bates, Larry Miller, Matthew Broderick, Oprah Winfrey, Patrick Warburton, Ray Liotta, Renee Zellweger, Rip Torn.
