Bee Movie (Full Screen Edition)
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Actor: Voice of Jerry Seinfeld, Voice of Renee ZellwegerBrand: Paramount
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language); French (Dubbed); Spanish (Dubbed)
Format: Animated, Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 90 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-03-11
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Dreamworks Animated
DVD Reviews of Bee Movie (Full Screen Edition)
DVD Review: Nowhere close to "Toy Story"
Summary: 2 Stars
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
For the first 30 minutes I thought that Bee Movie had a chance to become a classic like "Toy Story" but as the minutes ticked away, I realized it wasn't going to happen. Unlike Toy Story, Bee Movie does not have a central antagonist. Remember "Sid", the psycho kid who terrorizes the toys in Toy Story? What a marvelous creepy kid! Bee Movie offers up a number of limp opponents to Seinfeld's Barry B. Benson. There's the completely unfunny macho tennis player boyfriend in the beginning who is constantly trying to smash Barry to a pulp and an odious obese attorney who ends up having an allergy attack after he's stung by Barry's sidekick, Adam (couldn't understand why Adam was still alive after he stung the attorney--wasn't it established early on that bees die right away after they sting their target?).
Ultimately it's Barry's own misguided idealism which becomes the "villain" after he successfully sues humankind for stealing the bees' honey. It's good for an exploration of Barry's 'inner journey' but a movie still needs an actual real world antagonist to root against. In Ratatouille, a rat speaks to a cook in a restaurant but he's the only one who can hear the rat. And there's a purpose to the relationship--the rat helps the cook to become a great chef. In Bee Story, there are awkward romantic suggestions between Vanessa (Rene Zelwegger) and Barry and obviously that's an idea that doesn't work since it cannot be put into practice. It would have been much better if Vanessa is the only human who can hear Barry. And perhaps the character could have been some kind of 'pet psychic' now branching off into the insect world.
I felt there could have been much more done within the 'hive' itself. A great opportunity was lost when nothing was done with the idea of a QUEEN BEE character (there was one lame joke about a cross-dressing 'queen bee' halfway through the movie). And Chris Rock's Mosquito should have been Barry's sidekick throughout most of the movie (not Adam!).
In Toy Story, the toys leave the 'ordinary world' of a child's playroom and end up in the dangerous real world. The scenes where Barry leaves the hive and must confront all the dangers of the NATURAL WORLD was the best part of the movie (most people have alluded to the tennis ball scene as a particularly strong visual scene). The writers should have kept Barry outside the hive for most of the movie but should NOT have pitted him mainly against human characters. A threat from the insect world (such as a king of the roaches modeled on some kind of contemporary madman like the Iranian president) would have been a much better threat to the bee world then the idea that their honey was being taken away from them by humans. That idea doesn't really make sense since in reality bees continue to make honey despite human encroachment. I'm not suggesting that the whole lawsuit idea had to be jettisoned but it should have been a minor story line. I also found the climax of the movie to be unsatisfying--the bees guiding a jetliner to the ground seemed ludicrous. What's more, with great sentimentality, all the bees seemed to be elevated to a saintly status at the end of the movie.
The writers should have emulated Pixar who know how to successfully anthropomorphize their non-human characters (displaying the gamut of human foibles). There were many witty lines in Bee Movie and you can thank Jerry Seinfeld for his clever humor. If only more thought was put into the overall plot, then this could have been a classic!
Description of Bee Movie (Full Screen Edition)
"Bee Movie" is a comedy that will change everything you think you know about bees. Having just graduated from college, a bee by the name of Barry B. Benson (Jerry Seinfeld) finds himself disillusioned with the prospect of having only one career choice?honey. As he ventures outside of the hive for the first time, he breaks one of the cardinal rules of the bee world and talks to a human, a New York City florist named Vanessa (Renee Zellweger). He is shocked to discover that the humans have been stealing and eating the bee?s honey for centuries. He ultimately realizes that his true calling in life is to set the world right by suing the human race. That is until the ensuing chaos upsets the very balance of nature. It is up to Barry to prove that even a little bee can spell big changes in the world.There aren't a lot of choices in a bee's life: a bee attends a few days of school, graduates from college, and chooses a job in the hive that he'll labor at for the rest of his life. Barry (Jerry Seinfeld) is different from his best friend Adam (Matthew Broderick) and all the other bees: he wants to see the world outside the hive and can't begin to contemplate doing the same job for his entire life. Naturally, the life of the "pollen jock" bees appeals to Barry because it's the only job that takes a bee outside the hive and into the larger human world. Once outside the hive, Barry breaks the most sacred bee law and speaks to a human named Vanessa (Renée Zellweger) in order to thank her for saving his life. A relationship quickly blossoms and leads Barry to the discovery that humans are stealing honey from the bees and selling it for their own profit. Vowing to hurt the humans the one place they?ll feel it, Barry brings a legal suit against the honey industry and the courtroom drama begins. There are some hysterical moments in the film, as one would expect from a Seinfeld production, and an abundance of one-liners, double-meanings, slapstick humor, and innuendo-laden dialogue that will keep adults guffawing throughout the show. Still, the whole concept of seeing the life of a common pest through non-human eyes is getting repetitive thanks to films like Ratatouille, Flushed Away, Open Season, and Over the Hedge. It should be noted, though, that this first foray into animation by Jerry Seinfeld was four years in production due to its collaborative nature, so its theme may actually have well predated all of the aforementioned films. Children ages 5 and older will love the bees' silly antics, though many of the jokes will go right over their heads and parents should be cautioned about some mildly suggestive humor. More than just a comical film about the life of one very different honeybee, Bee Movie is a social commentary that pokes fun at human behavior while stressing the importance of doing even the most menial job well and championing the power of working together toward a common goal. There's even a lesson to be learned from the bees about controlling one's temper. --Tami Horiuchi
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