Bee Movie
By Jason Revill
After a grueling three days of college Barry B. Benson (Jerry Seinfeld) has found himself with the daunting tasking of having to decide on a career. To his he horror he is limited to basically one choice, making honey and whatever job he choices he will have until the day he dies. Unfortunately, the one job he wants, a super macho Pollen Jock, he wasn’t bred for. In an attempt to see the outside world, Barry slips off one day to see what it is like on the outside of the hive. While out he befriends a florist named Vanessa (Renée Zellweger) and discovers that humans have enslaved his fellow bees for the purpose of stealing their honey. Barry decides that there is really only one course of action, take the honey manufacturers to court, but unfortunately for everyone there are larger ramifications to Barry’s actions.
As Barry, Jerry Seinfeld is not only able to pull of his patented one-liners and observational style humor, but his nasally voice captures Barry’s horror and outrage at finding that humans have enslaved bees. More than that, in some ways Barry isn’t that great of a guy and he’s pretty much wrong the entire movie. To pull a hero out of that is a testament to the writing as well as the voice work. I was greatly relieved to see that they had the will power to not force Chris Rock’s Mooseblood on us like Shrek does with Donkey. It was wise to limit our exposure to both him and other characters played by Patrick Warburton and John Goodman, allowing us to get every ounce of comedy without becoming tiring. Zellweger’s voice is perfect for this sort of thing in that it has a unique quality to it and is not only sweet but able to capture a wider range of emotion but going over the top.
A lot of other kids movies obviously put more effort on the kid aspect of the film so that the humor generally is on par with poop jokes and what few pop culture references there are have about as much comedic resonance of a greeting card. I think that is a huge mistake. Why would you not have the same standards in your child’s entertainment as you would in your own? If you start dumbing them down from the beginning what chance do they have? With Bee Movie there has been a great deal of effort put in making not only the writing sharp but allowing the characters to do quite a bit with body language. It’s more than just Seinfeldian wit, you also have the obligatory pop culture references, some unexpected veiled racial humor and a fairly good skewering of Ray Liotta and Sting. Really, who thinks to use Ray Liotta as a punch line in a kid’s movie? Personally, I love the fact that Oprah plays a part, but there isn’t a big deal made of it and that there is a bee version of Bob Hope just inserted in the background.
There’s a plot element that ever since I saw Bee Movie that I can’t stop thinking about. The reason Barry leaves the hive in the first place is that he is having a Graduate-esque crisis of faith. He’s afraid of having to choose a career, but really his problem is that he’s not allowed to be the one thing he wants to be, a Pollen Jockey. His being barred from his desired career is what sends him on his journey that ends up with globally disastrous results. What kills me about this is that when movies like Ratatouille are telling kids to go out and do whatever they want regardless of the consequences, Bee Movie is saying that you can be an individual, but when you selfishly put your needs above that of the community as a whole, everyone suffers. I have to say, I can get behind that. Then again I could just be a closet Trotskyite.
This is a fantastic movie for kids and there’s enough humor that adults are going to miss things, which is great because if you have children that means there will be things for you to enjoy on subsequent viewings. Even the cornier childish laughs are done with enough of a wink that the punch line isn’t really the joke. Bee Movie goes on a short list with movies like The Incredibles and Cars of animated films in recent years that not only would I buy for my niece, but I would own myself.
The Grade
- Story: B
- Acting: B
- Visuals: A
- Originality: A
- Enjoyability: A
- Overall: A-
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