Review of Bee Movie (2007) by Seth S — 03 Jun 2013

Jerry Seinfeld's pet project isn't as good as it should/could have been. I've probably seen at least 150 of the 180 Seinfeld episodes, and I love the show. Nine years after Seinfeld ended its TV run, Jerry Seinfeld returned with Bee Movie. As the story goes, the movie's production started with the simple idea of, 'wouldn't it be funny to make an animated movie called Bee movie...like B movie, but Bee.' And it's no surprise that the result of starting with a title before a story makes for less than acceptable entertainment.

Barry B. Benson is your average, ordinary, bee. He is about to graduate into the working world and start work at Honex Industries. When he sees his options involve only dead-end, manual labor work around the Hive, he decides to join the Pollen Jocks. They are the bees that fly out to collect pollen. This job would give Barry the chance to escape the hive on a daily basis. He jumps at the opportunity. When out on his first mission, it starts to rain and he is nearly killed. But he is rescued by Vanessa, a kindly flower shop owner. Barry breaks "Bee Law #1" when he talks to Vanessa to thank her. They start a friendship, and Barry, in turn, realizes that humans have been stealing honey since the beginning of time. Barry sets in motion a plan to sue mankind for their years of theft.

The script, written by Jerry Seinfeld with the help of Seinfeld alums Andy Robin and Spike Feresten, is at some times funny, but fails to deliver on a whole. There are some humorous gags and one-liners sprinkled throughout the movie. This helps to make the whole thing more digestible. Sadly, the actually story is boring, not well thought out, rambling, and confused. It starts out promising enough, but once Barry leaves the Hive, everything goes down from there. Once the humans get introduced, much of the humor and originality of the story is lost. It gets progressively worse, to the point where it's nearly unbearable by the end. The story flounders around, looking for a way to fill up a meager 80 minutes. I can't remember the last time I cared less about a group of characters and their actions on screen then in the last 15-20 minutes of this movie.

The voice cast is lead by Jerry Seinfeld, and his performance as Barry is one of the bright spots in this muddled movie. He tries his best, and gives an enthusiastic performance. His character does get all the best lines, and he makes for a somewhat likable hero. Though Barry is more optimistic and less egotistical, he is pretty much just Jerry Seinfeld in bee form.

Renee Zellweger also stars as Vanessa. The character is completely bland, without an ounce of personality. Zellweger's performance is about the same, dry and predictable. The supporting cast, led by Matthew Broderick, Chris Rock, and Patrick Warburton at least try with their characters. Sadly there isn't enough decent material, and none of the supporting characters make much of an impression.

The animation looks no better than the back of a Cheerios box. The Hive is the most interesting visual in the movie, but even that is underused. The characters look like default templates that the animators found in the computer. And the animation is framed in utterly dull and unimaginative way.

The only other bright spot in the movie is Rupert Gregson-Williams musical score. The early scenes in the movie are wonderfully composed. The theme for the Pollen Jocks is right up there with the best animated themes. The catchier moments of the score are reminiscent of John Powell and Harry Gregson-Williams animated scores from the late 90s and early 00s. The "Barry flies out" and "landing the plane" scenes are especially well composed.

By and large, this is a complete failure of an animated movie. It isn't interesting enough to warrant any more than one viewing, something that usually can't be said about animated movies. Though I did find some of the jokes to be mildly amusing; Bee Movie proves that, 'What's the deal?' comedians should never make feature length animated films. It's especially lame when compared to the other 'talking animals' animated movie from 2007, Ratatouille.

"You know, there is a Larry King in the real world...He has suspenders, a desk, a TV show, different color lights behind him, and a marquee at the bottom of the screen saying what was just said even though you just heard him." 4.5/10.