Customer Reviews

Bee Movie (Full Screen Edition)

5 star:		(66)
4 star:		(50)
3 star:		(33)
2 star:		(16)
1 star:		(22)

 

 

I've seen all of the animated features since Toy Story, and liked this one better than most. It's not as funny as Shrek, and overall not as good as Monsters Inc or Finding Nemo, but certainly in the better half, comparable to Cars, Ice Age, and Over The Hedge. During the first twenty minutes or so it seemed like it might offer nothing better than a series of Bee jokes, which I see has resulted in some negative reviews here. But the story develops as an allegory for frivolous lawsuits, but it's the bee who brings the frivolous lawsuit here, so it doesn't jump on the Hollywood blame-humans-first bandwagon, which is refreshing. Some of the results are predictable, some funny, but not preachy or trite. There's at least one lawyer joke that had the audience in stitches, along with several other funny jokes.

Jerry Seinfeld has been away from the spotlight for some time now and 2007 marks the year of his return - but only as a voice in a computer animated film. While the premise is unique, the approach is generic, and the excellently animated, poorly executed family film will have difficulty avoiding the already popular classification that Bee Movie is indeed a B-movie.

Barry B. Benson (Jerry Seinfeld) is an average bee approaching adulthood, who must decide upon a job in the hive. The catch is that once he chooses his job, he must keep it for the rest of his life. Unsatisfied with the monotony of working in the hive, he ventures outside where he meets a human woman, Vanessa (Renée Zellweger), who saves his life. Indebted, he breaks the Cardinal bee rule: never talk to humans. At first Vanessa has difficulty accepting the talking bee, but the two soon spend quite a bit of time together and Barry gets overly comfortable as she reveals that she is a florist. Enamored with Vanessa, despite the interspecies barrier, Barry learns that humans have been stealing honey from bees and selling and eating it. Infuriated, he sets out to sue the honey company, with the help of Vanessa and his bee pals.

Apparently bees drive cars, they are all cousins, and they can use their antennas as cell phones. The comical world the creators have devised for the bees is perhaps the most creative aspect of the film. Many parallels reside with Barry's rebellious teen years and human childhood, as specifically referenced by a sensationally hysterical homage to The Graduate. From voting the queen bee into monarchy, to pollination, to insects on windshields and their attraction to lights, many of the typical insect behaviors are addressed and translated into humorous gags - supposedly their thinking is shockingly similar to humans.

The animation (from Dreamworks, the studio that brought us Shrek) as always continues to excel in its realism, from the cartoon movements and facial expressions of the characters, to the nearly flawless reflections and refractions of the inanimate objects and background environments. Barry gets stuck to a tennis ball and batted around in slow motion, and sucked into the engine of a car: both scenes and many more are executed with amazing editing and stunning camera movement that can only be achieved in computer animation.

Hysterical character designs and voice acting also add to the fun, with jocose performances by John Goodman, Patrick Warburton, Chris Rock and even voice cameos by Michael Richards (who many joked would play the role of an Africanized bee) and Larry King as Bee Larry King. What doesn't work as well is the execution of the story. The film often contradicts itself with the reactions of the humans to talking bees, and with what Barry is capable of realistically doing as nothing more than a heavily personified insect. Some of the jokes elicit laughter, but most are on an unexpectedly low intelligence level, and ultimately the many entertaining bits are specifically aimed at younger audiences. As is often with computer animated films, visual perfection oftentimes overshadows the time spent trying to devise an enticing story, and Bee Movie falls in with the too-kid-friendly films that are quickly forgotten.

- Mike Massie

I didn't care that this movie came out as Jerry Seinfeld is sometimes overhyped as being funny, when in reality, most the time he isn't. I decided to rent this because a few other new releases were sold out at the video store. I get home, watch it and within minutes, am floored laughing. With a good message and superb humor, I went out today and bought this movie. I love it and if you appreciate cartoons with a good message, get this!

We took our kids to see this movie and they all loved it. I liked it because they didn't include sexual innuendos like the Shrek movies I've seen. That always makes me angry that this type (sexual innuendos) of writing has to be included in what is supposed to be a children's movie. Anyway, this movie is great for small children as well as bigger kids. The jokes are funny, and my kids thoroughly enjoyed it. Although at one point it seemed rather weird that a bee can sue humans, it all fell into place in the end. We all have to realize that this is animation, not real life, so no real life acting should be portrayed. They all did a wonderful jobs doing their parts, especially Jerry Seinfeld. Well done! I will be buying this when it comes out.

My husband and I really enjoyed watching this with our 4 year old daughter and almost 2 year old son. The picture quality is excellent (very vivid and bright) which kept my son's attention. There were funny parts throughout the entire film. I thought the overall concept of the movie was great. I thought the voices were great and loved Renee Zellwegers character the best. I can't wait to buy it on DVD. Both of my kids really enjoyed it and now I will have something other than Curious George that my 2 year old can watch without getting bored. Can't wait to watch this movie again and again. Great for the whole family!

It seems as though they made a list of every bee joke they could think of, and then designed a movie around it. and then, when that didn't make a movie that was long enough, they go into this whole muddled lawsuit thing. It's funny how kids seem to not like the movie when a grownup doesnt. and when the movie is well done, like cars, they love it. And no, they did not like this mess of a movie.

This is a cartoon adventure like none you have ever seen before, and the likes of which you are likely to not ever see again in your lifetime! It is simply enchanting, and I think you will find that you and your wife (or husband) will have a great date night if you watch Bee Movie and cook up some pasta and garlic bread and maybe a little chocolate truffles for dessert!

It is great to see cartoons advanced to this stage, and I must admit I don't get a chance to see too many these days, but I am very impressed with what they can do nowadays! You're sitting there listening to the hilarious Jerry Seinfeld crack jokes, but you can't see his face--instead you're seeing the face of a (yellow) bee--and he moves his lips along with the words that Jerry Seinfeld is saying (somewhere off camera). It's similar to that great TV show, "Puttin' On the Hitz," where they do lip-syncing.

Jerry Seinfeld is hilarious as usual, and I wish that they could have had a Kramer bee too! Or maybe a wasp could be Newman! Hey, maybe I should be writing these movies. Just kidding.

The colors are very vivid and I don't recommend this for children!!!

Bee Movie gets an "A" in my book, and I'm not going to give it a "B" just because that would be a great pun to make. I don't believe puns should ever be used to denigrate great works of art like Picasso's paintings, or Dickens' novels, or "Bee Movie."

My family & I saw this movie together and what a delight it was! I was pretty sure it would be really funny because of Jerry Seinfeld and we were not disappointed. The movie was everything you want a family movie to be - it has heart, lots of laughs, some very tender, moving moments, and some underlying messages. The ending of the movie actually surprised me a little with a clever examination of our own daily lives & the meaning therein.

One of the things that I particularly loved about this movie is its compassion for non-human life. It demonstrated, brilliantly, the complex & meaningful lives that non-humans (in this case bees) live, the contributions they make, which benefit all of us, and showed how interconnected we all truly are. The movie showed a person (wonderfully voiced by Renee Zellweger) treating the bee with respect, consideration and compassion and trying to teach others to do the same. Our world needs lots more of that, so I hope that movies such as this one work to get that message across and into the 'real' world, and I'm sure that they do... :)

Overall, this movie is an interesting & thought-provoking take on the life of the bees, which in many ways, can mirror our own lives, the decisions, the struggles, the highs, the disappointments, and most of all trying to figure out who we really are inside, what we are doing here, what roles we have to play & how it affects those around us...

Rai Aren

This is the best animated movie I've ever watched. Barry (Jerry Seinfeld) is a newly graduated bee who has to decide what job he wants to work at in the hive. The most adventurous job is a "pollen jock" who actually leaves the hive to get nectar from the flowers outside. When Barry leaves the hive, he has several adventures, discovers humans are eating the honey that bees toil to make, and launches a lawsuit. I loved this movie. It's about teamwork, honesty, the importance of having a purpose in life (some very interesting things happen when the bees stop working), and even more importantly, the importance of bees in the pollination of flowers, fruits, vegetables and trees (even more important in light of the recent colony collapse disorder).

Usually, I find animated movies amusing but irritating in the obnoxious side characters and annoying actions (Madagascar is a good example). Even Shrek gets on my nerves sometimes with the anger-management challenged ogre and super irritating donkey. In contrast, Bee Movie was pure gold. Barry (Jerry Seinfeld) was practical, charming and a great hero. The other characters were great. I found the bee jokes funny and actually pretty inventive. The ending is unrealistic, but hey, this is a cartoon with a talking bee. It's called willful suspension of disbelief. I loved the ending, thought it was great and fantastic. Hey, if a human can save the world, why can't a bee? This is by far the best animated movie I've watched, and I think I've watched all the major animated movies.

Well, chalk this up to truth in advertising; seriously, Bee Movie is exactly that. A "B" movie, especially when stacked up against an "A" movie like Antz, or "Bugs' Life" or even more recent fare like "Ratatouille". Woody Allen sending up himself as an ant unhappy with the way the colony was organized - that was original; Jerry Seinfeld picturing himself as a bee, ditto is just derivative. And the interaction with humans in Ratatouille - that was worked out in a much more logically amusing way. At least it seemed that a rat could be a chef... but millions of bees landing a passenger jet. Oh, well, back to the cartoon drawing board.

It's not that the talents thrown into `Bee Movie" were lightweight or inconsiderable. There was a handful of A-list talent: besides Seinfeld himself and the vocal talents of Renee Zellweger, Rip Torn and Matthew Broderick, plus hundreds of hours of skilled computer animation talent, presumably endless scripts rewrites and conferences around the story board. All of which added up to an inoffensive and inconsequential bit of movie DVD fluff, as forgettable as something on television a couple of nights ago that you weren't very interested in anyway. A show about nothing, as Mr. Seinfeld himself so memorably quipped of the television vehicle that carried him into celebrity. I watched Bee Movie and the extras (and there is a whole generous disc of extras included for those fans who couldn't get enough bee comedy in the movie) last weekend, and frankly took nothing particularly memorable away from the experience - although the series of sketches that Seinfeld did to promote Bee Movie were a few degrees funnier and fresher than the movie itself.