Bee Movie is a film about a bee who wants a bee life outside of the hive. In human terms, we would say he is trying to live outside of the box. Great animation but boring story line.
Barry B. Benson (Jerry Seinfeld) just completed college and he has to pick a job that he wants to be in for the rest of his life. Feeling a bit confined, he decides he wants to be a pollen jock for the day and see the outside world before he makes a life changing decision. While out on his mission, he gets stuck to a tennis ball and loses the jock formation and ends up at Vanessa’s (Renee Zellweger) house. She saves him from her boyfriend Krunk I mean Ken (Patrick Warburton) and Barry falls in love with her.
As he thanks her over a cup of coffee, he learns that honey comes from a business called Honey Farms and decides to fly to the headquarters to see how it is made. In doing so, he meets Mooseblood (Chris Rock) who really should have his own short on the DVD when it comes out because he was the funniest tribute to this boring film. Once he arrives to the bee field, he sees how the bees are treated and decides to sue humans.
Stop reading now if you don’t want to know what happens.
Barry has Vanessa works with him as co-counsel along with his friend Dean Buzzwell (Larry Miller) to win the case against the humans and stops production of all honey. In doing so, the world turns less green due to the lack of pollen and causes devastation for crops and flowers. This was a great lesson for the children but that is all you learn in the film. In the end, Barry restore the honey companies back so that farmers and other wildlife are not diminished. There were some great witty scenes and Ken and Mooseblood really made the movie watchable but just wait for the DVD because even my son was bored and he sat through Ratatouille and I thought that was a gross yet funny film.
Sidebar, on an analytical level the emphasis on the reduction of the bee population was a startling preview for this film. I thought it was very educational and the most important thing taught in this entire film experience. I like Jerry Seinfeld OK but Bee Movie was not Happy Feet or Madagascar for that matter. Classics like The Emperor’s New Groove and Finding Nemo raised the bar for animation and Bee Movie just lowered it.
So, save your $9 and take your child to see Fred Claus instead. Bee Movie was too dry. Bet yet, go buy The Prince of Egypt ad teach your child something real from history. I give this film a C-. The animation and acting from Patrick and Chris saved this film from two thumbs down.
