Bee Movie

BACK COVER SYNOPSIS: Everyone is buzzing for BEE MOVIE, the hit comedy from creator and comic icon Jerry Seinfeld. Ambitious young worker bee Barry B. Benson sours out into the world with the high flying pollen jocks in search of nectar and adventure. But when he breaks one of the cardinal rules of beedom and speaks to humans, Barry sets off an un-bee-lievable chain of events that proves even a little been can make a big difference!

FILM REVIEW: The combination of Jerry Seinfeld's comic talents and a large-scale CG animated movie about bees doesn't on the surface appear to be a natural fit. After watching it, I realised that although there are some great moments stamped with Seinfeld's humour which separate this movie from almost any other CG animated movie with an animal or insect in it, "Bee Movie" doesn't really work as well as what it could have. A large part of this is in the interaction of the bees with humans. There are a few moments that are extremely funny, but as the story progresses, it just looks and feels more and more ridiculous, to the point where I found myself getting bored and wanting to switch it off (a singular feat considering this film is less than 90 minutes long!). On the plus side, this film has some great visuals and colour, particularly when the bees fly around New York, and there are some moments in the first half of the film that are very funny, but overall this is a bit of a misfire from Seinfeld. Oh well, I guess he deserves points for trying.
We're introduced to the world of Barry B. Benson (Seinfeld) in a rapid series of scenes that open the film. Barry has just graduated and is about to go to work for the Honex Corporation, the only career path available to bees in making honey for the hive. Barry is disappointed to discover that he'll only ever be doing one job for the rest of his life. Disillusioned, he manages to find his way over to the pollen jocks (bees who collect pollen from the outside world) and decides to hitch a ride with them for the experience. His eyes are opened to a world that he never knew existed. All of these scenes work very well in the cute CG animated movie kind of way where we see bees driving around in little cars, an entire industrial system in place to create the honey, and a bee's point of view of New York City which looks glorious underneath.
Things take a turn when Barry gets separated from the pollen jocks, finds himself in the rain and then crash lands in to the apartment of Vanessa (Zellweger). Her boyfriend Ken (Patrick Warburton) wants to kill Barry but she saves his life and lets Barry fly away. Barry decides to go back in to thank her for saving his life, and in a hysterical scene, Barry verbally thanks Vanessa. The dialogue and performance in this scene are the best in the film, particularly from Renee Zellweger who is in complete quirky disbelief that she's talking to a bee. Seinfeld does some of his best material here too, and you can tell some ad-libbing must have been going on.
The story moves along with Barry and Vanessa establishing a friendship, much to the disdain of his bee colony. But when Barry and Vanessa venture in to a supermarket and Barry sees honey on sale, he is outraged and decides to sue humans for stealing all their honey. This is where the film goes off the rails. You can probably see how this would be funny on paper, but realised visually and practically in this film, and the way it's done leaves a lot to be desired. It starts off as a funny joke but then becomes sillier and sillier. I know it's a movie, AND it's a cartoon, but there was something inherently unbelievable about all the humans taking bees seriously in the first place without even getting to the point where they could take each other on in court. Aside from that flawed concept, the plot becomes very clunky in its delivery; the court rules in favour of Barry and as such all the honey gets returned to the bees. They stop working, and then all the flowers in the world start to die. This almost makes it a second film altogether as the story shifts focus yet again towards Barry saving the world by repolinating the last remaining flowers that exist. Again, looks good on paper but the delivery is very clunky, without much rhythm or flow for how one scene will lead in to the next. I found that once the court sequences were done that the movie almost felt finished from a pacing stand point, but then it picks up again and that's where it started to drag. Or maybe it was the scene where the bees from Barry's hive manage to carry a plane under their own power back to the airport to safely deliver the last flowers that finally did it for me.
There are a few positives at work. The visuals are absolutely stunning. The colours are so rich and vibrant that they literally fly off the screen and massage your eye balls. The images of New York are fabulous, as are the interior workings of the bee hive. Also, Seinfeld has collected a spectacular voice cast for this film in addition to himself; Renee Zellweger is very quirky and funny. John Goodman is funny as the over the top southern lawyer who represents the honey makers in court. Chris Rock is his usual self as an hilarious mosquito who is looking for blood. And then there's celebrities playing themselves, like Larry King and Ray Liotta. Overall, a great cast and they all have some wonderful individual moments.
"Bee Movie" is a decent attempt to try something different, and although there are some great moments, overall, it just doesn't work.

TECHNICAL REVIEW: The picture is absolutely stunning. Given this transfer was from a digital source this is hardly surprisingly, but the vivid and crisp nature of the colours are breathtaking; there are no blemishes or any sort of artefacting whatsoever. The sound track is likewise excellent, particularly with the use of the surrounds which are well worked (when the bees fly past you feel like you're in the middle of it!). This is a spectacular transfer.

EXTRAS REVIEW: "Bee Movie" has a wealth of extras. There are a number of excellent featurettes that cover aspects of the film such as the cast, the technical production (including the use of 5000 computer cores and 23 million rendering hours to bring the film to life), a music video and trailers for other Dreamworks movies. There's even something for the kids with a number of interactive features designed to teach kids about bees and their role in the world. There is also a rather jam-packed audio commentary featuring Jerry Seinfeld and the crew which offers a lot of detailed, if sometimes dry, information about the making of the film. Overall, this is a fairly comprehensive and high quality collection of extras.

BOTTOM LINE: Rent it.

FILM RATING: 6/10 -- EXTRAS RATING: 8/10 -- OVERALL DVD RATING: 7/10 

Todd Murphy <br />
http://www.allaboutmovies.net