Bee Movie is about a rambling bee that tries to make a difference and bucks convention. While this movie is full of adorable bees, cute jokes and fun one-liners; the moral of the story is perplexing and depressing.
Barry B. Benson Bee (Jerry Seinfeld) faces the prospect of having to choose the life he will have for his entire life and decides to go out and see the world before deciding what his lifelong job will be. His friend, Adam Flyman (Matthew Broderick) does his best to convince Barry not to leave the safety of the hive, but Barry won’t be swayed. He joins the pollen collectors and heads out into the clear blue sky. He meets Vanessa Bloome (Renee Zellweger), a human woman who saves him from death by boot. It is with her on a trip to grocery store that he realizes the enslavement and theft of honey by humans. Disturbed by his findings Barry decides to launch a lawsuit to protect all bee interests. His lawsuit has unexpected consequences and he is forced to revisit his stance.
The performances in Bee Movie are nothing to write home about, with two exceptions: Matthew Broderick and John Goodman. Broderick is twitchy brilliance as Flyman. His scenes are fun and charming with a side of giggles. Goodman takes the cake though. He plays the lawyer for big honey. He makes the lawyer so dirty, so strange, so fantastic. It’s hard to throw an animated character into insane silliness but he could entertain an 80 year old with this performance.
Seinfeld and Zellweger were humdrum and uninspired. Jerry Seinfeld plays Jerry Seinfeld but with an underlying buzz in Bee Movie. If you are like TV guide and think he is the best thing since bread was leavened, you’ll love him in Bee Movie. If you’re like me, a person of taste and sophistication and one of the sane people of the world, you’ll find his performance a little shallow and a little uneven. Renee Zellweger isn’t any better. In Bee Movie, Bloome never really blossoms into a full character with a personality of her own. Zellweger’s voice isn’t even particularly recognizable. If you were to describe Vanessa Bloome you would find it difficult because she has no real definable traits. This is half Zellweger and half eyebrow furling writing.
Children’s movies insightful to society because they act as a magnifying glass into the values deemed important by a group of people. They are supposed to convey the most important ideas in the simplest way possible. So when I saw Bee Movie, I was stunned by the unbelievable moral of Bee Movie. Barry makes a mistake which nearly causes the end of the world. His mistake is what we might praise Abraham Lincoln for when we revisit the moral triumph of the world. (Excuse the vague references but I don’t want to spoil the movie.) I left wondering if the moral of the story is to be what your parents want you to be or don’t try to change anything because you might end the world.
The world in Bee Movie isn’t anything phenomenal either. There are no scenes where I thought the animation was great, nor are there any that made me want to burn the film. The animation can best be described as fine.
Bee Movie does have a lot of chuckles and even a few hearty laughs. The children in the theater didn’t act up at all and were completely mesmerized by the story at all times. I was disappointed that the moral of the story was odd enough that I left the movie uncomfortable with the subtext, because otherwise the movie is fun.