This one is a little late since the movie was released to theatres several months ago but we waited to see it on DVD rather than pay for admission. Allow me to start this review with a few disclaimers. First, I don't like Jerry Seinfeld. I never liked his show about nothing and I never liked his stand-up act. Second, I'm fully aware that Bee Movie is an animated film so please don’t respond to this review by stating “it’s just a cartoon!”
My wife and I recently rented Bee Movie. Actually, let me rephrase that. My wife recently rented Bee Movie and I watched it with her. I typically like Dreamwork's animated films but this was a movie I had very little desire to see for the first reason I mentioned above. Upon watching this film my concerns were realized. In short, I hated this movie.
Bee Movie is a coming of age story about a young adult bee named Barry B. Benson (Jerry Seinfeld) that has graduated from bee college and wants to make a difference in his hive but wants to get out and see the world before taking the job he'll do for the rest of his life. To accomplish this he sneaks out of the hive on a mission with the Pollen Jocks, a group of top gun, fighter pilot type characters that are responsible for collecting the pollen that will be used in honey production. Unfortunately it's supposed to rain on this particular day and since we're informed that bees cannot fly in the rain the squadron must be careful during their mission.
Once out of the hive the Pollen Jocks mistake tennis balls for flowers and Barry becomes attached to one of the balls and bounces down the road. Immediately after he escapes from the ball it begins to rain so he seeks refuge in an apartment where he's almost immediately attacked by one of the residents. Before Barry can be killed though, the movie's main human character, a florist named Vanessa Bloome (Renée Zellweger) steps in and saves him.
Barry is grateful to Vanessa for saving his life so when no one else is around he breaks one of the bee laws and speaks to her to thank her. After some brief conversations Barry and Vanessa become friends. One day he accompanies her to a local grocery store where he learns that humans are packaging and selling honey. Upon making this discovery Barry thinks he’s found his chance to make a difference. There is no way for him to prepare for what lies ahead.
His journey to uncover the truth takes him from New York to New Jersey where he finds a huge labor camps where bees are forced to produce honey which is then stolen from them by the most evil, despicable kind of humans…beekeepers. This revelation leads Barry to a decision to sue the largest honey producers.
The defense for the honey industry is led by a stereotypical southern style lawyer (John Goodman) that makes every attempt to lie and cheat his way to a win for the industry. His attempts amount to nothing though when the bees introduce a smoking gun (literally) into evidence and the defense lawyer smokes out the first row of bee observers. The judge finds in favor of the bees and everything is finally right with the world…or so it seems.
Unfortunately, Barry didn’t consider all of the consequences of winning such a case. It turns out that winning the trial actually gave the bees a surplus of honey and they no longer needed to work. No bees working means that no plants are being pollinated and all life on earth is slowly dying off.
Barry and Vanessa concoct a plan to save the planet. The last flowers on earth are being put on show for a rescheduled Tournament of Roses parade in Pasadena, California. They will fly there, steal one of the floats, and bring the flowers back to New York. Of course, nothing ever works out quite as planned and on the return trip the plan is struck by lightning and it’s up to the Pollen Jocks and the rest of the bees to save the plane. Eventually the plane is placed on the ground and the bees can begin spreading the pollen to the other plants and restoring life to the world.
Bee Movie had such potential to be a good movie but it failed because of its execution. Obviously one must give some slack to a movie that relies on anthropomorphization as it primary plot device but disbelief can only be reasonably suspended to a certain point.
My problems with this movie do not come from the fact that the bees speak English. My problem with this movie does not come from the fact that no one except for Vanessa is surprised by the fact that bees speak English. I don’t even have a problem with the fact that the bees have built elaborate factories for manufacturing honey. I can suspend my disbelief for that, after all, it’s just a cartoon!
My problems with this film come from several other places.
- Since when did bees live in a male dominated society? A bee colony consists of only a handful of males but yet nearly every bee in this movie is male.
- Since when did male mosquitoes drink blood? While trying to find the source of the packaged honey Barry encounters a male mosquito named Mooseblood that is obsessed with finding some blood to drink. Mooseblood’s only apparent purpose in the movie is to deliver an overused joke about lawyers. I was disappointed with Chris Rock for stooping to that level…again.
- The portrayal of the defense lawyer was cliché. I was disappointed with John Goodman for this role.
- The trial was in front of a grand jury but the jurors never deliberated or gave their findings to the judge, the judge just handed down a verdict.
- The entire airplane scene was miserable from the beginning. I really felt like it was only included to provide an opportunity to poke fun at airport security. Aside from that, the whole guide the plane with the engines shut down to the image of a flower (made of bees) was ridiculous.
- Why did they have to take the flowers back to New York? Bees in California aren’t capable of pollination and only New York bees could do it?
- The movie was extremely preachy. The subject matter ranged from “All life is equal” to “corporations are evil” to “lawyers are crooked” to “smoking is evil” to “workers are exploited” and more. I thought this was supposed to be target at children.
- Jerry Seinfeld voices the main character.
- The vast majority of the attempted humor was not funny. There were a few occasions worthy of a chuckle or two but most of the humor was extremely cliché.
- The character names were just dumb. Barry B. Benson, a florist named Vanessa Bloome, a judge named Judge Bumbleton, a mosquito named Mooseblood, and the inclusion of the singer Sting. Give me a break.
- Pollen from roses can be used to return life to all plant species?
As for what I liked about this film there isn’t much but a couple of things did stand out for me:
- Rip Torn. When I heard Rip Torn’s voice all I could think was “If you can dodge a wrench you can dodge a ball!”
- It was only 90 minutes.
- Some of the bonus materials were moderately educational.
- The animation wasn’t particularly great but it wasn’t bad enough to include in what I didn’t like about this movie.
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