You can actually tell a lot about Bee Movie from the way the film is being marketed. Just check out the trailers, the promotional spots on NBC, the copious amounts of interviews and splashy newspaper and magazine features. You probably won’t find much, ahem, buzz over the computer animation, or the film’s plot, or even the family-friendly PG rating. What you will find is that, even after nearly a decade of keeping a low profile upon ending his blockbuster sitcom, Jerry Seinfeld still has it in spades. He hasn’t lost his brilliantly observational wit, and his Hollywood clout seems only to have grown. And the Bee Movie marketing campaign won’ let you forget it; the whole thing is positively Seinfeld-centric.
And, in many ways, so is the film. Never mind the fact that, after so many years flying under the radar, it seems a bit odd for the superstar comedian to resurface as the voice of an animated bee in a feature-length cartoon that he also had a hand in writing and producing. There’s nothing like selling out or cashing in going on here; the entire movie drips with Seinfeld’s personality, with his own unique sense of humor, with the subtle sense of subversion that characterized the sitcom at its edgy best. Oh, it’s a cartoon all right, with anthropomorphized insects and a mostly family-friendly vibe, but make no mistake: This is Seinfeld’s show from top to bottom, and there’s nothing here that doesn’t bear his mark—starting with the story.
The first third of the film is fairly commonplace, as far as animated films go, working from the same basic blueprint as Monsters Inc. or Finding Nemo—talking critters inhabit a world that bears strong resemblance to the human world, and all of them are happy and content to maintain the status quo, right up until one boat-rocking maverick experiences life outside the bubble and realizes that there’s something bigger and better out there, and things can never again be the same. In this case, the talking critters are bees, and the boat-rocker is Barry B. Benson (Seinfeld), who takes flight outside of the hive one day and falls in love with a human, a florist named Vanessa (Renee Zellweger). The typical scenes of peril—involving our protagonist buzzing through the treacheries of human culture, nearly losing his life many times over—are reasonably well done, though we’ve seen this kind of thing so many times now that it no longer holds much excitement or suspense.
Then things get interesting—or at least, Seinfeldian, which, if the success of the sitcom is any indication, is interesting to a good number of folks. The movie’s title, after all, is a pun with double meaning—there’s more to it than the simple fact that it’s a movie about bees—and, about a third of the way into the movie, things suddenly get ridiculous. Those looking for the kind of strong storytelling that marks Pixar’s films probably won’t get it, but Seinfeld devotees—and folks who treasure The Emperor’s New Groove as one of Disney’s best movies—will be thrilled by the sheer, zany absurdism that the film adopts as it suddenly morphs from traditional family-movie fare into an outrageous courtroom drama. Then, in the film’s final third, it shifts again—this time into disaster movie mode, with Barry and Vanessa trapped on a plane with an incapacitated flight crew. (Airplane!, anyone?)
It’s a plot designed not to give us the warm fuzzies, develop complex characters, or make any kind of ethical statement; rather, it’s designed as a vehicle for Seinfeld to deliver as many puns, observational barbs, witty one-liners, and uproarious B-movie twists as possible. It’s the kind of thing that Jerry would find to be absolutely hilarious—and many moviegoers will agree with him. The script here is sharp and consistently funny, often extremely so, and it never settles for hashing out variations on the old Seinfeld material; Jerry’s brought his A-game here, and there are moments that rival the funniest stuff he’s ever done.
Of course, not everyone will share in his glee. Folks looking for an insect-world variation on Finding Nemo might be disappointed to find that Bee Movie is a decidedly light, whimsical affair—good frivolous fun that never really gives us anything like artful storytelling, but only because it doesn’t try to. This is entertainment, first and foremost, and, as such, it’s top-notch.
But it’s also rather edgy. Though the film is frivolous, that doesn’t mean its jokes necessarily lack weight or gravity; some of the gags here have social, political, and cultural implications that might raise some eyebrows. It all stems from a sort of outsider perspective that is nothing new for Seinfeld. In the past he’s made his share of cracks about living as a Jew in a Gentile world, and there’s a similar attitude at play here, with jokes that play upon the feeling of those who inhabit a world in which they feel like they don’t belong—like an Asian female bee who works as a reporter in a news team with all other male, white (er, the bee equivalent) journalists; while they all receive names that reference their bee-ness, the woman is simply Jeanette Chung. There’s even a direct reference to Seinfeld’s Judaism when he appears on the bee version of Larry King. These bits help give the comedy some added heft, making the funny stuff cut a little deeper, but it might also warrant a mild caution to parents of very young children who might be confused by this kind of humor. (It must also be said that there are some very vague references to drugs and to sexuality; see the Family Corner box below.)
Still, Bee Movie is a wildly successful film, but only when taken on its own terms. Because of the very nature of animated films in a post-Pixar world, many will likely go into the film expecting something other than what the film sets out to deliver. It’s not a lavish, elaborately plotted movie for kids and grown-ups alike; it’s a big-screen, 90-minute Saturday morning cartoon that’s really for grown-ups, but happens to be relatively safe and thoroughly entertaining for kids, too.
It’s really all about Jerry Seinfeld, whose presence is so pivotal here that whether you like the film depends almost entirely on whether you like Seinfeld himself. Either way, say this about him: He’s made a movie that initially seems like an odd fit, but reflects the personality of its maker better than most films do, making for a movie that feels personal even while it stays consistently, relentlessly entertaining. He’s stayed true to himself, and there’s no question that Bee Movie is just the film Jerry wanted it to be.
Talk About It
Discussion starters- Barry is frustrated by the fact that bees are assigned one job, and must keep it their whole lives. What does the film say about choices and their consequences?
- What unites the bees into a strong community? What does the film have to say about maintaining our cultural and communal identity?
- Do you think Barry’s lawsuit is selfish, or selfless? Why?
The Family Corner
For parents to considerBee Movie is rated PG for mild suggestive humor. There are one or two jokes that seem to vaguely reference drug use—i.e., a mosquito character talks about how drinking blood “makes him crazy.” There are also a handful of sexual euphemisms, most of which will go over the heads of children, but some of which might not; the most explicit is when someone pejoratively and suggestively refers to Barry as Vanessa’s “bed bug.” There are also some jokes made about being a cultural outsider, specifically with regard to ethnicity; these jokes aren’t racy or offensive per se, but parents will likely want to discuss them with their children just the same.
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