Bee Movie
There is a meme floating about the internets that compares Disney’s Pixar Studios and DreamWorks. If you didn’t see it, it basically pictures the writers and animators at Pixar imaging rats who cook and robots in the distant future on an abandoned Earth. And then it shows DreamWorks, imagining different things pulling pretty much the same faces.
Now that is not completely fair because Pixar has Cars and DreamWorks has Shrek, each studio has a greats and duds (one more so than the other.)
At the same time, I can’t help but feel that DreamWorks really encapsulated the meme’s heart with Tumblr favourite Bee Movie.
Bee Movie stars the voice of Jerry Seinfield as well…a bee. Barry B Benson to, ha ha, bee more precise. He is a bee who dreams of a better life more than his monotonous honey making job. Wishing to see more of the world outside of the hive, he tags along on with the “Pollen Jocks” to see how they collect pollen from the flowers. On his journeys around the city, he bumps into woman Vanessa (voiced by Renee Zellwegger.) The two form a bond, an almost attraction. But when Barry finds out that the humans are using their honey, he petitions for pollen production to stop completely, putting the entire world on jeopardy.
Why Is It Bad?
Because someone out there, namely Seinfield and his friends, looked at a bee and went, “you know what would make this better, my voice.” The whole thing is the most ridiculous thing in the world. It doesn’t even boarded on imaginative, it is a crazy story with an even crazier ending. I mean, the bee falls in love with a human, who forms a platonic relationship with a bee, becomes a lawyer and tries to represent abused animals. Honestly, although this is technically a children’s movie, it is a hard to swallow movie that never centres on one true story line and buzzes around like a nuisance. Especially with the lacklustre animation that relies too heavily on the colours yellow and oranges. Sometimes you want to swat it hard.
Why Is It Good?
Beneath it all is a voice cast that try desperately to translate what’s going on well. They really capture their characters in an earnest sort of way. Other than that, I’ve got to be honest. You come into this movie with some sort of idea of the batshit crazy that goes on and you stay for the puns. I mean, who doesn’t love a good pun and cheesy jokes. Barry. B. Benson, that shit is gold. The narration by Jim Cummings is hilarious. And there is some good wit flying around. It stings every now and then.
Bee Movie. It’s no A Bugs Life. It isn’t even Antz. But that's ok. No one is droning on about it but it is just the right amount of sickly sweet to keep you watching. Just watch it for what it is; a B Movie with a B Grade. Despite its faults, your children will love it and that, I guess, is that is the core audience.
Really, what’s a twenty something film blogger doing watching the Bee Movie?
That’s right.
The motherfucking puns.
TTFN
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