Movie Review: Bee Movie
New DreamWorks Animation Film, Starring Jerry Seinfeld
DreamWorks Animation's Bee Movie has an unfinished feel, plus most of the jokes fly over kids' heads. 6/10.
There's nothing worse than wasted potential.
(Okay, there was that one time when you were really hungry, and the waiter sneezed on your entrée just as he was about to hand it to you, and then you had no choice but to beat him to death with a 3-week old baguette . . . whoops, off topic!)
Unfortunately, "wasted potential" is possibly the best way to describe Bee Movie, a collaboration between Jerry Seinfeld and the gang at DreamWorks Animation. Putting Jerry Seinfeld, the focal point for the sitcom of the 1990's, together with DreamWorks Animation should have made for some explosive movie making, but it just fizzles.
Bee Discovers Humans Steal Honey
Here's the story: Barry B. Benson (Seinfeld) is a young bee trying to figure out what to do with his life. He needs to decide what job to do at Honex, the large corporation that runs his hive, but nothing really appeals to him. After somehow getting himself in with the "pollen jocks" (a sequence that doesn't quite work), Barry gets to see the world outside his hive. After getting rescued by a friendly florist (Renée Zellweger), Barry commits the unthinkable sin: he talks to a human. Soon after, he discovers that humans have been stealing and eating honey for generations. Courtroom and other hijinks ensue.
Bee Movie is not without merit. Seinfeld can write great one-liners in his sleep, and he lets loose with some real laugh-out-loud ones here. However, it was the adults who were doing the laughing; the kids in the audience were pretty silent for what's being marketed as a family movie. Former Seinfeld fans will giggle their way through this flick, but their offspring will be kicking the seat in front of them within ten minutes.
The animation is (naturally) top notch. There are some absolutely spectacular moments, especially when Barry first exits the hive, or when he's caught in New York traffic. The scenes that follow swarms of bees in mid-flight are real attention-grabbers as well. However, that seems to be Bee Movie's problem: there is plenty of razzle-dazzle, but not enough substance to take this flick to the next level. What's to blame for that?
The Script Needed a Few More Drafts
Bee Movie seems to be flying in several different directions at once. Is the hive a metaphor for Corporate America? Is the flick a satire of a lawsuit-happy legal system? This is the sort of thing that should have been resolved before the movie-makers set up the microphones and the voice talent started learning their lines. As it is, the flick seemingly shifts directions every five minutes when another gag set-up sends the film on another tangent. Certain plot elements (like the fact that bees are never, ever supposed to speak to humans) are put in the film, and are never developed or resolved.
Sure, Seinfeld managed to make a successful sit-com about nothing, but there was a lot of discipline behind that seeming randomness. Here we're reduced to jokes about bees and whether or not Barry's new girlfriend is a wasp (or WASP. Geddit? Ha-ha, ha-ha, ha . . . okay, I'll stop now).
Ironically, what could have been one of Bee Movie's big selling points becomes one of its major drawbacks . . .
Animated Celebrities Get in the Way of the Movie
Seinfeld really went through his Blackberry when casting this flick, stuffing it with high-priced talent. Renée Zellweger plays his love interest Vanessa, Matthew Broderick is his best friend, Chris Rock makes an all-too-brief cameo as a hyperactive mosquito, Oprah Winfrey is a judge, and John Goodman voices a florid southern lawyer. Larry King, Ray Liotta and once-and-current Police bassist Sting even allow themselves to be sent up in this flick.
However, because the script is so unfocused, the moviegoer starts guessing "who's that voice?" instead of being immersed in the flick. The voices overshadow the characters they're trying to play. The only voice talent who managed to avoid this problem were Zellweger and Patrick Warburton. Zellweger's voice is generic enough that she could be any female costar, and Warburton (who plays Zellweger's tennis pro boyfriend) is a versatile enough voice actor that he can become the character he's trying to be.
Final Analysis
Bee Movie looked great on paper but unfortunately the movie doesn't live up to the film's potential. Jerry and the other writers needed to run a few more drafts before putting this sucker into storyboards. Perhaps Larry David, who shepherded probably the best seasons of Seinfeld, would have been a good choice to help this movie reach its full potential. Unfortunately, no one cracked the whip, and the flick ended up as a good-looking mess. For that reason, I'm giving Bee Movie a 6 out of 10.
