Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #831 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-05-19
• Rating: Universal, suitable for all
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 87 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
There aren't a lot of choices in a bee's life: a bee attends a few days of school, graduates from college, and chooses a job in the hive that he'll labour at for the rest of his life. Barry (Jerry Seinfeld) is different from his best friend Adam (Matthew Broderick) and all the other bees: he wants to see the world outside the hive and can't begin to contemplate doing the same job for his entire life. Naturally, the life of the "pollen jock" bees appeals to Barry because it's the only job that takes a bee outside the hive and into the larger human world. Once outside the hive, Barry breaks the most sacred bee law and speaks to a human named Vanessa (Renée Zellweger) in order to thank her for saving his life. A relationship quickly blossoms and leads Barry to the discovery that humans are stealing honey from the bees and selling it for their own profit. Vowing to hurt the humans the one place they’ll feel it, Barry brings a legal suit against the honey industry and the courtroom drama begins. There are some hysterical moments in the film, as one would expect from a Seinfeld production, and an abundance of one-liners, double-meanings, slapstick humour, and innuendo-laden dialogue that will keep adults guffawing throughout the show. Still, the whole concept of seeing the life of a common pest through non-human eyes is getting repetitive thanks to films like Ratatouille, Flushed Away, Open Season, and Over the Hedge. It should be noted, though, that this first foray into animation by Jerry Seinfeld was four years in production due to its collaborative nature, so its theme may actually have well pre-dated all of the aforementioned films. More than just a comical film about the life of one very different honey bee, Bee Movie is a social commentary that pokes fun at human behaviour while stressing the importance of doing even the most menial job well and championing the power of working together toward a common goal. There's even a lesson to be learned from the bees about controlling one's temper. --Tami Horiuchi

DVD Description
Bee Movie is a comedy that will change everything you thought you knew about bees. Take a close look at the world through the eyes of one bee in particular--Barry B. Benson (Jerry Seinfeld). A recent college graduate, Barry wants more out of life than the inevitable career that awaits him and every other worker in New Hive City--a job at Honex... making honey. Barry jumps at the chance to venture out of the hive, and soon encounters a world beyond his wildest dreams. When Barry inadvertently meets a quirky florist named Vanessa (Renee Zellweger), he breaks one of the cardinal rules of beedom--he talks to her. A friendship soon develops, and Barry gets a guided crash course in the ways of the human race. When he shockingly discovers that anyone can purchase honey right off the grocery store shelf, he realises that his true calling is to stop this injustice and set the world right by suing the human race for stealing the bees' precious honey.

Synopsis
After a nine year hiatus, comedy maestro Jerry Seinfeld (SEINFELD) returns to our screens with the sweet-natured comedy BEE MOVIE. In it, he voices Barry B. Benson, a young bee who refuses to accept his fate as just another faceless worker in a colony of millions. Despite being warned never to venture outside the hive, his curiosity gets the better of him and he goes off in search of adventure. What he finds, however, is nothing short of scandalous: human beings stealing honey for their own consumption! Outraged by this seeming injustice, he convinces a kindly florist (Renee Zellweger, BRIDGET JONES'S DIARY) to help him file a lawsuit against the entire human race for 'honey laundering' offences.
Helmed by directors Steve Hickner (THE PRINCE OF EGYPT) and Simon J. Smith (a member of the SHREK creative team), BEE MOVIE lightens Seinfeld's notoriously stinging humour for a family audience, while staying true to its inherent New York-bred quirkiness. This leaves room for the film to feature impressive (if anatomically incorrect) bug-oriented CGI animation and a solid supporting cast that includes Zellweger, Matthew Broderick, John Goodman, Chris Rock, and Ray Liotta (who plays a honey-peddling animated version of himself). Although it inhabits some of the same insect-populated territory as A BUG's LIFE and ANTZ, BEE MOVIE also nods to THE GRADUATE (admittedly a Seinfeld favourite) in its restless protagonist, resulting in a playful and thoroughly entertaining film that even manages to work an environmental message into its colourful palette.

Customer Reviews

FaB Movie
Sure it's no Pixar, but alongside Kung Fu Panda, it's one of two Dreamworks CGI films I can tolerate, and then some. Simply put, it's really very funny, both in situation and script. The acting is ace, surprising given Jerry Seinfeld's smirking 9-year corpse-fest on his own show. Which is, by the way, the best thing ever.

The animation isn't bad, its just very stripped down. By this, I mean its not heavily detailed. The action is fairly exciting though, and the character designs are very appealing. Come on, who doesn't like bees?

Great one-liners, though I suspect the film will appeal more to adults than kiddies. Seinfeld fans will eat it up.

Better than Cars, and leaves Shrek in the dust.

Bee Movie Gets a C From Me
Our story centers on Barry B. Benson (Jerry Seinfeld). He is a young bee ready to graduate from school. And boy, were those nine days hard. At least he had a perfect B average. He and his classmates are given their orientation at Honex, where they will choose their jobs for life.

But Barry isn't ready for that. And the idea of doing one thing for the rest of his life doesn't excite him. So he slips in with the pollen brigade for one trip outside the hive first. It's a wonderful place with colors and flowers and fun.

While outside the hive, he meets Vanessa (Renee Zellweger). He breaks bee rules and speaks to her. The two soon strike up a friendship and Barry even develops a crush. But a trip to the grocery store upsets Barry when he finds the row of honey. So he decides to sue the human race to get the stolen honey back. Will he win?

When I saw this movie in the theater, most of the laughter was coming from the adults, not the kids. And this was a Saturday matinee full of youngsters. But even the adults didn't laugh as much as I thought they would. While the jokes about the bee life span and the bee society like ours were funny, once Barry left the hive, everything felt old and recycled.

The plot wasn't much better. While one plot point followed another, it felt like it rambled and wandered. I did like the ending, but the journey there was rather unfocused.

Now that's not a knock on the voice cast. Filled with top notch actors, they did a great job. In fact, I didn't recognize most of them until I looked at the credits. The animation is stylized, so it isn't as realistic looking as many of today's films. Still, it is fine and the flying sequences are lots of fun.

I laughed, but not as much as I expected to. I didn't hate the film, but I'm not rushing out to buy it either. You certainly won't be missing much if you wait a few months until the price on this one starts dropping as it heads for the bargain bin.

The girls said 4
You would think that a film such as this could only be aimed at children, but I have to say that I considered some elements of the tale, and some of the countless funny lines, seem to be better suited to adults. Seinfeld, never my cup of tea at the best of times, takes the leading role and partly wrote the script too, so to me it seems hardly surprising that it's not as childish as the marketing suggested. But it's what my primary-school-age children thought that really matters, and they gave it the sums up. They said it was funny and they must be telling the truth as they were laughing quite a bit throughout. It's interesting though that unlike other animated films like this of the past decade or so, they didn't ask to watch it again immediately afterwards, and in fact they didn't ask at all until I suggested they see it again a few days later. They said they preferred it to Wall:e, but they enjoyed Kung Fu Panda and Ratatouille more.

So although they gave it 4 stars, having watched it myself I'm not sure it deserves a 'very good' rating. I'm sure that hundreds of people worked passionately to produce and create it and they are doubtless proud of it, but as a consumer I think it merits only an "Above Average, worth a try" label from me : 3 stars. Three and a half if I could. It's good, but there are better children's animated films than this one.