Wednesday, April 02, 2008

Review: Bee Movie

Bzzzz!

In animation, this movie follows the usual plot, seeing life through the eyes of the 'animal' or insect that it's about. It does start off like a remake of the Antz, Happy Feet, Ratatouille family but branches off early on into a distinct brand of blending too much in a plot until the story overwhelms the whole movie. For starters, if you know anything about bees and insects and plants in general, try to suspend your knowledge for the running time of this movie. In fact, the further into the movie you get, the more ludicrous the story becomes in comparison to reality.

Jerry Seinfeld plays a bee torn by angst over his looming--and supposedly permanent--job choice. This choice ultimately leads to unforeseen consequences way beyond the scope of his natural life's plan. Jerry's performance is quite funny, although a bit much for the intended younger audience. Most of the double entendres should fly over the youngsters' heads--hopefully, anyway. Renee Zellweger also turns in a cute performance.

When you start watching the film, you are expected to suspend belief on how bees work. In the movie, it's a given that bees drive cars, wear clothes, use machinery - in essence, the bees are tiny humans.

Humans have never noticed what the bees are doing, and despite the fact that both bees and humans speak English, there's been no, and I mean NO communication between the two species ever, before the events in this movie. The reason for this - it's an unspoken law that bees should not talk to humans, and humans are apparently too stupid to notice the strange habits of the bees. Okay, that's stretching it and the whole 'unspoken rule' thing is becoming very hackneyed, but I can buy that for the sake of enjoying the film. And what's up with the florist falling in love with the bee....ummmm hello? Did someone even review this script?

The animation and graphics were really cool. There are alot of off-the-wall Jerry Seinfield type jokes (the majority not that funny), and lots of cameos (well voice cameos) of different celebs but even that wasn't enough to save the drowning plot. At least we knew they have fun making it and don't take themselves too seriously.

The kids loved this movie, but for me, it wasn't as good as Shrek or any other animation that I've seen in a while. Check it out if you want to laugh at the ridiculousness of the plot while the kids fall enthralled in the story. Just be sure to have a sit down with them to explain the basics of real life vs. Bee Movie life, just to keep your kids grounded.

Labels: reviews

Posted by Vixen @ 4:47 PM :: 0 trainees letting it rip!

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