To Bee or Not to Bee?
by Flick Chick Vique
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Bee Movie flies in with 3 &1/2 Red Vines for being a honey of an animated movie. |
Between the endless cut-ins on NBC’s Thursday night line-up, to McDonald’s Happy Meals, the hype for Bee Movie has been off the charts. The return of Jerry Seinfeld to mainstream American entertainment was such a sure thing everyone wanted a piece of the action. So does the movie live up to the marketing buzz? Yes and no.
Co-written by and starring Jerry Seinfeld, Bee Movie is the latest feature from Dreamworks Animation. In it, we follow the life of Barry B. Benson (Seinfeld) on his journey to becoming a worker bee. During an outing with the ‘pollinators’ he gets separated from the pack and develops a super crush on a human (Renèe Zellweger) who saves his life. During a trip to the grocery store he learns that honey-the life’s blood for bees-is routinely ‘stolen’ from hostage bees. Outraged, he files a lawsuit, not thinking for once that there could be real consequences for the whole world-bees included.
There’s no question that Bee Movie is being heavily marketed towards children and I confess I felt a little weird being the only adult in the theatre without a kid. The first few minutes confirmed my suspicion that this was a total kid cartoon. Then I was proven wrong, again and again!
As the movie progressed it seemed to bee more and more tailored for adults. Surely kids do not get The Graduate reference or the Ray Liotta references or countless other jokes that got audible chuckles from me and other adults in the audience. That being said, there is nothing wrong or offensive in the movie but the only real thing for kids is the eye candy. There might not be any “Master of their Domain’ type jokes but Mr. Seinfeld’s brand of humor is decidedly too sophisticated for little ones.
Joined by a stellar cast that reads like a who’s who (Mathew Broderick, John Goodman, Chris Rock, Oprah Winfrey, Kathy Bates, and Sting amongst others) Jerry and Renee are to Bee Movie what Ellen DeGeneres and Albert Brooks were to Finding Nemo. Jerry gives his all with comic timing that doesn’t miss a beat in spite of his long absence from the small screen. And Renee Zellweger redefines charm! Her character is beyond cute!
All in all, I was pleasantly surprised by how funny Bee Movie was. I’m just not sure a four year old would feel the same.
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