I love animated films, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that I liked Bee Movie. What did come as a surprise were the plot twists, great voice acting and unrelenting humour that permeated this film.
Bee Your Best
This movie follows the young Barry B. Benson (Jerry Seinfeld) as he tries to find his place in the world after graduating from Bee University. His travels take him out of the hive and into the world of humans, where he meets Vanessa Bloome (Renee Zellweger), a human florist, Ken (Patrick Warburton), a constantly angry tennis player, and Mooseblood (Chris Rock), a traveling mosquito. Each of his new acquaintances give him a new perspective on life as he discovers the greatest threat to bees: humans are stealing their honey!
The story is delivered in a comic fashion, characterizing bees in a human manner, and the adaptation lends itself to a number of humorous situations, offhand comments, and general behavioural traits that both surprise and amuse. The atmosphere remains light-hearted throughout because of this comedy, and that s part of the big appeal that the movie had for me: it will lift your spirits.
Beehind the Scenes
The voice acting in this movie is incredible. Like anyone who has watched television in the past 10 years, I’ve seen an episode or two of Seinfeld, but Jerry Seinfeld does an amazing job as the tiny, funny protagonist of this movie. Maybe his role as the producer allowed him to play a character that he envisioned from the start, and if that was the case, more producers should be acting in their own movies. Renee Zellweger’s role was a great complement to Seinfeld’s, and Chris Rock’s off-the-wall mosquito antics fit in perfectly with the other characters.
The credits of this movie were actually very interesting to read, as I didn’t realize who was playing the part of several characters while watching the film. Matthew Broderick, John Goodman, Oprah Winfrey, Kathy Bates — this movie has an all-star cast that goes on and on… You’ll recognize Ken as Patrick Warburton (Joe from Family Guy, and Putty from Seinfeld) the first time he flips out, and Sting and Larry King both star as themselves. As an aside, I have to say that Ray Liotta has always struck me as a great actor, and not just because he was good in Muppets From Space.
