I had been determined not to go and see Bee movie following my disappointment in a number of animated features recently. However, the power of a three year old is strong and my will just wasn't strong enough. Grudgingly, along with my son and hid Daddy I headed off for the cinema to sit through ... Read review
There aren't a lot of choices in a bee's life: a bee attends a few days of school, ... more
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 (Matth...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
There aren't a lot of choices in a bee's life: a bee attends a few days of school, ... more
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 (Matth...
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
Bee Movie stars Jerry Seinfeld as Barry B. Benson - a bee who has just graduated from ... more
college and is disillusioned at his lone career choice: making honey. On a special trip outside the hive Barry's life is saved by Vanessa (Renee Zellweger) a floris...
Postage & Packaging: £0.00 Availability: 3-5 working days
A honey-maker wants to fight and a soldier wants to make honey. What happens when these ... more
bees decide to follow their hearts instead of the rules? After the chef in charge of the bee's honey production puts the entire beehive at risk Beernard the litt...
Postage & Packaging: £0.00 Availability: 3-5 working days
Race, chase and fly your way through an adrenaline-fueled world of adventure as the witty ... more
and courageous Barry B. Benson. This is the mission of a lifetime! As Barry B. Benson, you are on a journey to save the bees' production of honey that takes you to New York City and beyond. Master the hustle and bustle of the hive and venture outside the hive to navigate the hazards and excitement of the outside world.
Everyone is buzzing for BEE MOVIE, the hit comedy from creator and comic icon Jerry ... more
Seinfeld. Ambitious young worker bee Barry B. Benson soars out into the world with the high flying pollen jocks in search of nectar and adventure. But when he breaks one of the cardinal rules o beedom and speaks to humans, Barry sets off an un-bee-lievable chain of events that proves even a little bee can make a big difference.
Comedy - Original Language: English - Classification: 12 years and over - Starring: Tessa Peake-Jones, Buster Merryfield, David Jason, Nicholas Lyndhurst
Comedy - Director: Richard Boden, Mandie Fletcher, Martin Shardlow - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Hugh Laurie, Miranda Richardson, Stephen Fry, Brian Blessed, Tim McInnerny, Tony Robinson, Rowan Atkinson
Advantages: Cute film, suitable for all ages, relatively funny, likeable characters Disadvantages: 50 year old Jerry Seinfiled as a young college graduate bee
...not to go and see Bee movie following my disappointment in a number of animated features recently. However, the power of a three year old is strong and my will just wasn't strong enough. Grudgingly, along with my son and hid Daddy I headed off for the cinema to sit through an hour and a half of what I expected to be yellow and black animated slap stick humour.
Writers: Jerry Seinfield and Spike Feresten
Directors: Steve Hickner ... ...B Benson, a recent graduate bee has greater hopes for himself than working the rest of his living days in the Hive's honey plant. One day, Barry is given a rare opportunity to join the revered pollen collectors on an excursion outside the sticky hive walls, however the adventure soon turns into a life-threatening experience and he is only saved when New York florist Vanessa steps in to defend him from the shoe aimed at him from above.
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I had been determined not to go and see Bee movie following my disappointment in a number of animated features recently. However, the power of a three year old is strong and my will just wasn't strong enough. Grudgingly, along with my son and hid Daddy I headed off for the cinema to sit through an hour and a half of what I expected to be yellow and black animated slap stick humour.
Writers: Jerry Seinfield and Spike Feresten Directors: Steve Hickner and Simon J Smith Voices: Jerry Seinfield, Renee Zellweger, Mathew Broderick, Patrick Warbuton, John Goodman, Chris Rock, Kathy Bates, Barry Levinson Production Team: Dreamworks Animation Genre: Family/ Animation/ Comedy Classification: U (suitable for all ages) UK Cinema Release Date: 14th December 2007 Run Time: an hour and a half
What's it all about? ********************* Barry B Benson, a recent graduate bee has greater hopes for himself than working the rest of his living days in the Hive's honey plant. One day, Barry is given a rare opportunity to join the revered pollen collectors on an excursion outside the sticky hive walls, however the adventure soon turns into a life-threatening experience and he is only saved when New York florist Vanessa steps in to defend him from the shoe aimed at him from above.
Barry makes it back to the hive after bonding with Vanessa over Coffee and cake, but their relationship blossoms as Barry continues to sneak out to visit her. It is during one of these visits, while accompanying Vanessa to the supermarket that Barry is confronted by row upon row of different branded honey for sale. Outraged that the human are exploiting bees and that honey is rationed back home as a result, Barry decides to take on the entire human race in true American style - by suing them.
Who are Steve Hickner and Simon J Smith? ************************************************** Together, Hickner and Smith bring a strong background working on animated productions to this film, namely, The Little Mermaid, Who framed Roger Rabbit, Shrek and Ants. But as directors, their experience is minimal with Smith holding the most directorial experience having recently been responsible for Shrek Spin offs, Far Far Away Idol and Shrek 4D.
The question is, whether these two will now become a permanent partnership and a driving force for the DreamWorks powerhouse and beyond? It is certainly fair to say that with Bee Movie as a solid platform to build on, this team is destined for future successes.
Did the story/script shine? ****************************** I expect most of you have seen the trailers for this film, and I expect most of you will agree in most instances, the trailers tend to highlight the funniest parts of the film. Somewhat surprisingly, this wasn't the case with Bee Movie. Instead of relying on a script peppered with a handful of memorable one-liners or trademark comedy directly linked to individual characters, this script had a fairly consistent flow to it. Jerry Seinfield, is without question a very funny man but more importantly for his role as co-script writer is he is able to translate that humour onto the page. It wasn't laugh out loud, stop because my sides are aching humour, but it was intelligent, subtle humour which is a stark contrast with many animated features coming into our cinemas and homes these days.
My only criticism would be that it took a while to take off. As a viewer, I felt like the first 20 minutes kind of stalled, with the emphasis being put more on showcasing the characters (understandably) and not quite enough on telling the story. However, it quickly picked up and it wasn't long before I was chuckling away and being swept up in the story.
Did the actors/characters sparkle? *************************************** When the adverts and trailers were finally finished and the opening credits of the film began to role, I was pleasantly surprised to see some of the names involved in this film. I even felt a small amount of hope that the film may not be a huge disappointment after all.
Jerry Seinfield as Barry B Benson was unfortunately less than convincing for me. To have a 50-something actor playing a young bright-eyed and enthusiastic graduate bee is just pushing the boundries a bit too much. I struggled to connect his voice to Barry.
I liked Renee Zellwegger as florist Vanessa much more than I usually do. Vanessa was a sarcastic , independent, grounded woman with a sense of humour not always portrayed well in film. Her interaction with Barry was great and the idea that genuine warmth could be found between human and bee was made believable by her character.
Patrick Warburton as Vanessa's over-competitive, materialistic, obnoxious twit of a tennis-playing boyfriend was spot on. He managed to be completely un-likeable without saying very much at all.
Mathew Broderick put in an appearances as Barry's best bee who is much happier doing things the way he is told to doing them and sees happiness in simply having a place in life, no matter how insignificant a place it might appear to be. A constant worrier with a nervous disposition, he was the perfect side-kick to Barry.
My favourite character, and indeed actor was John Goodman's character, lawyer Layton T Montgomery. Almost impossible to watch, his character summed up every despicable preconception we have about lawyers. We watched in horror as this unsavoury, jelly like creature wabbled to and fro across the courtroom with arrogance pouring out of him. The more despicable they are, the happier we are to see them fall.
A further host of stars appeared with Kathy Bates putting in an appearance as Barry's jittery mother, Barry levison as his "Why on earth wouldn't you want to follow in my footsteps?" father and Chris Rock as the travelling mosquito Mooseblood he meets along his travels. Cute celebrity cameos came in the form of Larry King, Ray Liotta and Sting.
Did the cinematography and soundtrack bring the magic to life? ******************************************************************** ***** The line between as good as any other animation and exceptional animation is getting more and more difficult to cross. With technology improving and developing faster than I can even write this review, it is a struggle for production companies like Dreamworks and Pixar to outdo the competition.
I was impressed with the sheer scale of the production. The Hive scenes in particular were quite spectacular with large groups of bees spilling out all over the place. I can only imagine the work that went into creating the flapping wings of thousands of bees as they set off to save the day.
From an artistic point of view, there was certainly a consistency with every detail taking on some tinge of multi-toned yellow to co-ordinate with the obvious bee theme, however, it also became quite claustrophobic in parts, as if the audience was drowning in honey.
The facial features seemed to be kept simpler than some productions we have seen before, but I am not convinced that is a bad thing. Some films focus so much on creating something as realistic as possible they forget it's an animation. If we wanted real we would see a live-action film. Besides the simplicity of the characters fit well with the trend of the film and made it easier to focus on what was actually happening instead of the graphics of the film.
My final thoughts - what really counts ******************************************* Bee Movie was better than I expected it to be and I am proud to say it was the first film that my three year old son sat through without having to take a trip to the toilets or go for a wander in the hallways. Without a doubt, he related to the cuteness of the film and what could be better than a buzzy bee superhero. As a parent, it was sweet and relatively funny and it had a happy feel to it. It wasn't the best animated feature but it was by no means the worst. As long as you don't head to the cinema expecting some monumental historical, ground breaking film and are open to just enjoy it for its gentle quirkiness, it is worth the price of the ticket to go and see.
Advantages: Entertaining with positive message Disadvantages: None
...a bee, in particular a bee called Barry.
Barry lives at home with his parents and has just graduated and has to get a job at the hive workplace Hone. He is mortified to discover that he has to pick one job for life. His best friend Adam also graduated at the same time is quite looking forward to work but Barry has other idea. He happens to have a chat with the pollen jocks that are considered to be the babe magnets of the hive and they give him ... ...her despite it been a bee rule not to speak to humans.
The friendship between Vanessa and Barry develop and when visiting a supermarket with he discovers that humans buy honey. He is outraged and with Vanessa's help starts a court case against the human race.
The Film looks at the relationship between, parents, friends and people and enemies. My opinion
The animation in this film is impressive. It is brightly coloured with great detail
The film ...
Wisemind 19.09.2009
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Bee Movie (DVD)
Advantages: Very cute, pretty world, funny jokes, appeals to all ages Disadvantages: Non sensical
...pleased to see adverts for Bee Movie - it just looked so cute, of course I had to give it a try!
In case you couldn't guess from the title, Bee Movie is based around, well, bees. More specifically, it is about a young bee called Barry who just can't decide what he wants to do with his life. It is traditional for all of the bees to only work in one job for their entire life, and he just can't choose which area is right for him. He decides to give ... ...gets trapped in the rain and ends up inside a human house where everybody tries to kill him - with the exception of a woman called Vanessa who saves his life. And, somewhat oddly, he ends up falling in love with her. He begins to visit her frequently and accompanies her on trips. Until he visits the supermarket with her, discovers that honey is for sale, and then attempts to sue the human race for stealing honey from bees.
Think that's long winded? ...
hi_nicola 27.12.2007
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Bee Movie (DVD)
Advantages: Excellent animated world, funny, cute, colourful Disadvantages: Slightly odd humour could be a disadvantage to some
Bee Movie is one of the newest in a string of modern computer animated movies. Born from the comic genius that is Jerry Seinfeld (producer, director, actor) it is unlike the other films in the genre due to the slightly odd sense of humour we've come to expect from him.
The synopsis
Barry Benson is not your average Bee. Unlike his family and friends, he doesn't want to be a anonymous worker stuck in the same mundane job for the rest of his life. ... ...to break the most important Bee rule - Never speak to humans. Barry tells Vanessa how grateful he is for her saving his life. Vanessa after being intially stunned makes them a cup of coffee and some cake and they talk for hours.
It seems Barry is falling for Vanessa (a bee and a human - strange, strange, strange!) and when they start spending more time together, he discovers that humans eat honey. Barry knows how hard Bees have to work for the little ...
miasmum82 11.07.2008
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Bee Movie (DVD)
Advantages: A hadnful of decent gags. Disadvantages: The animation feels mediocre and the writing and performances are bland.
...B Benson is a humble bee with wider aspirations than working in the hive making honey. He wants to get out and see the world. When he finally makes it out of the colony, he meets human Manhattan florist Vanessa and breaks one of the cardinal rules and talks to her. A friendship develops between them and Barry learns all about the human race. But he discovers an unpleasant truth on a trip to the supermarket when he finds out humans have been stealing ... ...work because some of the bee characters don't follow the trend. The problems with the direction don't stop with the animation though. There are serious issues with pacing and tone. There aren't enough jokes to go round and the sight gags are limited to the obvious, such as a lawyer's car with the number-plate "ALIBUY" and riffs on American popular culture like Larry King. I think the problem comes in their use of big name voice casts. It's an unnecessary ...
afy9mab 19.05.2008
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Bee Movie (DVD)
Advantages: Fun and unique Disadvantages: A bit clunky and awkward at times
...in animated cinema, but in Bee Movie, written by comedy giant Jerry Seinfeld, one is driven to ask – is this one step too far?
Bee Movie is essentially an allegory of the drudgery of human existence, namely as it pertains to one’s working life. Our protagonist, Barry Benson (Jerry Seinfeld), a bee, has recently graduated and become disenfranchised with the idea of making honey for the rest of his life. Through a series of events, Benson comes to ... ...the ankle-biting target audience.
Bee Movie also employs a rather strange means of character modelling – the bee characters resemble human beings more than in any other film such as this, with even their skin tones closely resembling the white cross-section of society. When you combine this with the fact that the bees drive cars to work, it would at times become easy to forget that this is even a film about insects. As questionable as the film’s ...
asdasta632 26.09.2009
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Bee Movie (DVD)
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This has to be one of my favourite films of all time. I love the story line greatly and I have probably seen this movie like fifty times. The great thing about this movie is the fact that it is in BluRay!!
BluRay is a big step up in quality from DVDmovies and so you really feel like you are there next to bumble bee when it is driving along the highway trying to get away from the S7 secret agency.
It has great features and also a great commentary by the director where he speaks in great detail about his thoughts and ideas throughout the movie.
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Advantages: extras on DVD and deleted scenes Disadvantages: Not enough extras on Alien 3 and 4
This box set comes with 5 DVDs. Each film os on a DVD and there is a bonus DVD in the Alien box. What does this extra DVD hold - a 63 minute documentary on the first Alien movie. This documentary is the bees knees. It explains who everything started with the Alien Franchise, from the first story, to the Alien design, to the production. Everything is covered in this DVD.
Okay, you may have seen the films a number of times, but i'm sure that you have never seen this documentary. It is worth getting this set for this DVD alone.
But you get so much more. A lot of the deleted scenes are available to view for the first time.
By far, the best DVD's of this set are Alien and Aliens. This is not for the films (but they are the best films), but for the extras that they have added to the DVD.
An amazing set - BUY IT. ...
Advantages: acting great skating Disadvantages: certifacte 15
anatomical phrasing, desperate phone calls and an escalator banter with Arnett.
The next feature is Ferrel Heder and Arnett, messing aruond answering questions sent through email to them. This extra is one of the funniest, and not many dvd's come with comedy quite like this.
There is also a feature showing promo's for exciting new dreamworks movies including, transformers, Jerry sienfeld's BeeMovie and Shrek the Third. The Blade of Glory trailer is sadly missing but can be found elsewhere.
The DVD itself
******************************************************************* *********
The menu comes up and follow the sports genre of the movie as the frame is sports cast style with short clips from the movie in the centre. The rest of the dvd is relativley quick working and easy to fathem out, there are very few trailers at the begining ...
PARAMOUNT HOME ENTERTAINMENT; TECHNICOLOR DISTRIBUTION SERVICES, BRIGHTSPARK PRODUCTIONS; LACE GROUP; SONY DADC
Languages
Main Language
English
Technical information
Special Features
Featurettes - Inside The Hive: The Cast of Bee Movie, Tech of Bee Movie, Meet Barry B. Benson, 'We Got The Bee' music video , DreamWorks Animation Jukebox, Interactive menu
Aspect Ratio
16:9 Anamorphic Wide Screen
Sound
Dolby Digital
Professional reviews
Review
There are child-friendly puns, but it's also crammed with Seinfeld's trademark observational humour (Empire, 21/02/2008)
BEE MOVIE is agreeably skewed fun... The images have a spangly clarity--they make New York look new again (Entertainment Weekly, 21/02/2008)
At its heart is a sweet moral message about everyone pulling together, about doing even the smallest job to the best of your ability (Sight And Sound, 21/02/2008)
DVD Description
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.
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