The animation feels mediocre and the writing and performances are bland .
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
Barry 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 and selling honey. So he decides to sue them.
Dreamworks Animation Studios have been lagging behind their competitors for some time now. Sadly "Bee Movie" follows the pattern set out by everything after "Shrek", in that it's not as funny or technically impressive as it should be. Co-directors Steve Hickner and Simon J Smith both have backgrounds as animators, so they do well with the bright, shiny visuals, but struggle when it comes to framing gags. The style of Barry's hive seems to have been influenced by every 1950s ideal home exhibition. In the natural world everything is rounded and friendly, while in the man-made world there are a lot of straight lines and hard angles. Everything in the beehive is related to the production of honey. It runs in rivers through the settlement, is used in hospital drips and runs the bees' little bubbly cars. The whole place is awash with golden tones too; from the clothes the bees wear to their homes, which are of course built on a honeycomb design. There is a much broader palette in the human world but there is a lack of strong primary colours. Everything seems to be pastel-hued with an almost dusty quality. It reduces the number of textures that can be conveyed effectively. Everything tends to look rubbery from glass and formica to concrete and metals. But to be fair to the animators it's clear a lot of work has gone into the film. There is some very good work on show; they manage to capture the textures of ceramics, cork and fuzzy knitwear and soil appears photorealistic. There are very good watery reflections and solid work in lighting and shade best demonstrated in a scene where the bees are pollinating flowers. Though the highlight is probably the Busby Berkley-style routine when hundreds of bees canon out into the shape of a flower. But moments of such quality only underline the deficiencies of the rest of the movie.
The lack of detail extends to the characters. The humans may all have heads of glossy, individually rendered hair, but their faces are rubbery and they have glassy eyes that reduce the amount of expressions that can be conveyed. Their expressiveness is further diminished by spongy mouth movements that lack subtlety and precision. The same is true of their insect counterparts, who in addition have a bizarre mono-tooth that extends round their mouths. It's one of many examples of anthropomorphism that doesn't quite work, such as giving them four limbs instead of six. This means they lose out on a whole level of possible expression. Their stripes are also part of their clothing instead of their bodies, which doesn't really 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 frippery that distracts them from the need for cutting edge animation and a high gag ration. The directors are beholden to their star, allowing Jerry Seinfeld to dictate the pace, which makes the movie feel more like an animated sitcom than a kids' film. It makes plot holes obvious and there's a feeling the directors are waiting for laughs, thus dragging out jokes beyond endurance. The overall result is a mildly amusing but entirely forgettable ninety minutes of also-ran animation.
I know many consider Jerry Seinfeld one of the great comic minds of the late twentieth century, but I'm not among them. Frankly I found his brand of self-absorbed navel-gazing whiny and annoying rather than amusing. And you can see his sticky fingerprints all over the script he has co-written with three other people. The neurotic Jewish shtick may work with live action sit-coms but sits at odds with the nature of animation. It doesn't lend itself to sight gags and slapstick, the two stalwarts of cartoon comedy. Instead we get a self-regarding bee trying to have a relationship with a human woman and attempting to get equal rights for his hive-mates as honey manufacturers. This leads to a series of limp set-pieces, a whole gamut of celebrity cameos and a wish-washy storyline that tries to tie together ecological concerns and equality. And there's a big rush at the end to try to add some excitement to the story with a race-against-time thread that feels forced.
The characterisation is anaemic, with Barry B Benson essentially Jerry Seinfeld in a turtleneck sweater. Vanessa is a bland love interest who is little more than a plot device to enable Barry to discover how humans have been stealing honey. There's nothing to the supporting characters, they seem to exist solely for Barry/Jerry to bounce his laboured quips off. The dialogue is often stilted as Seinfeld tries to parlay his pre-established neuroses into kid-friendly format. However, replacing the prefix Jew- with bee- makes a nonsense of lines like "But is she bee-ish?" the dialogue is also plagued with dreadful old jokes, such as a mosquito-turned-lawyer saying "I was already a blood-sucking parasite - all I needed was a briefcase."
The voice cast is underwhelming mainly because Jerry Seinfeld hogs the limelight so much as Barry. He doesn't have much vocal variety, making him uninteresting top listen to and he has a tendency to whine, which is irritating. Not to mention the fact that his career as a stand-up means that he leaves pauses to wait for laughs after he's said something he considers funny. Meanwhile Renee Zellweger seems oblivious to the fact that it's only the bees that should drone as the frequently mono-pitched and occasionally squeaky Vanessa. The supporting cast is over-laden with pointless celebrity cameos from the likes of Ray Liotta, Sting and Larry King, though by far the most irritating is Chris Rock as a mosquito. The most accomplished voice-over artist is Patrick Warburton, who plays his trademark lummox as Vanessa's would-be boyfriend Ken.
The original music by Rupert-Gregson Williams follows the lead of the production design and goes all 50s with jaunty glockenspiels and xylophone, jolly woodwinds and brass and string themes that are heavy on the maracas. There are also darker themes that recall soundtracks from 50s' horror movies, replete with high stakes brass and tolling chimes and forbidding strings. It's a trifle loud on occasion but is a coherent body of work nonetheless.
"Bee Movie" is a film that falls between two stools; trying to appeal to a family audience with its genre and subject matter and comedy aficionados with its cast. But it fails because too much relies on Jerry Seinfeld's reputation as a premier mirth-maker. His material isn't visual enough and there's only so much of his whining I could take before it felt self-indulgent. The animation is nice enough but can't compete with the likes of Pixar or Blue Sky Studios. Consequently the film feels mediocre, lacking the laughs and the visual wow-factor to stay with you once the credits have rolled. It's a passable film for kids, but don't expect it to knock the socks off any adult viewers.
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Soundtrack
Average
How does it compare to others by the same director?
Satisfactory
Value for Money
Satisfactory
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Film only
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