Hollywood hues
Bee animated

The Bee Movie is cleverly made and the characters seem to grow on the viewer, writes
Ervell E. Menezes

With the advent of humanised animation films like The Lion King, Antz and The Little Mermaid that genre has gained in popularity and the festive season is bound to find a new animation release. Jerry Seinfeld’s Bee Movie is the latest in that line of fun. No, it’s not about the birds and the bees, its about the industriousness of the bees and how one wise but misguided Jonathan Livingstone Seagull named Barry B. Benson thinks he can change that.

A recent college graduate, Barry wants more out of life than just work, work and more work and tries to instigate fellow workers in New Hive City to venture out of the hive and see the world at large. Bee Law No 1 is "absolutely no talking to humans." Barry instantly breaks this law when he meets spirited Manhattan florist Vanessa and soon gets a crash course in the ways of the human race. And with it comes romance.

Then he discovers that anyone can buy honey right from the grocery store shelf and he is shocked to see that people are stealing the bees unique creation. It’s a "they make the honey, we make the money" con by the humans and he must stop it. But the remedy is worse than the disease.

It is a clever plot peopled by a plethora of characters. There’s Adam Flayman, Barry’s best friend and classmate who prefers to live in the hive and his attorney pal Layton T. Montgomery. There’s Mooseblood the mosquito, whom he meets on the windshield of a car and Vanessa’s would-be boyfriend Ken plus his parents Janet and Martin Benson.

That these characters are voiced by well-known stars hardly matters as one never really connects with those actors. It is just a publicity gimmick so we won’t name them. The screenplay by Seinfeld and others is imaginative and directors Simon J. Smith and Steve Hickner are able to infuse the action effectively. It is a visual treat and songs like Honey Girl and Here Comes the Sun virtually lift the fare.

The animation may not be in the same class as say The Lion King and The Little Mermaid but once the drama begins there is no let up and it is just slam-bang action. There are take-offs on the Larry King show, Sting and others and ends with a cute jibe at lawyers.

But it is clever and the characters seem to grow on the viewer. What’s more they know that brevity is indeed the soul of wit. There’s fun and games and repartee too and all’s well that ends well in just 80-odd minutes. It may not be A-1 stuff but it comes close to A, not B Movie any way.

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