Bee Movie

''Bee Movie'' is a 2007 American animated comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation and Columbus 81 Productions, and distributed by Paramount Pictures. Directed by Simon J. Smith and Steve Hickner from a screenplay by the writing team of Jerry Seinfeld, Spike Feresten, Barry Marder and Andy Robin, it stars the voices of Seinfeld and Renée Zellweger. The film depicts a civilization of anthropomorphic bees; it centers on Barry B. Benson (Seinfeld), a honey bee who tries to sue the human race for exploiting bees after learning from his new florist friend Vanessa Bloome (Zellweger) that humans sell and consume honey.

''Bee Movie'' debuted in New York City on October 25, 2007, and was released in theaters in the United States on November 2. It grossed $293.5 million worldwide on a budget of $150 million. It received mixed reviews from critics, who praised its humor and voice cast but criticized its plot and lack of originality. Nevertheless, it has since gained a cult following, partly driven by Internet memes of the film shared on social media, which most often lampoon the film's surreal premise, script and celebrity cameos.

Plot

Barry B. Benson, an idealistic honey bee who has the ability to talk to humans, has recently graduated from college and is about to enter the hive's honey-making workforce, Honex Industries, with his best friend, Adam Flayman. Barry is initially excited, but his ambitious, insubordinate attitude emerges upon discovering that his choice of job will never change once picked. Later, the two bees run into a group of pollen jocks, bees who collect pollen from flowers outside the hive, and they offer to take Barry with them if he is "bee enough". While on his first pollen-gathering expedition in New York City, Barry gets lost in the rain, and ends up on the windowsill of a human florist named Vanessa Bloome. Upon noticing Barry, Vanessa's boyfriend Ken attempts to squash him, but Vanessa gently catches and releases Barry outside, saving his life.

Barry later returns to express his gratitude to Vanessa, breaking the sacred law that bees are not to communicate with humans. Barry and Vanessa develop a close friendship, bordering on attraction, and spend time together. When he and Vanessa are in a grocery store, Barry discovers that the humans have been stealing and eating the bees' honey for centuries. He decides to journey to Honey Farms, which supplies the grocery store with its honey. Incredulous at the poor treatment of the bees in the hives, including the use of bee smokers to incapacitate colonies, Barry decides to sue the human race to put an end to exploitation of the bees, with Vanessa agreeing to help.

Barry's mission attracts wide attention from bees and humans alike, with countless spectators attending the trial. Although Barry is up against tough defense attorney Layton T. Montgomery, the trial's first day goes well. That evening, Barry is having dinner with Vanessa when Ken shows up. Vanessa leaves the room, and Ken expresses to Barry that he hates the pair spending time together. When Barry leaves to use the restroom, Ken ambushes and attempts to kill him, only for Vanessa to intervene and break up with Ken. The second day at the trial, Montgomery unleashes an unrepentant character assassination against the bees, leading a deeply offended Adam to sting him. Montgomery immediately exaggerates the stinging to make himself seem the victim of an assault while simultaneously tarnishing Adam. Adam's actions jeopardize the bees' credibility and his life, though he recovers. The third day, Barry wins the trial by exposing the jury to the torturous treatment of bees, particularly use of the smoker, and prevents humans from stealing honey from bees ever again. Having lost the trial, Montgomery cryptically warns Barry that a negative shift of nature is imminent.

Sure enough, human-obtained honey being returned in overload to the hives leads to Honex stopping honey production and all bees, including the vitally important pollen jocks, put out of a job, and all the world's flowers begin to die out without any pollination. Before long, the last remaining flowers on earth are being stockpiled in Pasadena, California, intended for the last Tournament of Roses Parade. Barry and Vanessa travel to the parade and steal a float, which they load onto a plane. They hope to bring the flowers to the bees so they can re-pollinate the world's last remaining flowers. When the plane's captain explains that the flight will be delayed due to bad weather, Barry attempts to talk to the pilots, only for them to knock each other out while attempting to kill Barry. With help from Barry and the bees from Barry's hive, Vanessa is able to land the plane safely.

Barry becomes a member of the pollen jocks, and they fly off to a flower patch. Armed with the pollen of the last flowers, Barry and the Pollen Jocks reverse the damage and save the world's plants, restarting the bees' honey production. Later on, Barry runs a law firm at Vanessa's flower shop titled "Insects at Law", which handles disputes between animals and humans. While selling flowers to customers, Vanessa offers certain brands of honey that are "bee-approved".

Voice cast

* Jerry Seinfeld as Barry B. Benson
* Renée Zellweger as Vanessa Bloome
* Matthew Broderick as Adam Flayman
* John Goodman as Layton T. Montgomery
* Patrick Warburton as Ken
* Chris Rock as Mooseblood the Mosquito
* Kathy Bates as Janet B. Benson
* Barry Levinson as Martin B. Benson
* Megan Mullally as Trudy, Honex Tour Guide
* Rip Torn as Pollen Jocks General Lou Lo Duca
* Oprah Winfrey as Judge Bumbleton
* Michael Richards as Bud Ditchwater
* Larry King as Bee Larry King, a fictionalized bee version of himself
* Larry Miller as Dean Buzzwell
* Jim Cummings as Title Narrator and Graduation Announcer
* David Moses Pimentel as Hector
* Chuck Martin as Andy
* Brian Hopkins as Sandy Shrimpkin and TSA Agent
* John DiMaggio as Bailiff and Janitor
* Tress MacNeille as Jeanette Chung, Mother and Cow
* Simon J. Smith as Truck Driver and Chet
* Ray Liotta as Himself
* Sting as Himself
* Robert Jayne as Bee (''only credited with ADR Group'')
* Carl Kasell as Himself (''uncredited'')

Production

The development of ''Bee Movie'' began in 2003, when Steven Spielberg approached DreamWorks Animation CEO and co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg after Jerry Seinfeld asked him to make an animated film featuring insects. Seinfeld spent a week in Los Angeles working on it. Teleconferencing system HP Halo was installed in Seinfeld's office in New York, enabling him to work on the film and interact between coasts. Seinfeld said he set the film in New York because it was "the Tigris and Euphrates of comedy", and Katzenberg was the main reason for making the film. The budget was approximately $150million. Spielberg appeared in two live-action trailers for this film in November 2006 and early 2007 where he interacted with Seinfeld, who wore a bee costume. Using these trailers as a basis, promotional live-action short skits surrounding the production of the movie, branded as ''Bee Movie TV Juniors'', would air on NBC during their Fall primetime lineup.

Release

''Bee Movie'' debuted in New York City on October 25, 2007, followed by a premiere on October 28, in Los Angeles. It was released in the United States on November 2. The film was produced by DreamWorks Animation and Columbus 81 Productions, and distributed by Paramount Pictures. '' Bee Movie Game'' was released in October 2007 for multiple platforms.

Brach's sold ''Bee Movie'' candy corn "made with real honey" and also held a sweepstakes with the grand prize being a trip for four to New York City. General Mills placed cereal spoons and hand buzzers inside cereal boxes promoting ''Bee Movie''. Customers could save 50 cents if they bought two Fruit by the Foot, Fruit Gushers, and Fruit Roll-Ups products featuring ''Bee Movie'' on their packaging. McDonald's offered six ''Bee Movie'' toys in its Happy Meals, while the company's advertising pointed customers towards white meat chicken nuggets, apple dippers, and low-fat milk. The Happy Meal and Conservation International websites both invited kids to take the "Bee Good to the Planet" pledge to protect the environment, and McDonald's supported Conservation International's efforts to protect bee habitats in South Africa and Mexico.

Paramount Home Entertainment released ''Bee Movie'' on DVD (single- and double-disc) on March 11, 2008, and on Blu-ray on May 20. The DVD extras include the "Inside the Hive: The Cast of ''Bee Movie''" and "Tech of ''Bee Movie''" featurettes, "We Got the Bee" music video, "Meet Barry B. Benson" feature, interactive games, a filmmaker commentary, alternate endings, lost scenes, the live-action trailers, and ''Jerry's Flight Over Cannes''. An HD DVD version of the film was canceled after the discontinuation of that format. The DVD release of ''Bee Movie'' was promoted with a $3 mail-in rebate offer from Blue Diamond Growers and a coupon for $1 off Sue Bee honey products.

Reception

Box office

''Bee Movie'' earned $126.6million in the United States and Canada and $166.9million in other countries, for a worldwide total of $293.5million. DreamWorks Animation reported that the film made $27.3million in home media revenues.

The film was released with '' American Gangster'' and '' Martian Child'' on November 2, 2007. ''Bee Movie'' earned $10.2million on its first day. The film debuted at second earning $39.1million from 3,928 theaters. Its second weekend earnings dropped by 32 percent to $26million, and followed by another $14.3million the third weekend. ''Bee Movie'' completed its theatrical run in the United States and Canada on February 14, 2008.

Critical reception

''Bee Movie'' has an approval rating of based on professional reviews on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, with an average rating of . Its critical consensus reads, "''Bee Movie'' has humorous moments, but its awkward premise and tame delivery render it mostly forgettable." Metacritic (which uses a weighted average) assigned ''Bee Movie'' a score of 54 out of 100 based on 34 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.

Michael Phillips of the ''Chicago Tribune'' gave the film two and a half stars out of four, saying "It's on the easygoing level of '' Surf's Up'', and a full tick up from, say, '' Over the Hedge'' or '' The Ant Bully''. But given the Seinfeld pedigree it's something of a disappointment." Peter Travers of ''Rolling Stone'' gave the film three out of four stars, saying "At its relaxed best, when it's about, well, nothing, the slyly comic ''Bee Movie'' is truly beguiling." Desson Thomson of ''The Washington Post'' said, "''Bee Movie'' feels phoned in on every level. The images, usually computer animation's biggest draw, are disappointingly average. And as for the funny stuff, well, that's where you were supposed to come in."

A. O. Scott of ''The New York Times'' gave the film three and a half stars out of four, saying "The most genuinely apian aspect of ''Bee Movie'' is that it spends a lot of its running time buzzing happily around, sniffing out fresh jokes wherever they may bloom." Claudia Puig gave the film one and a half stars out of four, saying "''Bee Movie'' is certainly not low-budget, but it has all the staying power and creative value of a B-movie. The secret life of bees, as told by Seinfeld, is a bore with a capital B." Steven Rea of ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' gave the film three stars out of four, saying "''Bee Movie'' is not ''Shrek'', and it is not '' Ratatouille'' either (by far the standout computer-animated feature of the year). But it has enough buzzing wit and eye-popping animation to win over the kids—and probably more than a few parents, too." Richard Roeper gave the film a positive review, saying "This is a beautifully animated, cleverly executed, warm and funny adventure."

Roger Ebert gave the film two out of four stars, saying "All of this material, written by Seinfeld and writers associated with his television series, tries hard, but never really takes off. We learn at the outset of the movie that bees theoretically cannot fly. Unfortunately, in the movie, that applies only to the screenplay. It is really, really, really hard to care much about a platonic romantic relationship between Renee Zellweger and a bee, although if anyone could pull it off, she could." Ty Burr of ''The Boston Globe'' gave the film three out of four stars, saying "The vibe is loose-limbed and fluky, and the gags have an extra snap that's recognizably Seinfeldian. If I believed in a sitcom afterlife, I'd swear the whole thing was cooked up by Kramer and George's dad."

Accolades

''Bee Movie'' led the 35th Annie Awards season with five nominations (including Best Animated Feature). At the 65th Golden Globe Awards, it was nominated for Best Animated Feature Film. The 13th Critics' Choice Awards nominated the film for Best Animated Feature.

Lawsuits

Two lawsuits involving ''Bee Movie'' were filed. Multiple Swedish animation students, who were represented by an American attorney, sued because their developed concept in 2000, titled ''Beebylon'', had similarities to ''Bee Movie''. A separate suit was brought by Florida-based cosmetics company Beeceuticals over the use of their trademarked phrase "Give Bees a Chance". Both of these lawsuits were rejected.

Legacy

Years after the film's release, ''Bee Movie'' has seen an unexpected rise in popularity as an absurd and surreal Internet meme. In 2015, posts of the film's dialog transcript (erroneously referred to as simply the " script") spread across Facebook. On November 17, 2016, YouTube user Avoid at All Costs uploaded a video titled "The entire bee movie but every time they say bee it gets faster", where the entire film is sped up every time the word "bee" is spoken, condensing the film to only 7 minutes; the video amassed seven million views.

'' Vanity Fair'' later characterized the film's sudden popularity as "totally bizarre", and later identified Jason Richards as one of the meme's larger promoters through his @Seinfeld2000 Twitter account. '' Inverse'' felt the film's ironic internet popularity has helped the movie become critically reevaluated by millennial critics who now view the film as an unironic, genuinely well-made film.

Seinfeld has commented on the film's reemergence as a meme as "kinda weird but pretty welcoming" and said "you just can't predict what the internet will do next, but you gotta love it," but expressed no interest in making a sequel to ''Bee Movie'' despite its online popularity.

Notes

References

External links

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{{Portal bar, Film, United States, Speculative fiction, Comedy, Animation, Cartoon, 2000s, New York (state), New York City

2007 American animated films
2000s buddy comedy films
2000s children's comedy films
2000s English-language films
2007 comedy films
2007 computer-animated films
2007 directorial debut films
2007 films
American buddy comedy films
American children's animated comedy films
American computer-animated films
Animated buddy films
Animated film controversies
Animated films about friendship
Animated films about talking animals
Animated films set in New York City
Films about lawsuits
DreamWorks Animation films
Animated films about bees
Honey in popular culture
Films directed by Simon J. Smith
Films directed by Steve Hickner
Films involved in plagiarism controversies
Films scored by Rupert Gregson-Williams
Films set in Pasadena, California
Paramount Pictures animated films
Paramount Pictures films
English-language buddy comedy films
Internet memes introduced in 2007