''Maya the Bee'' (promoted theatrically as ''Maya the Bee Movie'') is a 2014 animated

adventure An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme spo ...

comedy film The comedy film is a film genre that emphasizes humor. These films are designed to amuse audiences and make them laugh. Films in this genre typically have a happy ending, with dark comedy being an exception to this rule. Comedy is one of the o ...

directed by Alexs Stadermann, loosely based on the 1975 anime ''

Maya the Bee Maya the Bee () is the main character in ''The Adventures of Maya the Bee'', a German book written by Waldemar Bonsels and published in 1912. The book has been published in many other languages and adapted into different media. The first Ameri ...

'' as well as indirectly on the German children's book ''The Adventures of

'' by Waldemar Bonsels. The first animated film in the ''Maya the Bee'' franchise, it was produced by

Studio 100 Animation Studio 100 Animation SAS is a French animation studio based in Paris and it is a subsidiary of the Belgian Studio 100 ''group'', the studio specialises in producing TV series and films for children and families. History When parent company Stud ...

and Buzz Studios, and distributed by

StudioCanal StudioCanal S.A.S. (formerly known as Le Studio Canal+, Canal Plus, Canal+ Distribution, Canal+ D.A., and Canal+ Production and also known as StudioCanal International) is a French film & television production and distribution company which is a ...

in Australia and by

Universum Film Leonine Holding GmbH, also known as LEONINE Studios and formerly known Tele München Group, LLC (German: Tele München Gruppe; TMG), is a German media production and distribution company that is based in Munich and since 2024 its owned by French ...

in Germany. It features the voices of Coco Jack Gillies,

Kodi Smit-McPhee Kodi Smit-McPhee (born 13 June 1996) is an Australian actor. He gained recognition as a child actor for his leading roles in '' The Road'' (2009) and '' Let Me In'' (2010). He provided the voice of the title character in stop-motion animations ...

Noah Taylor Noah George Taylor (born 4 September 1969) is a British born Australian actor. The accolades he has received include nominations for three Screen Actors Guild Awards, a Critics' Choice Award, and four AACTA Awards. He is best known for his ...

Richard Roxburgh Richard Roxburgh (born 23 January 1962) is an Australian actor and filmmaker. He is the recipient of a number of accolades across film, television, and theatre, including several AFI and AACTA Awards, Logie Awards, and Helpmann Awards. He bega ...

Jacki Weaver Jacqueline Ruth Weaver (born 25 May 1947) is an Australian theatre, film, and television actress. Her accolades include five AACTA Awards (including the Longford Lyell Award) and a National Board of Review Award, in addition to nominations ...

Justine Clarke Justine Clarke is an Australian actress, singer, author and television host. Clarke has been acting since the age of seven and has appeared in some of Australia's best-known TV shows. She is best-known for her portrayal as Roo Stewart on the ...

The Umbilical Brothers The Umbilical Brothers are an Australian Double act, comedy duo formed in 1988, consisting of David Collins and Shane Dundas. Their performances heavily feature physical comedy and surreal humour, surreal elements. Stage shows by the Umbilical ...

, and

Miriam Margolyes Miriam Margolyes ( ; born 18 May 1941) is a British and Australian actress. Known for her work as a character actor across film, television, and stage, she received the BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Mrs. Mingott in Marti ...

. ''Maya the Bee'' was released theatrically on 4 September 2014. The film received mixed reviews from critics, but grossed $29.6 million worldwide. Two sequels to ''Maya the Bee'' were released: '' The Honey Games'' in 2018, '' The Golden Orb'' in 2021, and an upcoming spin-off titled ''Arnie & Barney'' scheduled for 2026.

Plot

Maya is born in a world of rules, but when she discovers villainous Buzzlina Von Beena's plot to steal the Queen's royal jelly, Maya is banished from the hive and into the meadow. With her best friend Willy tagging along, Maya meets a young hornet named Sting. Together they have to stop the plot and the fight between bees and hornets before it is too late.

Voice cast

* Coco Jack Gillies as Maya, a young

bee Bees are winged insects closely related to wasps and ants, known for their roles in pollination and, in the case of the best-known bee species, the western honey bee, for producing honey. Bees are a monophyletic lineage within the superfamil ...

girl. *

as Willy, a young bee boy, Maya's best friend. * Joel Franco as Sting, a young

hornet Hornets (insects in the genus ''Vespa'') are the largest of the Eusociality, eusocial wasps, and are similar in appearance to yellowjackets, their close relatives. Some species can reach up to in length. They are distinguished from other Vespi ...

, Maya and Willy's best friend and sidekick. *

as Flip, a

grasshopper Grasshoppers are a group of insects belonging to the suborder Caelifera. They are amongst what are possibly the most ancient living groups of chewing herbivorous insects, dating back to the early Triassic around 250 million years ago. Grassh ...

. *

as Miss Cassandra, a bee teacher at the bee school and Maya's mother at heart. *

as Buzzlina Von Beena, the royal counselor of the beehive and Maya's arch-enemy. * Andy McPhee as Hank, the leader of hornets, Sting's father, Bees friends, and former arch-rivals. *

as The Queen, the mother of Bees. *

David Collins David Collins may refer to: Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * David Collins (''Dark Shadows''), character in the television series ''Dark Shadows'' * David Collins (''EastEnders''), character in the television series ''EastEnders'' P ...

as Arnie, an

ant Ants are Eusociality, eusocial insects of the Family (biology), family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the Taxonomy (biology), order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from Vespoidea, vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cre ...

soldier, Paul's right-hand. * Shane Dundas as Barney, an ant soldier, Arnie's partner and Paul's right-hand. * Jimmy James Eaton as Paul, an ant colonel, the leader of ants. *

Heather Mitchell Heather Lee Mitchell is an Australian actor, who has appeared in Australian stage, television, and film productions. She is best known for her leading role in the 1990s television show '' Spellbinder''. More recently, she appeared as Anita in ...

as The Nurse, chief of the worker bees. *

as Crawley, the hilariously bumbling of the beehive, The Queen's loyal assistant and Buzzlina's former henchman. * Cameron Ralph as Momo, a

moth Moths are a group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not Butterfly, butterflies. They were previously classified as suborder Heterocera, but the group is Paraphyly, paraphyletic with respect to butterflies (s ...

. *

Glenn Fraser Glenn Fraser is an Australians, Australian filmmaker. Life and career He attended Woollahra Public School and then Sydney Boys High School, in Moore Park from 1980 to 1985. His films have received awards and his work has been exhibited in maj ...

as Kurt, a

dung beetle Dung beetles are beetles that feed on feces. All species of dung beetle belong to the superfamily Scarabaeoidea, most of them to the subfamilies Scarabaeinae and Aphodiinae of the family Scarabaeidae (scarab beetles). As most species of Scara ...

. *

as Thekla, an evil and stubborn bug-eating

spider Spiders (order (biology), order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight limbs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude spider silk, silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and ran ...

. * Stavroula Mountzouris as Lara, a

ladybug Coccinellidae () is a widespread family of small beetles. They are commonly known as ladybugs in North America and ladybirds in the United Kingdom; "lady" refers to mother Mary. Entomologists use the names ladybird beetles or lady beetles ...

who is Willy's love interest. * Sam Haft as Drago, a

dragonfly A dragonfly is a flying insect belonging to the infraorder Anisoptera below the order Odonata. About 3,000 extant species of dragonflies are known. Most are tropical, with fewer species in temperate regions. Loss of wetland habitat threat ...

Production

distributed the film in German-speaking territories through

Buena Vista International Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures is an American film distributor within the Disney Entertainment division of the Walt Disney Company. It handles theatrical and occasional digital distribution, marketing, and promotion for films produced and ...

, while

handled the distribution in Australasia. The film is directed by Alexs Stadermann, and produced by Patrick Elmendorff and Thorsten Wegener from

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

; and Jim Ballantine and Barbara Stephen from Buzz Studios in

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

. The film was produced in association with

Flying Bark Productions Flying Bark Productions Pty. Ltd. (formerly known as Yoram Gross Film Studios, Yoram Gross-Village Roadshow and Yoram Gross-EM.TV) is an Australian entertainment and animation studio that is a subsidiary of Belgian children's production company ...

and the channel

ZDF ZDF (), short for (; ), is a German public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. Launched on 1 April 1963, it is run as an independent nonprofit institution, and was founded by all federal states of Germany ( ...

. This film was Coco Jack Gillies' film debut, voicing the role of Maya. Gillies was 9 years old at the time of production.

Reception

On the

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, of critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of .

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, which uses a

weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

, assigned the film a score of 49 out of 100, based on 7 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. Frank Hatherley of ''

Screen Daily ''Screen International'' is a British film magazine covering the international film business. It is published by Media Business Insight, a British B2B media company which also owned '' Broadcast''. The magazine is primarily aimed at those involv ...

'' positively assessed the visuals and action scenes, along with Coco Jack Gillies' performance as Maya. In one of his articles for ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'', Peter Debruge felt the plot was "innocuous and uninspired as preschool animation gets" and criticised the character designs as "rudimentary at best", but he considered it a "relief to parents exhausted by the overly antic quality of all those other bug stories" and praised the target audience's interest in Maya's interaction with the other Poppy Meadow insects. Although Michael Rechtstaffen of ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

'' thought the film wouldn't generate "much of a buzz beyond female preschoolers", he praised its story as well as the cast's performances. Charles Solomon of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' questioned the film's dialogue and ending scenes, and later called it a "self-consciously uplifting treacle some adults insist kids want". Writing for ''

The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, Australia, and owned by Nine Entertainment. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuous ...

'', Jake Wilson called the film's plot a "wearyingly familiar story", but praised the animation as well as Maya's characterisation.

Accolades

Sequel

References

Notes

Citations

External links

*
Official UK website

Official German website
* * {{Authority control 2014 fantasy films 2014 3D films 2014 animated films 2014 films Australian 3D films Australian animated feature films Australian comedy films Australian fantasy films Australian children's animated films Australian children's comedy films Australian children's adventure films Australian children's fantasy films Australian computer-animated films 2010s Australian animated films 2010s German animated films 2010s children's animated films 2010s children's comedy films 2010s children's fantasy films 2010s children's adventure films Animated films about friendship German 3D films German children's films German fantasy films Films produced by Jim Ballantine Films directed by Alexs Stadermann 3D animated films 2014 comedy films Animated films about ants Animated films about grasshoppers Animated films about bees Animated films about royalty Screen Australia films StudioCanal animated films Flying Bark Productions films Maya the Bee 2010s English-language films 2010s Australian films 2010s German films British animated comedy films German animated comedy films Australian animated comedy films English-language fantasy films English-language adventure films Animated films based on German novels