Review: ‘Bee Movie’ flops with poor dialogue, mixed messages

Directed by: Steve Hickner, Simon J. Smith

Starring: (The voices of) Jerry Seinfeld, Renée Zellweger, Matthew Broderick, Patrick Warburton, John Goodman, Chris Rock, Kathy Bates, Barry Levinson

Rated: PG

Interspecies relationships – from classic Disney and Looney Toons to “Rocky and Bullwinkle” to “Family Guy” – are a mainstay of animated tales. And every once in a while, a film comes along that pushes the envelope of the genre with its character development, dazzling animation and inventive story line.

A movie like that has been released in 2007. It’s called “Ratatouille,” and it became available on DVD Tuesday.

The Jerry Seinfeld-controlled “Bee Movie” is another case entirely. Everything about the film, from dialogue to plot to the animation itself, is flat.

And it’s hard to get enthused about the relationship between the bee called Barry B. Benson (voiced by Seinfeld) and the human named Vanessa (voiced by Renée Zellweger). With Zellweger’s talent and rather unique vocal quality, she of all people could pull off a role such as this one with believability and sang-froid.

For everything wrong with this film, Seinfeld has only himself to blame.

My suspicions that all wasn’t right in this particular hive began when Seinfeld started appearing on every show available – early mornings, late nights and an entire hour on “Larry King Live” – talking at length about how he had controlled every part of the process, including telling the animators how to do their jobs.

Seinfeld also went to great lengths to point out he was at every voiceover session, interacting with the other people doing the voices. “Bee Movie” test audiences probably noticed how flat and stilted the dialogue sounds. There are precious few overlapping lines, a device that gives realism to films whether animated or live action. So, the marketing department obviously decided a good spin would be to talk about how great the dialogue is.

“Bee Movie” tries to educate its audience about bee life but jumps around so much it’s hard to figure out the message. Is it pro-conservation and ecology-minded? Is it trying to say socialism is good or bad? Is Seinfeld on the side of vegans, vegetarians who consume no animal products including honey? Who can tell? Thirty minutes in, who cares?

Barry, after three days of education (bee time runs quickly) is about to embark on a career. As one might expect, employment opportunities in the hive are nearly all honey-related. Barry isn’t wild about those prospects.

He decides he wants to see the world and so pretends to be one of the “pollen jocks” – elite bees who fly out to find pollen and nectar. They are the cream of the bee crop and portrayed as fighter pilot types, which Barry is most decidedly not.

His first trip out nearly ends in disaster, and he breaks one of Bee-dom’s most strict laws when he talks to a human. That human is Vanessa, who works in a flower shop.

They become great friends, but things go awry when Barry visits a grocery store and sees the honey aisle. He’s appalled. He insists the honey belongs to the bees and if the humans weren’t pirating it, bees wouldn’t have to work so hard all of their lives making the stuff.

Barry enlists the help of his friend, Adam (voiced by Matthew Broderick) and decides to – no kidding – sue the human race. It’s not that a scenario as ridiculous as this couldn’t work – that’s what the best animated features do, make impossible things happen – it’s that here it’s lackluster in execution.

There are a number of high-profile personalities giving voice to characters here. Oprah voices the judge, John Goodman the lawyer for the human race.

Some of the funniest – or least funny – bits involve celebrities playing themselves. Musician Sting is taken to task, as Barry and Adam bring forth the shocking evidence that his real name is Gordon Sumner. He’s stolen more than just honey from the bees. Ray Liotta is brought into court to explain why he thinks it’s OK to market a line of honey under his name. Thinking about some of the characters he’s played – Henry Hill in “Goodfellas,” the psychotic Ray Sinclair in “Something Wild” – makes his part work nicely.

What happens after the trial evolves into a sophomoric eco/morality tale but, again, it’s not clear what Seinfeld is really preaching – only that he is preaching.

In every interview, Seinfeld mentions that he came up with the title for the film years ago, long before he had any idea what it would be about. Maybe he should rethink his creative process.

The social structure of bees and ants has fascinated humans for thousands of years, and 1998’s animated feature “Antz” did a fair job with the ant world. But when it comes to bee movies, “Bee Movie” gets a D minus.

Jim Wunderle owns Wunderle Sound Services and is a Springfield freelance writer and musician. He can be reached at info@wunderlesound.com.[[In-content Ad]]