Revisiting ‘Bee Movie’

“According to all known laws of aviation there is no way a bee should be able to fly.”

That’s the opening line to Bee Movie, but unfortunately this film was far from soaring.

Almost nine years ago, Jerry Seinfeld made a movie that caught nearly everyone off guard. Bee Movie. Why did he decide to make this movie? No one will ever know. What the world does know is that Bee Movie doesn’t really make any sense.

I’m not even talking about the plot. I just can’t wrap my head around why this odd film has such a prominent cast. Here are the notable celebrities who appear in Bee Movie: Jerry Seinfeld, who has a reported net worth of just over $800 million, Renée Zellwegger, Mathew Broderick, Chris Rock, John Goodman, Larry King, Oprah Winfrey and to top it all off, Sting (of course).

I can’t believe we live in a world where that group of people would actually make an animated movie about bee’s. I also didn’t think we’d live in a world where Donald Trump could ever be a presidential candidate, but here we are.

You might be asking yourself, why would someone write a review for a movie that came out nine years ago. Well, I don’t really have a good answer for you. The best I can come up with is this: Bee Movie has spawned some of the most bizarre internet jokes of any animated film; and with good reason.

It starts off simple enough, Barry (Seinfeld) has graduated from school and he needs to pick a career within the bee hive. The lifetime commitment of being a worker bee causes him to flee the hive in hopes to see the outside world. Through a series of unfortunate events, he meets a human woman named Vanessa (Zellwegger) and the two strike up one of the most bizarre on screen relationships in the history of the cinematic world. Later, Barry learns the horrors of bee keeping and makes it his personal mission to stop the forced labor which is needed to maintain the honey industry.

The actual plot was rather important and applicable to the real world. The world’s bee population is dropping at an alarming rate and its led to a widespread panic due to their importance to the global ecosystem. Bee Movie does an excellent job of relaying hat message to people of all ages by showing the effects of a bee-less world.

One of Seinfeld’s talents is creating family humor that hits all age groups, and he hit his mark again with Bee Movie. With the exception of a recurring joke on incest within the bee hive; but hey, they’re just bees.

Combined with questionable family values, much of the movie focuses on a likely romantic relationship between a bee and an actual human being. Obviously things don’t ever get physical, but isn’t the idea of a bee and human being romantically interested in each other enough to make you question what the hell is going on with this movie?

All of that aside, Bee Movie managed to make me laugh. The parallels between the Barry becoming a real member of the colony and some of the struggles of being a young adult graduating into the real world were done very well. The mounting pressure of knowing exactly what you want to do when you graduate is one that many can relate to. The desire to break from social norms and explore the world at your leisure and aspire to be more than just a cookie-cutter member of society are themes that many can get behind.

But even with its relatable themes and all-age-humor. I couldn’t help be disappointed with this movie. I’ve had nine years to mentally prepare myself for what it was, and it just couldn’t live up to what I was expecting. It wasn’t bad by any means. Would I recommend it to someone? No, probably not. But would I watch it if it was all that was on? Yeah, probably. It’s that kind of a movie. A movie you can jump into at any point, and just enjoy it for what it is. Not just a movie about bee’s; a movie about bee’s including a human romantic interest.