Saturday, November 03, 2007

"Bee Movie" (2007) - Movie Review

There is a high level of bar set for “Bee Movie”. A small creature interacting with the humans was top notched in an adult and yet funny and sweet manner by “Ratatouille” for all audiences. But Jerry Seinfeld’s stamp on this would have had team up for the challenge. There are strong one liners but does not add up to save a plot flimsy and sometimes uninteresting too. I being “Seinfeld” fan thought that couple of dry jokes could only be got by the series fan. I caught couple of those. The whole movie is a material of Jerry trying to insert in a plot with no care and seriousness it wanted to carry through the film.

As Barry B. Benson (Jerry Seinfeld), a bee is astonished to learn that his life is tuned for good; he begins to venture into the outside world along with the pollen jocks. And when a commander/trainer for pollen jocks says before the great adventure punctuating that “Remember, Bees cannot fly in rain” then there should be rain. We know that it is not exactly for bees but for us. Barry stumbles into the human world and yields to temptation of speaking to Vanessa (Renée Zellweger), in thanking her for saving his life. Then you can see why the story loses its control.

In “Ratatouille”, the surprise of the human knowing a rat moves fast but there is a sense of a shock and the character itself is so longing for some one to hear and mainly understand him. Vanessa clearly is dazed and confused when Barry speaks up. It moves on faster too but the way we get to know Barry in few but strong initial scenes did not carry the same for the character of Vanessa. Hence she is stuffed up in a script which desperately in need of female character to counter up Barry. They become friends but trying to take it up in to an infatuation/romance at the start is just oddly creative and even in the animation world it does not work out well.

Seinfeld in one of his interview said that people of course will identify him in the character and added that if he was born as a bee, it will be like Barry. It is absolutely true. We do see Barry “Seinfeld” Benson and it is the reason lots of jokes which would have lulled up if some one else voiced for it intrudes positively as a chuckle. The problem is that they did not work the surroundings around him sufficiently. They sure did build up a plot but it is tacky. Bees, the tiny fellas with fear of bitter sting also having their sweetness of charm are on their own territory of ironical characteristics. There could have been numerous plot and personality build up in the hive itself. And sure does reflect when the sequence involved out there.

We want more bee terminology, inside jokes and building up of their routines. When the movie started off, it was so promising. It perfectly identifies with humans in day to day routine of clock work in boring busy way. The enthusiasm rose up to see the society looks at itself in a way it has never looked up, of course in its animated funny manner. I do not need a human to learn that. Or even if it is, the comparison should have been an obvious manner of how ridiculously same both the architectural form up of both lifestyles are and there you have a laugh, creativity and a thought too. It started off with every thing of those and knotted into this mess of law suit, interaction with humans and a Hollywood cheesy finale to down it up further more.

Sure the film does not drain you (as any animation movie) and it has action comedy for kids and dry trade mark Seinfeld moments. But grouping together it as a film does not add up to its value. As for the animation, the buzz or the pace or the creativity goes very little when competing with the current giants of big time films.

I do need to say that I did expect something for the banner of Seinfeld. But as “Seinfeld” sitcom with grows on you as many episodes are watched and revisited, we do not have so much time in a movie theatre. Hence you can see directors Steve Hickner and Simon J. Smith hurrying up the plot. While Vanessa was going nuts and unbelievable in hearing a bee speak, the rest of the human world automatically acknowledge it. Seinfeld does use it to his advantage with a one liner by jabbering up something when the world expects the bee to speak and then coming up with a casual kidding. Seinfeld strikes but movie does not.

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