the bee movie

continuing forward with a christmas tradition established many years ago
sees me dragging along sundry nieces and nephews to the film of choice
usually another installment of one or other of the ongoing trilogies, etc on the big screen at end of year
this year i had some influence in the decision and opted for this film
mainly on the presence of jerry seinfeld as creator and main character (i.e. voice)
the movie show (abc tv) had also reviewed it favourably so off we went
i had read somewhere that jerry seinfeld had spent many years on the project
his first major piece of tv/film work since pulling the plug on his tv sitcom almost 10 years ago
i find these days that it is no longer just enough to have excellent animation
it's now so entrenched that the so-called 'wow' factor is not going to happen with just that
a good story, lots of laughs, and big-name voice actors are also mandatory
i think it also helps if there is some element of even subtle education in the film
for example thinking back to happy feet from this time last year all the essentials were delivered
but so too was the presumably accurate depiction of the various types of penguins found in the antarctic
and so with great expectation i was hoping something would be delivered in the bee movie
it's a fairly straightforward story that sees barry b benson (seinfeld) graduating from college
then expected as usual to select a job for life and work in the honey industry
but barry yearns for life outside the hive and gets a break flying with the pollen jocks
some excellent animation here as the squadron is scrambled like fighter pilots
they then take to the air in obviously new york city to collect honey and do their pollination duties
our junior pilot becomes separated and ends up alone and in the apartment of a florist named vanessa
she is sympathetic to all things living and saves barry from an unpleasant death at the hands of her boyfriend
as a result he breaks one of the cardinal rules of beedom and talks to this human (voice of renee zellweger)
a bond is established despite protestations from his parents and friends
before long they are on a mission to save bees from slaving away to produce honey for humans
this all leads up to a hilarious court scene with atypical legal types and others being parodied
musician sting is also on the stand as a witness to the defamation of bees
in his case for the false and derogatory use of his name
this also from chris rock doing the voice of a mosquito now lawyer
i was always a blood-sucking parasite so what's the difference
which is quite typical of the very many one-liners found throughout the film
the big climax of the film sees the bees winning the court case and so released from honey production
which naturally leads to flowers and plants dying due to no pollination from the bees
so that becomes the big lesson in the film but not at all in a heavy-handed way
but of course there is a compromise that means we all live happily ever after
there are a lot of subtle messages conveyed in the film - if you are looking for them
overall i left the theatre feeling well entertained and educated
as did my younger companion
to quote a line from the film
it gets a b from me
(the best grade possible)
grab a child
go see it