The Voice

Issue date: 11/8/07 Section: Arts and Entertainment

Courtesy of www.google.com

Courtesy of www.google.com

So, it's parents' weekend here at Bloomsburg and I'm planning to go see 30 Days of Night with my Mom, Dad, boyfriend, and seventeen-year-old brother. I knew my mom wouldn't appreciate the film, but at the very least, I thought everyone else might get a kick out of it. However, when I show my mom the online trailer, she very pointedly expresses her distaste for such visceral violence and suggests that we see Bee Movie instead. She argues that it's a much more family-oriented film and not nearly as gruesome as 30 Days of Night. I was about to fight her on it had not everyone else in our party interjected with their consent.
It's sad to say that I was outnumbered that day, but I assure you, I now seek to reveal the truth of the newest installment to the Dreamworks repertoire. The film has been marketed on and off since last summer, and for any fan of the new-age animations like Shrek, Finding Nemo, Cars, and Ratatouille, Bee Movie looked like a worthy descendent that could quite possibly become one of pop culture's new favorites.
There is a brilliant cast of voices involved including Jerry Seinfeld, Renee Zellweger, Matthew Broderick, Chris Rock, Rip Torn, Oprah Winfrey, and Kathy Bates. Larry King, Ray Liotta and Sting even made special cameos as themselves. And if that's not enough to convince anyone to see it, then what about the fact that it was written by Spike Feresten and Jerry Seinfeld himself? I doubt there's a single person on this campus that doesn't know the show Seinfeld and its incredible success. With that being the last thing Jerry did, it was naturally assumed that Bee Movie would follow as a different kind of comedy, but a successful one nonetheless. Thus, the directors, Steve Hickner and Simon J. Smith have assembled decent supplies for the construction of their movie, but in the midst of it all, one crucial thing was forgotten: content.
First, let's go over the plot and see whether or not Bee Movie has something solid. More often than not, the main character is going through the motions of life until something happens that plunges the character into a quest for self-discovery. Barry B. Benson (Seinfeld), the main bee in Bee Movie has just graduated college and is now looking forward to going into the workforce where he will remain for the rest of his life, doing the same job over and over. This fails to appeal to him, and so he ends up leaving the hive and accidentally getting thrown into the city where he gets a taste of a different kind of life. In fact, he specifically speaks to a human, Vanessa Bloom (Zellweger), and with her help finds a way to sue the human race for stealing and distributing honey made by bees. It's a drastic but also speciously convincing move that results in a success for the bees that wins them back their honey. In fact, there is so much honey given back to them that they don't need to work, and by not working, all the vegetation dies out due to a lack of pollination.
Most of the movie is centered around the bees vs. humans court case; that's when all the ups and downs are experienced, and so the audience is led to believe that the plight has ultimately been solved. In actuality, Barry was terribly wrong in his campaign, and thus, by fighting the natural instincts of bees to incessantly work, he affords a loss for both the humans and the bees. On one hand, the humans lose nature, and on the other hand, the bees lose their sense of identity. I understand that this court case is a necessary segue to the end of the film where Barry finally embraces his instincts and saves the day by doing so, but because it took up most of the movie, I thought it was a bit inane. Another thing that was just aggravating was the fact that the bee fell in love with the human. What the heck? I mean, I can understand them being friends, but the whole idea of them 'making out' as it is jokingly mentioned in the movie is more than mildly disturbing, even if it is just a joke. Also, at one point, the words 'interspecies erotica' were whispered to me and I couldn't help but cringe.
The movie just made me wish I was a kid so that I could enjoy it for all its ridiculous senselessness. This brings me to the clincher of my argument, for while many might disagree with my interpretation of the film and dismiss this article as pointless because I'm a college student tearing apart something intended for children, I can validate my point because of all the other computer animated films out there. Sure, they appear to be solely made for children, but such an assumption is terribly common and terribly wrong. Finding Nemo, for instance, was so completely well done that it appealed to both children and adults, and the same can be said for Shrek, Ratatouille, Toy Story and so on. If you look at the list there, you'll find most of those are Disney Pixar films. I'll be the first to say that almost everything to come out of Dreamworks feels like a rip off of the Pixar classics. The only movies I've really been satisfied with from Dreamworks are Shrek, Flushed Away, Wallace and Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit, and Chicken Run. Their disappointments include Over the Hedge, Shrek the Third, Madagascar, Shark Tale, and so forth. Compare those to the real deal from Pixar like Toy Story, Toy Story 2, A Bug's Life, Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Cars, and Ratatouille. I rest my case.
So, Bee Movie wasn't everything I had hoped it would be, but I still have faith in Jerry Seinfeld and maybe a little bit in Dreamworks. I'm just glad they advertised the juice out of this film, because really that's about one of the only things it has going for it. Godspeed, Bee Movie, you're going to need it

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools