You’d think with a star-studded cast, a film will be a genuinely refreshing and exciting endeavor to spend your time and money on. However, that is rarely the case with DreamWorks after Shrek began. The company swerved off in a different direction, producing films that were supposed to be fun and entertaining, as well as light-hearted rather than genuinely intriguing films such as The Prince of Egypt.
This led to the birth of Bee Movie, a film with one of the biggest star-studded casts that I have seen in an animated film, which managed to be underwhelming to even the most casual of audiences. In fact, it was so underwhelming that it went on to become one of the biggest memes on the Internet.
How to Download or Stream Bee Movie
You can stream it or you can download the film from a digital store. Click on the Download button at the end of this review and make your choice. If you like films about insects, check out also a review of Antz, or A Bug’s Life.
The Bee Movie Review
Bee Movie follows the story of Barry B. Benson, a regular old worker bee who is coming of age and is starting to find his footing in the bee colony. However, after a few days of work, Barry B. Benson quickly realizes that this isn’t the life that he wants. He starts to feel depressed, loses his grip on life, and doesn’t know what he wants to do in a society that functions in a particular fashion. However, after spending some time with the human woman, Barry begins to understand the exploitation of bees at the hand of humanity and decides to sue them for all their worth.
Look, I’m not one to pile on films just because they’re made to further a moral message. We know that the bees are going extinct in a quicker fashion than any other species in the world, and we do know that this is a global crisis issue. However, if the film isn’t fun or engaging, the message is not going to hit general audiences at all. That is exactly the case with Bee Movie.
Simon J. Smith and Steve Hickner’s Bee Movie has a lot to say about humanity and the problematic choices that we’re making for our own pleasure, which is harming the planet. Yet it doesn’t really have a voice of its own, and rather downplays the issues with laughs and giggles, which doesn’t really work.
There are other films that share the same message, such as 101 Dalmatians, which also focuses on the topic of humanity exploiting nature. Yet, that film had a lot of entertainment, heart, and emotion to it which brought all of those elements together in an engaging way for audiences to dive into.
Here though, all of the issues are underplayed and the focus is on a funny film with funny people from all around the comedy world. Jerry Seinfeld is in this, as the main protagonist in Barry B. Benson, along with Patrick Warburton, Renee Zellweger, Chris Rock, John Goodman, and even Ray Liotta.
While I can’t say that any of these people did bad voice acting, I wasn’t really interested in any of the characters enough to care about their voice acting performances.
The animation, on the other hand, just works really well. It has a quirky art style that fits the tone of the film, yet it also has a more realistic look to the humans and also the bees to make you feel more emotion for them as they seem realistic.
The problem arises in the animation department with the environment design, they tried to go for a photorealistic look for the human world and it just doesn’t work due to the outdated texture and rendering fidelities. Though, at the time I bet it was phenomenal.
And I would just like to add, Rupert Gregson-Williams’ jazzy and dazzling soundtrack is just not the right fit for this film. it feels out of place for a film such as this, even though at times it might feel like the music is well made.
The Verdict
Bee Movie is a film made for the Internet to digest. It is the exact kind of film that people love to laugh at, rather than with. It’s not as bad as Morbius by any means, Well the amount of recognition that it has gotten over the years is simply because of the memes made about it on the Internet. There is nothing special in this film, and it fails to deliver a hard-hitting message.
