Bee Movie (2007)

MY AFFECTION FOR DreamWorks Animation has definitely grown over the last five years, thanks to more deeply developed offerings such as the Kung Fu Panda films, How to Train Your Dragon, and last year’s Rise of the Guardians.

But before that, DreamWorks’ output lacked the depth and imagination that Pixar was providing in droves. And 2007’s Bee Movie is (hopefully) one of the last installments of that earlier time.

Barry B. Benson (Jerry Seinfeld) is a college grad who’s eager to begin his career as a worker bee in his hive. Since bees have a short lifespan, he knows he has to make his career choice count – once a bee picks a job in the hive, they’re stuck with it for the rest of their (abbreviated) life. While out collecting pollen, Barry befriends Vanessa (Renée Zellweger), a human who values all living things, including Barry. When Barry is outraged that people have been “stealing” bees’ honey for years, Vanessa helps him file a lawsuit against the human race.

Bee Movie is pollinated here and there with make-you-smile cleverness, but out-loud laughs are few. Many jokes will go over kids’ heads, but the punchlines won’t satisfy the adults who get them. (It really took four writers to come up with this?)

In addition to uneven humor and lack of character depth, the film demands huge suspensions of disbelief. The fact that Vanessa accepts and befriends a talking bee after only a few moments is hard to swallow, not to mention the swarms of people in the courtroom during Barry’s lawsuit trial who also seem unaffected by Barry’s ability to speak. It’s also tough buying the seasoned, “lemme tell ya” voice of 53-year-old Jerry Seinfeld as a recent college graduate. (If you’re dying for a Jerry/Puddy reunion, Seinfeld’s Patrick Warburton voices Vanessa’s arrogant and jealous boyfriend, Ken.)

Bee Movie starts with a promising premise – questioning the idea of having one monotonous job your entire life (a la Wreck-It Ralph) – but soon devolves into a much less engaging plot involving a courtroom trial that kids won’t care about, much less understand. Uneven and too clever for its own good, Bee Movie provides occasional glimpses of inspiration, but ultimately not enough sting.

Rating:

What did FilmBoy and Jack-Jack think?

FilmBoy stayed with Bee Movie for the first hour, but then his attention waned and he started looking at his Pokemon cards. His final verdict: “It was okay.” Meanwhile, Jack-Jack soaked in every bit, getting visibly animated at much of what was going on.

Is it suitable for your kids?

Bee Movie is rated PG for "mild suggestive humor."
Language: A bee accuses Barry of “making out” with Vanessa. When he needs to go to the bathroom, Barry declares he needs to “drain the ol’ stinger.” A bee says of a female co-worker, “She’s hot!” Barry describes a character as being “very Jewish.” In a low moment, Barry and Vanessa jokingly discuss a “suicide pact” and how they would do it. One mention each of “drag queen,” “poo water,” and “heaving buttocks.”
Violence: Vanessa stabs herself with a fork to make sure she’s not dreaming. Barry has a dream where Vanessa crashes a plane she’s piloting and it bursts into flames. There are several scenes of slapstick punching and slapping. Ken tries to swat, smash, and light Barry on fire during a fight.
Adult Themes: There’s an ongoing theme, though handled lightheartedly, of dying and death due to the bee’s short lifespan.
Smoking: A human passerby smokes a cigarette.

Will your FilmMother want to watch it?

The images and premise of Bee Movie may appeal to her, but she may balk at the pedestrian humor and questionable adult material in such a child-targeted film.

Wow – that's one honey of a serve!
(Oh, boo-hiss to you, too.)

Bee Movie
* Directors: Steve Hickner, Simon J. Smith
* Screenwriters: Jerry Seinfeld, Spike Feresten, Barry Marder, Andy Robin
* Stars: Jerry Seinfeld, Renée Zellweger, Matthew Broderick, Patrick Warburton, John Goodman, Chris Rock, Kathy Bates, Eddie Izzard, Alan Arkin, Megan Mullally, Rip Torn, Larry Miller, Barry Levinson
* MPAA Rating: PG



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Fly Me To The Moon (2008)

I'M NOT SURE what exactly prompted me to rent Fly Me To The Moon for Dash and I to watch. I’d seen reviews ranging from so-so to sub-par, but I still had an indescribable soft spot for it. Blame it on a combination of the following:

1) The trailer. Bugs, astronauts, and outer space. A winning combo for a 5-year-old boy, I’d say:


2) With motion picture animation largely dominated by Pixar, Disney, DreamWorks, and Blue Sky Studios, I wanted to give somebody else a chance (in this case, nWave Pictures).

3) The title comes from one of my favorite songs by Frank Sinatra:

Plot:
Set in July 1969 on the eve of Apollo 11’s attempt to put a man on the moon, little winged bug Nat (Trevor Gagnon) dreams of going to the moon himself one day. When he hears about the planned Apollo 11 lunar expedition, he recruits his friends – brainy buddy IQ (Philip Bolden) and portly overeater Scooter (David Gore) – to join him in sneaking on the spaceship to join the crew.

Let me break down this review into several facets...

Design and Animation:
• The settings and scenery in Fly Me To The Moon are impressively designed, as well as the long shots of space and the spaceships.
• The bugs are also well-animated to a large extent, though at times they do look a bit underdeveloped.
• My test for any animated feature is this: If there are human characters, are they animated well? Here’s where Fly Me To The Moon falls flat, literally. The movie’s humans look stiff, hard-edged, and lack any depth to their appearance – it’s like they jumped out of a video game circa 1996. In the era of the mighty animation studios mentioned earlier, this is unacceptable. (It’s also confusing and disheartening that the animators paid so much attention to scenery detail and the bug characters, then let the humans come off looking less evolved than the insects.)

Performances:
Not to put too much pressure on the kid actors voicing the three main bugs, but their performances were a bit lackluster and flat – unlike, say, The Lion King’s Simba (Jonathan Taylor Thomas) or Finding Nemo’s titular character (Alexander Gould).

Other Observations:
• For a kid’s film, Fly Me To The Moon features an accomplished, sweeping musical score by Ramin Djawadi that fits well with the monumental, majestic scope of space travel and the lunar landing.
• Even though it’s set in an animated kid’s movie, it was still a poignant scene to watch the astronauts set foot on the moon, walk on the terrain, and plant the American flag.
• The running joke of Scooter’s overeating gets old fast. Hey, he’s fat and he eats a lot, get it? In fact, Scooter’s gluttony reaches a point where it almost gets him killed near the end.
• The film digs up dated Russian stereotypes for its villains, a group of commie bug saboteurs. I know, it’s set in 1969, Russians were the bad guys then, fine. It still took some explaining to Dash as to whom these baddies were, since the Cold War ended some 20 years ago.

So, did nWave succeed in their attempt to compete with the aforementioned big boys of motion picture animation? In short, Fly Me To The Moon may have been reaching for the stars, but ultimately failed in its mission.

Rating: 2 stars (out of 5).

What did Dash think?

Much like floating in space or walking on the moon, Fly Me To The Moon’s pacing seemed to move in slow motion. Dash even declared “this is a long movie” at the 66-minute mark (the movie’s less than 90 minutes long).

Will your kids like it?

• Dash gave it more of a chance than I did. I thought it was slow before he actually said out loud that it was.
• As with other kid films that can’t create compelling characters or better jokes, Fly Me To The Moon features the requisite burp/booger/poop/fart humor for cheap laughs.
• Speaking of the poop factor, a sticking point for me is that a minor character actually says “crap” twice in this G-rated film when describing a ball of dung.
• Minor cartoon violence alert: The final confrontation features the Russian bugs using fisticuffs and a bit of knife fighting.

Will your FilmMother like it?

I don’t think she would find Fly Me To The Moon very entertaining. She might declare it “passably cute,” but I highly doubt she’ll find it rewarding to watch.


Fly Me To The Moon
* Director: Ben Stassen
* Screenwriter: Domonic Paris
* Stars: Trevor Gagnon, Philip Bolden, David Gore, Nicollette Sheridan, Tim Curry, Christopher Lloyd, Robert Patrick, Kelly Ripa, Adrienne Barbeau
* MPAA Rating: G


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