Bee Movie (**3/4)

Jerry Seinfeld’s entry into the world of animated animals splits the difference between his adult comedy and typical kid fare. The storyline has him voicing the main character, Barry, who has just finished school, which has lasted several days, and is now ready to choose the job he’ll be stuck with the rest of his life. Like Z in Antz, he rebels against expectations and tries to fly with the big bees who leave the hive to spread pollen. Like Remy in Ratatoille, he ignores admonitions to stay clear of humans. Evidently, bees speak English but have prudently chosen not to speak to us. But Barry speaks to one (Renée Zellweger). There is the hint that he is in love with her, but only the hint. Where can that go? Why is it okay for animals to be attracted to humans but somehow the reverse seems much creepier?

So that’s all pretty typical. The original part of the story is what happens when Barry realizes that the humans have been stealing honey for themselves. Like Seinfeld, the story takes place in New York, so city bee Barry’s solution involves lawyers. This provides an opportunity for some humor that may go over the kids’ heads, and some stretches of the film may leave them, shall we say, antsy. (Seeing “Ray Liotta Private Select” honey on the supermarket shelf amused me but will probably bewilder kids born after Goodfellas came out.) Seinfeld shares writing credit with three others, and some of the humor sounds like him, and some sounds more like other animated movies. There are enough funny lines to humor both audiences, but my guess is that people will be watching Seinfeld reruns long after they forget about this Bee Movie.

IMDB link


reviewed 11/10/07

The Ant Bully (**1/2)

A cartoon boy sees things from a new perspective after being shrunk to insectoid proportions, but as far as originality, you’ve seen it before.

It took me half an hour to get over the ick factor watching this movie full of screen-filling, if animated, insects. Angular, shiny, and purplish, they’re almost realistic, to the extent that that’s a good thing. Seems like it was only a few years ago (1998, actually) that both A Bug’s Life and Antz appeared. Where Antz was a Marxist allegory, this version of a kid book merely aspires to being a cartoon version of an After School Special. A preschool special, more accurately. A boy gets bullied, then “bullies” some insects by spraying their anthill with a hose. How was he to know that these were brainy, English-speaking ants whose voices are those of Julia Roberts, Nicholas Cage, and even Meryl Streep? By shrinking him to their size, they teach him a Valuable Lesson. He uses his knowledge of humans to help them combat their insect enemies as well as the mighty exterminator (Paul Giamatti.) The ants have built a whole god-devil mythology. We never learn much about the god part, but the exterminator is the devil. (He works for Beals-a-Bug pest control, which is about as funny as it gets.) The boy also learns that thinking positively will help you accomplish things. True to a point, but, to paraphrase Dusty Springfield, wishin’ and hopin’ and thinkin’ and prayin’ won’t get you suction cups on your arms to help walk up walls or provide you the skills to persuade your fellow nerds to unite against the local thug. But it’s nice to think so, and so this is a nice movie to park the tots in front of and admire the amazing CGI footage.

IMDb link