Bee Movie is a 2007 American computer animated comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by Paramount Pictures.[n 1] Directed by Simon J. Smith and Steve Hickner, the film stars Jerry Seinfeld and Renée Zellweger, with Matthew Broderick, Patrick Warburton, John Goodman and Chris Rock in supporting roles. Its story follows Barry B. Benson (Seinfeld), a honey bee who sues the human race for exploiting bees after learning from his florist friend Vanessa (Zellweger) that humans sell and consume honey.
Bee Movie is the first motion-picture script to be written by Seinfeld, who co-wrote the film with Spike Feresten, Barry Marder, and Andy Robin. The film was produced by Seinfeld, Christina Steinberg, and Cameron Stevning. The production was designed by Alex McDowell, and Christophe Lautrette was the art director. Nick Fletcher was the supervising editor and music for the film was composed by Rupert Gregson-Williams.
The cast and crew include some veterans of Seinfeld's long-running NBC sitcom Seinfeld, including writer/producers Feresten and Robin, and actors Warburton (Seinfeld character David Puddy), Michael Richards (Seinfeld character Cosmo Kramer), and Larry Miller (who plays the title character on the Seinfeld episode "The Doorman"). Coincidentally, NBC was host to the broadcast television premiere of the film on November 27, 2010.
Bee Movie opened on November 2, 2007. Upon release, the film was met with mixed reviews, with primary criticism directed at the film's premise. While domestic box office performance failed to recoup its $150 million budget, it ultimately saw worldwide box office performance of $287.6 million and domestic video sales of $92.7 million.
Plot[]
A young honey bee named Barry B. Benson (Jerry Seinfeld) has recently graduated from college and is about to enter the hive's Honex Industries honey-making workforce alongside his best friend Adam Flayman (Matthew Broderick). Barry is initially excited to join the workforce, but his courageous, non-conformist attitude emerges upon discovering that his choice of job will never change once picked. Later, the two bees run into a group of Pollen Jocks, bees who collect pollen from flowers outside the hive. The Jocks offer to take Barry outside the hive to a flower patch, and he accepts. While on his first pollen-gathering expedition in New York City, Barry gets lost in the rain, and ends up on the balcony of a human florist named Vanessa (Renée Zellweger). Upon noticing Barry, Vanessa's boyfriend Ken (Patrick Warburton) attempts to squash him, but Vanessa gently catches and releases Barry outside the window, saving his life.
Barry later returns to express his gratitude to Vanessa, breaking the sacred rule that bees are not supposed to communicate with humans. Barry and Vanessa develop a close bond, bordering on attraction, and spend time together frequently. Later, while Barry and Vanessa are walking through a grocery store, Barry is horrified to discover that the humans have been stealing and eating the bees' honey for centuries. He decides to journey to Honey Farms, which supplies the grocery store with its honey. Furious at the poor treatment of the bees in the hive, including the use of bee smokers to subdue the colony, Barry decides to sue the human race to put an end to the exploitation of bees.
Barry's mission attracts wide attention from bees and humans alike, and hundreds of people show up to watch the trial. Although Barry is up against tough defense attorney Layton T. Montgomery (John Goodman) the trial's first day goes well. That evening, Barry is having dinner with Vanessa when Ken shows up. Vanessa leaves the room, and Ken expresses to Barry that he hates the pair spending time together. When Barry leaves to use the restroom, Ken ambushes Barry and attempts to kill him, only for Vanessa to intervene and break up with Ken. The next day at the trial, Montgomery unleashes an unrepentant character assassination against the bees leading a deeply offended Adam to sting him; Montgomery immediately exaggerates the stinging to make himself appear the victim of an assault while simultaneously denouncing Adam. Adam's actions jeopardize the bees' credibility and put his life in danger, though he manages to survive. While visiting Adam in the hospital, Barry notices two people smoking outside, and is struck by inspiration. The next day, Barry wins the trial by exposing the jury to the cruel treatment bees are subjected to, particularly the smoker, and humans are banned from stealing honey from bees ever again.
Having lost the trial, Montgomery cryptically warns Barry that a negative shift in the balance of nature is imminent. As it turns out, the sudden, massive stockpile of honey has put every bee out of a job, including the vitally important Pollen Jocks. As a result, without anything to pollinate them, the world's flowers slowly begin to die out. Before long, the only flowers left with healthy pollen are those in a flower parade called "The Tournament of Roses" in Pasadena, California. Barry and Vanessa travel to the parade and steal a parade float, which they load onto a plane to be delivered to the bees so they can re-pollinate the world's flowers. When the plane's pilot and copilot are knocked unconscious, Vanessa is forced to land the plane, with help from Barry and the bees from Barry's hive.
Armed with the pollen of the last flowers, Barry and the Pollen Jocks manage to reverse the damage and save the world's flowers, restarting the bees' honey production. Humans and bees are seen working together, and certain brands of honey are now "bee-approved". Barry becomes a member of the Pollen Jocks, helping to pollinate the world's plants. Barry is also seen running a law firm inside Vanessa's flower shop, titled "Insects at Law", handling disputes between animals and humans. The film ends with Barry flying off to a flower patch with the Pollen Jocks.
Voice cast[]
- Jerry Seinfeld as Barry B. Benson
- Renée Zellweger as Vanessa Bloome
- Matthew Broderick as Adam Flayman
- Patrick Warburton as Ken
- John Goodman as Layton T. Montgomery
- Chris Rock as Mooseblood the Mosquito
- Kathy Bates as Janet B. Benson
- Barry Levinson as Martin B. Benson
- Megan Mullally as Trudy, Honex Tour Guide
- Rip Torn as Lou Lo Duca and the Pollen Jocks General
- Oprah Winfrey as Judge Bumbleton
- Michael Richards as Bud Ditchwater
- Larry King as Bee Larry King
- Larry Miller as Dean Buzzwell
- Jim Cummings as Title Narrator and Graduation Announcer
- David Moses Pimentel as Hector
- Chuck Martin as Andy
- Brian Hopkins as Sandy Shrimpkin and TSA Agent
- John DiMaggio as Bailiff and Janitor
- Tress MacNeille as Jeanette Chung, Mother and Cow
- Simon J. Smith as Truck Driver and Chet
- Ray Liotta as Himself
- Sting as Himself
- Robert Jayne as Bee (uncredited)
- Carl Kasell as Himself (uncredited)
Marketing[]
Trailers[]
Two teaser trailers were released for the film that feature Seinfeld dressed in a bee costume, trying to shoot the film in live-action. Eddie Izzard portrays the direction agent, and Steven Spielberg suggests to Seinfeld in the second trailer to just do it as a cartoon. Upon the release of the first trailer, it was announced that three of the live-action teasers would be released in total.[7] In the second trailer, Steven Spielberg is taking a picture of himself and an assistant director, referencing the camera gag Ellen DeGeneres pulled on him during the 79th Academy Awards. After Seinfeld fails to do scenes in live-action, Spielberg suggests Seinfeld that the film can just be made as a cartoon. One of the crew members announce that the film is a cartoon, having the crew leave the stage studio. The trailer finally shows the movie as an animated CGI feature. Also in the second trailer, the bear that jumps out at Barry is Vincent the Bear from Over the Hedge, another DreamWorks Animation SKG movie.
The third trailer was released with Shrek the Third, but this was an animated teaser. The fourth trailer was released on the Bee Movie official website, and revealed most of the film's plot.[10] In addition, two weeks before the release, NBC aired 22 behind-the-scenes skits called "Bee Movie TV Juniors," all of which are staged and tongue-in-cheek in nature.[11] The popular internet site Gaia Online featured a great deal of promotional material for the film.
Books[]
Ten books were released for the film: Bee Movie: The Story Book, Bee Movie: The Honey Disaster, The Art of Bee Movie, Bee Movie: Deluxe Sound Storybook, Bee Movie Ultimate Sticker Book, Bee Movie (I Can Find It), Bee Movie: The Junior Novel, Bee Movie: What’s the Buzz?, Bee Movie Mad Libs, and Bee Movie: Bee Meets Girl.
Video game[]
A video game titled Bee Movie Game was released on October 30, 2007 for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, Wii, PlayStation 2, and Nintendo DS.
Home media
Bee Movie was released on DVD on March 11, 2008 in both fullscreen and widescreen formats and a 2-disc special edition DVD. The single-disc extras include the "Inside the Hive: The Cast of Bee Movie" and "Tech of Bee Movie" featurettes, "We Got the Bee" music video, "Meet Barry B. Benson" feature, and interactive games The special edition DVD extras additionally include a filmmaker commentary, alternate endings, lost scenes with commentary, the live action trailers, and Jerry's Flight Over Cannes. An HD DVD version was cancelled after the demise of HD DVD. Paramount released the movie on Blu-ray Disc on May 20, 2008.
Trivia[]
- The 2nd DreamWorks Animation film to be released in November, after Flushed Away.
- This is the 9th DreamWorks Animation's original full-length feature film of the 2000s, after The Road to El Dorado, Chicken Run, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, Shark Tale, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Over the Hedge and Flushed Away.
- This is the 12th DreamWorks Animation film of 2000s to be produced in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio, after The Road to El Dorado, Chicken Run, Shrek, Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, Shrek 2, Shark Tale, Madagascar, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Over the Hedge, Flushed Away and Shrek the Third.
- This is the 10th DreamWorks Animation film of 2000s to be rated PG by the MPAA, after The Road to El Dorado, Shrek, Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, Shrek 2, Shark Tale, Madagascar, Over the Hedge, Flushed Away and Shrek the Third.
- This is the 8th Paramount animated film of 2000s to be produced in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio, after Rugrats in Paris: The Movie, Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, Over the Hedge, Barnyard, Flushed Away and Shrek the Third.
- This is the 9th Paramount animated film of 2000s to be rated PG by the MPAA, after Hey Arnold! The Movie, The Wild Thornberrys Movie, Rugrats Go Wild The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, Over the Hedge, Barnyard, Flushed Away and Shrek the Third.