Bee Movie: A Very Jerry 2-Disc Special Edition (DVD Set/DreamWorks)
Picture:
Bee- Sound: Bee- Extras: Bee Film: C+
Bee
afraid, bee very afraid! Jerry Seinfeld
is back and this time in animated form.
Seinfeld’s return to mainstream media attempts to infuse his off center,
tongue in cheek humor into a simple children’s film. This reviewer had high expectations for an
animated Jerry Seinfeld venture, but instead it left this reviewer unfulfilled. Bee
Movie shaped up to be nothing
more than a light hearted children’s film that has its moments for both
children and adults alike, but for the most part, however, it seemed the film
was trying too hard to make the audience bee-lieve the film was smarter than it
actually was.
The
storyline of Bee Movie is loose and
simple at best. The film starts as our
hero Barry B Benson (Seinfeld) just graduated after 3 days of college (before
that he had 3 days of grade school and 3 days of high school…oh if only). Barry as well as the rest of his Bee brethren
must decide what job in the hive they wish to have for the rest of their lives
(how ever longer or short that may bee).
The idea of doing one job for ‘rest of his lives’ does not sit well with
Barry and he sets out to do something bigger with his little life. The jocks of the hive are pollinator bees and
Barry wants nothing more than to join the crew and go out of the hive into the
big and exciting world. Barry sneakily
gets his wish and of course manages to get into a ton of trouble. While out of the hive Barry breaks the
biggest Bee rule, no talking to humans!
Barry befriends a beautiful human woman named Vanessa Blume (Renee
Zellweger) who at first is surprised by the talking bee, but soon learns that
he is the best thing to happen to her in a long time. While out in the world Barry also finds out
that humans are consuming bees’ hard made honey and refuses to idly standby
while this injustice takes place. The movie then shifts into a case of bees
versus humans, where bees demand humans stop stealing what is not theirs. A slew of guest stars make cameos in the film
and some even mange to parody themselves *cough* Sting *cough* Ray Liotta.
This
reviewer, like much of the world, fell in love with Jerry Seinfeld on the
series Seinfeld. Seinfeld
was his masterpiece, he was never an outstanding standup comedian, but he could
write a good episode about ‘nothing.’
Just as Jerry Seinfeld failed to thrill the world before and after his
life on Seinfeld, he fails to bring
anything to the table with his first film venture. Bee
Movie is mostly boring with jokes that only get a slight snicker because
you know you a ‘suppose’ to laugh. The
animation of the film is bright and detailed with a voice cast that would make
the Hollywood Walk of Fame
jealous. The impressive voice cast of
the film includes Jerry Seinfeld, Mathew Broderick, Renee Zellweger, Patrick
Warburton, John Goodman, Chris Rock, Kathy Bates, Larry King, Barry Levinson,
Sting, Ray Liotta, Rip Torn, and even THE OPRAH!
Sad to
say, that even with a voice cast that in no way could not have been cheap, Bee Movie remained lackluster and
uninteresting. The storyline was jumpy
and whereas we must have an open mind to believe that bees can talk and sue the
people of the world, the movie managed to take large leaps from event to
event. One minute the world discovers
that the Bees can talk, the next they are allowing them to practice law and
sue, and next they give Bees the right to have all their honey back. The large leaps that occur throughout the storyline
disconnect the viewer and make it feel as if the film could have used a few
more revisions. Dreamworks did a more
than brilliant job visually with this film, but Jerry Seinfeld’s bland brand of
humor minus sex, violence, and anything controversial leaves the viewer wanting
their 90 minutes back. Sure any parent
can pop in this DVD and distract their child for a good hour and a half, but at
the same time they won’t care much if Seinfeld is funny or not either. If not even the power of Oprah can save this
film, what hope did it ever really have?
The
technical features on this Very Jerry
2-Disc Edition are very Jerry nice.
The picture is presented in a beautifully crisp Widescreen enhanced for
16 X 9 televisions at an anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 frame. The colors are bright and well balanced
throughout the film and look simply amazing on an upconverting DVD player and
this reviewer is more than sure that a High Definition version of the film
would look even better. The animation is
crisp and clean and the studio should be proud of it as a work of art. The sound is equally impressive in its Dolby
Digital 5.1 surrounds and 2.0 tracks with no high low errors and only the brief
occasion where the soundtrack sounded soft.
The extras are also impressive on this 2-Disc Edition offering fans a
good amount of peripheral material to spend time sifting through.
Extras
included on Disc-1 are Jerry & Filmmaker Commentary, Jerry’s 16 TV Juniors
that were TV promotional spots that had a better sense of humor than the film
itself, Alternate Endings and Lost Scenes, Jerry’s
Flight Over Cannes, Original Live Action Trailers, and Inside the Hive: The Cast of Bee Movie. Disc-2 is jam packed with even more features
such as ‘We Got the Bee’ music video
that obnoxiously ruins the Go-Go’s original song, Pollination Practice Video Game, The Ow! Meter, The Buzz about Bees, Meet Barry B. Benson, and few
more features hidden throughout the hive.
The film did not impress this reviewer and the extras just turned out to
be more of a film I no longer cared to see.
The only worth while extra to this reviewer was the 16 TV Juniors, which
were filled with egos and comedy gold; if only the film could have been that
good. This reviewer is sure that fans of
the film will like seeing all of these extra features in full action, but this
reviewer thinks H-I’ve had enough.
No matter
how much honey Seinfeld thought he was spreading with all his promotional spots
and star power, in the end he delivered nothing more than a film that followed
through visually and lacked conceptually.
Just remember, flies are attracted to more than honey.
- Michael P Dougherty II
