Today’s quick review: Bee Movie. Unwilling to be stuck with a single job for the rest of his life, honeybee Barry B. Benson (Jerry Seinfeld) leaves the hive to explore the world outside. There he meets Vanessa Bloome (Renee Zellweger), a human florist, and the two of them strike up a friendship. But when Barry learns that humans have been harvesting bees’ honey without their permission, he decides to sue the human race.
Bee Movie is a family animated comedy about a bee who wants something more out of life. Jerry Seinfeld brings his signature style of humor to a world where bees talk, dream, and live in a microcosm of human society. True to its premise, Bee Movie has exactly one source of jokes: bees. What follows is a barrage of sight gags, bee puns, and insect-flavored stand-up comedy, all wrapped around the question of what bees would think of humans.
Bee Movie’s main weaknesses are its flimsy story and its over-reliance on humor. The plot is not meant to be taken seriously, but it feels contrived, even for a comedy. Everything from Barry’s lawsuit onward seems like a stretch, and there’s nothing to serve as an emotional core. To the movie’s credit, the gags are amusing and the tone is consistently light, but it comes across as a series of joke stitched together rather than a full story.
How much you get out of Bee Movie will depend on your sense of humor and what you are expecting. If you like simple, honest humor, alternate takes on human society, and light stories that serve as a vehicle for comedy, Bee Movie is a good pick for you. But if you are looking for a more robust family movie with well-defined characters and a strong emotional arc, you should look elsewhere.
For another animated story about insects, try A Bug’s Life or Antz. For a similar parody of human society, try Robots, Shark Tale, or Osmosis Jones. For a more serious adventure about a tiny being who braves an interaction with humans, try The Secret World of Arrietty.
[6.1 out of 10 on IMDB](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0389790/). I give it a 6.5 for light humor and a shaky story.