"Bee Movie" Presents Best Buzz for Biz

It's been a long time since I laughed through an entire film. But Bee Movie had me going from the opening. The theater was full with lots of families - relatives of all ages. But there were also some young adult couples. Luckily there was something for everyone in Bee Movie. The audience loved it.

Don't be misled - this is not just a family movie. The laughs come fast and furious and you may need to see the film more than once to see them all. Some are visual (check out the "B" movie posters on the walls), some are verbal (there are plenty of Seinfeldish one-liners), there are hilarious characters (like the Pollen Jocks) and some hysterical homages to old classic films. The Graduate scene should be easy for you to spot, but that's not the only one.

There is plenty of action for the kids with Barry the bee getting sucked into a car engine and thrown up against truck windshields. The fascinating part for the grownups in these scenes is how cleverly, through animation, the creators let us experience things from the insects' point of view - often to dizzying effect.

Bee Movie is Jerry Seinfeld's first attempt at a feature-length animated film. In all of his talk show appearances he said it was something he "wanted to try". His "try" is a success. Why? He teamed up with Dreamworks Studio's Jeffrey Katzenburg, Stephen Spielberg, and is blessed with a comic wit. In the words of the Seinfeld from television past, "how can you lose?"

This animated film is visually sumptuous with trees and flowers that look like yummy candy you could pluck right off the screen. Seinfeld's Barry B. Benson, the star bee of the film, is a somewhat familiar character in his musings, but he has a naivete about the world. He does possess a strong social conscience, however.

It is Barry's social outrage about the perceived theft of his hive's precious output nets disastrous results. But, Bee Movie also has an environmental "green" message to send when Barry and his human florist girlfriend Vanessa (voiced by Renee Zellweger) come up with a completely implausible but hilarious plan.

Barry and his good friend Adam Flayman (voiced my Matthew Broderick) take on the big honey business men in court. This scene is ludicrous - tiny bee lawyers on one side, enormous, pompous, well-paid lawyers on the other. And Seinfeld's comic genius and the bee jokes fly free as a ridiculous, but very entertaining parade of characters march in and out of the courtroom.

Bee Movie even proves the old adage that there are no small parts, just small players. Chris Rock's mosquito character only has a few lines. But the mosquito gets the biggest laugh of the movie near the end.

The one bit that fell flat for me, and unfortunately was repeated throughout the film was an attempt to demonstrate the concern parents have for the type of potential spouse their child may hook up with. Barry's parents kept asking if the girl was "beeish" - akin to asking is she was Jewish. At first I didn't get it, then it became embarrassing. And I didn't quite get the purpose of Vanessa's jealous boyfriend (Patrick Warburton), although he was very entertaining.

Bee Movie is definitely worth the buzz it's getting. So I suggest you pick up your favorite honeybee and fly out to see it.