Comedian Jerry Seinfeld puts on many different hats for Dreamworks’ latest animated feature, Bee Movie, serving as lead actor, writer, and producer. And, as you will see if you watch the DVD extras, he was involved in the entire filmmaking process. Seinfeld, basically playing himself as a bee, is Barry B. Benson, a young bee who’s just graduated (in about 15 minutes) with his pal Adam (Matthew Broderick) and is ready to join the workplace. Most bees are content to work their lives away making honey. They go before Buzwell (Comedian Larry Miller) and try and get their job of choice.
Barry wants something more that working in honey production. He wants to go out of the hive. He ventures out with the bees that are in charge of pollination, enjoying the wide-open spaces of New York. While out he meets Vanessa (Renee Zellwegeer) a human who owns a flower shop. Vanessa and Barry become fast friends, much to the dismay of her boyfriend Ken (Patrick Warburton). When Barry learns that humans are taking the bee’s honey and keeping bees locked up, he sues the human race to get their honey back. This ends up having dire consequences as there is now so much honey the bees have to stop production. Without production, the pollination bees are grounded and flowers and plants begin to whither and die. Barry has to somehow save the day!
The Bee lawsuit is one of the funnier and cleverer parts of the film. Barry goes after celebrity endorsed products like Ray Liotta honey, forcing it to be removed from store shelves. Liotta himself has a cameo role (playing himself) and vowing revenge on Barry. Rock star Sting is arrested as his name is viewed as insulting to bees everywhere. John Goodman plays attorney Layton T. Montgomery, who represents the honey industry. Goodman shines as the conniving lawyer with the thick southern drawl.
It seems as if all the actors threw themselves into their roles and had a lot of fun. Warburton is an old buddy of Seinfeld’s from their days in his sitcom. He does his usual maniacal yelling that’s become kind of his trademark from his role as Joe the cop in Family Guy.
The film is humorous but not hilarious. For better or worse, the comedy IS much in the same vein as Seinfeld’s usual dry humor and not as much of the slapstick variety of the Shrek films. Kids will still enjoy it although it’s somewhere in the middle of the pack when it comes to recent 3D animated films.
The DVD does shine with a host of funny extras. There are several deleted scenes and alternate endings done in storyboard format with the voice acting. Some of the funniest extras are the Bee Movie TV Juniors. These are 90-second short bits (15 in all) which promote different aspects of the film and are just a scream. One features Seinfeld having a dispute with Ray Liotta over Liotta playing in other ‘bug’ films.
There’s a fourteen-minute featurette on the cast with interviews with all the major cast members and again, it’s quite evident that they had a great time doing this movie. There’s a host of interactive games and activities for the kids as well. The whole package makes this a very solid DVD set.
