Bee Movie
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| Bee Movie | |
|---|---|
| Image:Bee movie ver2.jpg Promotional film poster | |
| Directed by | Simon J. Smith Steve Hickner |
| Produced by | Jerry Seinfeld Christina Steinberg |
| Written by | Jerry Seinfeld Andy Robin Barry Marder Spike Feresten |
| Starring | Jerry Seinfeld Renée Zellweger Matthew Broderick John Goodman Chris Rock Kathy Bates Megan Mullally Robert Duvall Patrick Warburton Larry Miller |
| Music by | Rupert Gregson-Williams |
| Editing by | Nick Fletcher (supervising editor) |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures DreamWorks Animation |
| Release date(s) | Image:Flag of Russia.svg November 1, 2007 Image:Flag of the United States.svg Image:Flag of Canada.svg November 2, 2007 Image:Flag of Australia.svg December 6, 2007 Image:Flag of the United Kingdom.svg December 14, 2007 Image:Flag of Denmark.svg December 25, 2007 |
| Running time | 90 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | US $150 million |
| Gross revenue | Worldwide: $232,480,777 |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
| Ratings | |
|---|---|
| Argentina: | Universal |
| Australia: | General |
| Brazil: | Livre |
| Canada (Alberta): | G |
| Canada (BC/SK): | G |
| Canada (Ontario): | G |
| Canada (Manitoba): | G |
| Canada (Maritime): | G |
| Canada (Quebec): | G |
| Canada (Home Video)): | G |
| India: | U |
| United States: | PG |
Bee Movie is a Golden Globe-nominated computer animated film starring Jerry Seinfeld, Renée Zellweger, Matthew Broderick, Megan Mullally, John Goodman, Chris Rock, Kathy Bates, Eddie Izzard, and Patrick Warburton. Produced by DreamWorks Animation, it is directed by Simon J. Smith and Steve Hickner. Its title is a play on the term "B movie".
Bee Movie is the first motion-picture script to be written by Seinfeld, who co-wrote it with Spike Feresten, Barry Marder, and Andy Robin. The cast and crew include some veterans of Seinfeld's long-running NBC sitcom Seinfeld, including writer/producers Feresten and Robin, and actors Michael Richards (Seinfeld character Cosmo Kramer), Patrick Warburton (Seinfeld character David Puddy), and Larry Miller (who plays the title character on the Seinfeld episode "The Doorman".)
The film was produced by Jerry Seinfeld, Christina Steinberg and Cameron Stevning. It was written by Jerry Seinfeld, Andy Robin, Barry Marder and Spike Feresten. 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.
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[edit] Synopsis
Having just graduated from three days of college, a bee by the name of Barry Bee Benson (Jerry Seinfeld) finds himself disillusioned with the prospect of having only one career choice – honey. As he ventures outside of the hive for the first time, he breaks one of the cardinal rules of the bee world and talks to a human, a New York City florist named Vanessa (Renée Zellweger). He is shocked to discover that the humans have been stealing and eating the bees' honey for centuries, and ultimately realizes that his true calling in life is to set the world right by suing the human race for stealing their precious honey. Because of this, Barry wins the lawsuit, and all honey in the world is confiscated and returned to the bees. But now, Barry and Vanessa realize that now all the honey in the world is back, every bee has been put out of a job, and thus cannot earn money for their families. Barry also realizes that without bees pollinating the flowers, the plant life is dying. To set things right, he and Vanessa find a way to re-pollinate the flowers by going to the final rose show in California, and bringing them as luggage to the airport. Afterwards, the Bees get all their jobs back and give the honey back to the humans, realizing that without their jobs they were not truly happy when they had all their honey, though the humans and bees treat each other better now. Barry becomes a member of the Bee Brigade, helping to repollinate the plants while running a law firm inside Vanessa's flower shop.
[edit] Trailers
Two teaser trailers have been released for the film that feature Seinfeld dressed in a bee costume, attempting to shoot the film in live-action. Eddie Izzard portrays the director, 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[citation needed] that three of the live-action teasers would be released in total.
In the second trailer, Steven Spielberg is taking a picture of himself and a pretty female Assistant Director, referencing the camera gag Ellen DeGeneres pulled on him during the 79th Academy Awards. Also in the second trailer, the bear that jumps out at Barry is Vincent the bear from Over the Hedge, another Dreamworks movie.
The third trailer was released with Shrek The Third, but this was not a live-action teaser. The fourth trailer was released on the Bee Movie official website, and revealed most of the film's plot. According to a recent trailer, Cinnabon is featured in the movie.
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.
The popular internet site Gaia Online has been featuring a great deal of promotional material for the film. [1]
[edit] Box office performance
The film opened with a weekend gross of $38,021,044. As of December 16,2007, it has grossed $122,382,000 domestically and $58,308,794 overseas for a worldwide total of $180,690,794. This placed it in the #16 ranking for domestic grosses of all 2007, and #26 in terms of worldwide take.
[edit] Movie references
The movie contains several references to other film classics. For instance, the scene in which Barry is floating in a pool of honey while his parents ask him what his plans for the future are, is a direct reference to The Graduate in which Dustin Hoffman is facing the same questions from his parents. Also, the scenes in the plane are very much like the scenes in Airplane!, including the line: "Does anyone know how to fly a plane?". Also, in one scene midway through the movie, Winnie The Pooh can be seen with Piglet as Pooh is tranquilized and his honey(spelled "Hunny") is confiscated.
[edit] DVD & Blu-ray Release
"Bee Movie" will release on DVD and Blu-ray on February 19 2008.
[edit] Cast
- Jerry Seinfeld as Barry Bee Benson
- Renée Zellweger as Vanessa Blume
- Matthew Broderick as Adam Flayman
- Chris Rock as Mooseblood the Mosquito
- Patrick Warburton as Ken
- Kathy Bates as Janet Benson
- Barry Levinson as Martin Benson
- John Goodman as Layton T. Montgomery
- Megan Mullally as Trudy, Honex Tour Guide
- Rip Torn as Lou Lo Duca
- Oprah Winfrey as Judge Bumbleden
- Eddie Izzard as Bee Army General
- Ray Liotta as Himself
- Larry King as Bee Larry King
- Sting as Himself
- Larry Miller as Buzzwell
Ray Liotta has a small cameo playing an animated version of himself. Megan Mullally was originally voicing the Queen of the hive and had even recorded her lines, yet due to film cuts, her character was cut. Jerry Seinfeld still wanted her to have a part in the movie, so he gave her the role of the Honex Tour Guide. At one point, Uma Thurman, Rebecca Soler, Robert Duvall, and Tim Blake Nelson were all attached, yet they dropped out for various reasons.
[edit] Reception
Critical response have been mixed, with 52% on Rotten Tomatoes and 58/100 on Metacritic. Frequent Seinfeld critic Ron Rosenbaum called the message of the film "childishly totalitarian" writing: "The film celebrates not bees who think, but a bee who learns the danger of thinking for himself, abandons his individuality, and becomes part of the hive mind, a cog in the honey-making machine."[1] New York Times science writer, Natalie Angier, and Pulitzer Prize winning entomologist, Bert Hölldobler, criticized Bee Movie, as well as the movies Antz and A Bug's Life for misrepresenting social insect workers as male instead of female. [2]
Bee Movie was nominated for Best Animated Feature Film at the 65th Golden Globe Awards.[3]
[edit] Technical specifications
- Sound: Dolby Digital, Digital Theater Systems, Sony Dynamic Digital Sound
- Prints: Deluxe
- Recording on ARRI
- Kodak Motion Picture Film
[edit] References
- ^ Rosenbaum, Ron (2007-11-02). A Tale of Two Comics: Meet the anti-Seinfeld, Jerry's brilliant, twisted, evil twin.. Slate.
- ^ Angier, Natalie (2007-11-13). In Hollywood Hives, the Males Rule.. New York Times.
- ^ HOLLYWOOD FOREIGN PRESS ASSOCIATION 2008 GOLDEN GLOBE AWARDS FOR THE YEAR ENDED DECEMBER 31, 2007. goldenglobes.org (2007-12-13). Retrieved on 2007-12-13.
[edit] External links
- Bee Movie - Official site
- Bee Movie at the Internet Movie Database
- Bee Movie at Rotten Tomatoes
- Bee Movie at Box Office Mojo
- Bee Movie at All Movie Guide
| Preceded by American Gangster | Box office number-one films of 2007 (USA) November 11, 2007 | Succeeded by Beowulf |
DreamWorks Animation | |
|---|---|
| Traditionally animated films | The Prince of Egypt (1998) • The Road to El Dorado (2000) • Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2002) • Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas (2003) |
| Films produced with Aardman Animations | Chicken Run (2000) • Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005) • Flushed Away (2006) |
| Computer-animated films | Antz (1998) • Shrek (2001) • Shrek 2 (2004) • Shark Tale (2004) • Madagascar (2005) • Over the Hedge (2006) • Shrek the Third (2007) • Bee Movie (2007) |
| Future films | Kung Fu Panda (2008) • Madagascar 2: The Crate Escape (2008) • Monsters vs. Aliens (2009) • How to Train Your Dragon (2009) • Shrek Goes Fourth (2010) • Master Mind (2010) • Puss in Boots: The Story of an Ogre Killer (2011) • Shrek 5 (2013) |
| Direct-to-video | Joseph: King of Dreams (2000) |
| Shorts | Far Far Away (2004) • The Madagascar Penguins in a Christmas Caper (2005) • Hammy's Boomerang Adventure (2006) • First Flight (2006) |
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