I’m not sure what kids are going to make of “Bee Movie.” The shiny, vivid computer-animated images pop off the screen with the vibrancy of the Pixar movies, but the understated, throwaway humor is pure Seinfeld: adult, observational, feasting on the small ironies of human (make that “beeish”) behavior. There’s slapstick to be sure—a clever sequence where Barry mistakes a tennis ball for a flower and gets whacked around good—but the laughs in “Bee Movie” are not of the knee-slapping kind, and they don’t try to be.
Seinfeld wrote the script with Spike Feresten, Barry Marder and Andy Robin. The one-liners are often swell, but the plot is nothing to write home about. Barry actually wins his case against the human race (I don’t consider this a spoiler), but the consequences have dire repercussions for the planet. Who expected—or wanted—an eco-fable from Jerry Seinfeld? It doesn’t even make sense on its own cartoon terms why Honex shuts down—these bees weren’t been exploited by humans, so why do they stop working? But then what do I know about bees’ motivations?
What I like about “Bee Movie” is its comfy, off-the-cuff charm: unlike a lot of animated family entertainment, it’s not all Thwack Smash Kaboom. If there’s little here to make you kvell, there’s plenty to make you smile—Chris Rock’s funky, scene-stealing mosquito Mooseblood; Larry King (“How old is that guy?”) sportingly sending himself up as his yellow and black doppelganger, and of course Barry B. Benson’s affable, oh-so-human stand-up style. Somebody should give this insect a TV show.
