Bee Movie.

"The most genuinely apian aspect of Bee Movie, DreamWorks' new animated movie about, well, bees, is that it spends a lot of its short running time buzzing happily around, sniffing out fresh jokes wherever they may bloom," writes AO Scott in the New York Times. "There is a plot - the usual big, elaborate story with the usual important messages about saving the planet, living together in interspecies harmony and believing in yourself - but it's a little beside the point. The real fun is the insect shtick."

"By the end of the movie, the bees realize that it was better to be exploited by humans than to live in a utopia of no labor, no hunger, and no worries," writes Charles Mudede in the Stranger. "The bees abandon their perfect world and grant humans the right to take and sell their sweet property. The lesson learned? Without work, a bee’s existence is meaningless. This movie is, of course, a capitalist fantasy."

Updated through 11/5.

At the AV Club, Nathan Rabin mentions what everyone mentions but has some fun with it: the PR campaign "qualifies as the Dresden firebombing of animated-movie ad blitzes. Unlike the Dresden bombing, the Bee multimedia assault - which somehow managed to finagle its plugs into commercials pimping other products, including 30 Rock - left no one dead, but millions irritated. Instead of building up anticipation for a revered icon returning to the limelight, the assaultive, ubiquitous ad campaign has built up a huge level of resentment, even among Seinfeld fans."

Bee Movie "throws so many pop culture references and hints at real-world conceits that its story dwindles to little more than a conflation of contrived ideas," writes Eric Kohn at the Reeler.

"Bee Movie is just another ambitious, lavish animated adventure, pretty enough to look at, but ultimately foundering on the weakness of its script," writes Stephanie Zacharek in Salon. "From an environmentally conscious point of view, the core idea here is sound enough, particularly if you've paid any attention to the recent news stories about how the decreasing bee population threatens to alter the delicate balance of our environment. But that doesn't make the jokes in Bee Movie any funnier, or the characters any more appealing."

"[A]ll the energetic set pieces involving Barry whizzing around Central Park, bustling city streets, and the inside of automobile engines can't obscure the off-putting semi-restrictive message conveyed by his tale," writes Nick Schager in Slant. "Nor, for that matter, can all this colorfully drawn, swiftly choreographed action compensate for a wealth of DOA one-liners (including those from Chris Rock's mosquito) and celebrity cameos (Ray Liotta, Sting - get it? - and Larry King) that seem like feeble, desperate attempts to amuse sure-to-be-indifferent adult audience members."

The story "tries hard, but never really takes off," writes Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times. "We learn at the outset of the movie that bees theoretically cannot fly. Unfortunately, in the movie, that applies only to the screenplay. It is really, really, really hard to care much about a platonic romantic relationship between Renée Zellweger and a bee, although if anyone could pull if off, she could."

"Bee Movie is snappier, friendlier and infinitely more likable than the crass, addled Shrek franchise or the aggressively unpleasant Shark's Tale, say," writes Carina Chocano in the Los Angeles Times. "What it's not is particularly unfamiliar."

Jerry Seinfeld "has gone from being a geek from Massapequa to the ultimate Bubble Boy, living in his Central Park penthouse and traveling everywhere by chopper or Porsche," writes David Blum in the New York Press. "He scorns his fans and hates those who want a piece of him. If you doubt me, rent Comedian, a distasteful 2002 documentary that followed Seinfeld as he reconnected to his standup roots in the wake of Seinfeld and condescended toward everyone, most especially the audiences who turned out to see him and rub up next to the Jerry they came to know and love. It turns out that’s what he hates the most."

Paul Brownfield profiles Seinfeld for the Los Angeles Times.

Lloyd Schwartz talks with Seinfeld for the Boston Phoenix.

Jada Yuan talks with Matthew Broderick for New York.

Online viewing tip. Jeffrey Wells finds a short "about a Bee Movie writers conference (which was shown at the Cannes Film Festival promo event last May) is a lot funnier and cooler than anything in Bee Movie itself."

Updates: Mike Russell's got a fun comic: "Jerry at the Junket." And here's the interview that came out of that day.

"Bee Movie - forgive me - flits from setup to setup, harvesting laughs wherever it can but never really delivering the sweet, sweet nectar of great comedy," writes Slate's Dana Stevens.

"The gazillionth movie in recent years to present the anthropomorphic adventures of bugs, fish, cars, robots, etc, this comedy provides sporadic chuckles but, you’ll pardon the expression, drones on for much of its running time," writes Alonso Duralde for MSNBC.

Update, 11/4: "Unlike DreamWorks' rousing and passionate Old Testament musical Prince of Egypt and the stealthy-serious Shrek films - which mounted a radically aggressive, sustained, internally consistent rebuke of the received ideas of beauty and cultural superiority ingrained in almost every animated feature since Snow White - Bee Movie is content to be a sweet diversion," writes Matt Zoller Seitz at the House Next Door. "But even with that implicit caveat, there's something fundamentally disappointing about the film, because it clearly could have been a lot more daring and memorable than it is, and chose to distrust and downplay its freshest impulses."

Update, 11/5: "It's busy," writes David Edelstein in New York. "It's kinetic. It's a treat for kids. But like much of Seinfeld's work outside his TV show, it's impersonal. It doesn't come from anywhere interesting."

Posted by dwhudson at November 2, 2007 7:57 AM