Directed by: Steve Hickner, Simon J. Smith
Starring: Jerry Seinfeld, Renée Zellweger, Patrick Warburton, Matthew Broderick
Rating: PG

(Courtesy photo)

The circumstances surrounding the creation of Bee Movie, a collaboration of Jerry Seinfeld and Dreamworks Animation, are pretty unusual. There are few examples of massive stars who step out of the spotlight at the peak of their popularity, as Seinfeld did. Fewer still choose to wait nearly 10 years and then storm back into the public eye with a family cartoon about bees. Families with little kids weren’t exactly Seinfeld’s audience when his eponymous sitcom was the biggest in all the land.

But not only did the comedian choose this path, he was given rather astounding creative freedom by the famously controlling head of the Dreamworks animation division, Jeffrey Katzenberg. The result is a PG-rated computer-generated film that is officially for kids, but really for nondiscerning adults. There’s nothing all that disagreeable in the movie. There are some funny moments, and the flying scenes are genuinely thrilling. There’s also an enjoyably overzealous score by Rupert Gregson-Williams. But this is neither a sly comic riff by Seinfeld the comedian, nor a thoughtful family-geared story by Seinfeld the dad. At these prices (it cost $150 million to make) and with the oversaturated advertising, it is reasonable to expect more.

Jerry plays Barry Benson, an exuberant young bee who is just about to enter the bee work force. He loves his Utopian bee society, where everyone works and everything goes smoothly (why they drive cars and use computers is a little harder to figure). When he realizes he’s about to be stuck in one job for the rest of his life, Barry yearns to see the outside world. So he follows the daredevil “pollen jocks” out of their Central Park hive and into the crazy giant world of New York City. He eventually flits into the apartment of sweet florist Vanessa (voiced by Renée Zellweger). When Vanessa stops her swaggering boyfriend Ken (Patrick Warburton) from squishing Barry, he breaks the golden bee rule and speaks to her. Soon Barry and Vanessa are spending an awful lot of time together, for a mixed-species friendship. When Barry joins Vanessa for some shopping, he sees the honey section for the first time and realizes humans are stealing honey from the bees. He investigates further and discovers the horrible prison-like honey farms. Barry is incensed, and with Vanessa’s help determines to sting the humans in the most painful way he can: sue them.

Huh? Really, that’s what this family movie is about? Yep, and there’s still a whole other plot to come. Bee Movie is really three smaller stories: the first is about a young hero looking for more out of life; the second is about an incensed bee taking on the human legal system; the third is about that same bee fighting to save the world from ecological disaster. You read that right. Bee Movie might qualify as epic if it was actually committed to any of these stories. But Seinfeld betrays his amateur-screenwriter status by dropping an idea as soon as it gets to the hard parts—real character complexity, and real follow-through on a theme. Somehow, even at 82 minutes, Bee Movie feels long.

Jerry Seinfeld has never asked to be mistaken for an actor. He managed to eschew any real emotion for 10 glorious years on his sitcom. He makes for an energetic bee voice, but the film suffers from his inability to hit even the shallow emotional beats. Zellweger is terrific as Vanessa, Warburton properly pompous as Ken, Matthew Broderick appropriately nebbishy as Barry’s excitable best friend, Adam. In typical Dreamworks fashion, the supporting voice cast is absurdly celebrity-heavy, down to one- and two-line roles. The celebrities, ranging from Oprah Winfrey to Kathy Bates to Rip Torn, are fine. But it seems like a lot of work for nothing. And for the record, Chris Rock is barely on hand.

Bee Movie really hits its stride once Barry escapes the hive, and especially when he meets Vanessa. The exchanges between Seinfeld and Zellweger are actually quite well done, as is the ‘acting’ by the effects team. In fact, the animation is probably best yet from Dreamworks’ CG partners, PDI. Nevertheless, Bee Movie is offensive. It just doesn’t really have kids in mind, and it isn’t clever enough to make parents grateful. It doesn’t talk down to kids and presents a no more cockeyed view of the world than any other animated film (though kids across America may need to be educated to the fact that pollen is not magical fairy dust). It’s simply odd and disappointing after all the build-up. Your kids over the age of seven will probably sit contentedly through Bee Movie, but I suspect that few of them will beg to see it again.

Alex Manugian lives in Sherman Oaks, California, and works for the Cartoon Network. He grew up in Groton and has reviewed movies for Harvard residents for many years.