God, I HATE the style of this movie. It’s so repellant.

Also, the title of this movie. “Bee Movie?” “BEE MOVIE????” What’s with al the generic names in American Feature animation these days? Bee Movie. And from Meet the Robinsons, “Bowler hat Guy”

In the name of God…what happened to all the creativity?

I’m sure someone is going to lecture me on the subtle use of irony and that somehow Dreamworks is “poking fun at itself” by naming this film “Bee Movie”, but for God’s sake, “poking fun at yourself” has become the new cliche in American animated films.

Shrek, Bee Movie, SharkTale, Over the Hedge, etc. These films all seem to focus more on the whole “we’re-making-fun-of-ourselves-because-we’re-afraid to-have-faith-in-our-own-films-lest-someone-ridicule-them-first.” syndrome. You only need to look at those “Let’s pat-ourselves-on-the-back-and-point out-that-we-work-in-the-vicinity-of-Steven Spielberg, “teaser trailer” to recognize this syndrome.

Y know, a long time ago, I and other animators I knew would gripe about how Disney was always following the same formula. Songs, and a whiny protagonist. Now, this self-mocking crap is the new cliche’. It’s everywhere.

You can’t make a friggin movie without someone, somewhere, thinking that in order to be hip or make money, it need to be so damn self-referencial.

Sorry. I just felt the need to gripe. Animated movies just aren’t fun anymore. They’re just….product. Otherwise, why would they go to such great lengths to show that Steven Spielberg and Jerry Sienfeld, and Rene’ Zellwigger are part of this?

Oh wow… a CGI movie featuring insects… this is original… :P

Bee Movie. You know, like ‘B Movies’, those crappy low budget monsters from the 80’s and 90’s. Play on words sort of thing. Personally, I thought this looked horrible at first, but now that I’ve seen more, I’m actually interested.

Sorry, but the whole “play on words” would have been a lot more clear if that’s what the movie was about. Some kind of B-movie, with giant ants, peter graves, and nuclear waste making the bees grow to a hundred times their size.

Now THAT is a bee movie I’d go see. RAWWWWWR! ME TAKE BACK….HONEY!!!!

I think most of you are going into outrage overdrive. “Bee Movie” isn’t too self-referencial. And they highlight the fact that it stars Jerry Seinfeld because it’s Jerry Seinfeld’s film, he wrote it. I actually found some of the animation to be pretty convincing, and unlike Shrek, the lips actually match the voices. Another thing to be glad about is that it hasn’t gone for realism, even with the human characters present in the trailer.

The title, concept, casting, script are all Jerry Seinfeld’s. He brought the project and script he wrote to Dreamworks. Just for the record.

I was a little depressed watching this trailer (especially because at first it didn’t even SOUND like Jerry Seinfeld doing the voice). Without Seinfeld’s body language and expressions, the character kind of falls flat. It sounds like they made him tone down his delivery on these lines, too.

I figured out a way to make it funny, though: Imagine Seinfeld in a bee suit acting out the scene instead of actually watching the bee on screen. Instant comedy!

At least this trailer is better movie marketing than Ogre Babies. http://www.ogrebabies.com

What?

George Michael’s “Freedom” didn’t get you into the bee-grove-goodness?

No one made him tone anything down in his delivery. He directs himself. He chooses his takes.

Maybe this’ll all be in the book?

Yea, Jerry’s voice is pretty lame in the actual film. I’m guessing he sucks at voice-acting (where’s Larry David when you need him?). Anyway, the animation looks just as bad as it did in the teaser, so I’m not expecting much out of this one. It’s a shame. The live-action teasers were pretty funny.

Compared to Shrek 3, this movie feels like a breath of fresh air.

They highlight the involvement of Jerry Seinfeld because, you know, kids love Jerry Seinfeld. That guy from that TV show that was over before they were born.

This unfortunately looks terrible.

I think the live action trailers were awesome. if they had kept that vibe it could have been hilarious. now it looks just as generic as the rest of the crap out there.

Ouch…That really hurt to watch. So this time it’s a hive. Regardless, these lame 3D characters keep venturing out of x to discover y.

The girl in the trailer looks like a robotic doll; another Shrek-like human creep. Its like they can’t decide whether to go realistic or cartoony so they just do something real bland in the middle.

And the character “designs?”

Calling that a “B-movie” is an insult to the actual B movies.

To be fair, Bowler Hat Guy in Meet the Robinsons does have a name. It just isn’t revealed until the plot calls for it and it would be a spoiler to do so in the ads.

Rob, I actually think that that woman in the trailer is one of the more successfully designed non-Pixar humans I’ve seen in a CG movie. The acting in the tiny bit that she appears in seems a little flat, but that’s usually the case when you only see a glimpse of a character.

All of your other comments are dead on to me. It looks as if this movie was a struggle to design, with Seinfeld, Katzenberg and every other “animation great” peeing their two cents into the pot. Brrr! I’m sure I can’t even imagine it.

Is it just me, or do all the bees look like Matt LeBlanc?

I didn’t know the Nasonex bee was getting his own movie…

An Art of book?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Oh man.

Sorry to root this too much in reality, but it’s the female bee that gathers the pollen & nectar & does just about everything else for the hive. The males’ only purpose is to impregnate the queen. When times get tough for the hive, the males are the first to get kicked out & left to die.

Now if this movie includes an apiological love scene that ends with Jerry’s character buzzing off into the great hereafter, wouldn’t THAT be a nice break from formula?

I’m curious on how this is going to come out… I usually Don’t like bug movies. The animation looks a lot better than Shrek the third.

Well I know we’re all supposed to hate contemporary 3D animated animal/bug adventures, but I actually was cracking up at the jokes here. I think I would actually like to see this one.

gasp!

wow talk about blah. animated movie about insects featuring a wisecracking comedian… wasn’t that antz?

that hivo joke at the end was v v painful, besides all the other recycled jokes.

I think it will be fun. And I usually hate Dreamworks movies.

Wow. So much hatred. This *must* be the internet, and the cartoonbrew I know and love.

Wow! So. Much. Anger!
So, it’s another CG insect movie. So what?
Vote with your feet and don’t go.

I, generally, go to any animated movie that hits the screens, even if it’s unoriginal. Because your $9, and the success of the film, might mean that some poor pixel pusher gets another year’s work. You want the industry to thrive right?

As for the book, you should buy it and support its author, Mr. Jerry Beck :)

But Stephen, don’t you realize that if you see EVERY movie that will help actors, directors, DPs, key grips, carpenters, caterers and best boys get another year’s work? You really ought to think about that when Rush Hour 3 opens this summer. :)

Brillliant! I love it. they’re all so bland yet, you know, uninteresting too. this is a sure fine ‘also ran’. Character design?! No no no, we’ll just sell it on Seinfelds voice. you know Seinfeld, he was in that show with the crazy racist KKKramer.

I Love Jerry….Now somebody out there, create a animated film on roaches……yeah yeah that’s the ticket……

Yeah, I think if they kept the path that they were traveling on in the trailers with the live-action, it would be a much more interesting and fun movie to watch. Nonetheless someone should make a movie with that premise. Or maybe someone already did and I never heard about it. Seriously I was dissapointed to learn that it would be a lame animation movie.