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THE MOVIE: Bee Movie

THE STARS:
(voices) Jerry Seinfeld • Renée Zellweger • Matthew Broderick • Patrick Warburton
DIRECTOR: Steve Hickner & Simon J Smith

THE CONCEPT:
Barry B Benson (Seinfeld), longs to see more of life before he goes to work at Honex making honey, like every other bee in New Hive City, so he becomes a member of the ‘pollen jocks’ squadron, and flies out of his hive for the first time. He inadvertently meets Human Vanessa (Zellweger) a Manhattan florist, and a friendship develops between them. But when he discovers that Humans have stolen the bees’ honey and are selling it in grocery stores, he’s so outraged he decides to sue the Human race.

U.S. RELEASE: November 2 2007, Nationwide
• Rated: PG

THE COMMENTS:

JERRY SIENFELD:
“The biggest challenge with this movie was the story. I found it difficult to sustain a comedy for a full-length movie. Comedies in particular tend to run out of gas about two-thirds of the way through, and you go, ‘What happened to the laughs? We were having so much fun.’ I was determined not to do that.”

PATRICK WARBURTON (Vanessa’s boyfriend, Ken):
“I wasn’t bummed out that I didn’t get to be a bee, I had a lot of fun being Vanessa’s insecure, somewhat unstable boyfriend. If you’re just looking at the emotion of insecurity about a relationship, it doesn’t matter who or what it is. If ‘they’ are moving in, you can get really insecure, so you can forget that it’s a bee, it’s not a bee she’s having a relationship with it’s somebody other than you, and that makes Ken lose his mind. It’s really fun to be involved in something so absurd.”

Co-director SIMON SMITH:
“I had worked with Steve Hickner before on a couple of other things, and we’d always gotten on really well. He’s a great guy to work with – he has lots of energy and a lot of experience. It’s been wonderful working with him again on this project, and being joined by such an amazing group.”

Co-director STEVE HICKNER:
“Simon is a very talented filmmaker who leaves an indelible, smart touch on every project. He had just completed Shrek 4-D for the Universal theme park, and it’s pure Simon. It’s an amazing 11-minute experience that’s not only visceral, but it’s also full of heart and boasts a great story. He was the ideal partner to work with on this movie.”

Producer CHRISTINA STEINBERG:
“Jerry has this crazy mind that somehow fit perfectly in animation. And Simon and Steve are veterans of animation, so it was a great collaboration. They kind of filled in each other’s blanks. Sometimes (the actors) would go off on a comedy routine for four hours, so I had to make sure we were actually getting everything we needed.”

WARBURTON:
“I’ve done a lot of voice over work the last few years, and usually when you do it you’re isolated in a room by yourself. But working on Bee Movie, I didn’t come in for a single session where I wasn’t working opposite Jerry. To be working with not only the producer and creator of the film, but that voice talent that he is was a fantastic experience.”

SEINFELD:
“I wanted to see what bees do, and there was some weird French [beekeeper] who said, ‘You don’t need to wear any of that weird protective equipment. If you handle them in the right way, nothing will go wrong;’ and the bee stung my nose!”

Written by Judy Sloane. Back to top

Visit the official Bee Movie site
Images above © DreamWorks Animation SKG
Feature © 2007 Visual Imagination Limited.
Not for reproduction.

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