Bee Movie DVD Review

Posted by Neil Miller (neil@filmschoolrejects.com) on April 7, 2008

“What’s the deal with all the honey?”

I will admit that the first time I saw Bee Movie, it was right smack dab in the middle of awards season, when Dreamworks sent me a screener. At that point, I was not impressed with the film — despite being well animated, the film lacked a lot in the humor department, especially considering the fact that it came from the mind of Jerry Seinfeld, who is a comedic legend in my mind. It should have been a good movie, but it wasn’t, at least not as far as I could tell.

But despite that first experience, I decided to give Bee Movie another shot on DVD, with the hope that maybe I was just too burnt out during awards season to enjoy it. What I found was that I wasn’t wrong the first time, the film isn’t all that good — but the DVD, on the other hand, turned out to be a relatively enjoyable experience. I can also see, thanks to the second viewing, why this film raked in the cash at the box office, grossing over $280 million worldwide. This is a kids movie, there is no escaping it, and as a kids movie it works ok. The humor, while sometimes a little too clever for its own good, is broad enough to keep the kids engaged for the film’s 90 minute runtime.

So while I am not willing to make the 180-degree flip and say that Bee Movie is a great film, I will say that it had me laughing the second time around, and it could do the same for you. As well, the DVD is loaded with special features that could keep you and any little rascals around you busy for a while.

Special Features

The one thing that struck me almost instantly about the Bee Movie DVD was the commentary by Jerry Seinfeld and director Steve Hickner. Rarely is the commentary track more entertaining than the movie, but when it comes to this film, such is the case. It doesn’t surprise me though, as Seinfeld has always been better at poking fun at himself than he is at creating a story out of nothing.

Additionally, there are a ton (and I mean a ton) of special featurettes here. In fact, I was almost forced to dedicate an entire Sunday to this release based on the immense amount of supplemental content in this “Very Jerry” 2-Disc edition. There are 16 “TV Juniors” from Jerry Seinfeld that are pretty entertaining, a host of behind-the-scenes featurrettes that are good enough and a few interactive games that could be fun for the little kids (or the big kid, in my case). In fact, there are just too many special features on this release for me to go through them all, so I will keep it simple — they are worth the price of the disc, hands down.

For anyone wondering if a good DVD release can save an otherwise mediocre movie, Bee Movie is your answer. The film itself fell somewhere in the middle (and quite possibly the bottom) of my list last year, but the DVD has brought it up a notch or two. And while I can’t say that it is going in my favorites pile, I will say that I will hold on to this one, as someday I may have kids — and I’m sure they might enjoy it.

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