A few times I enjoyed a hearty laugh while watching Bee Movie.
Sound:
I wasn´t as blown away by the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack in "Bee Movie" as I was with the visuals, but the sound mix is still impressive. A French 5.1 soundtrack accompanies the English mix and Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtracks are provided for Spanish viewers and English speaking folk who would benefit from a more-constrained soundtrack. "Bees Movie" is not an overly aggressive mix, but it makes good use of its six channels. The front three speakers are almost always busy, with clear and directionally placed dialogue. The musical selections shine, such as The Archies classic "Sugar, Sugar." Rear surrounds are used effectively and provide a few very impressive moments during the film. The busy streets of the city and the chaotic world of a beehive all populate the rears with nice effects. The low frequency effects channel thumbs heavily to accentuate the action a few times. This is a clean and capable mix, but the sound design isn´t as dynamic as some other CGI films and "Bee Movie" doesn´t mix reference quality sound with its reference quality picture.
Extras:
"Bee Movie" is released with two versions. There is a one-disc version, and then there is the version reviewed for this review. The "A Very Jerry 2-Disc Edition" finds a lot of involvement from its star and co-writer. I have to give the near-reclusive Seinfeld credit for stepping up and provided a nice special edition for his film. The biggest and most important supplement is the Commentary with Jerry Seinfeld and Filmmakers includes Seinfeld and some producers, writers and the editor that shared work with Seinfeld. Co-writer Barry Marder, co-directors Simon J. Smith and Steve Hickner, co-producer Christina Steinberg and editor Nick Fletcher joined together to discuss the film. They shared a good amount of time discussing the film and talked about real-life situations that were included into the film. I enjoyed listening to the group of filmmakers talk about their film and enjoyed the entire commentary. The commentary does divulge the fact that the current bee woes occurred after the film, but Seinfeld does address this in the commentary.
The first disc contains a few other supplements. Three Lost Scenes (5:00) titled "Barry Interview," "The Queen" and "Liotta on a Plane" are included. Seinfeld introduces each scene and provides commentary about the scene. These are not animated sequences, but storyboarded. I think the scenes were wisely left out of the film. The six Alternate Endings (14:39) are again storyboarded and I have to be impressed that the DVD set includes this many different endings to enjoy. The first was my favorite, as it included Patrick Warburton. The TV Juniors (7:18) number at sixteen and find Jerry Seinfeld providing a few short humorous segments regarding his film. They were short, but funny. Ray Liotta is funny. Two Live-Action Trailers are also provided. I remembered the one where Steven Spielberg suggested that Jerry not make "Bee Movie" a live-action film.
There is a second menu page for the Special Features on the first disc. This second page includes the Jerry´s Flight Over Cannes (3:02) short. This is a brief promotional reel that has Seinfeld discussing how he introduced the film at Cannes. Instead of wearing a tuxedo, the comedian wore a bee costume where the ´flight´ in the title of this feature was not talking about his trip from America on a Boeing. I have to give Jerry props for this stunt. Inside the Hive: The Cast of Bee Movie (14:42) is a longer featurette. This making-of moment is promotional in nature, but it looks at the cast and crew of the picture. This EPK styled feature is not nearly as informative as the commentary, but fans of the comedian will certainly want to view it. Some Previews are also selectable from this menu page.
The bonus materials spill over onto the second DVD. The first disc´s features were listed on the packaging as "More Jerry," whereas the second disc is "More Barry." The general tone of these materials is more geared towards fun and not about the making of the film or unproduced scenes. Under "Special Features," four items are included. Tech of Bee Movie (7:32) is a fast-paced look at the computers and animation techniques that were used to bring Seinfeld´s creation to life. It is once again a promotional feeling feature with talking heads interviews with Seinfeld and his crew. Meet Barry B. Benson is an interactive feature were you can select a question and hear a canned response. This one is definitely for the kids, but it does provide some background information. The "We Got the Bee" Music Video and a DreamWorks Animation Video Jukebox complete the features listed under the Special Features sub-menu.
This disc also contains a section called "DreamWorks Kids." The features listed under begins with The Buzz About Bees (7:07), an educational short about bees and big words relating to bees. The Ow! Meter is another interactive feature that talks about getting stung by bees or getting smashed by a fly-swatter. I didn´t play around with it. The third feature, That´s Un-Bee-Lievable is a trivia based interactive game relating to bees. The disc then moves on to two more interactive features. The Be a Bee and Pollination Practice use the remote and are definitely geared more towards younger viewers. There are some DVD-ROM features included as well. There are games and other items that can be viewed only via a PC. While I didn´t find much use for this section of bonus materials, I definitely understand the value they can have for children. They are a wise inclusion and make the special edition of "Bee Movie" the recommended choice.
Closing Comments:
Jerry Seinfeld returns to action with "Bee Movie." At least his voice does, as this is an animated adventure with the comedian serving as lead voice-talent, co-writer and co-producer. "Bee Movie" suffers from trying to inject a little bee into a story where the little fellow becomes the most important living creature on Earth. I felt the story was too much and didn´t think it was overly inventive. How many times are we going to see the hero of the story end up in a cockpit and having to find a way to safely land the plane with the pilot and co-pilot out of action. There are some funny jokes to laugh at, but they don´t make up for the less than entertaining story. The DVD release combines a reference-quality set of visuals with a decent soundtrack that is hindered by a not-so aggressive sound mix. Seinfeld provided a lot of his own time in adding a nice number of good supplements to the 2-Disc special edition. While I didn´t overly enjoy the story, I felt the DVD is of high quality and the picture is good enough to make this a worthy addition to many libraries. Kids should love it and adults will enjoy the Ray Liotta jokes.
I wasn´t as blown away by the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack in "Bee Movie" as I was with the visuals, but the sound mix is still impressive. A French 5.1 soundtrack accompanies the English mix and Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtracks are provided for Spanish viewers and English speaking folk who would benefit from a more-constrained soundtrack. "Bees Movie" is not an overly aggressive mix, but it makes good use of its six channels. The front three speakers are almost always busy, with clear and directionally placed dialogue. The musical selections shine, such as The Archies classic "Sugar, Sugar." Rear surrounds are used effectively and provide a few very impressive moments during the film. The busy streets of the city and the chaotic world of a beehive all populate the rears with nice effects. The low frequency effects channel thumbs heavily to accentuate the action a few times. This is a clean and capable mix, but the sound design isn´t as dynamic as some other CGI films and "Bee Movie" doesn´t mix reference quality sound with its reference quality picture.
Extras:
"Bee Movie" is released with two versions. There is a one-disc version, and then there is the version reviewed for this review. The "A Very Jerry 2-Disc Edition" finds a lot of involvement from its star and co-writer. I have to give the near-reclusive Seinfeld credit for stepping up and provided a nice special edition for his film. The biggest and most important supplement is the Commentary with Jerry Seinfeld and Filmmakers includes Seinfeld and some producers, writers and the editor that shared work with Seinfeld. Co-writer Barry Marder, co-directors Simon J. Smith and Steve Hickner, co-producer Christina Steinberg and editor Nick Fletcher joined together to discuss the film. They shared a good amount of time discussing the film and talked about real-life situations that were included into the film. I enjoyed listening to the group of filmmakers talk about their film and enjoyed the entire commentary. The commentary does divulge the fact that the current bee woes occurred after the film, but Seinfeld does address this in the commentary.
The first disc contains a few other supplements. Three Lost Scenes (5:00) titled "Barry Interview," "The Queen" and "Liotta on a Plane" are included. Seinfeld introduces each scene and provides commentary about the scene. These are not animated sequences, but storyboarded. I think the scenes were wisely left out of the film. The six Alternate Endings (14:39) are again storyboarded and I have to be impressed that the DVD set includes this many different endings to enjoy. The first was my favorite, as it included Patrick Warburton. The TV Juniors (7:18) number at sixteen and find Jerry Seinfeld providing a few short humorous segments regarding his film. They were short, but funny. Ray Liotta is funny. Two Live-Action Trailers are also provided. I remembered the one where Steven Spielberg suggested that Jerry not make "Bee Movie" a live-action film.
There is a second menu page for the Special Features on the first disc. This second page includes the Jerry´s Flight Over Cannes (3:02) short. This is a brief promotional reel that has Seinfeld discussing how he introduced the film at Cannes. Instead of wearing a tuxedo, the comedian wore a bee costume where the ´flight´ in the title of this feature was not talking about his trip from America on a Boeing. I have to give Jerry props for this stunt. Inside the Hive: The Cast of Bee Movie (14:42) is a longer featurette. This making-of moment is promotional in nature, but it looks at the cast and crew of the picture. This EPK styled feature is not nearly as informative as the commentary, but fans of the comedian will certainly want to view it. Some Previews are also selectable from this menu page.
The bonus materials spill over onto the second DVD. The first disc´s features were listed on the packaging as "More Jerry," whereas the second disc is "More Barry." The general tone of these materials is more geared towards fun and not about the making of the film or unproduced scenes. Under "Special Features," four items are included. Tech of Bee Movie (7:32) is a fast-paced look at the computers and animation techniques that were used to bring Seinfeld´s creation to life. It is once again a promotional feeling feature with talking heads interviews with Seinfeld and his crew. Meet Barry B. Benson is an interactive feature were you can select a question and hear a canned response. This one is definitely for the kids, but it does provide some background information. The "We Got the Bee" Music Video and a DreamWorks Animation Video Jukebox complete the features listed under the Special Features sub-menu.
This disc also contains a section called "DreamWorks Kids." The features listed under begins with The Buzz About Bees (7:07), an educational short about bees and big words relating to bees. The Ow! Meter is another interactive feature that talks about getting stung by bees or getting smashed by a fly-swatter. I didn´t play around with it. The third feature, That´s Un-Bee-Lievable is a trivia based interactive game relating to bees. The disc then moves on to two more interactive features. The Be a Bee and Pollination Practice use the remote and are definitely geared more towards younger viewers. There are some DVD-ROM features included as well. There are games and other items that can be viewed only via a PC. While I didn´t find much use for this section of bonus materials, I definitely understand the value they can have for children. They are a wise inclusion and make the special edition of "Bee Movie" the recommended choice.
Closing Comments:
Jerry Seinfeld returns to action with "Bee Movie." At least his voice does, as this is an animated adventure with the comedian serving as lead voice-talent, co-writer and co-producer. "Bee Movie" suffers from trying to inject a little bee into a story where the little fellow becomes the most important living creature on Earth. I felt the story was too much and didn´t think it was overly inventive. How many times are we going to see the hero of the story end up in a cockpit and having to find a way to safely land the plane with the pilot and co-pilot out of action. There are some funny jokes to laugh at, but they don´t make up for the less than entertaining story. The DVD release combines a reference-quality set of visuals with a decent soundtrack that is hindered by a not-so aggressive sound mix. Seinfeld provided a lot of his own time in adding a nice number of good supplements to the 2-Disc special edition. While I didn´t overly enjoy the story, I felt the DVD is of high quality and the picture is good enough to make this a worthy addition to many libraries. Kids should love it and adults will enjoy the Ray Liotta jokes.
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