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A-Pollen-ly Personal 'Bee Movie' Doesn't Exactly Fly

Producer-writer-star Jerry Seinfeld and his minions say Bee Movie isn't an ordinary, committee-made animated comedy. It's one man's vision, they say, and that makes it special.

And what is Seinfeld's vision? Well, it's a story about a funny guy (honeybee Barry B. Benson) who talks a lot about nothing. And who, though everything's going great, decides that he and his buddies should stop working. (The humans are stealing their honey, you see, so no more pollination.)

When they do stop, the whole world becomes dreary. Everyone's so sad. So after a while, our hero starts work again. Sure enough, things get brighter — flowers bloom, people laugh again.

Mr. Seinfeld's, you'd have to say, is a fairly personal vision. Personally, I think I liked "nothing" better.

Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Bob Mondello reviews movies and covers the arts for NPR and shares critiques and commentaries on NPR's award-winning newsmagazine All Things Considered.

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