"Bee Movie" (Blu-ray)

Synopsis

Barry B. Benson (Seinfeld) is graduating from Bee college and now has to choose the job he will have for the rest of his life. Barry and his best friend Adam (Broderick) check out all the "professions" in the hive, and Barry notices that the Pollen Jocks get to go outside. So, he signs up to try that out.

He accidentally gets into a human's house, and becomes fascinated with the young lady there, Vanessa (Zellweger), who is a florist. He speaks to her, and of course, that causes a problem since bees don't speak, do they?

He also discovers that humans steal honey from bee hives, and so, besides letting humans know that bees can speak, Barry decides to sue the human race for honey theft.

Commentary

This movie might otherwise just be something for the kids that parents have to sit through, except that the star, Jerry Seinfeld, is a very successful comedian, and he puts his skill into the one-liners such that it is far from boring, even if you watch it without the kids.

Technical

Blu-ray is a superb medium for digital animation films because the scenes never went through a camera lens, so, if you watch them on a flat panel display, the image quality is not degraded at all from the original.

Extras

These include a commentary by Jerry Seinfeld, alternate endings, animator's corner, and other things. 

Comments (8)

no box sets before in the US?
written by Ovation , May 02, 2008

I bought a box set of these over a year ago (cheap, too--about 25$). I know the new set has some extras not available on mine but I'll wait until a Blu set comes along before "upgrading"--especially if the actual movies seem to be from the same transfers.

Why review this?
written by Mark , May 02, 2008

Why bother reviewing SD releases of movies that have been out for years? Does anyone really need a synopsis / commentary of this movie? Hope you don't review Star Wars episode 5 and giveaway who Luke's father is. Sorry, couldn't resist. Really do appreciate info on new movies, especially the technical info on new Blu-Rays. Amazing how many are at low MB/s.

The Adventures of Indiana Jones
written by K_Thompson , May 02, 2008

I bought this box set back in 2003. Each movie is on it's own disc with a fourth disc containing bonus features and lots of extras. Very entertaining. I wonder what the differences are between the set I have and this new set. Or is this in fact the old set with a new name - "Adventure Collection"?

...
written by JEJ , May 02, 2008

The point of this box set is the inclusion of all the new extras. The extras are in 16:9 format, so I suspect they are all in high def, and will be in the Blu-ray box set that we all hope will appear by the end of 2008.

new extras
written by Ovation , May 03, 2008

The extras in the new set are new, not simply ported from the old set. However, from some of the reviews I've come across, the older extras seem to be considered "better" by a number of reviewers. One person suggested buying the new set and then getting the bonus disc from ebay for a "complete" set.

I plan to wait for the Blu-ray set that will eventually emerge. The current SD box set I have is more than sufficient for me.

Apparently, this is the first time the films are available individually on SD DVD, so that is one of the reasons for the new releases.

As for the comments about "why review SD films"? Why not? It's not like all the films on SD will magically appear in Blu in the next six months. There are many catalogue releases that are, only now, after more than a decade, making it to SD DVD (and I'm not holding my breath that they will make it to Blu in the next 5 years), so SD DVD is not nearly "over".

Good reviews?
written by Andrew , May 18, 2008

I'm curious what the definition of a "good review" is if Juno wasn't considered to have received them. Not that Rotten Tomatoes is the be all, and end all of movie reviews, but it was rated 93% there... and didn't the screenplay win an Oscar? Not to bring up debates about the legitimacy of Oscar nominees and winners.

Juno: Not good reviews?
written by JB , May 19, 2008

What reviews are you reading? It got 81 on Metacritic with several reviews of 100. Probably doesn't change the spirit of your review, however.

Bad reviews
written by JEJ , May 19, 2008

Well, I must have just run into too many of the bad reviews and made a wrong assumption. Here are a few of the reviews I was referring to:

(http://fromthefrontrow.blogspot.com/2007/12/review-juno.html>

(http://media.www.hofstrachroni...2469.shtml

(http://www.ruthlessreviews.com.../juno.html)