So the weedlets & I did our "Dad's out of town" thing and went to Bee Movie --a matinee, so it only set me back $40 (cough). A big risk on my part since I had no one whose sensibilities I trust to recommend it. But the reviews were so terrible I figured it wouldn't be half bad, and I was right. On the one hand it suffers from the maniacal pacing that seems to be obligatory in animated features (never stop to think for even a split second, Kids!), most of the jokes seemed aimed more at grown-ups than kids, and there are a few off-color remarks (my kids didn't pick up on them). It's not gorgeous in the way Ratatouille is (then again, Eldest Weed was far more drawn to the gadgetry of the 21st c. hive than to the Paris skyline).
On the other hand, no flatulence jokes, which proves that it is possible to go 90 minutes in a family feature without one --and in a story about creatures whose anatomy cries out for scatology, no less--impressive. Plus, what you think is going to be a story about breaking free of restrictive traditions and bringing down The Man and his oppression of innocent creatures turns into an object lesson in unintended consequences and a defense of Tradition. And no parents were ridiculed in the making of this film. So it's the moral antithesis of most everything in the Kiddie Genre, which is to the good.
The critics? Bah. They're mostly sulky that the Jerry Seinfeld kid movie is a kid movie and not another episode of Seinfeld (not that there's anything wrong with that). It doesn't stay with you long, but it was fun while it lasted.
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