Bee Movie

Jerry Seinfeld’s disappointing labor of animated-movie love is more of a lukewarm handholding experience than a full embrace. Co-written by Seinfeld and television writer Spike Feresten, "Bee Movie" lives up to the B-movie end of its pun-inspired title with a dead-end story about college graduate bee Barry (voiced by Seinfeld) who leaves the relative safety of his Central Park hive to explore the world outside. Barry falls romantically for a local florist (Renee Zellweger) and discovers that human-run corporations are stealing his relatives’ honey. A tedious legal battle follows with Barry leading a litigious charge against the human race before the story gives way to a nonsensical climax involving a large quantity of stolen flowers. Not one single sub-plot is allowed to develop in this professionally animated but amateurishly written story.

Rated PG, 90 mins. (C-) (Two Stars)