What’s Wrong with Jerry Seinfeld’s “Bee Movie”

Nine years after the final episode of Jerry Seinfeld’s successful sitcom aired on network television, Jerry returns to the screen as writer, director, and producer of an animated family film, Bee Movie. Kids will no doubt like this movie, as cartoon movies featuring insects and animals have done exceptionally well over the last several years. With the creative force of Jerry Seinfeld as a worker bee questioning the fact that his career choices seem limited, along with an appearance by Chris Tucker as a mosquito, there’s bound to be plenty of humor geared toward adults as well. Aside from the whole anthropomorphic concept of talking insects, here is a countdown of the top five scientific inaccuracies presented in this movie.

#5: Bees going to college
In this movie, Barry (Jerry Seinfeld) goes to college to learn to produce honey. In real life, it is primarily instinct that drives the bees to do what they do. At best, there may be some on the job training.

#4: Money
Not only do the bees producing honey get paid in this movie, Barry sets out to sue the human honey producing mega-corporations for stealing honey from the bees. In reality, there is no evidence that bees use any medium of exchange other than honey itself, unless you count bee pollen.

#3: Nuclear Family
Barry has a Mom and a Dad, who worry about the fact that their son may not want to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a honey-stirrer. In a real hive, there is only one “Mom” – the queen. The larvae and young bees are brought up by nurse bees (much like children in Hollywood). Contrast this with movies like Happy Feet from Warner Brothers, which also had singing and dancing animals, but at least presented a somewhat accurate representation of the life cycle of the penguins.

#2: Male worker bees
As most elementary school students know, real worker bees are all females, although the queen is the only adult female that isn’t sterile. Males are all drones who exist for only one purpose, as potential mates for new queens (who mate once for life). Whether or not the drones are successful in their quest during there one and only mating flight, they die shortly thereafter. No wonder Barry has some questions about his identity and his destiny!

#1: Antz it ain’t
This film has been heavily promoted in print, TV, radio, and trailers shown in theaters and on the internet. In fact, there have been several “fake” trailers showing Seinfeld in a bee costume in live-action shorts in an attempt to drum up interest and discussion. Will these tactics pay off? Can Bee Movie follow in the footsteps of DreamWorks’ release of Antz? This may very well be the #1 fallacy of the film, because Jerry Seinfeld is no Woody Allen.