Bee Movie

Hey, Tara Strong here, and you're listening to

the Geekcast Radio Network. Beyond good, beyond

evil, beyond your wildest imagination. Welcome

to Hun -X. You won't ever work anywhere or do

anything else ever again. So you'll just work

us to death? We'll try. I'm going out. Out? We're

outside the hive Hold it flight decks restricted.

It's okay Lou. We're gonna take them up Look

at all this room You know, I don't think these

are flowers should we tell him I Think he knows

I'm so sorry. How did you learn to do the talking

thing? I don't know. Mama, dada, honey. You pick

it up. Just keep still! You're not dead? I'm

going to Alaska. I've got one to Tacoma. What

about you? He really is dead. All right. Jerry

Seinfeld. Renee Zoegger. T -Vogue. You can just

freeze live TV? That's insane. What, you don't

have anything like that? We have high Vogue,

but it's a disease. It's a horrible, horrible

disease. DreamWorks B -movie. Ow! What was that?

Maybe this time. This time. This time. This time.

This time. This time. This time. Hello and welcome

to episode 47 of Tooncast Beyond, brought to

you by the GeekCaster Radio Network and audible

.com. I am your host, T .O. Joe Mike, and joining

me is Steve Megatron. Hello. Hello. Today we're

gonna be buzzing around the city in a B -movie.

See, that works several different ways. Boo.

Shut up. It's not my fault you can't recognize

the genius of my humor. It's not genius, it's

just... bad comedy. It's a good thing Michael

Wilson isn't here because he would have said

bad sodomy. Oh boy. Alright, so yeah. We are

going to be talking about 2007's B movie starring

Jerry Seinfeld, Renee Zellweger, Matthew Broderick.

I think it's Matthew Broderick that's the other

B as well. When did you first see this? Somewhere

around the time it came out. I think my wife

worked at Blockbuster at the time and She could

rent things before they came out on DVD Or to

the public anyway, so I think we rented it about

then and watched when it was fairly new Yeah,

I didn't catch this one until God some of these

Pixar movies, some of these Disney movies, some

of these DreamWorks animation movies, heck, even

some of the studios like Sony and stuff that

aren't, don't normally do the CGI animated stuff.

I see that, and this is me, so, you know, I usually

wait a couple years to check. some of the stuff

out because of my incessant judgment of trailers

and it's not that i didn't care for this trailer

i just i saw it and i was like oh that's cool

and then i kind of forgot about it um i think

i saw this when it aired on tv originally i don't

remember when the heck that was but um but yeah

i think that's when i saw it and uh i i like

i like seinfeld i like him more in his television

show than his stand -up stuff He's all right,

I don't like Seinfeld other than this movie I

didn't like the show and I don't like his stand

-up. I don't find him entertaining or funny The

only time he was funny was because of this stupid

movie Wait, I thought you said you liked this

movie. Why are you calling it stupid? Well, I'm

just saying It's it was a good movie overall.

I just I'm just saying it's the only thing that

Seinfeld's done that's been mildly entertaining.

Yeah. So getting into it, B -movie is a 2007

computer animated family comedy film starring

Jerry Seinfeld as we said, Renee Zellweger, Matthew

Broderick, John Goodman, Chris Rock, Kathy Bates,

Barry Levinson, Megan Mullally, Rip Torn, oh

my god, you got Zed in here, holy crap. Oh yeah.

And Patrick Orberton, produced by DreamWorks

Animation, and it's directed by Simon J. Smith

and Steve Hickner. For a second there, I thought

that said Hickiner. B -movie is the first motion

picture script to be written by Seinfeld, who

co -wrote it with Spike Furstein, Barry Mander,

and Andy Robin. The film was produced by Jerry

Seinfeld. Christian Steenberg and Cameron Steving.

The production was designed by Alex McDowell

and Christopher Loret was the art director. This

movie to me when it comes to the cast and the

crew and all that stuff is it's kind of like

Seinfeld pulling a sandler. How so? The majority

of the you know a good portion of the cast is

people he's worked with or friends of his Okay,

I can kind of see that Well in the writers producers

Michael Richardson or Michael Richards is in

it to Patrick Warburton who was a character on

Seinfeld Larry Miller who plays this little character

on Seinfeld episode the doorman You know so it's

one of those things where, hey, I'm doing this

animated movie, you wanna come in and do it with

me? That was a bad impression of Jerry Seinfeld.

Yeah. I never said it was a good impression of

Jerry Seinfeld. But I caught the reference nonetheless.

I wasn't actually trying to reference anything

at all. I know, it sounded like that's how he

talks though. Oh yeah, because he talks like

this and it's, you know, you gotta close your

throat a little bit. That's bad. Yes, that's

bad quality. Alright, so the voice cast in this,

as we've kind of already mentioned, you've got

Seinfeld, you've got Renee Zellweger, you've

got Patrick Warburton, Matthew Broderick. Overall,

really... interesting voice cast I would say

you get Ray Liotta as himself and he looks like

himself yes so does be Larry King yeah there's

one just like you in the real world he wears

the suspenders and the glasses and he sits hunched

over on the desk No, I won't even make that comparison.

You should just put that clip in the episode

cool The sting is also in this as sting yes But

overall the voice cast is Pretty good. I would

say where the comedy lies is is Patrick Warburton's

character her Boyfriend I guess he is That dude's

just hilarious I Like him and everything he's

in just because he kind of plays it over -the

-top Jerk Yeah, he yeah, I mean he yeah he is

such an over -the -top jerk And the whole thing

about this movie is that I guess it could almost

be a societal movie. What I mean by that is the

fact that these bees have a certain way of life

and a certain way of how their society runs.

It's kind of like growing up in a strict household

when your parents don't want you to do anything

except what they want you to do. And Barry breaks

out of that and goes out into the world. And

then it turns into this whole conspiracy movie

with The humans are killing the bees because

they want our honey. Oh My god, I like this movie

I like the animation. I like the voice acting

the plot is a little out there Well, I mean it's

as typical as it's going to be for this type

of movie, but I do agree the voice cast and the

Animating of it and just how they kind of played

out everything. I think that worked out really

well We're as good as it could be for a movie

like this. I mean it It it didn't leave me bored.

I did enjoy it hmm, and I think that Seinfeld's

role in this movie was pretty funny Just because

he's kind of like I want more. I don't want to

be stuck in the same job until I die Yeah, what

is it with with DreamWorks we've had two movies

so far that are pretty much you know fish out

of water stories or, you know, achieve more than

you are movies. We've got this one in B -movie,

and TV's Mr. Neel and I, back in episode 38 of

the podcast, talked about ants. And ants is kind

of the same thing as this. It's kind of like

break out of your shell, you know, reach for

the stars, that kind of thing. What is it with...

But that's kind of like most of what DreamWorks

does. Yeah. They all have dreamer characters.

pretty much doesn't really matter what movie

they have they're all kind of out there more

more so just they're all having somebody running

towards doing something different than the norm

whereas Pixar does something completely different

they actually tell a story yeah that's true I

just I just bash DreamWorks so that's funny um

Getting into a trivia bit here as far as the

cast notes, Megan Mullally was originally voicing

the Queen of the Hive, and had even recorded

her lines, yet because of the film cuts, her

character was cut. Jerry Seinfeld still wanted

her to have a part in the movie, so he gave her

the role of the Hun -Ex tour guide. At one point,

Uma Thurman, Rebecca Soler, Lisa Kudrow, David

Letterman and Raven Simone were all attached.

They dropped out for various reasons. We've talked

about rumors of potential casting on this podcast,

on Tooncast Classic, and on M -Wire, and it baffles

me as like after seeing what the product is and

seeing who could have been in it, it just baffles

me why they approached... those people. Like,

I mean, what was it going to be? Be David Letterman?

Was he going to be himself as an actual be instead

of Larry King? And I don't think Dave would have

worked, even as himself. I don't think he would

have worked because then you'd have to bring

along his sidekick there, Paul Shafer. Yeah,

I have no idea. I don't watch those shows. There's

not much intelligence involved. Late night television.

Especially on TBS, that shit sucks. Critical

response was mixed with 51 % on Rotten Tomatoes,

54 out of 100 on Metacritic. In a lackluster

review, People Magazine said much of B is gently

funny. The vocal performances are distinctive

and the digital animation glistens But in the

end the characters in the story lack wait for

it sting It was nominated for best animated feature

film at the 65th Golden Globe Awards Barry B.

Benson was the announcer for the best animated

short on the Oscars for 2008, but beforehand,

he showed the audience some of his prior roles,

including every bee in the swarm in The Swarm.

Oh my god. That's ridiculous. Um, the film opened

in second place to American Gangster. Oh my god.

They put this movie up against American Gangster.

Holy crap. That's funny But it's gross of 30

but it's gross of 38 million 21 thousand forty

four dollars had it more in line with the studio's

lowest grossing features such as Shark Tale the

film had an average of 9 ,679 from 3 ,928 theaters.

In its second weekend, the film held well with

33 % drop to 25 million, claiming the top spot

resulting in $6 ,480 average from expanding to

3 ,944 theaters. guess this money I guess this

okay worldwide total of 287 million and change

the movie was produced 150 million dollar budget

so I guess it made its money back a little bit

yeah it was worthwhile for a payoff anyway yeah

it's nominated for a bunch of awards and it did

not win any What I find extremely funny about

this, because I, up until this recording, up

until watching the movie again, I did not look,

like, when I go and I get the scripts for us

to, you know, have handy for stuff to look at,

you know, for information, I don't really look

at the information while I'm gathering it. What

I find interesting is this movie was, uh, subdued

to a couple of lawsuits. Oh yeah. B -movie is

alleged to be similar to a concept developed

in 2000 by a team of Swedish animation students,

which they claim was presented to DreamWorks

in 2001 under the name B -Ballon. That's the

dumbest fucking name I have ever heard. The animation

students say that DreamWorks rejected the idea

and the basis of it being too childish. When

Bee Movie was announced in 2003, the students

claimed that they once again contacted DreamWorks

to make sure the movie was not similar to their

original concept and was given a reassuring answer.

When one of the members of the Beebalon team

saw the trailer of the movie in 2007, he found

it to be extremely similar and attempted to find

a US lawyer who could represent them. Jerry Seinfeld

rejected the plagiarism claims during his PR

tour for Bee Movie in Sweden. I'm doing my best

not to laugh and I'm taking it as serious as

I can, but it's a little bit hard. It is entirely

possible that somebody else came up with an idea

about making a movie about bees. I knew nothing

of this until this very morning and I hope that

they are not too upset. In other words, he was

saying... Yes, it's possible that they probably

stole it, but... Nah, they didn't. But they didn't,

so up yours. Yeah, pretty much. There's a second

one. B. Pseudocles? B. Pseudocles versus DreamWorks.

A Florida -based cosmetics company called B.

Pseudocles has filed a lawsuit over the use of

their trademark phrase, give bees a chance. The

suit between the parties was settled out of court.

In other words, B. Pseudocles got money from

DreamWorks. Pretty much. That's so stupid. Oh

my god 1 to 4 we are the IGN crew. What would

you rank this movie? I'd give it a High 2 Maybe

maybe even a 3 minus 3 minus. Oh boy If it is

on Netflix, or if it isn't iTunes or something

like that, I'll give it a three. I do enjoy it.

I enjoy it for the comedy between Barry and Patrick

Warburton's character. I think that's really,

really cool. I thought that was funny. Renee

Zellweger just, she felt out of place. She kind

of rubs me wrong in any movie she's in. However,

I have to say that she was alright in this because

I didn't have to look at her. Well still had

to listen to her that's not as bad as having

to look at her and listen to her Just saying

Maybe we should make you watch me myself and

Irene again. I've seen that I like Jim Carrey,

but I don't like that movie Alright so getting

into the the The DVD stuff it is on DVD as far

as the marketing goes The third trailer was released

with Shrek the third but this was an animated

teaser The fourth trailer was released on B movie

official website and revealed most of the film's

plot Let's see. This is exactly what a lot of

people have been saying over the last few years

You see a trailer no matter if it's two minutes

or 30 seconds and in that time the companies

that put the trailers together for those studios

Will essentially give you the entire plot in

a trailer. That's why you should never watch

trailers. You should just go see the movie Because

then they either get the wrong opinion on the

movie by the trailer Or you find out the entire

movie before the trailer or before the with the

trailer you find out the whole movie There are

several books Again, I guess it's because This

is essentially a kid's movie Well, it is a B

movie Yeah, I just can't give it an A I can give

it a kick in the A but I can't give it an A B

movie was released on DVD March 11th 2008 in

both full -screen and widescreen formats and

the 2Disc Special Edition DVD. It was also released

on on Blu -ray Disc on May 20th, 2008. It was

one of probably one of the last ones. Oh no.

I current myself. The HD DVD version was cancelled

after the demise of HD DVD. So there you go.

Alright, we're going to get into a break. We're

going to hear some ads and some other interesting

things. And we'll come back to close the show.

Like animation? Come listen to Animation Aficionados.

And if you disagree with us, you could be a guest

on a future show. Available on iTunes, the Zune

Market, and animationaficionados .com. You can

now hear the GeekCast Radio network while on

the go with Stitcher Smart Radio. Stitcher is

a free use and talk mobile app available for

your smartphone. And when you download Stitcher

to hear GeekCast Radio, you'll have a chance

to win money. Downloading is quick and easy,

just find Stitcher in the App Store. During registration,

hit the promo code box and enter GeekCast Radio

all one word to get automatically entered to

win $100. The latest episodes of the shows will

be waiting for you in your favorites. You'll

get access to lots of other amazing shows, too.

Always available to you on demand. No sinking.

It's Stitcher Smart Radio. Don't forget to enter

promo code KEYCASTRADIO when you register. Tunecast

is dedicated to the cartoons we grew up with.

100 episodes and more make up one of the GCRN's

most popular podcasts. Join host TFG1 Mike, Optimus

Solo, Terra the Rising Star, and tons of guest

hosts. We also have voice actor and writer interviews.

Tune in to Tunecast as we look back on the cartoons

that defined us as geeks. You can find Tunecast

on iTunes and the web at www .geekcastradio .com.

Tune in. For you listeners of Tooncast Beyond,

Audible is offering a free audiobook download

with a free 30 -day trial to give you the opportunity

to check out their service. Use audibletrial

.com slash GeekCastRadio. Final thoughts on Bee

Movie? Overall pretty enjoyable. Good kid movie

that adults can enjoy as well. There is adult

comedy in it. I mean to some extent. You know

like... gassing people and everything else uh...

mass genocide uh... bugs on the windshield yeah

uh... the chris rock drinking blood yeah but

uh... yeah so i mean overall it was a really

good movie but uh... it's it's at least good

for a watch i don't know how how else to describe

it, but it was good. I mean, if you're a die

-hard DreamWorks fan, you know, of course you're

probably gonna add this to your DVD collection

or your iTunes collection or whatever else, but

if you're not, just find it on TV or something

like that, I mean, because Cartoon Network has

really been surprising me lately, because that's

how I saw, a couple weeks ago, that's how I saw

Over the Hedge. Was it aired on Cartoon Network?

I'm like, whoa, why is Cartoon Network airing

this? I don't know. A lot of the DreamWorks animated

movies are coming on TV now. It's kind of weird,

kind of funny, but cool. Thank you for joining

us here on Tooncast Beyond. There are some ways

to get in contact with us. We'll leave feedback

for the show. Visit the website, geekcastradio

.com. You can comment on each and every post.

You can send this email feedback at geek cast

radio .com leave the show's feedback in iTunes

Please do this follow us on Twitter. This one

there is tune cast beyond minus TFG on Mike.

What is your Twitter? SCP 21 And you can also

follow at geek cast radio for all the network

updates Become a fan on Facebook go to Facebook

comm slash geek cast radio network Call the Waste

Man line and tell us to show you leaving the

message for, and your name, 502 -526 -5821. We

hope you enjoyed this episode of Tooncast Beyond,

and wish you would join us next time when we

will be talking about... Monsters vs. Aliens.

For now, I am TF2 Unmiked with Steve Megatron

Phillips. Thank you for listening, until next

time... I WANTED TO BORE!