Mockingbird Meadows Honey and Herb Farm
Review of Bee Movie
Carson and I decided to devote some space on our website to sounding off about the recent movie “Bee Movie” because we know that when spring rolls around and we’re back at our regular market space, we are sure to get questions!
We finally went to see “Bee Movie” the other night and were surprised at what we thought as we left the movie theater. All summer long, I’ve heard poor reviews and complaints about dodgy science. Because I knew the movie was based on a male hero, I also assumed that I would find a host of bee inaccuracies, sure to set back bee-human relationships irretrievably. This was not the case. In fact, I found that there was little with which I could take issue.
Yes, it is troubling to me that legions of young fans watching this film will believe that the male bee in the hive does all the work. It is quite an insult to the Queen Bee and all the female workers for the drone to take credit for all of their hard work. Let’s just clear up the misconception—Drones do not do any work. They do not build comb, they do not collect pollen and nectar, and they do not clean out “gunk.” Sadly, drones exist only for the fertilization of a new queen. If there is not a new queen taking her maiden flight anywhere in the area during the summer of their life, they never even get to express their purpose. Instead, they are a drain on the colony, eating and never contributing. I don’t think Mr. Seinfeld was purposely oblivious to these facts, instead I believe he wanted to voice his main character and didn’t want to do a high falsetto for an hour and a half.
Another important plot device is the notion that male bees have stingers—they don’t. Unfortunately, the climax of the movie depends on giving the drones a stinger and again I can accept this for the greater good of the story line.
Now we come to the portrayal of the beekeeper... We’ve actually been in a bee yard that felt very similar to the one in the movie. It was more of a work camp and the bees seemed beaten down and hopeless. I enjoyed this part of the movie immensely because for us, our goal is to work with the bees in a way that, should they ever talk, we hope they would give a good report on our partnership.
Overall, I saw two messages conveyed by the film and we strongly agree with at Mockingbird Meadows. One is that bees are very important in our world. They are responsible for diversity among our flowers and plants, they are important to maintaining a balance in our ecosystem, without them we wouldn’t have a lot of our food. The other point I saw in the movie is that man can’t continue to exploit nature as if it is an endless buffet spread before him to use as he sees fit. Eventually, this social structure will fail. Outside of the animated world we are seeing a collapse of the bee mainly because of exploitative practices.
Do I have a problem with the science used as a basis for this film? My reaction to that is this: While I believe there will be a misconception about the job assignment within the hive, I think little else will be misconstrued. I don’t take it literally that a million bees can get together to land a plane… so I don’t take it literally that in one summer of lost pollination, all the plants on the planet will die. I think most children are able to suspend a little of reality for the sake of make-believe and see the overall message (though apparently most movie reviewers can’t). I believe that most people walking away from this movie will have had a good time and a lot of laughs while learning that bees are really important and we’d better be nicer to them!
© 2010 Mockingbird Meadows