Bee Movie Teaser Trailers

I have to admit, I'm not exactly waiting with anticipation to see Bee Movie. After all, it's a CG movie, which used to be rare, but becoming an industry standard. Not only that, it is about insects, for crying out loud! Didn't we do that back in 1998 with Antz and A Bug's Life? Bee Movie looks like an appropriate title for what looks to be a true B-movie.

It looks like Paramount and Dreamworks/PDI knew that audiences will not warm up to their new film, and have deliberately shaped their previews around this assumption. I think we all know the formula for the movie preview: an announcer with a deep voice who tells us "in a world", followed by a series of mind-blowing shots, punctuated by some final gag before showing the release date. I also think we are all sick of the movie preview formula, and Bee Movie totally throws it out the window.

I am not talking about the preview you'll see if you go to the Bee Movie website, which is the same one included on the Over The Hedge DVD. That one is your typical animated movie sneak peek, with limited, work in progress footage along with a celebrity (Jerry Seinfeld) telling us how great it will be. What you really need to see are the two teaser trailers.

The first shows the filming of Bee Movie, as if it were an actual live action movie. Seinfeld shows up on stage in a gaudy bee costume, and the director, who seems completely disinterested, orders him to get on stage. The stage is a giant windshield complete with wipers, and other insects in gaudy costumes are there as well. One of them is Chris Rock, dressed as a wasp, who reminds Jerry to attend his wife's book-signing. Apparently, Jerry had to pull a few favors in order to get a supporting cast for this Bee Movie. When the director shows action, the insects are sprayed with giant hoses for washer fluid, mammoth windshield wipers wipe, and a lot of costumed insects get hurt. Clearly, there is no way such a bad film should be made, and even two stagehands comment: "So this is what he [Jerry Seinfeld] does after the TV series [Seinfeld]."