The debated movie starring Jerry Seinfeld came out on DVD not too long ago. You may of heard about it. It is a computer animated film, all about bees, their interaction with mankind and the world at large. Particularly, the entire story is driven by one bee, Berry (voice of Jerry Seinfeld), who wants to do more in life than process the pollen into honey, like the rest of the bees.

A good story with an apt lesson

For Berry, heavy on the optimism, the world must have more to offer than the current workings of his bee hive. After graduating from the speedy educational program of the bees’ society, he is quickly shuffled into the employment procedures by other bees in their usual system of “processing” new workers. He finds out that all bees work for of their “perfect” society seven days a week for the rest of their life without vacation. Of course, in telling the story, this is a bit of humor, as the film is regarded as a comedy. But cleverly, the humor all throughout usually reinforces a point.

This film is quite exemplary, in my humble opinion. It’s good at telling a simple story to highlight a few of life’s most overlooked matters of maturity. Berry, so focused on bees rights to live the life of “happiness” and “freedom” liberates his kind from all responsibility and work. He justifies this because he thinks bees would be happier having time to themselves to do bigger things than churn honey all day. Unfortunately, they won’t.

Bees (in the movie) represent people—people that were meant to do one thing in life: make honey. Berry doesn’t see that one agenda for the bees as important, interesting, or worthy of their time. He thinks that all bees would like to be free to do other things in life. The truth is, they don’t want to do other things in life. They were created to produce honey. Along the way, doing what bees do best, they cross pollenate the plants in the world, which is one of the reasons plants survive by the natural order. Without the bees doing what they were meant to, in the natural order of creation, the world at large would dramatically suffer. It would eventually be bad for all creatures, including the bees that Berry is trying to liberate.

Well, Berry realizes what a huge mistake it was to free the bees of their work. Without the honey factory active, the bees are entirely useless and unproductive. They do nothing all day, all week, all month, all year. Berry does his best to undo what he did and get the bees back to doing what they were meant to do.

The Lesson

Some people were meant to do the seemingly irrelevant work in life. All work is important to the functionality of society. If man is to enjoy life’s abundance, he has to work for a living to maintain life’s abundance. That work will not always be pretty, glamorous, or even respected. But it’s very important.

Parents, teachers, professors, television and the like all encourage children to be self-pleasing to do “big” things in life. “Son, you could be president,” “Maggie, you could own a top corporation if you wanted.” This kind of encouragement is misleading. Sure, some were meant for these lines of work, but why do we mislead our children to think that other work is simply “beneath” us? Janitorial, farming, plumbing… blue-collar work in general. These things gotta be done too, and without them the country begins to degenerate. The economy begins to collapse.

It would be good to reevaluate what we see as important and respectable career choices. No one is meant to get through life without earning their keep, and who says that earning it one honest way is better than the next? God wants man to take charge of all responsibility, and not just seek the fame that comes with great fortune. Not everyone should be a top executive (especially since most pursuing it don’t really deserve it). Of course, the last point I make here is not in the movie, but it is implied and the only way ultimately the values in the film work.

The Verdict

Bee Movie did not only have an exceptional point to make, but some good humor along the way. It wasn’t perfect, and their were a few characters that attempted humor that lacked luster. One lawyer in a trial process of the story made arguments that made him sound like he was “Christian,” but at the same time he was held as a villain and a buffoon. His taste of entertaining the audience was most certainly the most tasteless and misguiding perspective.

I give the film a hearty 2.5 stars out of 4.