Movie Movie Podcast

Every single kids movie is about embracing differences so why should this be any different.

The FumbleBee

This is a CGI animated tale about a bumblebee family.  Angelina Jolie, is Larvaerne the Queen Bee, Ty Burrell is Larrae, the Queen Bee’s husband, and they have a bunch of kids, but this story is about their middle bee child named Floyd, played by Jay Baruchel.  He’s the only bee in the royal family of bumblebees who can not transport pollen. Because he is a allergic to it himself.  Everytime he tries he starts sneezing and pollen goes everywhere. The other bees make fun of him for it.  His older sister Lana, played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead, is preparing to become the newest Queen Bee when Larvaerne retires, so she is very disappointed that her brother can’t help.  Floyd’s younger brother Benji, played by Atticus Shaeffer is already fast becoming one of the star pollen collectors of the hive and this makes Floyd feel even more useless.  One day after again fumbling another bunch of pollen during the transport, he notices that all the leftover pollen he lost, formed an artistic pattern.  So basically he finds out that he’s pretty good at making designs with the pollen.  His caterpillar buddy Calvin, notices as well and together they start making designs together and attempting to sell them to other hives.  However they are met with hesitation at every turn.

When the Queen Bee finds out what Floyd has been doing, she commands him to stop.  The job of a bumblebee is to transport pollen, pollinate other flowers and make honey.  There is no place for art.  This bums out Floyd.  Calvin tells him to keep doing it anyway, and Floyd continues making drawings for himself, much to his families disappointment.  One day before  a very important mission in the backyard of a family, Floyd’s parents tell him that they don’t expect him to try and transport the pollen on this trip because it is dangerous, however he’ll need to be the lookout for his brother, sister and the rest of the bees.  Floyd agrees,  but we come to find that he feels as though he is meant for more than being a lookout.  He thinks they’ll be fine without him.  Unfortunately the pollen trip goes awry and both his brother and sister are taken captive by a 10 year old girl.  Basically because Floyd didn’t do his job the hive lost it’s future Queen and his brother.  His mother is very upset with him, and at this point Larrae goes to talk to him.  Larrae explains that he used to feel as though he was meant for more than being the Queen Bee’s husband, but then he realized there is nothing more important than family, and nothing more important than his children.  He’s gotten to have the best job, raising 3 awesome children all with different gifts and ideas.  He says that he’s going after Lana and Benji.  Floyd asks if he and Calvin can come along, but Larrae says Calvin’s job will be to distract Larvaerne.  Calvin agrees and together they start devising a plan to get into the human’s house.

The end of the film is the rescue sequence.  Larrae and Floyd get to the house and start buzzing outside a window causing the family dog to be let outside and that allows the bees to get into the house.  They fly around until they see Benji and Lana stuck in a jar, with holes poked in it.  They have to somehow get it open.  Here Floyd’s artistic sensibilities come into play,  he finds some of the girls charcoal for art projects and starts drawing on paper a note to the girl to release the bees, they aren’t meant to live like that.   He then draws a picture of a bee, pollinating a flower, and the girl pieces it together that even though bees seem scary they have a really important job or something.  The girl opens the jar and the four bees all embrace together, before the big dog runs back in the house after them.  The girl tries to stop the dog, but in an excitingly CGI’d up scene the family makes a last ditch effort to get out of the house without stinging or getting caught by the dog.  They get out at the last minute.

We go back to the hive and see that Calvin’s attempts at stalling the Queen are wearing thin and right when she is about to yell at him, Larrae, coughs and she sees him along with her kids.  She is proud and thanks Larrae for getting her kids back, but Larrae tells him it was not his doing, it was Floyds.  Larvaerne asks if this is true and shakes his head yes.  Larrae explains that he used his art to help the human girl understand what being a bee is really all about – family.  We see the Queen well up with bee tears and the entire kingdom cheers for Floyd.  His sister and brother thank him and all is right with the world.

We open months later and see that Floyd now works in the field again not necessarily transporting pollen, but using his art to draw in screen windows and explain what the bees are trying to do, so now when there is a swarm, humans don’t freak out as much because they understand.  Then we see a cute bee girl fly over to Floyd and say hi.  He looks at the camera and…

The Beginning.