Bee Movie Hidden Agenda

I went and saw that animated Jerry Seinfeld move "Bee Movie" last year during the Christmas break (For the ruling, it was the $3 theater, I went with a girl, and drank a pitcher of beer myself). The movie was pretty boring. It had a lot of references to other movies, had a lot of guest voices, but the movie itself was just not that funny. It wasn't horrible, but it wasn't a Shrek either. After watching it, I thought ther was some hidden message or agenda in it but couldn't pin point what it was.



The movie was on HBO last night, so while I was doing laundry and cleaning house, I kept it on the tv. I finally realized the hidden agenda. I'll explain the scene's first before I tell you what I think it is. It's not obvious throughout the whole movie, but if you piece together some key scene's I think it's pretty obvious. Also before I start, I did an internet search on it and couldn't find anything or anyone that agreed with me or even made a reference. So here I go.

It starts out where they show all of the bee's busy at work pollinating flowers and making honey. Every bee gets assigned a specific job, which they do for the rest of their life. They are each very proud of their jobs and what they have created. One day Barry Bee (Seinfeld's character) get's out of the hive and finds his way into a grocery store (I skipped out a lot of the other details that don't apply). He is in shock that people are stealing their honey at large volumes. He finds out where they are getting all this honey from (a honey farm of course) and is pissed off that people are stealing the honey from the bee's.

Barry then sues the "Big 5" Honey farm companies. He eventually wins the case and they let all the bee's go free. They then give all the honey to the bee's and the bee's no longer have to work. They then go to show scene's of police arresting people who still continue to use the honey. They show an old lady drinking tie and putting a small packet of honey into it and then show cops jumping on her. They also show people who are hiding tons of gallons and raiding them as well. Skip to the end of the movie and all the plants are dying because since the bee's are no longer working (creating honey), they are no longer go out to pollinate plants. At the end, the bee's realize that they pay a greater role in society than just making honey. What they do affect many other people. So they need to stop being selfish and start making honey again.

Here's my dissection of the movie. The bee's represent musicians and bands. The honey is the songs and records they produce. The honey farm is the internet and the humans who use the honey are people who download music off the internet. Barry Bee sues the Big 5, which I would guess would be the big download sites like Napster. The scene of people getting arrested is symbolic of a teenager getting fined for downloading 1 Metallica song to someone who has millions of downloaded songs.

The end of the movie where all the plants die symbolizes the downfall of the music industry if they do not learn to adapt to modern technology and learn to grow with the trends. I think it is also saying that musicians can't be so selfish when it come to their music because it music plays a great importance in peoples lives in many different ways. Everyone in the movie hated the bee's after the lawsuit, just as fans hate the musicians that sue their fans (go fuck yourself Metallica).



So bottom line, I think the bee movie was Jerry Seinfeld's attempt to share his feelings about the selfishness of the music industry. Being in bands for many years myself, I don't necessarily agree with stealing of music, but I do think that record companies need to grasp the fact that times are changing and grow with the changes, not just sue everyone. Thanks to sites like iTune's they are starting to roll with the changes.