Arts & Entertainment
ON THE COVER
Bee-lieve It! from page C5
didn't want to make a live movie. I did 60
hours of live acting in Seinfeld, and I'm
really not even an actor. After I gradu-
ated from college, I only wanted to be a
stand-up comedian. I chose bees [for the
film] because I'm fascinated by the bee
world. Their hive and social hierarchy are
very interesting, and honey is an amazing
product for a bug. Kids like bugs anyway.
Their story books and coloring books
always show bees, ladybugs and flies:'
Seinfeld spent two years actually writ-
ing the script, "inserting insect jokes right
up to the last minute," with references
to Hives at 5 newscasts and a character
named B. Larry King, "who is very Jewish:'
Seinfeld quipped. "All in all, it's a warm
movie, not a raucous cartoon:'
Plotting Bee
Bee Movie's hero, Barry B. Benson, is a bee
fresh out of college who isn't content to be
a drone for the rest of his life — especially
once he gets a taste of life outside the hive.
One of the sequences of Barry floating in a
pool while his parents berate him evokes a
1967 Dustin Hoffman film.
"In some of the original drafts:' Seinfeld
revealed, "the entire movie was an homage
to The Graduate. That's my favorite movie.
The only scene that survived was the pool
scene. But the whole thing, the whole idea
that he was seeing this girl that he wasn't
supposed to be seeing and he was keeping
it secret from his parents and he didn't
know what he wanted to do with his life, it
all started with The Graduate."
In a sense, Seinfeld wrote and cast
himself in the part of the Dustin Hoffman
character. That young man was named
Benjamin Braddock, and Barry B. Benson
is the metaphorical son of Ben.
The story unfolds in Seinfeld's
Manhattan, though, not in California. And
honey is the ideal career path, not plastics.
"Bees are funny," Seinfeld asserted.
"They dress funny. They have a very funny
little world they live in. You know, they all
live on top of each other in small apart-
ments ... and living in New York, I kind of
related to it:"
Seinfeld feels Bee Movie will change what
people thought they knew about bees.
Barry's best friend, Adam, is content to
live a normal life inside the hive. But Barry
wants more out of life than the inevitable
career that awaits him and other workers
in New Hive City: a job at Honex, making
honey. He jumps at the chance to venture
out of the hive and inadvertently meets a
quirky florist named Vanessa.
Barry breaks one of the cardinal rules
of bee-dom and talks to her. A friendship
soon develops, and he gets a quick course
in the ways of the human race.
When Barry shockingly discovers that
anyone can purchase honey right off the
grocery store shelf, he realizes his true
Seinfeld On Seinfeld
B
ee Movie is the recipient of
one big media blitz.
Jerry Seinfeld and some
of the other voice actors have been
touring around the country to promote
the film; comedic one-minute shorts
have appeared in theaters and on TV;
Seinfeld made his first guest appear-
ance on a sitcom since Seinfeld ended,
playing himself on NBC's 30 Rock; and
he's graced just about every talk show
host's couch – from Jay Leno to Oprah.
Seinfeld also publicized the movie by
jumping attached to a guide wire from
the top of an eight-story building in
France, wearing a bee costume. "I was
plenty nervous," he said.
When Seinfeld was in Novi last month,
loyal fans on the "bee carpet" weren't
content to hear only about Bee Movie.
They and the news media – including
the Jewish News – seized every oppor-
tunity to ask the comedian questions
about other subjects as well.
JN: You're no stranger to Detroit. As a
comedian, how do you rate the city?
C8
November 1 • 2007
JS: Detroit is one of the best comedy
towns in the world.
JN: But have you ever been in Novi
before?
JS: No. At first, I thought I was coming
to "Nova," but then I realized nova is
only a type of lox.
JN: Are you a baseball fan – more spe-
cifically, a New York Yankees fan?
JS: I picked the Tigers to be in the
World Series again.
JN: Have your children seen Bee
Movie?
JS: They've seen parts of the movie,
and I can't wait to take them to the pre-
miere. [Seinfeld and his wife, Jessica,
who recently came out with a new
cookbook, Deceptively Delicious, featur-
ing recipes with pureed vegetables that
get children to consume healthy food,
have three children: daughter Sascha,
almost 7, and sons Julian, 4, and
Shepherd, 2.]
I wrote Bee Movie for the grownups,
Jerry Seinfeld behind the scenes as Barry B. Benson in Bee Movie
calling is to stop this injustice and sue the
human race for stealing the product that is
the result of all the bees' hard work.
Other voices include Barry Levinson
and Kathy Bates as Barry's doting par-
ents, Janet and Martin Benson; comedian
Chris Rock as Mooseblood the mosquito,
a colorful insect, whom Benson meets on
a car windshield; John Goodman as the
powerful and morally challenged Southern
attorney Layton T. Montgomery; and
Oprah Winfrey, playing a judge who pre-
sides over Barry's case. (Seinfeld says he
and Rock made up their dialogue as they
went along.)
Megan Mullally voices Honex tour guide
Trudy; Larry Miller can be heard as Dean
Buzzwell of Winger University, Barry's
alma mater; Rip Torn is the leader of the
Pollen Jocks, the select squadron who
venture out of the hive; and Ray Liotta
plays himself — you'll just have to see the
movie.
In Praise Of Seinfeld
Co-producer Christina Steinberg and
co-directors Simon J. Smith and Steve
but in [test] screenings, kids
"score" even better. People
don't give children quite the
credit they deserve for seeing
humor. I'm glad [the film] has
across-the-board appeal.
JN: Has fatherhood changed
your comic perspective?
JS: I guess I didn't realize how
funny it is just to bop somebody
on the head.
Hickner (the film's animation expert)
praised Seinfeld's intense involvement in
the movie's production.
"He was at the studio for at least eight
hours every day and performed every line
for the animators, doing his own stand-up
in front of them twice a day:' Steinberg
noted in the film's publicity materials.
"They started out learning about his act-
ing and style, and ended up absorbing his
comedic timing. He even came up with
many ideas for different camera angles."
Added Smith: "It was great having
Jerry Seinfeld's humor and point of view
funneled through the bee character in
the movie. And what's so fantastic about
that is, the film's really about us all; it's
about our society and how we behave and
how ridiculous we are most of the time;
it's about a bee getting lost in a human's
world." Hickner calls Seinfeld "the king of
observational comedy."
Seinfeld prides himself on the fact that
he not only recited his lines but also sepa-
rately acted out his animated parts for the
whole film (he is in almost every scene).
"And I didn't just do the words in a studio
Photo by Staff Photographer Angie Bean
Jerry Seinfeld on the "bee carpet" in Novi
JN: Do you have any child-rearing
advice?
JS: Yes. Use fear, threats and intimida-
tion on them and always wear dirty
clothes.
hives) that's plaguing the agricultural
world?
JS: It freaked us out. This [film] is a
fantasy and now it's occurring – it is the
essential theme of the movie.
JN: Your loyal fans would probably
want to know whom you support for
president in 2008.
JS: I think politicians are beneath the
dignity of comedians. As a professional
comedian, I wouldn't want to align
myself with any low-life politician.
JN: Are you worried about how the
film will do and what the critics will
think?
JS: "[I want this film to be a success,
but] there's nothing you can attempt
to pursue that's a mistake, even if it's
a failure. Failure is not as big a deal as
people make it seem. It actually is one
of the best things in life to help you
advance."
JN: What do you have to say about
the current phenomenon of colony col-
lapse disorder (bees disappearing from
- Bill Carroll