The Genius Absurdity of The Bee Movie

according to all known laws of nature there is  no wayby should be able to talk its vocal cords are too small to get its fat little throat  to produce any kind of word the be in this movie of course talks anyway because  art doesn't care what nature thinks is impossible I can speak for everyone but when I  watch the be movie as a child I didn't think much of it I didn't find it weird for me it looked just  like any other generic animated movie and when it became a meme I found it kind of random

but when  I watched it again as an adult I started thinking like how is this even a real movie what were the  writers thinking and then I thought the movie was kind of Genius in like its humor and message  maybe it was because I wasn't completely sober when I watched it but I don't think that's the  whole explanation it's not really an accident the movie became a mem years later there is something  about it that feels [ __ ] posty when you watch it as an adult something ridiculous something trul

y  absurd but what is that well it's several reasons it's all the right ingredients mixed in the right  way that made this movie The Perfect troll movie not that troll movie but a movie that trolls  the audience under animated movie is real life bees and itself we would have to start by the most  obvious ingredient of the absurdity the premise in short the movie is about Barry b Benson a be who  decides to sue the human race for stealing their honey and together with him having this weird  sort

of romantic relationship with Vanessa a human Flor is that coer boyfriend for a bee sort  of it's not actually a romantic relationship since it's most mostly one-sided but still you work  through it like any emotion anger jealousy lust the premise is already absurd and the thing most  people uses to why the movie is absurd but that's just a part of it you can just have a stupid  premise to make your movie A Genius of absurdity I think the biggest ingredient of the absurdity  in this movie is the

subversion of expectations and somehow that subversion applies to most of the  things I'll talk about in this video it subverts the expectations within the plot it subverts the  tropes it uses and it subverts its own world rules let's start with the most obvious one the plot  in the beginning of the movie Barry's internal conflict is that he doesn't want to work the same  job for the rest of his life and we think that's what his internal conflict is going to be about  but no cuz if the movie wa

s about that the plot would be too obvious he would just become a pollen  Choke by the end and the obvious Journey would be him defying expectations and proving himself  Worth or something like that but no the movie changes its plot or buries once three times Barry  changes his character motivation basically three times his first want is in a nutshell to be free  just like the pollen JS his second want is that he wants to sue the human race and his third want is  that he wants to save the flower

s after they all died but it's not like he forgets his previous  wants they are all connected to the same theme of individualism and nonconformity he wants to  follow his own path and so he becomes a pollen Jo and the lawyer by the end the lawyer parted  something that nobody would guess by the beginning the obvious ending would be Barry becoming just  a pollen joke but no it became more than that and his journey was even more an [Music] expected now  something that I haven't seen anyone talk ab

out is the way the Bee Movie uses the talking animal  Trope in the beginning of the movie we don't know bees can talk we might think the bees aren't  talking in English it's just their language being translated but when the bee General says this and  a reminder for all you rookies be law number one absolutely no talking to humans by this point we  know okay Beast can talk later we find out other insects can talk too and by the end of the movie  we find out cows can talk and from that I think we

can assume that in this world all animals talk  and in English on a surface level this might seem normal but it's not and to show you this let's  look into other animated movies shall we usually when they're stalking animals in media there are  several ways it could go the first way is that their animal speech is merely being translated  into the human language and there are several human interactions to prove it some examples would  be Ratatouille Madagascar a secret life of pets The Fox and th

e Hound Lady and the [ __ ] Etc the  second way is that we can assume the animal speech is being translated even though there aren't any  humans present to prove it some examples would be the Lion King the bugs life and sharktail and  even the first Jungle Book since we can assume mugly is speaking their language since he grew up  with them the third way is that the talking animal is an exception to the rule and can talk for some  magical or scientific reason some examples would be the Donkey fr

om Shrek the dogs from up and  the turtles from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles the fourth way is that there are no humans in  this world and it's composed fully of talking animals some examples would be zootopia Kung  Fu Panda Robin Hood sing and bad guys and since there are no humans whether their speech is being  translated or not is an important the fifth way is that the fact the animals are talking isn't even  questioned by the human characters and that's just accepted as part of the world som

e examples would  be Space Jam and Pinocchio there are probably more examples of it Dora the Explorer comes to mind  but if I got into the realm of talking animals in animated shows my research for this would be way  bigger than a Google Sheets page it's either All or Nothing the sixth and last way is the be movie  way with that I mean that the animals can actually talk and hide it from humans for some reason and  believe it or not I don't think there is any other movie that does this a world wh

ere every animal  in the world can talk but just chooses not to at least not in any animated movie I could find but  animated shows aside there is one movie that does just that sort of and it's Toy Story except  instead of talking animals it's toys which is even more absurd but Toy Story doesn't feel  absurd for one reason I mean there are several reasons but the biggest one is that the toys  don't interact with the humans mostly at least list this movie is also just a big subversion  of animate

d movies and their tropes or better a parody of them that's not really new to DreamWorks  as they often like using other animated movies often Disney and pigs are for inspiration  and giving them different takes either that be inspiration on an idea or style a subversion  on a Trope uh Straight Up parody or just stra up stealing so what is the beam movie a parody of  well it's a parody of animated movies in general as we saw before it's a parody of the romance  Trope as we see with Vanessa and B

arry sort of and it's a parody of musicals or at least it was  supposed to be before they cut off the thinking be song that's thinking be think listen to me  fella Ain you been on the tour k your stripes are black and yellow I just want to be sure but  if I had to choose a specific movie it will have to be ratou why ratou well they both came out  in the same year 2007 only four months apart and they are both animated movies about talking  animals that's focus on a specific animal species in whic

h the main character from that species  doesn't fit into his own society and wants to leave the status quo meeting a human who helps  him do just just that and succeeding in the end where they differ is on their level of absurdity  while Ratatouille takes itself pretty seriously for the most part even in its most absurd moments  the be movie drives in showing off as much of the absurdity as it can ratou takes for the most  part an expected trajectory Remy wants to cook rat society says he can't

Ramy challenges Society  by cooking and faces the consequence quences Remy meets a human who helps him cook and that's mostly  the plot of the movie there is no subversion it's an expected plot and like the be movie while  the rats in Rat tattoo incorporate humanlike traits they don't actually talk they can cook but  they can't talk a rat cooking is not as crazy as a rat talking but it's still pretty absurd  but still the movie doesn't treat it as such it acknowledges its absurd moment but it's

more  subtle not completely admitting to its absurdity like the Bean movie another difference between the  movies is the scale in which the movies happen in Ratatouille it's a more self-contained Story the  only people who know Remy can cook are within a restaurant the Bee Movie though has the whole  world know about talking bees after the whole lawsuit thing it's way bigger in scale with way  more questions with no answers being asked as you watch it but even with a smaller scale people's  reac

tions to Remy are unrealistic they accept the fact the rat is cooking rather quickly because if  their reactions were realistic the movie would be completely different and way more absurd the  be movie though makes a perfectly absurd mix of realism and absurdism in its dialogue and  reactions the be movie is absurd yes but its reaction to the absurdity is the realistic part  sort of I think the best example I have to show is this scene where Barry first talks to Vanessa  um hi I'm sorry you're t

alking yes I know I know I'm so you're talking I know I'm I'm sorry I'm  so sorry no it's okay it's fine just I know I'm Dreaming but I don't Rec going to bed well you  know I'm sure this is very disconcerting yeah I mean this is a bit of a surprise to me I mean  you're a baby yeah I am a be and uh you know I'm not supposed to be doing this but they were all  trying to kill me and if it wasn't for you I mean I I had to thank you it's just it's the way I was  raised throughout the whole conversat

ion Barry's dialogue is casual is the Absurd while Vanessa is  freaking out she is the reaction to the Absurd and the contrast of reactions is funny enough but if  we look into it her reaction is pretty realistic for her situation if you met a talking bee or even  a rat who can cook and that understands what you say would your reaction be more like Linguini  or more like Vanessa well I'm pretty sure most people would freak out like Vanessa cuz while  Linguini basically just accepts it right away

and just thinks on how this rat can help him  cook basically Vanessa just gets freaked out by the situation and that's where the human  comes from the realistic part talking to a bee anyway and the bee is talking to me um I  just want you to know that I'm grateful and I'm I'm going to leave now oh wait wait wait wait  how did you learn to do that what that that that the talking thing oh same way you did I guess Mama  dadada honey you pick it up it's very funny yeah bees are funny we didn't laug

h we'd cry with  what we have to deal with Vanessa then offers Berry coffee while trying to act casual just like  bar but she's still freaking out and this causes conflict and she drops the coffee on the floor  and even says she's not okay anyway can I uh get you something like what I don't know I mean I  don't know coffee well uh I don't want to put you out unless you're making anyway oh it takes two  minutes it's just coffee I hate to impose don't be ridiculous actually I would love a coffee 

hey you want a little rum cake I really have a little rum no no no I can't oh come on you know  I'm trying to lose a couple micrograms here where well these Stripes don't help it look great I  don't know if you know anything about fashion are you all right no but fast forward to the  next scene she came to accept the Absurd and she's genuinely casually talking to a bee now  the reaction to the Absurd being scene with the guy who came to change the light bulb after  that she embraced the Absurd a

nd became part of it and after this interaction all the humans just  except talking be is a thing now not questioning much beyond that still though her reaction  isn't fully realistic Vanessa was freaking out that's realistic but when she questions the  be she wouldn't just question the bee she would question everything reality or existence or sanity  not just the be but this is the be movie Nothing Else Matters besides bees we don't need to know  how the other animals are adapting to the whole

humans finding out animal stalk deal cuz it's  not the animal movie it's the Bee Movie and we can see that play out right before the movie  even starts with the DreamWorks logo it was the first DreamWorks logo to replace the boy  in the moon with a character from the movie bury the bee because it's not the boy in the  Moon movie it's the be movie of course they started replacing the boy in the moon with other  characters later on but the be movie was the first one to do that I checked cuz I had

a feeling  that was the case and I don't think that's a coincidence but what is a bee the bee represents  what we are it's our society and community and Barry represents who we are as individuals  Barry has a hard time when it comes to the realization he has to do the same job for the  rest of his life and he wants to do something else other than what every other be tells him  is the right way is not thinking B thinking thinking meaning is not living up to their  expectations he thinks things wo

rk too well around the hive there is too much Perfection too  much of a strict routine and that doesn't sound very appealing to Barry he wants Freedom  cuz a perfect Society is good and all but it can be boring Barry questions his society and  throughout the Moon movie he represents the change of it something that seems impossible to all the  other bees but Barry is still a bee the bee also represents Community we see at the end of the  movie the positive aspects of the bee community and the thi

nking Beast saying from the beginning  became something positive instead of something repressive the Beast show both the good and the  bad sides of society in that aspect right in the opening monologue the be is set up as a challenge  to what's perceived as a natural order of things the bees are a parallel to humanity so as well as  you can ask why does a bee fly you can ask why is the human the only animal that talks how did we  build all these amazing and dangerous things that seemed impossibl

e just 100 years ago the movie  is saying that even if it seems impossible you can do anything just like Beast flying or any  new invention there are always the ones saying it's impossible but that's just their perception  of reality that's one of the main themes of this movie The be is also used to its Highest Potential  with its humor the obvious one would be the huge amount of be puns throughout the movie I just  hope she's Bish honey is also used to its Highest Potential being used for every

thing including  water soap mouth wash air gel gasoline and even saline solution which is pretty stupid but again  it doesn't matter the humor is also very based around stupid things mostly on the dialogue but  also physical humor some guy fighting Barry with The Bard pin being one of them or just stuff like  the fact that working the crowman is the most useless job ever besides that there's a big amount  of be references but at the same time the bees are parallel to the highly industrialized Hu

man  Society they use clothes they live in houses with stairs they have cars and they have several kinds  of Machinery in their honey Factory just like humans honey is also a parallel for money in this  movie if that wasn't obvious enough and there's even a be Larry King a b columbos a b gandi and  even a b Jesus to be even more in your face about it all the human parallels with the Beast causes  a bunch of contradictions which this movie has a bunch of so let's point out some of them shall we 

first contradiction there be Society moves fast assuming because the average life of a bumblebee  is 30 to 60 days but that is contradicted by the fact that Barry decides to suit the human  race since CRA last a long time and we don't see Barry age at all throughout the movie second  contradiction the bees are as dumb as to confuse tennis balls with flowers and lamps with the  son but they can still talk third contradiction it's shown that Beast talking is common knowledge  but by the end of the

movie The Pilots are still freaking out that there are bees in the plane  fourth contradiction the fact they are all cousins but I still Rel lant to date each other because  of that that girl was hot she's my cousin she is yes we're all cousins right you're right fifth  contradiction the fact they have a queen bee that parted all of them but but they still have parents  now from what I understand doesn't your queen give birth to all the bee children in the house yeah  so those aren't even your

real parents usually all those contradictions would be seen as a flaw of  the movie but I think they work to its Advantage mostly because the movie is extremely self-aware  it knows it doesn't make sense and it calls itself out several times it knows it's stupid and it  plays along with its stupidity he doesn't care about its lack of logic and he doesn't apologize  for it we can see that self-awareness the most from Ken Ken is not just the guy who was cucked  by a bee but it can also be seen as

the adult spectator of the movie he says a lot of what the  adult audience is thinking during his time on screen is the main selfawareness of the absurdity  basically don't kill him you know I'm allergic to them this thing could kill me why does his life  have any less value than yours why does his life have any less value than mine is that your  statement and having mostly the same reaction as The Spectator if their girlfriend left him for a  bee as a child we only see him as a normal generic a

ntagonist but as an adult he's the voice of  reason mostly except Ken isn't normal either he's a dramatic Manchild that made his resume  into a brochure and brags about winning an old lady at tennis you attack at the point of weakness  but it was my grandmother Ken she's 81 honey her back hand's a joke I'm not going to take advantage  that but the movie is aware of Ken's weird quirks and that's subtly shown with the character of Bob  who's Bob you ask it's this guy he spends most of the time he'

s on screen mocking Ken cuz if Ken  is the self-awareness of the be absurdity Bob is the self-awareness of Ken's absurdity and just  to prove to you even more that Ken is an absurd human being there is a hidden conversation in  this movie one most people won't notice cuz the volume was so low and it's mixed with Barry  talking so loud I check out my new resume I made it into a fold out brochure you see folds out  oh No More Humans I don't need this that one I get you ow what was that what's your

point maybe  this time this time this time this time this time this time this this drapes that is diabolical it's  fantastic it's got all my special skills even my top 10 favorite movies what's Your Number One Star  Wars n i don't go for that kind of stuff no wonder we're not supposed to talk to them they're out  of their minds when I walk out of a job interview they're flabbergasted they can't believe believe  the things they say can't really there's the sun maybe that's a way out just say it

I don't  remember the sun having a big 75 on It come on I got to tell you I predicted global  warming I could feel it getting hotter at first I thought it was just me by the context  of this conversation Ken talked about how he predicted global warming during a job interview  bet you never noticed that before you're welcome besides all the absurdity and the individualistic  themes something I wanted to mention is that the be movie is also an allegory for capitalism  it's a cautionary Tale on how

capitalism is a necessary evil and about how well-intended social  change can throw Society into chaos I'm not going to go in depth about this here since it's not  really the point of the video and also cuz you can just go watch that wise crack video about it  if you want a more in-depth analysis but that was just something I wanted to mention since for a  movie with this much absurdity within it it has a pretty interesting message another allegory that  is somewhat similar to the be movie in t

hat aspect though is Animal Farm which is a cautionary  tale about communism just throwing that out there since that was one of the few books I  ever read but seriously though those stories are pretty similar both about an animal society  which represents the lower class that is being mistreated by humans the higher class and revolts  against them in the beginning everything is great but then their new found Freedom soon becomes  a less than ideal outcome but while Animal Farm ends up with the a

nimals staying oppressed the be  movie has a more positive outcome all the plants end up dying but they fix it Barry ends up meeting  his initial goal and the be stop becoming honey making slaves like before they still make honey  for humans but I'm guessing they are rewarded for their efforts or at least they don't still live  in aparis or whatever that's called and aren't made to smoke gas to keep them in line of course  it's a children's movie so it had to have a happy ending but that just sh

ows that not everything  is Black or White we can change things for the better and adjust as the issues come along so in  the end it's a good thing bar Su the human race at the surface level this movie may just seem  generic one you watch and forget that's how I felt as a child as I mentioned before but it's  much more than that my interpretation is that the bees represent the Absurd while the humans  represent the perceived reality the be movie is also reality depicting the absurds it's humans 

arst depicting their perception of a bee of course mixed with a lot of imagination the bees can also  represent art while the humans represent reality but reality is simply what we perceive but what  if what we perceive is wrong reality can be weird and absurd and so does imagination and so as the  Creations that come from it animal stalking in itself is absurd but we just came to accept it  as a component of expression as the reality of a lot of animated movies after all art doesn't  have to b

e realistic but the be movie took it to the next level a completely absurd creation a  child's mind may not find the movie weird because of that fact a child has a simplistic perception  ception of reality and is full of imagination and so doesn't see the movie as absurd after all  it's just another movie with talking animals there's nothing particularly weird or deep about  that right the kids who watched the movie in 2007 grew up and watched the movie again and only then  realized how weird it

was that's again probably the main reason it became a meme art doesn't need  to follow follow rules of logic or reality that's one of the reasons it makes it great and this  movie pushed that to the Limit realism is great but it's not what dictates if a piece of art is  good or not and making a movie so absurd with so many unanswered questions and things you just  can't wrap your headed around but at the same time the way it adds it all to such a message  is in its own way genius I hope this vi

deo made sense and all it was pretty hard to organize all  my thoughts and all about this subject but I hope I did good enough U my voice was kind of cracking  I don't know like I'm kind of improvising now I'm not sure how to do the outro right now I'm going  with the flow this is why I have a script right but um yeah like comment subscribe all that uh I  like reading you guys' comments on the same bad video it was pretty nice hopefully I'll get used  to you know talking with a script or without

a script right now I'm without a script and I'm  just rambling so I don't know if I'm going to cut this out or not uh but yeah like subscribe  all that that that's that's it that's that's how it's going to end the video hope you you  like it comment what you thought and stuff yeah bye