Jerry Seinfeld Spreads His Wings in Bee Movie

I am not especially fond of bees. While I am not allergic, I was stung several times as a youngster, and I did not like it. In fact, I developed such a strong aversion to bees that for a time, I was half-afraid to step out the front door in the summer. I suppose that may be one reason I never got around to seeing Bee Movie, the 2007 computer-animated comedy featuring the voice talents of Jerry Seinfeld and Renee Zellweger, but I did finally catch it this week. While it had its entertaining moments, generally I don’t think I was missing too much.

Seinfeld, who co-wrote the movie, stars as Barry B. Benson, a young bee about to settle into the job that will be his for the rest of his life. Barry doesn’t much like this idea, so he flees the restrictive hive and immerses himself in the frightening whirlwind that is the world of humans. While on his excursion, he befriends sweet-natured florist Vanessa Bloome (Zellweger) after she rescues him from her aggressive husband Ken (the always-funny Patrick Warburton).

This is just the tip of the iceberg as far as familiar names go; the voice cast is loaded with A-listers, including Matthew Broderick, John Goodman, Chris Rock, Kathy Bates and Oprah Winfrey. Some, including Sting, Ray Liotta and Larry King, play versions of themselves, and these spoofs are among the movie’s funnier moments. In fact, generally speaking, the scenes that made me laugh most involved either celebrities lampooning themselves or tributes to famous moments in classic films. My favorite: Barry getting the third degree from his parents as he lounges in the pool a la The Graduate.

The story reminded me a bit of The Giver and other such tales where one member of a seemingly perfect society starts to wonder if conformity is really the best option. The movie whacks the message about the value of individuality and bee-ing yourself over the audience’s head in much the same way that Ken keeps trying to whap Barry with a magazine. It’s heavy-handed, and the constant barrage of adding “bee” to the beginning of words gets a little old. Some good puns can be found, but most of them don’t deliver much of a punch.

The sweetest element of the movie (aside from the honey that is such an important part of the plot) is the friendship that develops between Barry and Vanessa, both oddballs who are tired of feeling disenfranchised. Their partnership leads the tale to its exciting climax, which pays homage to the wackiness that is Airplane!. It’s all pretty absurd, even more so because you sort of get the sense sometimes that the writers and directors are taking the movie more seriously than they should. Still, it’s rather fun to see the world from a bee’s-eye view, if only for an hour and a half.

LOST's "Other Man" Joins Newcomer Brit Marling in Another Earth

On the CBS sit-com The Big Bang Theory, theoretical physicist Sheldon Cooper often speculates about the possible existence of multiple universes, each containing a different version of himself. In the quiet 2011 movie Another Earth, written and directed by Mike Cahill and co-written and starring Brit Marling, one of those universes is startlingly close. Another Earth has appeared on the horizon, and when contact is finally achieved, it becomes apparent that everyone on that planet is a duplicate of everyone on this one, complete with the same experiences up to a certain point. What does such a thing mean for the world? More to the point, what does it mean for one young woman still reeling from the most horrible moment of her life and someone else’s?

Marling is Rhoda, an astrogeek who, distracted by the discovery of the other Earth as announced on the car radio, causes a fatal crash that kills a pregnant woman and her young son. Husband and father John (William Mapother) is badly injured and languishes in a coma for several weeks before returning home to live in squalor. Teenage Rhoda stands trial and heads off to prison. Four years later, she gets out. The new planet is much closer now – close enough that one wealthy man is launching an expedition to it, and his essay contest could secure her a spot on his spacecraft. She would like nothing better than to leave all this misery behind her.

In the meantime, though, she needs a reason to keep on going, and she finds it when she returns to the crash site and sees John there. She goes to his home, intending to apologize, but loses nerve and instead tries to pass herself off as a cleaning service offering a free trial. He accepts – and then asks her to return to continue her work, this time for payment. As she scrubs away at four years of accumulated grime, John begins to come out of his stupor and embrace life again. But what will happen when she finally comes clean about who she is?

This was an interesting movie and not really what I expected. I thought it would be something very strongly in the realm of science fiction, but the alternate Earth is more a catalyst for rumination than a central focus. Yes, it’s always looming in the background. But there were long stretches when I almost forgot it was there at all. It’s an integral part of the movie, but the story is more directly about how these two people begin to heal from a terrible calamity.

Marling, a young actress with few credits to her name, carries herself with a haunted fragility. She is soft-spoken – when she speaks at all – and despite the darkness of her past and the ease with which she fabricates a new persona, there is also a definite innocence about her. I’d never encountered her before, but she impressed me.

Mapother was a pleasant surprise, as I mostly know him from LOST, where he plays Ethan Rom, one of the first truly villainous characters to surface on the show. Upon closer inspection, though, the two characters are not so drastically different. Both have grown haggard and hardened after the death of a wife and child. Unlike Ethan, however, John is defiantly nonviolent. Still, Mapother makes the pent-up aggression simmering below the surface dangerously apparent.

This feels like a low-budget indie, with somewhat jerky camera work and not much in the way of special effects. They aren’t needed, as this is a cerebral movie in which all the story is in the build-up. What actually happens once that fateful shuttle to the stars blasts off is left largely to the imagination. While I had a very clear interpretation of the film’s final moments, the friend I watched it with didn’t agree with my conclusions at all. It really is an open-ended finale that could inspire almost as much debate among friends as Inception. This movie is far less likely to make your brain hurt, however. As long as you don’t go into it hoping for an Independence Day-style alien invasion adventure, this pensive film has a lot to offer.

A Beloved TV Dad Offers Advice on Fatherhood

My all-time favorite family sit-com is The Cosby Show, and from a very early age, I thought of Bill Cosby as the quintessential TV dad. Hence, when I happened upon his book Fatherhood at my grandma’s house, I was curious to read it. The book had been given to my grandpa as a gift shortly after it was published in May of 1987, two years before his death. I was only eight at the time, but I knew him long enough to be well aware of what a great dad he was, and I can attest that he raised three great dads as well.

Cosby’s book is part memoir and part parenting manual, all infused with the zingy humor with which he has delighted fans for decades. There are definite moments of warmth, but mostly it’s curmudgeonly comedy as he grumbles over the crazy things kids do – and remarks on how crazy parents are to sign on for it. Along with his own show, reading his book largely reminded me of two of my favorite comic strips, Baby Blues, which covers the trials of toddlerhood, and Zits, which focuses on the frustration of being – and raising – a teenager.

It seems that nothing in the realm of parenting has changed much since Cosby wrote this book. Some of the scenarios he describes have played out in very much the same way in the funny pages lately. I particularly thought of Jeremy Duncan and his hapless parents when I read Cosby’s diatribe against the high volume and low class of the music he hears blasting out of his teen’s stereo.

Fatherhood is divided into sections and proceeds in roughly chronological order from pre-parenthood to having an empty nest. Within each chapter, however, he jumps back and forth a bit. The book is largely a series of brief anecdotes and reflections, making it ideal for reading a little bit at a time. A good stopping point is likely to come along every couple of pages.

It’s clear every step of the way that Bill Cosby is passionate about parenting. He acknowledges that it’s hard work and takes parents to task for not being willing to invest their time in this all-important relationship with their children. He advocates a hands-on fathering style of nurturing children and having fun with them while also holding them accountable and helping them mature into responsible young adults. There’s plenty of good advice by example, and sometimes negative example, within these pages.

The book begins and ends with some reflections by Alvin F. Poussaint, a Harvard psychiatrist. While I read everything he had to say, I found his remarks pretty dull and overly academic. I guess they put the book into a useful context by commenting on how Cosby’s approach differs from that of many fathers in generations that preceded him, but it’s certainly not as engaging as the main text.

At under 200 pages, with lots of paragraph breaks, Fatherhood is a quick read. I got through it in an afternoon, and I’m a pretty slow reader. I laughed my way through much of it, and it made me want to watch The Cosby Show again as soon as possible and reminded me how lucky I am to have a dad who is equally devoted to his children.

Even Without Sunglasses, Snoopy Makes a Mega-Cool Guitarist

Snoopy has got to be just about the most accomplished fictional dog out there. He’s a flying ace. He writes novels. (Granted, they’re fine fireplace fodder, but how many dogs do you know who can type?) His list of unusual skills goes on and on, so it’s not much of a stretch to imagine him playing a musical instrument. In fact, the Peanuts Wireless Band simply would not feel complete if, say, Linus was there in his place. Snoopy is the life of every party, so of course he has to be on hand to play the guitar.

Snoopy is one of four figures in this 2011 Hallmark set that was released one piece at a time between October and December. Snoopy was the last to arrive, perhaps because he is the most popular and Hallmark figured that if he came out first, people might just buy him and not bother with the others. But even if you love Snoopy twice as much as any other character, you’re missing a whole lot of the fun if you only buy one figure. What’s really great about these is the way that they interact with each other.

Press a button on one of them, and after a short time of solo playing, the other figures join in the music, providing harmonies. Among the four figures, there are eight songs, so Snoopy plays back-up guitar for six but takes the lead for two. Of course, a flip of the switch on the bottom of the figure can turn it off, so if you’d rather just hear Snoopy by himself, you can do that. You can also turn off one or two of the other figures to provide a different sound. It’s fun to experiment with different sound patterns; another interesting variable is location, as putting them all in the same place provides a different effect than scattering them around the room.

Snoopy stands on a dark brown platform with a light brown top that resembles a wooden floor. This platform is about three inches wide, three and a half inches long and an inch high. On the platform is a red speaker, and on top of this is Snoopy, who’s rockin’ out - and back and forth - with a green electric guitar in his paws. He also wears a red coat with a matching Santa hat and a green scarf. Like Schroeder, Snoopy is smiling. He doesn’t seem to be stressed out in the least by the task before him. It seems he should be wearing sunglasses; his Joe Cool persona would mesh nicely with this confident musician. But shades or not, he’s looking sharp.

Snoopy’s two songs are Jolly Old St. Nicholas and Silent Night, one of only two religious songs in the repertoire. None of the other characters particularly stands out to me in relation to Snoopy; they all seem to respond to him equally well. This fellow gave me a problem when I first got him; he was a little bit too independent to make a successful band member. When Charlie Brown or Lucy began to play, it was anyone’s guess whether he would join in, and he flat-out refused to accompany Schroeder. A few times, halfway into a performance by the trio, he would launch into a completely different song. Cacophony! But we went back to Hallmark and switched him, and the new and improved Snoopy is a much better team player.

I got Snoopy for $14.95, the same price as the other figures, though technically they were priced at $29.95, and the reduced price was a consequence of buying something else at the same time. If you’re lucky enough to find any at a local Hallmark store, you might even find them for less than that, but they’re also going for considerably more online. Each comes with three AAA batteries, and while you’ll have to replace them eventually, they lasted a season in my house with no problems. I’m sure these figures will make sweet music together for years to come, so it is only right that Snoopy should be a part of a new Christmastime staple.

A More Cooperative Lucy Than Usual Shows Off Her Artistic Side

In countless Peanuts strips, we see Lucy intently watching Schroeder as he plays the piano. While his musical ability seems to impress her, it annoys her that he pours all of his passion into his instrument and none into her, while he is just irritated by her constant interruptions. Despite the intensity of Lucy’s crush, there never seemed to be much of a spark there. But the 2011 Wireless Peanuts Band, a four-piece set released by Hallmark in the lead-up to Christmas, puts them on more even footing, and I daresay those two make beautiful music together. Maybe this seemingly mellower Lucy has cause for an optimistic outlook in her long-unrequited affections.

The band also includes Charlie Brown and Snoopy, and ideally, when you press the button on the front of the brown plastic platform on which Lucy stands, the other three will join in her song. However, because of their musical history, Schroeder is the band member whose interaction with Lucy interests me most, and of all the instruments in the band, I think his piano and her flute make the most dynamic pair. If I isolate them, turning off certain band members in order to create the impression of duets, Saxophonist Charlie Brown and flutist Lucy almost cancel each other out. Guitarist Snoopy is more defined, but it really is the flute and the piano that stand out most to me in relation to each other.

Lucy, about four inches tall, stands on a solid rectangular platform that’s about an inch high, three inches across and three and a half inches long. It’s dark brown on the bottom with a lighter brown flat top given the look of a wooden floor. She wears saddle shoes, green pants and scarf, a red coat and a traditional red Santa hat with white trim and a white ball at the tip. The expression on her face is one of intense concentration, as evidenced by the lines on either side of her eyes. Her black hair is clearly visible under her hat, and her silver flute is raised to her lips.

Each member of the band plays two different Christmas songs, so Lucy provides harmonies on six of them. Her starring role comes in O Christmas Tree and Up on the Housetop. Press the button on her platform, and one of those two songs will play. After the first phrase, whatever other band members are activated will automatically join in. It’s a pretty cool phenomenon, whether you have them situated next to each other on the piano, as I do right now, or scattered around the living room, as I did a few weeks ago. To add to the enjoyment, in addition to the music, each figure moves as well. Lucy swivels back and forth, a nice complement to the twirling that the much tinier version of her does in the 2011 Christmastime Is Here! ornament.

Lucy, like the others in this series, is one of those seasonal promotional figures that is $29.95 at regular price but $14.95 with another purchase. This is a bit silly, since I can’t imagine why anyone would pay full price, especially since “another purchase” can be something as simple as a birthday card. In any case, though, to get all four I had to cough up $60 over the course of four trips, though perhaps if you manage to find a Hallmark that still carries them now, you will find them cheaper as they clear out the Christmas clutter. When I think about the price tag on this series, I feel a tad extravagant buying it, but we’ve had so much fun with this quartet over the past couple months that I don’t care. These figures are just extremely fun, and they’re well-crafted. The three AAA batteries each one came with are still going strong, and I foresee them bringing Christmas cheer for many Decembers to come. Who knew that a lass as abrasive as Lucy could be so sweetly harmonious?