Bee movie is another animation release hot on the heels of Ratatouille, but brings its ‘A’ game, where the gags are concerned.

It could be described as somewhere between a Seinfeld sitcom episode meets Shrek. Cute likeable and funny characters, some barbed wise cracking aimed at current topical events with references to some old classic films thrown into the mix.

As for the plot it is about an insect with a 27 million year history (the bee) and a million dollar law suit against a major honey producing corporation

It starts of along the lines of Antz with a fast talking worker bee, Barry (Seinfeld) who isn’t impressed with his career options, despite his parents attempts to convince him otherwise

Hitting it off with the ‘pollen jocks’ (the guys who collect pollen from flowers) he breaks the mould for a worker bee and ventures into the outside world; discovering a big city, humans and tennis. Its here he meets Vanessa (Zellweger) who saves his life endearing him to her in the process.

He also realises after straying into a supermarket, bears aren’t the only ones that steal honey and that for all his colonies good work humans make the profit.

Determined to change this order, Barry brings a lawsuit against Honron (yes like Enron), the major honey corporation and surprisingly wins despite their talented and overly dramatic legal representative Layton T. Montgomery (Goodman).

In doing so he creates a major cross pollination disaster as all the bees in the colony stop working. The result is entire parks start to whither and die (plants don’t pollinate themselves!). Eventually a bit of good old teamwork saves the day and the bees start working again.

If you want to dig really deep you could say there is a lesson here in respecting the life and work of even small insects and it demonstrates how each creature no matter how big or small plays a part in the balance of nature, but let’s not go too deep, it’s a comedy!

Bee Movie has some killer gags, look out for the hat on a knee joke and the stinging one liners from the strung out blood junkie mosquito Mooseblood (Rock).

It’s a funny piece and hums along at a nice pace, and isn’t too long at 90 minutes. If you are a fan of the Seinfeld sitcom, this will keep you interested; it’s also cute and cuddly enough for the kids.

Look out for cameo appearances from Sting, Ray Liotta, Oprah Winfrey and Larry King.

Director: Simon J. Smith, Steve Hickner

Stars: Jerry Seinfeld, Renee Zellweger, Mathew Broderick, John Goodman

Running Time: 90 mins